Portland Timbers are one of the inform teams in the MLS right now and any team will be daunted at the prospect of facing them. However, John Hackworth has said that he expects his Philadelphia Union team to manage without him in the sidelines. Hackworth was recently sent off to the stands in the recent 3-1 victory over Chivas USA. As a result, he will be suspended for the match against Portland Timbers. He argued extremely hard with the referee Gonzalez after a handball incident, which led to his dismissal from the stands.

Hackworth said after the match that there was nothing major in the incident to be labelled as a handball. Even though he will be missing from the sidelines for the next match, Hackworth has said that he is extremely confident that the team will be able to manage without his presence. According to the rules of the competition, any manager who has been dismissed from the stands will have to be suspended for one more match automatically. Philadelphia Union are still in with a chance to finish top of the table at the end of the season because they are only a couple of points away from the top.

The assistant coach Rob Vartughian will be in charge of the team in Hackworth’s absence.

“There’s not much there, but once the referee makes that decision, there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m just suspended. I’ll pay my fine and try not to ever gesture that it’s a handball again to the referee. I will say that I still don’t think that’s worthy of being thrown out of a game, but that’s just my opinion,” said the Philadelphia manager in a press conference ahead of the Portland Timbers match. Portland Timbers are second in the Western Conference table.