Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers left Providence Park where they started on Sunday.

The Western Conference finalists played to a scoreless tie in front of a raucous crowd in Portland to set up a hotly-contested second leg at Children’s Mercy Park on Thursday night.

Both sides created chances in the final third, with the Timbers enjoying the better opportunities of the two sides, but no goals flew past Tim Melia and Jeff Attinella.

The opening stanza was marred by fouls that eventually turned into a pair of yellow cards.

The drama heightened in the second half, as the visitors found more life moving forward.

Despite Sporting KC’s advances, Peter Vermes’ side had to rely on its top-notch goalkeeper to keep the contest knotted at zeroes.

Tim Melia made six saves, including a terrific leaping effort across the goal line in the 82nd minute.

The best chance for the Timbers came in the 70th minute, when David Guzman and Liam Ridgewell were ruled offside on a goal scored off a free kick.

As directed by PRO, the assistant referee on the right side of the field kept his flag down until the end of the play, and after discussion between the officials, it was ruled the Timbers players were offside as the free kick was hit.

Man of the Match

Tim Melia was once again reliable in net for Sporting KC, as he denied six shots and came up with a few key second-half denials.

Moment of the Match

Portland appeared to pull ahead in the 70th minute, but the correct offside call negated the only time the ball hit the back of the net.

Match to Forget

Giovanni Savarese tried to bank off Dairon Asprilla’s postseason success by starting the midfielder, but Asprilla failed to impress during his 90-minute shift.