Tag: MLS Cup Playoffs

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Soccer Timbers

Takeaways: Portland Timbers 2, San Jose Earthquakes 1

Photo by Riya Patel.

The Portland Timbers went into this game coming off two consecutive wins for the first time all season. Unfortunately for them, they had to play three days after Sunday’s dominant 2-1 win over Austin FC.

In the interim head coach Miles Joseph era, Portland have scored two goals in each of their past five games. The 10 goals in that span is the club’s best run of form this season, by far.

This time, however, the Timbers had to do it with a rotated lineup at home against the seventh-place San Jose Earthquakes.

Bingham, Mosquera, McGraw, Zuparic, Bravo, Paredes (C), Acosta, Evander, Moreno, Boli, Blanco Substitutes: Sulte, Araujo, Mabiala, Miller, Antony, Asprilla, Y. Chara, Loria, Mora

Under their interim coach, the home side has played on the front foot quite a bit more than under his predecessor. This would be no different and led to their most complete performance of the year with a 2-1 win. The scoreline does not show their dominance over the game.

“In the first half, I feel like we controlled a lot of the game, especially with our ability to step into the front half of the field and press them and cause a lot of turnovers,” said Joseph. “We gained possession out of that in the front half of the field which is great. We created a lot of chances off that.”

The Timbers had more possession—51% to 49%—shots, shots on goal, crosses, total passes, and better passing accuracy. The offense ran through the midfield and fullbacks. Evander, Cristhian Parades, and Santiago Moreno ran the show in the first half, with support from Juan David Mosquera and Claudio Bravo. Their combinations and link-up play were a beautiful sight to behold. Still, the final product was not there until stoppage time.

In the last minute of stoppage time, Portland unleashed their counterattack, with Franck Boli leading the charge. Boli played it out wide to Bryan Acosta. The newcomer played the perfect ball across goal to find Paredes for the 1-0 lead.

The second half saw much more of the same for the Timbers.

In the 58th minute, Sebastián Blanco blasted a shot that deflected perfectly to Evander, who calmly finished double the lead to 2-0.

There was one slight hiccup. In the 60th minute, San Jose answered, thanks to a Matthew Hoppe goal off a rebound.

True to the Timbers’ new aggressive style, in the 64th minute, Felipe Mora, Yimmi Chará, and Antony were subbed on for energy and to preserve some legs for Saturday.

Instead of parking the bus, also Joseph subbed on Dairon Asprilla for Moreno and looked for the third goal.

“In the second half we continued, and we refreshed with some exciting players again,” Joseph said. “We were able to get in behind and create some more scoring chances. After we gave up the goal, we didn’t have to sit all the way back and protect ourselves. We still tried to progress and keep it in the front half of the field. Really, really good performance from our guys.”

After one of their best performances of season, the Timbers are now eighth in the Western Conference.

They host a reeling Colorado Rapids next, which will be Portland’s last home game until decision day against the Houston Dynamo.

Rotation?

Given the short turnaround, Joseph was required to rotate his lineup. He started Mosquera, Acosta, Blanco, and Boli in place of Eric Miller, Chará, Asprilla, and Mora.

By making this change, Joseph allows the team to play almost a full first XI on Saturday (except Paredes, due to yellow card accumulation).

Joseph’s willingness to trust depth players will pay dividends for this late run. He has refused to play it safe and prefers to turn on the jets, even late in the game.

Luckily, this will be the last short week the Timbers have the rest of the regular season.

Stay on the front foot!
Photo by Riya Patel.

Even if you are accustomed to playing on the back foot, it’s imperative you come out at home stepping on the gas. The Timbers executed their game plan almost to perfection against San Jose and won quite comfortably.

In the first half, the Timbers outshot the visitors five to one. The second half would see Portland grow into the game even more. They continued to attack nonstop, evidenced by their 14 to five shot advantage. In total, Portland outshot the Earthquakes 19 to six.

Much of their success was found by playing through their midfield and having good width with their wingers and fullbacks.

Joseph specifically praised Joseph and Acosta postgame.

Paredes has flourished under Joseph, who has allowed Paredes to be the box-to-box midfielder that suits his game most. He led the game in touches, chances created, shots, expected goals, completed passes in the final third, tackles, and recoveries.

He has been wearing the captain’s armband while Diego Chará recovers from his appendectomy. This year, he is a crucial influence on the team with his play and leadership.

“Cristhian continues to impress, as always, with his energy,” Joseph said. “His positioning has gotten so much better and his ability to control pockets of space with his possession now. I’m just really happy with him.”

Paredes wasn’t the only midfielder who shined on Wednesday.

Acosta played his best match since he joined Portland and paced the team with the game’s only assist. He also led in passing accuracy with 90.2%, chances created, and tackles won.

Evander scored his team-leading ninth goal of the year and led the team in shots on target, chances created, and crosses.

Joseph has the team playing quick, decisive, and exciting football. This is what fans have wanted to see all season, and it’s finally arrived.

Miles is him

In his six games as interim head coach, Joseph has completely turned Portland’s season around. His era is off to a hot start (4-1-1), and it shows no signs of slowing down.

He has changed the team’s mentality, play, and ambition.

“I think we show more character than before,” said Dario Župarić. “When a team changes the coach, something happens. We’re the same team, same group. But I think we’ve changed mentality.”

A team that was on the brink of being eliminated from the playoffs are now at the door for the postseason.

Portland has now found a clear identity. What has been missing all season has been discovered. The structure is clearly defined, and Joseph is making it work by playing to his team’s strengths.

“We were then able to set some structure into place and define some clear roles with everybody available,” Joseph said. “Now, the guys are seeing things much clearer, and it’s been really nice to watch.”

Key Stats

Portland Timbers xG: 2.13
San Jose xG: 1.27

Shots inside the box: Portland 12, San Jose 5

Touches inside the box: Portland 32, San Jose 23

Another Santiago Moreno Performance: He had five dribbles, three successful dribbles, 17 final third passes, and two fouls won to lead the team.

Underrated, Claudio Bravo: Paced the team with three successful dribbles, three aerial duels, and 13 passes in the final third.

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Soccer Timbers

Timbers March Past Real Salt Lake Into MLS Cup

Photo by Matthew Wolfe.

When Sebastián Blanco pulled up grabbing his hamstring early in the second half on Thanksgiving Day in Colorado, there were plenty who figured the Portland Timbers’ 2021 season was over.

It wasn’t a crazy thought. But then the Timbers, minus their chief attacking catalyst, grew stronger and stronger in that half and beat the Rapids 1–0.

The next day in Kansas City, ownerless, permanent manager-less Real Salt Lake upset Sporting, meaning that the Timbers would, improbably, host the Western Conference Final at Providence Park against a team they’d already beaten three times this year.

And then you could feel it, couldn’t you? That unmistakable sense that the stars were aligning, that these Timbers, all but given up for dead in August, were on a collision course with MLS Cup.

It didn’t hurt that the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, the New England Revolution, were upset on their home turf on Tuesday. That meant that all that stood between the Timbers and hosting their first major championship in club history was a fourth victory of the year over Real Salt Lake.

The Timbers entered Saturday afternoon’s match without Blanco, available only on the bench, and without Dairon Asprilla, suspended after being red carded in the waning moments of the win over the Rapids. In place of their two attacking stars, they inserted 24-year-old Marvin Loría for only his second start since mid-August and 21-year-old Santiago Moreno for just his fourth start ever with the team.

It was not by any measure the most talented Timbers team to ever grace the field in a playoff game. But there was that sense. Hundreds of people camped overnight outside the stadium. A huge tifo in the North End. And an opponent that, from the first minute, the Timbers looked like they could handle.

The Timbers played this game with relish. Not with overwhelming skill, not with sublime passing moves and sustained individual brilliance, but with tenacity and cohesion and confidence. That’s what wins you playoff matches—especially on turf, especially in the rain, especially in front of one of those ear-splitting Timbers crowds that has made Portland synonymous with soccer support in every corner of the world.

The kids weren’t overawed. The veterans didn’t give an inch. And now Portland is a week away from hosting MLS Cup against either Philadelphia or New York City in what will be one of the biggest sporting occasions in the history of the Rose City.

Early forecast for next Saturday? 43 degrees and cloudy. Chance of rain. Just the way we like it.

Salt Lake’s memorable playoff run, which saw them eliminate Seattle before they knocked out Kansas City, is over. After two monumental efforts, they rarely looked inventive enough to break the Timbers down. Of course, they never looked like they’d break the Sounders down either, but went through on penalties after failing to register a shot in 120 minutes In their first-round match.

On Saturday, they never had a chance to go that route. Just four and a half minutes into the game, Felipe Mora flicked a sharp entry pass into the box for Yimmi Chara to run into. His cross hit two Salt Lake players and skidded right into Mora’s path, and the Chilean, running towards the six-yard box, deflected it in.

The Providence Park crowd let out an almighty roar. Mora had hardly had time to break his running stride as the ball came flying at him, and it was the pace from the attempted outside-of-the-foot clearance from RSL’s Aaron Herrera that eventually carried the ball past David Ochoa. It was a dream start, one that would allow the Timbers to stay compact defensively and work with the space that RSL’s need for a tying goal would eventually open up.

Over the next half hour, the Timbers’ front four buzzed as RSL struggled to build fluidly from back to front. Moreno’s pace in particular was scrambling the Salt Lake defense, and it was the Colombian who had the best chance to double Portland’s lead after Ochoa palmed a Loría shot into the middle of the box, but he eventually fired over the bar.

It was after that warning shot that RSL finally found their footing in the game. They spent much of the half trying to work the left side of the Timbers’ defense with Anderson Julio and Herrera, and it was the fullback who opened up enough space to whip a cross towards the dangerous Damir Kreilach on 33 minutes, but Kreilach’s header from point blank range was stopped by Steve Clark.

It was a classic, show-stopping Clark save, and, in a week when people around MLS talked an awful lot about his opposite number,  Ochoa, a sudden reminder of what a truly game-changing goalkeeper can do for a playoff team.

RSL never got a better look. Though they closed the half in the ascendency, the Timbers were crowding them out of the middle of the field and limiting their ability to play between lines. Their attacking fulcrum Albert Rusnak, who missed the first two games of the playoffs with COVID-19, couldn’t get himself going. Nick Belser, the former Timbers draft pick, was struggling with the pace of the game in central midfield. And the Timbers kept running hard, avoiding mistakes, and waiting for a moment to stretch their lead.

It came on the hour mark. Dario Zuparic lofted a ball towards Moreno in midfield that the winger controlled off his chest, dribbled forward, and, from 25 yards out, ripped towards goal. The shot thudded off the post, hit the diving Ochoa in the back, and nestled in the back of the net.

It was total bedlam. The Timbers’ bench exploded. Ochoa laid flat on the turf, hands covering his face. Moreno ran to the corner with his shirt off, all 5’8 of him flexing for the cameras.

It was over. Salt Lake, never a sure bet to get a single goal, weren’t going to get two. A quarter of an hour from time, Herrera, perhaps still frustrated by his fifth minute mistake, lunged in on Loría and was rightly shown a second yellow card.

RSL finished their season with ten players on the field, out of luck and out of gas. Ochoa needed to make a diving save to deny what would have been a roof-raising third goal from a Diego Valeri free kick in stoppage time, and with Alan Kelly’s whistle several minutes later, the Timbers clinched the Western Conference title for the third time in seven years.

If there were any question marks about the state of the Timbers heading into this game, they were answered emphatically. They played like a big team. It didn’t matter which players were and weren’t available—and there can be no greater compliment to a coaching staff or a group of players.

To Zuparic and Larrys Mabiala, who hardly put a foot wrong in central defense all night. To Clark, who improbably will get a second shot at MLS Cup with the team he unforgettably lost his first chance to six years ago. To Diego Chará, who was sensational in the middle of the field. Certainly to all of the role players who looked like they’d played in this game a hundred times over, and to Giovani Savarese, who has once again dialed up an extraordinary cup run.

The magic is real. MLS Cup in Portland. Next Saturday.

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Soccer Timbers

Timbers, Real Salt Lake Prepare to Defy the Odds Again

Photo by Kris Lattimore.

The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake will meet Saturday for the Western Conference Final in what is both simultaneously one of the biggest and most improbable games in the history of Providence Park.

To say that neither team should be alive at this advanced stage of the MLS postseason is nearly reductive. That the Timbers were seeded fourth and Salt Lake seventh for this tournament does not begin to communicate just what each team has survived to keep playing into December.

RSL, for its part, may be the single most extraordinary story in major American sports right now. The club hasn’t had an owner all year. Their manager quit in the middle of the season to become an assistant coach for a conference rival. Their interim manager was the former captain and manager of their biggest rival. They snuck into the postseason with a stoppage time goal on the final day of the regular season in Kansas City. They then went to Seattle in the first round of the playoffs, failed to register a shot in roughly 125 minutes of play, and knocked out the Sounders on penalties.

They then went back to Kansas City, fell behind in the first half, pulled themselves level in the second half, and got another stoppage time winner from ex-US national team forward Bobby Wood to advance to the conference final.

They’ve won both postseason games with their best player and captain, Albert Rusnak, missing due to COVID-19. To make it to MLS Cup, RSL will have to travel to the most intimidating environment in MLS and beat a team that has already handed them three losses this year.

This stuff just doesn’t happen in other leagues. Not with the regularity that it does in MLS, where the top seed in each conference fell in their first postseason match and unfavored road teams have won four of the last five playoff games.

It simply doesn’t sense. Any of it. And that is why plenty of neutral observers like Salt Lake to upset the Timbers in the West and NYCFC to upset Philadelphia in the East and MLS Cup to be contested in a baseball stadium by an ownerless team and a team owned by the City Football Group on December 11.

Thing is, while the Timbers’ arrival at this stage of the postseason is not nearly as unexpected, the suddenness of the club’s surge and amount of adversity they’ve overcome this year is similarly extraordinary.

Individually, this Timbers team has relatively few standout performers as compared to other Timbers teams that have made playoff runs. Beyond Diego Chará and Sebastián Blanco there are only a handful of above-average players, and plenty of average ones too.

But like a number of other Giovani Savarese teams, the Timbers have refused to die this year. Their second-half revival started when they went to Seattle and beat the high-flying Sounders 2–0 in the game in which Eyrk Williamson tore his ACL a week after getting trounced in Austin, and that victory set the tone.

They went undefeated for the next month and a half before imperiling their playoff positioning with three straight losses in October. They responded to that adversity by winning their final three regular season games by a combined score of 8–1. They’ve now conceded only two goals in their last five games after conceding seven in the three games before that.

The underlying numbers hated the Timbers all year. It didn’t matter. They over-performed those numbers and have continued to over-perform them right into pole position to host MLS Cup.

Of course, the Timbers’ resurgence in the fall coincided with Blanco’s return to full fitness—and when he pulled up clutching his hamstring in Colorado on Thanksgiving in a scoreless game, it seemed very much like the team’s season would go down with him.

But it very much did not. With Blanco’s season likely over, the Timbers didn’t miss a beat. They only grew in strength and belief throughout that second half against the Rapids, and by the times Larrys Mabiala jabbed home the winning goal, it was entirely deserved.

Now the Timbers will be without both Blanco and Dairon Asprilla, undeservedly red-carded in the dying moments of the semifinal victory. They’ll have to rely on a pair of young, mostly unproven backup wingers for offensive punch on Saturday, or recall aging club legend Diego Valeri. No matter how Savarese decides to play his curtailed hand, the Timbers will relish the opportunity in front of them. The higher the level of doubt this year, the better they have played.

It is perhaps little wonder that it is two likable, fiery, longtime MLS battlers in Savarese and Mastroeni who will square off on Saturday. There may be better soccer minds in the league, but there are few people better equipped to ride the maelstrom of chaos that defines so many playoff runs. Some managers seize up under that pressure. Even the great Bruce Arena was slow to change a failing plan in New England’s loss on Tuesday night. These two have, somehow, figured it out so far.

Savarese has a big personnel decision ahead of him this weekend with Blanco and Asprilla out. Mastroeni does too. His DP Rusnak should make the trip to Portland and be available for selection on Saturday, though it’s an open question whether he’ll be inserted back into a starting lineup that has momentum after a long layoff.

RSL will also be missing their ace defensive midfielder, Everton Luiz, who was booked in both the Seattle and SKC games. He’ll be a big absence for the visitors, whose defense, now set up in banks of four, has been their calling card so far.

What happens next in this off-the-hook, quintessentially MLS postseason? You tell me. The form book says Portland. Past history says Portland. Home advantage says Portland. And it said Seattle and Kansas City before that, so there is no reason to believe that Salt Lake will arrive cowed.

But the Timbers have played with, dare we say, an air of inevitability about them for much of the fall. Timely offense, timely defense, and, when they’ve needed it most, a steadfast refusal to be knocked off stride.

It has not, it is worth highlighting again, been an easy year in  Portland. Investigations into GM Gavin Wilkinson for his role in the Paul Riley abuse coverup are ongoing, as is the pandemic that has devastated so many lives and kept so many away from the stadium. This, though, what we’re about to see on Saturday, is a reminder of what makes this sport such an unparalleled thrill: a proper occasion featuring two teams that have played so far beyond reasonable expectations that expectations have ceased to be reasonable.

They think they might just win it. This year.

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Soccer Timbers

Blanco Show Sends Timbers to Colorado

Blanco celebrates. Photo by Kris Lattimore.

It was apparent from the very early stages of Sunday afternoon that Sebastian Blanco was going to have an outsize impact on the Portland Timbers’ 2021 playoff opener.

In the end, we got the full Blanco experience. He blasted a clean look inside the box and a free kick just outside of it towards the south end scoreboard in the first half. He was booked for a brutal late challenge on Franco Fragapane. He hurt his back at the end of the half and limped off the side of the field with the stretcher poised.

Santiago Moreno warmed up on the field during the intermission after Blanco limped to the locker room, but when the bell tolled, the Argentine was right back out there — and two minutes later, his expertly-taken goal had lifted the Timbers into the lead for good.

For years now, despite his advancing age and despite the catastrophic knee injury that sidelined him for nearly 12 months, there have been precious few players in MLS so impossible to defend, so capable of single-handedly deciding games. We saw it in 2018, when Blanco scored jaw-dropping goals to help carry the Timbers past the Sounders in Seattle and Sporting KC in Kansas. And we might just be seeing it this year two — Blanco Superman-ing a good if not great Timbers team into a memorable playoff run.

It was obvious on Sunday afternoon, as it has been all season, how the Timbers feed on Blanco’s energy. By the end of the day, it was his two goals and his spitfire, no holds barred, relentlessness that Minnesota United couldn’t match.

The Timbers came from behind on Sunday afternoon at Providence Park to dump the Loons out of the postseason 3-1 and book a Thanksgiving Day showdown with the first seed Rapids in Colorado. If they survive and advance on Thursday, it will no doubt be due to a player signed as a complimentary piece who has long since taken the mantle as the Timbers’ primary, irreplaceable instigator.

The regular season numbers were crystal clear: the Timbers averaged 1.9 points-per-game with Blanco in the lineup, and just 0.9 without him. Without Blanco’s inspiration, Sunday’s first round match against Minnesota — the postseason match in front of fans at Providence Park in three years — could have gone very differently.

Minnesota arrived in Portland on the back of a challenging, uneven year in which they very rarely resembled the swashbuckling side that so nearly advanced to MLS Cup last season.

But Adrian Heath’s team entered the playoffs with no small measure of confidence regardless. With a veteran group of players, and a sterling recent record against the Timbers, regular season behind them, perhaps this would be the moment this year’s Loons stepped into their own.

It started well enough. After absorbing an early spell of Portland pressure, Minnesota broke forward with a sumptuously smooth move back-to-front move and took the lead. Old Timbers enemy Osvaldo Alonso picked the ball up deep in the Loons half and broke the Timbers’ midfield line with a forward pass for Emanuel Reynoso. The Argentinian playmaker got the ball wide to Robin Lod, who easily cut inside of Claudio Bravo and hit Romain Métanire on the overlap. Fragapane arrived unmarked on the back post to turn in Métanire’s cross, and it was 1-0.

As lovely a team goal as it was from Minnesota, it was a reminder of all that has gone wrong all season for Portland defensively: they allowed the Loons to play through their midfield with astounding ease, their fullbacks were both caught out, and the result was a tap in.

That Fragapane, who was accused of racially abusing Diego Chará on his last visit to Portland over the summer, was the player to finish the move was an especially bitter pill to swallow.

But unlike earlier in the year, the concession didn’t knock the Timbers off course. Instead, they continued to buzz and press forward — playing with the clear confidence of a team that finished the regular season as the hottest in MLS. It was a sign of things to come. Minnesota was up a goal, but was increasingly struggling to break the Timbers’ pressure and possess the ball. It felt like a matter of time before the one of the Timbers’ energetic front four broke through.

In the end, though, it wasn’t one of the front four who hauled Portland level — it was center back Larrys Mabiala, who first had a spectacular bicycle kick attempt cleared off the line from a free kick, and then, minutes later, sent a towering header from a short corner past Minnesota’s backup goalkeeper Dwayne St. Clair to tie the game.

Blanco went down injured shortly thereafter. But just following the restart, he made his biggest contribution yet. Chase Gasper and Bakaye Dibassy got crossed up trying to deal with a deep Claudio Bravo cross, and Blanco smashed the resulting half-clearance on the volley past St. Clair. He wheeled away in celebration clutching his back, likely in pain, but also perhaps making clear that even when hobbled, he was the most dangerous player on the field.

It was a hammer blow. Minnesota simply didn’t have the gear required to match the Timbers’ attacking intensity and movement, and as their own attacking players failed to get in rhythm, they became increasingly frustrated and impotent.

The game state had turned; now the Timbers, with all that pace, would have the opportunity to sit back and break forward at a Minnesota back six not blessed with any great amount of speed.

After 20 minutes, the Timbers’ third goal came from very little. Blanco picked up the ball from Felipe Mora some 25 yards from goal, took two steps forward, and smashed it in again off the inside of the post and into the back of the net.

The Loons were still up for a fight — they finished the match with six players having received yellow cards and the ill-tempered Fragapane lucky in the waning minutes to escape without a red — but they couldn’t hang with their hosts. Heath now has the offseason to figure out with his front office how to rejuvenate this Minnesota team.

The Timbers, as it turned out, didn’t need an offseason. Blanco’s return and a few tactical adjustments brought this team roaring back to life after its summer swoon.

It’s not just Blanco. Dairon Asprilla was a menace. Yimmi Chara was similarly active. Despite their ongoing defensively shortcomings, the fullbacks got forward effectively. And Mabiala, another old campaigner, came up with a signature moment in his very fine Timbers career.

A trip to the altitude of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on short rest will be a stiffer test than this ultimately was. But you wouldn’t comfortably bet against the Timbers right now — not in the kind of form they’re in, and certainly not with the player they have leading the way.

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Soccer Timbers

Timbers Face Minnesota as MLS Postseason Gets Underway

Minnesota United beat the Timbers in Portland in June. Photo by Matthew Wolfe.

The Portland Timbers’ up-and-down odyssey of a 2021 will be largely defined on the field on Sunday and in the weeks to follow, as the club begins its playoff journey with a match against Minnesota United.

This marks the Timbers’ club-record fifth straight playoff appearance and fourth straight under the management of Giovani Savarese—an accomplishment that Caleb Porter never came close to achieving during his time with the club.

But where Porter’s best teams more often than not made a substantial amount of noise in the playoffs, Savarese’s Timbers, have not won a playoff game since the second leg of the 2018 Western Conference final in Kansas City. They lost in the first round of the 2019 playoffs to Real Salt Lake and were defeated in last year’s opening round on penalties by Dallas in a vacant Providence Park.

This year, expectations are higher. The Timbers enter the playoffs on a roll, having won three straight games by multiple goals and averaging more than 2.2 points-per-game over the final two-and-a-half months of the season.

By going back to a tried-and-true formula—sitting compact defensively and pressing forward with tenacity—the Timbers closed as one of the league’s hottest teams.

The result was an ultimately comfortable fourth place finish in the West and hosting rights for this year’s first round playoff matchup with Minnesota United, with the Colorado Rapids waiting for the winner in Commerce City on Thanksgiving Day.

The Timbers aren’t an appealing matchup for anyone right now. But despite their outstanding form, this match against Minnesota may be a battle.

Adrian Heath’s Loons came within a game of reaching the MLS Cup last year, returned a substantial amount of playoff experience, and have one of the league’s finest playmakers in Argentine Emanuel Reynoso.

They also have a tremendous record against the Timbers in recent years. Most recently, the Loons beat Portland twice over the summer, once at Providence Park on a scorching June day and then again in St. Paul in July.

Of course, those two games came during one of the Timbers’ poorest stretches of the season, when Sebastian Blanco was not yet playing significant minutes and Jeremy Ebobisse was still the club’s starting center forward.

Much has changed since then. It feels like this will be a contest to see whether the Timbers’ high-powered attack can overwhelm Minnesota’s defense—or whether the Timbers’ defense, the second-poorest of any playoff team in either conference, will be exposed on the playoff stage.

Elsewhere in the West…

The winner of the game in Portland will face the shock Western Conference winners from Colorado on Thanksgiving.

On the other side of the bracket, Seattle hosts Real Salt Lake in a matchup that will see RSL face their former manager, Freddy Juarez, who walked off the job in the middle of the season to become an assistant with the Sounders.

RSL closed the season in chaotic fashion under interim manager Pablo Mastroeni, losing two straight games before sneaking into the playoffs thanks to a dramatic stoppage time winner from Damir Kreilach in Kansas City.

The Sounders, who are among the favorites to reach and win MLS Cup again, are getting healthy. Raúl Ruidíaz and Nicolás Lodeiro are back in the fold, and Jordan Morris, who tore his ACL last winter, played 45 minutes in the club’s regular season finale—and should play a significant role in the club’s postseason run.

Sporting Kansas City hosts the Vancouver Whitecaps in the other game on that side of the bracket, with the Whitecaps having become one of the stories of the season under their own colorful interim manager Vanni Sartini.

Sporting, like Seattle, was a juggernaut all year, playing excellent, clean Peter Vermes soccer and leading the conference in goals scored. But Sporting has also had a mostly appalling playoff record since their MLS Cup triumph in 2013, and a fair bit of that failure has come at home.

Seattle and Sporting are heavy favorites to advance, and if the Timbers join the Rapids on the other side of the bracket, it will be the West’s four best teams standing in the conference semifinals. But this being MLS, it’s dangerous to pencil those matchups in too soon.

And in the East…

The Supporters’ Shield-winning and record-setting New England Revolution lie in wait for the winner of New York City FC and Atlanta United at Yankee Stadium, with the road team in slightly better form after their horrific start to the season.

Atlanta has a manager who experienced plenty of playoff success as a player and assistant coach in Seattle in Gonzalo Pineda, while NYC boss Ronny Delia’s only prior playoff experience came last year when his team was defeated on penalties by Orlando in its first game. Delia’s team is dealing with a pair of significant injuries, while Atlanta is healthy.

But NYCFC has a significant home field advantage due to the oddities of playing at a baseball stadium, and they play more cohesive soccer than Atlanta has at any point this year. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

On the other side of the bracket, Nashville hosts Orlando.

The Lions, as has been their wont in recent years, are sputtering down the stretch.

Orlando has a few match winners, namely Nani, who hasn’t played in weeks and should be well-rested, but Nashville is as solid as any team in the league: consistent, strong defensively, and nearly impossible to beat at home.

The winner of that game will get the winner of an all-Northeast matchup in Chester between the Philadelphia Union and New York Red Bulls.

The Union, one of the stories of last year, quietly put together a very nice second half and enter the playoffs as one of the teams to beat in the East.

But their second half was not nearly the surprise that the Red Bulls’ was. Gerhard Struber’s team was given up for dead over the summer, sitting near the bottom of the Eastern Conference and playing rather miserable soccer in front of paltry crowds. They turned it around, though, high pressing with aplomb and stringing together 1-0 wins.

It remains to be seen whether the Red Bulls have the quality required to compete in the playoffs, but it is remarkable that they are here at all.

All the drama starts Saturday—the final act of a season unlike any other in MLS history.

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Soccer Timbers

Late Goals Prove to be Timbers Undoing in Heartbreaking loss to FC Dallas

Photo by Kris Lattimore

Jorge Villafaña turned and put his hands over his face. Diego Valeri started to walk off the field with his head down. Jeremy Ebobisse squatted down and rubbed his forehead.

Seconds after FC Dallas goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer dove to his left and punched the ball away, players in green and gold came to grips with the fact that their season was over.

“In a penalty shootout, anything can happen,” Valeri said, “and it’s just a tiny difference that changed the game. We are very disappointed with the way our season is ending, but our team left everything on the field. That’s why we have to be proud.”

Before Sunday night, the Timbers were a perfect 100% in their three games that came down to spot kicks this season. But penalty kicks are a game of chance, and it was Mauer, not Steve Clark, who guessed a kick correctly to help his team seal a playoff win.

The shootout went eight rounds, making it the third longest in MLS history. As it went on, the pressure to match FC Dallas make-for-make eventually became too much for Portland.

Villafaña, who just thirty minutes prior was the hero after he scored what looked to be the game-winning goal in the 82′, was the player whose missed penalty sealed the game.

“When you leave a game to PKs it can go either way,” Savarese said. “It’s unfortunate because we did everything to be able to win this match until that moment.”

That late moment Saverese referenced came in the 90+3′, just one minute prior to the final whistle.

With the Timbers up a goal and on the verge of advancing to the Western Conference Semifinals, 17-year-old Ricardo Pepi got behind Portland’s back line and slotted a deflected ball past Clark for an equalizing goal at the death.

Up until that point, Portland looked to be in control. But from then on, it was all FC Dallas — right until Maurer came up with the final save on Villafaña.

The late equalizer is the sixth goal the Timbers have conceded in stoppage-time this season. It was also the 15th goal the defense allowed after the 75′, which led the entire league.

Finding different ways to snatch defeat (or a draw) out of the jaws of victory is not exactly a new issue for this Portland team. There have been numerous warning signs throughout the year. Eventually, frustrating results turned into a legitimate trend.

Cracks first started to appear in an Aug. 29 game against Real Salt Lake at Providence Park. With just five minutes and stoppage time remaining, all the Timbers had to do was see out a 4-2 lead. Instead, RSL clawed all the way back and Sam Johnson tied the game at four in the 90+5′.

In late October, the Timbers were on track to beat LAFC until Portland conceded a late goal to 16-year-old Christian Torres in the 90+3′.

Four days later, Portland had a golden opportunity to leap over their bitter rivals, the Seattle Sounders, and into first place in the Western Conference. Instead, Will Bruin found himself wide open at the back post to head in an equalizing goal deep into second-half stoppage time.

And just three minutes into stoppage time against FC Dallas, Pepe’s goal swung all the momentum in the visitor’s favor.

“We, in the last minute, allowed a goal to come in that changed the trajectory of everything that we did well during the match,” Savarese said.

So, what made the Timbers so susceptible to conceding those late goals? It’s a question that could be argued all off-season.

At times, Portland struggled to capitalize on early chances that came back to bite when it entered stoppage time only up a goal. You could argue it is chance, but how much of conceding late is a psychological thing when it happens so frequently?

In the team’s MLS is Back Tournament run, they allowed four goals after the 80′, but Portland found enough goals to win those games. That didn’t happen in the MLS Cup playoffs.

But what was a heartbreaking conclusion shouldn’t overshadow all the Timbers accomplished in a season that spanned from March until November with a four-month break in between.

They won the league’s first––and hopefully only––MLS is Back Tournament trophy over the summer, and played some fun soccer doing it.

After months of uncertainty in 2019, club legend Diego Valeri returned to Portland and picked up where he left off. He ended the season with his 100th MLS assist when he played Villafaña in on goal against FC Dallas.

Gavin Wilkinson and the Timbers front office built up attacking depth over the offseason, and they needed all of it after Sebastián Blanco and Jarosław Niezgoda suffered season-ending injuries toward the end of the year. Jeremy Ebobisse, who broke out in many ways this season, dealt with a concussion over the past few weeks, and didn’t enter the game against FC Dallas until the 88′.

“It’s very frustrating,” Valeri said. “It’s a tough emotion, it’s hard to process now. But we have to rest well and scout the season to see why we had a good season, [find] what the positive things were that we did during the whole season and try to reinforce it.

An argument can be made that Portland was the better side Sunday night. Saverese alluded to that sentiment multiple times in his post game press conference. But MLS isn’t always fair; Portland learned that lesson the hard way against FC Dallas.

“We believed that even though we had adversity and players who were not with us, we still had a group that could go all the way,” Savarese said. “Unfortunately, now we are out and we have to plan for next year.”