Let It Rain, Let It Pour, The Timbers Have Won Four (In A Row)

Who here likes stress? Me neither. The Portland Timbers have stress baked into their DNA, and they put us fans through a lot of it tonight. But, after the final whistle, that stress exploded into joy. The Portland Timbers have won four straight games, and are now unbeaten in their last five. 

The plan was always to take the game to the Rapids, and that’s exactly how the Timbers started. Antony was making his first start, and got a goal to mark the occasion when he headed home a Dairon Asprilla cross in the 18th minute. The whole team lifted him up in celebration, which really warms my heart. 

Cascadia FC's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

*Isn’t it great having a photographer on site? All photo credits to Thomas Lal.*

The Timbers once again smelled blood, and this time it was Santiago Moreno’s turn to get in on the action. With his mom in the stands once again, the Timbers’ newfound team goal magic struck. Antony did a series of stepovers, passed it to Moreno, who exchanged with Noel Caliskan, and rifled a perfect finish past Marko Ilic to give the Timbers a 2-0 lead. He pointed to his mom and lifted a heart to her.

*Photo credit to Thomas Lal.*

That lead was very short-lived, however, as the Rapids quickly scored off the kickoff when Diego Rubio headed home a Cole Bassett cross. However, the match seemed to turn on one incident. Felipe Mora and Andrew Gutman were both chasing a loose ball, and Mora slid in to try a shot. He got the ball, but he also got Gutman, and received a yellow card for the foul. I don’t have a problem with that. However, the VAR official in charge told Guido Gonzales Jr. to take a closer look at it. So a full VAR check was initiated. I also don’t have a problem with that. After a two minute VAR stoppage, Gonzales didn’t deem the foul to be worthy of a red card, so play resumed. I’m going to get into my thoughts on VAR later. What the break provided was a chance for the Rapids to regroup. 90 seconds after play resumed, the Rapids counterattacked. Andrew Gutman fired a shot, which got deflected off of Juan Mosquera, and settled into the back of the net behind David Bingham. What a bloodbath. The Timbers headed into halftime with the game tied and their previous momentum snuffed out. 

The second half started in the same vein as the end of the first. Colorado didn’t have any clear cut chances, but the Timbers were having trouble creating some of their own. More referee fuckery and Colorado time-wasting frustrated the Timbers and their watching audience, who were just begging for a breakthrough. Guess who finally got that breakthrough. The chaos merchant himself, Dairon Asprilla. 

He provided the cross that Antony headed home by victimizing an out-of-position Lalas Abubakar. So, with the Timbers needing that go-ahead goal, he did it again. His header acted as a through ball for Felipe Mora, who got on the end of the pass and chugged forward. He rounded the keeper and slotted it home. 3-2 Timbers. The stadium exploded. With so much tension and anxiety in the building, the roar was deafening. Now all the Timbers had to do was see the game out. And they did. Four straight wins. And 3 wins in 1 week. Incredible.

I used the term “referee fuckery” to describe tonight’s performance by the officiating crew. That is the correct term. I could dig into the missed calls and inconsistent nature of them, but there are two things I want to focus on. The first was a penalty shout in the 68th minute. Dario Zuparic was rising to meet a header in the box when he got pulled down. The cross wasn’t too high. In the NFL, that’s pass interference, but it was waived off by the official. The Timbers have only been awarded one penalty all season, and they can’t buy one if they had the money to do so. The Timbers’ problems with getting penalty kicks is just like the New York Jets’ problem with roughing the passer penalties. In case you didn’t know, the Jets haven’t been the beneficiary of a roughing the passer penalty since December 19th, 2021. That’s over 20 games, and there have certainly been instances of Jets QBs being the victim of late hits since that date. However, not only does the Jets defense get called for roughing the passer penalties almost weekly, those calls tend to completely change the game. The Jets play the Patriots tomorrow, and last season’s Patriots game at MetLife saw a pick six get overturned for a phantom roughing the passer penalty, one that still infuriates Jets fans whenever they see it. It changed the trajectory of our season. Last week in Dallas, a phantom roughing the passer was called on John Franklin-Meyers on a failed 3rd down conversion. The Cowboys ended up scoring a touchdown instead of settling for a field goal and put the game out of reach. These penalties for the Timbers exist, and just like the Jets, they’re not getting called. We’ve only conceded 3 penalties in 2023, but there have been at least twice as many that the Timbers should have been awarded. That’s bullshit. However, that’s not the most egregious officiating error that occurred today, and it actually resulted in the correct call. VAR’s purpose is to review calls. In order for a call to be reviewed, the foul must be clear and obvious. If you’re a referee, and you are standing at a monitor for TWO MINUTES, and you can’t find a CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ERROR in your call, there isn’t one. Last Wednesday, in the literal LAST GAME the Timbers played, there was a VAR investigation of a possible penalty on Sebastian Blanco. According to the rules, it was a penalty. Yes, I think it would be a soft call if it was against my team, but according to THE RULES THAT GOVERN SOCCER it was a penalty. After the review was over, the stadium scoreboard showed a smoking-gun angle that clearly showed studs going into Sebastian Blanco’s plant leg. Penalty. This was after a VAR check, and they kept the call on the field of no penalty. In order to improve VAR, there must be a 30 second shot clock for all VAR checks. If there is no CLEAR AND OBVIOUS ANGLE within 30 seconds of the referee going to the monitor, the call on the field stands. Anything clear and obvious should be able to be caught within 30 seconds. Otherwise, nothing doing, play continues. It doesn’t fix the issue of PROReferees as a whole, but it is a start. Figure it out. I’m sick of whining about referees in these recaps. It’s a horrific look for the league that there is a show called Instant Replay that looks at controversial refereeing calls and some of them get described as a bad call. That’s exactly what happened to Blanco’s penalty shout last Wednesday. This is an issue facing all sporting leagues, and we have the technology to actually get every reviewable call correct now. VAR is still a good thing, but it needs to be more streamlined. Looking forward to Zach Wilson NOT getting a roughing the passer penalty after receiving a helmet-to-helmet hit while Michael McCorkle Jones flops around and is handed a free 15 yards repeatedly tomorrow. Sigh.

That’s a lot of negativity for a match that the Timbers won. It needed to be said though. Now I can focus on the positives from tonight’s gutsy performance. The Colorado Rapids had nothing to lose, and they lined up like a team that did have a lot to lose. The Timbers outperformed the Rapids on xG 2.16-0.46. Conceding two goals while allowing about a half of a hypothetical goal is not good. You could chalk this up to being tired, with ZZ Stop playing every minute of every game in this three match week. I do think a more rested Timbers team would have been more compact at the back. But you can’t bench a healthy Zac McGraw and Dario Zuparic at this point in the season. Not with this much at stake. However, they did show parallels to the goal they conceded against San Jose by not being prepared for the kickoff. Both opening concessions against San Jose and tonight came right off a kickoff when the Timbers scored. That’s a mentality thing, and I’m sure Liam Ridgewell is hopping mad about it already. I don’t expect to see that phenomenon continue. I’ve already explained the bloodbath that was the Rapids’ second goal. It did take time for the team to find the right headspace again, but they still got the win, so I’m going to chalk that up to a fluke. It also has to do with the mentality issue that caused the first goal, so it should be fixed. More fluky than a pattern, but still a horrific way to concede. 

Man of the Match goes to Dairon Asprilla. He gutted his way through a very physical game and recorded two assists. He was constantly charging at Rapids defenders and reminded us that it’s almost October. He’s finding form right on schedule. He’s also incredible at killing off games. Despite being on the field for the entire 90 minutes, he had the energy to take the ball to the corner and stymie any attempt to take it from him. Just him shielding the ball and the corner flag with no way out. Another Asprilla gem.

Santiago Moreno got his second goal of the season and created three chances. After the final whistle blew, his mom joined him on the pitch to lift his log with him. You absolutely love to see it. He seems to genuinely enjoy playing soccer in a Timbers shirt again. PAY HIM, NED. He’s proven himself to be proficient at two key roles in this team: on the wing and in central midfield. That versatility has saved this team twice in the past week and he’s played a major part in all three victories in the past seven days. One player has to come off the U22 Initiative tag in the offseason. It has to be Santi. 

Antony made his first start for the Timbers tonight, and impressed me with his work rate. Yes, he scored too, and it was a great moment for the new boy. He told everyone at the post-game press conference that his goal kept replaying in his mind like a movie. He also gave valuable insight into the locker room. He said that he would describe the squad as a “union.” He’s still a 22 year old who just moved to a brand new country. “English is hard to understand, but I’m taking classes,” he said post-game. “I’m still young and learning a lot, but I’m happy.” He first met his teammates in Houston. We all know what happened there. He’s had to deal with a turbulent arrival but his spirits are sky high. Wonderful news, and he has a second baby on the way. While he replays the movie of his goal in his head, I’m going to replay those stepovers he did to set up the Timbers’ second goal. I’m so excited to see more of him, and he earned his start tonight.

Felipe Mora took the captain’s armband again, and he has definitely earned it. “I’m just very thankful of the honor and trust the team has given me. I feel blessed to be a captain.” For the record, he has worn the armband twice in 2023. He has scored in both games. Tonight, his goal lit up Providence Park and took the non-existent roof off of the building. “It was great to celebrate it with our fans.” But it wasn’t just the fans who he celebrated with. The entire team seemed to converge on the northwest corner of the pitch when he wheeled away in celebration. That reaction alone tells me all I need to know about his status in the team. He’s hungrier than ever to score goals and he’s a key leader in the locker room. And he’s never been happier to be in that position. Dale, Pipe.

Noel Caliskan made his first home MLS start tonight. Evander was ruled out with a calf injury (nothing serious, Miles Joseph said he should be back for next week’s match in LA) so it was a big opportunity for the team’s most recent first round SuperDraft pick. After a stellar outing including a fantastic assist, his coach had this to say about him: “We have so much confidence in him. He’s a really intelligent player. We knew he was going to do the job asked of him. He’s a great kid and we’re proud of him.” It’s been hard for Caliskan to crack the midfield rotation this season, but it speaks more to the level of the players ahead of him on the depth chart than his own skill. I look forward to his continued improvement over his time in Portland.

Bryan Acosta faced his former team for the first time since his midseason trade. Words cannot describe how important that trade was for the Timbers. There is no way that the Timbers could have won 3 consecutive games without Diego Chara if Acosta wasn’t on the roster. And Acosta had a Diego-esque performance tonight. He did all the little things right, set the tempo from deep, and kept the backline protected. He also completed all 10 of his long balls. Unbelievable piece of business from Ned Grabavoy. Speaking of business, Acosta has a club option for next season. The salary cap is set to increase, and that option needs to be picked up. He’s only 29 years old and provides valuable central midfield depth. I’m not going to get into the logjam the Timbers will have at the position when Eryk Williamson and David Ayala return from injury yet, but it is going to be a key focus of the offseason. Acosta definitely has a role to play in this team for the rest of the season and in 2024. 

Juan David Mosquera’s creative tendencies help this team in so many ways. He created 5 chances tonight, which led the team. He should’ve had an assist when his perfect cross found Antony’s head but the finish drifted wide of the goal frame. He also paired it with a great defensive outing. 1 tackle, 3 recoveries, and 5/7 ground duels won. I’m not going to blame him for Colorado’s second goal. It was a horrific deflection and at least he did get in front of the shot. After Santi scored, he joined his buddy and danced with him to celebrate. Always great to see him having fun and playing well. 

It wasn’t the greatest day at the office for David Bingham, but the main goalkeeping news came from Aljaz Ivacic. He filed a complaint against the Timbers with the MLSPA, alleging abusive conduct and tampering from the Timbers’ organization. I’m going to do a deep dive on Ivacic in another article, but Bingham’s performance tonight will still keep him entrenched as the starter. More on that in the Ivacic article. 

Time to look at the table. Isn’t it beautiful?

We’re up to 6th! There are four teams ahead of us with a game in hand, but I’m simply going to ignore that fact and point your attention to the recent form column. The Timbers are now the only team in the West that have won 2 straight games. And we’ve won four in a row. Miles Joseph is beginning to talk about MLS Cup, and it honestly doesn’t seem that far-fetched. The problem is Decision Day being a month away. With the three remaining regular season matches being spread out across that month, there might be some rust creeping in. Joseph has plans to keep the rhythm going to avoid that rust. There are now two teams in the West that are unbeaten in 5. Seattle had a day off today. Cool. They continue to toe the line between a veteran team and an old team. Don’t let the talking heads fool you, they are an old team. It is also amusing to look at the points standings. They do have a game in hand over us, but we’re only three points back of the mighty Fishies. With the way they’ve been playing, that gap is definitely going to close before Decision Day. Congratulations to FC Dallas, who are now unbeaten in their last four games. They have two games in hand over us. Disgusting. So does Vancouver, who is only one point back and set to return home after spending the entire month of September on the road. 8 points separate 2nd place LAFC and 11th place Minnesota. There’s still a lot of sweating to do, even as the weather begins to cool (how awesome was the rain tonight by the way?).

Four straight wins after an entire season of not winning even two games in a row. Miles Joseph has this team locked in on the playoffs and is now beginning to mention the top prize in MLS: MLS Cup. It is both an indictment of the Western Conference and a credit to Joseph’s coaching job that the 2023 Timbers can even be mentioned in such discussions. However, runs like this are built in our DNA. Since a defeat to LAFC in September 2020, the Timbers haven’t lost in the month of September. 14-4-0. One last September match to go, and it’s a trip to sunny Los Angeles to meet a resurgent Galaxy team. They play tomorrow in Austin, and they’re also fighting for a playoff spot. I do not want to get anyone’s hopes up, but a long time ago on an October night in LA, the Timbers delivered a signature victory that started a run that ended in glory. In 2023, that run is already started, but in order for it to continue, they’ll have to get past a Galaxy team employing a striker with Premier League experience at the tail end of his career. Some things just write themselves.

Cascadia FC's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.