The hits keep coming for D.C. United. First, there was the nightmarish 4-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo at a damp RFK Stadium. Next, United faced FC Dallas - top of the table at the time - on the road and, while playing something close to competently, still lost 2-1. Most recently, the Black-and-Red managed to avoid defeat for the first time since the Nixon administration, putting up a decent 70 minutes before hanging on for dear life to hold Sporting Kansas City to a 1-1 draw.
As we prepare for tomorrow's match-up between the Black-and-Red and the visiting Timbers, we look back at the last time the two teams met - last fall in Portland, where a controversial penalty gave D.C. the lead before United eventually succumbed to persistently shoddy defending and were forced to settle for the draw.
Down to ten men and trailing, the Timbers equalized late at BC Place to salvage a draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Portland dominated possession in the match, but the ‘Caps scored first in the 24th minute through a Camilo free kick from just outside the area.
PORTLAND, Ore.-It has been 390 minutes since the Timbers have conceded a goal in front of the home fans and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts is one of the major reasons why Portland is enjoying its best run of form since joining MLS in 2011.
The Jamaican International arrived in Portland last August in exchange for fan favorite Troy Perkins.
PORTLAND, Ore.-For the the first time in their short MLS tenure, the Portland Timbers are preparing for a matchup that will involve two teams at the top of the conference standings.
And despite being in new surroundings, Portland and their coach Caleb Porter are comfortable heading on the road to play the Western Conference-leading FC Dallas.
The New England Revolution fought hard to earn a 0-0 draw away at the Portland Timbers on Thursday night, extending their shutout and unbeaten streak to two games. Darrius Barnes and Bilal Duckett made their first starts of the season, filling in admirably on the left and right flanks, to combine with Jose Goncalves and Stephen McCarthy in ushering the Revolution defense to yet another positive result.
There were players who scored more goals, and some who registered more assists, but you will be hard-pressed to find a player who meant more to his team's success in April than Portland Timbers captain Will Johnson.
The Canadian midfielder led a Timbers squad that rattled off a 3-0-1 record during March, and while he managed one goal during that month (Johnson's brace vs.
When the Portland Timbers conceded a goal less than a minute into Saturday night's match against Sporting Kansas City, it didn't seem like that the first road victory of the season would be in store. However, the situation seemed to have little effect on the Timbers and their gameplan.
This weekend wasn't a high-scoring one, but Dallas, New York, and Portland made important statements with their wins in Week 7 matches. Each conference got a bit rattled by the results as the Galaxy's good form was checked by FC Dallas and the Red Bulls pulled out an away win against rival DC United.
You could compare the 2012 and the 2013 seasons in a multitude of ways. Some of those ways would be quantifiable, like stats, and some of those would be qualitative, like the "eye ball test." One of the obvious changes between the three seasons was a change that has moved the Portland Timbers from a first half team to a second half team.
The Houston Dynamo continue their poor road form with a 2-0 loss against the Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field. Behind a second half brace by Timbers forward Ryan Johnson, Portland got their first win of the season.
It was a tale of two halves as Houston and Portland battled in the first half in a tough physical match.
Unless you follow the league as a whole, you may not know too much about the Portland Timbers - other than the fact that they're hosting the Houston Dynamo this Saturday. We caught up with Stumptown Footy editor Geoff Gibson and traded questions. His answers are below, and my answers to his questions can be found here.
New coach, new players, new outlook: Everything is new this year in Portland after the Timbers hired Caleb Porter to replace John Spencer. Significant roster turnover has brought familiar faces from around MLS as well as two older gentlemen from Europe’s top divisions to implement Porter’s pressing, possession style.
Some interesting news for you with regards to the Cascadia Cup issues that have gone on between the supporters groups of the Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps and MLS in recent weeks. Apparently the city of Portland is looking to throw its weight around in that arena as well, on behalf of the Cascadia Cup Council.
It's time for a new field to be built in Portland and, with a little help from you, it could very well serve children from over 22 countries who speak 11 different languages. The field is called Bless Field and will be built in the New Columbia neighborhood in Portland, naturally.
Here are the details:
A field on which a future Timbers or Thorns star will be born
The people at Operation Pitch Invasion and the 107ist, along with some fine reporting by the guys who run the excellent 5 Minutes to Kickoff podcast, are throwing an event to help raise money for the field.
The story early during the 2012 season the first few games were typified by late game collapses. Fast forward to 2013, and now instead of late game collapses the Portland Timbers have a little bit of the Portland Trailblazer syndrome -- they start slow and slowly find their rhythm.
While the Timbers were the first to get a shot on target, transitioning quickly after a Seattle Sounder turnover, they looked out of sorts from that point on.
After a sold defeat of Seattle last Thursday, the Washington Spirit entered the less than hospitable confines of JELD-WEN Field and its 12,474 rowdy fans in Portland Sunday, hoping to turn some heads and come up with a second win in a row against the Thorns.
But before the match was even underway, the Spirit were dealt a blow as goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris failed a fitness test on her knee.
Al parecer jugar en casa fue de gran ayuda para el equipo Portland Thorns que este domingo consiguió su primera victoria en la Temporada al vencer 2 goles a 1 a Seattle Reign. El equipo Portland se convirtió desde un principio en uno de los favoritos al contar en su Roster convarias jugadoras destacadas entre ellas:Christine Sinclair, Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath, Rachel Buehler, y la guardameta canadiense Karina LeBlanc.
OVERLAND PARK, KS – In front of a sold-out crowd of 6,784 fans at Shawnee Mission District Stadium, FC Kansas City and the Portland Thorns played to a 1-1 draw. Renae Cuellar will forever hold the distinction of scoring the first goal in National Women's Soccer League history when she beat Portland goalkeeper, Karina LeBlanc, one-on-one in the third minute of the game.
Este sábado se llevó a cabo el partido inaugural de la National Women´s Soccer League, los encargados de abrir la temporada fueron los equipos de Portland Thorns y FC Kansas City.
El equipo de Kansas City, que venía de una pretemporadatriunfal,tuvo un claro control del partido desde los primeros minutos.
FC Kansas City started the first game of their history and the NWSL history strong, scoring inside the first 5 minutes, but were outplayed by Portland in the second half and had to settle for the draw after Christine Sinclair scored a penalty kick in the second half.
KC came out with some fire early and in only the 3rd minute grabbed the lead.
Surprisingly, Washington actually outpaced Portland for shots on goal (7 to 5), but were unable to score in the run of play with the lone goal coming off a converted penalty kick by Diana Matheson, who beat Canadian international teammate Karina LeBlanc.
In a physical game, what the Spirit lacked in size, they made up for in fight, not backing down from the larger and more experienced side.
Surprisingly, Washington actually outpaced Portland for shots on goal (7 to 5), but were unable to score in the run of play with the lone goal coming off a converted penalty kick by Diana Matheson, who beat Canadian international teammate Karina LeBlanc.
In a physical game, what the Spirit lacked in size, they made up for in fight, not backing down from the larger and more experienced side.
When talking about soccer, we all have a tendency to get a bit overwhelmed by transfer budgets, sponsorship contracts and wage allowances. The modern game is one dominated by anever-endingnews cycle that's difficult to avoid; one in which is cynicism has a certain inevitability.
New York Red Bulls vs. DC United... 0 - 0. Sporting Kansas City vs. Chicago Fire... 0 - 0. Seattle Sounders vs. Portland Timbers... 1 - 1. These aren't exactly headline worthy scorelines, but they're exactly what we got this past Saturday if you bothered to tune in for NBC's 10 hours of MLS rivalry day coverage (and of course, you at least tuned in for one of the three).
By all accounts, Diego Valeri is a fantastic playmaker on the field. The kind of magic he worked on the field Sunday night was probably more attuned to something we would expect to see in Europe, or even his native Argentina or Brazil, but certainly not MLS. And that is what makes Valeri unique, at his relatively young age he chose to come here instead of abroad.
Coming into Portland, the feeling exuded from the team can only be described as business-like and optimistic. After all, they just tied RSL's home win streak, beating last year's Supporter's Shield-winning San Jose 2-0. Davis called for a "playoff-like" approach to beating Portland, and I personally was expecting a win.
After the rough coast to coast road trip that saw Kansas City go 1-1, the team returns home for the first of three straight at home on Saturday night against the Portland Timbers.
Portland comes into the game after spending the last two weeks playing the San Jose Earthquakes home and away.
FC Kansas City and the National Women's Soccer League begin the next chapter of women's soccer in the US tomorrow when the Blues host the Portland Thorns at Shawnee Mission North High School. The season opener tomorrow night will pit two of the league's preseason favorites. Portland has arguably the best attack in the league, with both Alex Morgan and Christine Sinclair being allocated to the Thorns in the original player allocation.
After getting off to the kind of dominant start most expected, the past week has brought a bit of a reality check for the Thorns, courtesy of Sky Blue FC.
First, SBFC went up to Portland and upset the Thorns at home.
This week we have a new name to add to the list of top weekly scorers. cvIMPACT's 123 points led all teams, despite taking a 4-point deduction for using an extra transfer. Portland's Rodney Wallace ($5.2M) scored 21 points overall, tying for the weekly lead, despite only playing 117 minutes over his two games.
One of the positives to come from FC Dallas losing central attacking midfielder David Ferreira to a hamstring injury early in the second half of Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Portland is that veteran striker Eric Hassli, who came on for Ferreira, got his first significant action of the season off the bench.
After seeing FC Dallas and Portland play to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday night in Frisco, several things stuck out. So, here's a look at five of those things from that tie.
This Team Misses George John in More Ways Than One
First of all, this statement is not meant to be a slight or a shot at one Matt Hedges.
Diego Fagundez got his third straight start on Thursday. (Photo Credit: Mark Murray / Prost Amerika)
Thursday night the New England Revolution got a feather in their cap by holding a strong Portland team to a 0-0 draw in front of a very partisan and animated Timber crowd.
To get this result, the Revs needed to bear down defensively, and this they did, clogging their penalty area with several in-position defenders for the vast majority of the game.
Caleb Porter's first season as head coach of the Portland Timbers is now just over 10% complete with 4 games completed. Four games in a 34 game season is a very small sample size but we are going to use it anyway. The 2011 and 2012 seasons started off similarly in terms of points gained over the first 4 games but vastly different in the stats categories.
A couple weeks ago we brought word to this site about a local event here in Portland called: "Beating Seattle Never Gets Old: A Benefit for Bless Field." Being held at the Hollywood Theatre, it's an event to not only have fun and hang out with 107ist and Timbers Army members outside the game day festivities, but also to raise money for a great cause that will help a bunch of local kids learn to play the sport we all love in a proper setting.
A banged up Rapids lineup looked good for 50 minutes and bad for 40, but that's all that was needed to drop 2 points. As I predicted Portland didn't really start playing and Colorado got an early goal. An absolute rocket from rookie Dillon Powers that goes right to the top of the early list for team Goal of the Year, put the Rapids up in the 18th minute.
Back in January we were overjoyed to find out that, finally, after 2 years of proving that Portland was a great pace to host a US national team game, we would be getting one. Despite the popularity of the game here. Despite the selling out of the stadium time after time after time, US Soccer continued to overlook Portland, and indeed the Pacific Northwest overall, in favor of places like Tennessee.
