For 65 minutes in the second leg of the Western Conference Final in rainy, windswept Frisco, Texas, FC Dallas was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. The Portland Timbers were up 1-0 in the match, 4-1 on aggregate, and coasting towards their first ever MLS Cup Final when old nemesis Blas Perez came in and turned proceedings on a dime.

In the next seven minutes, Dallas had two goals — with Perez heading home the second off a free-kick — and sat one goal away from forcing extra time. They'd have done it, too, if not for Nat Borchers.

It was written in the stars for Perez, Dallas' divisive, aging, Panamanian heart and soul when a Michael Barrios cross fell to him deep into stoppage time. But Perez's stinging volley from eight yards was met out of nowhere by the outstretched leg of an airborne Borchers, who, it seemed, had been shot out of a cannon.

It was an unconscionable, heroic block, and it ended the Dallas charge. Just moments later, Lucas Melano would tap-dance around Dallas goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez and send the Timbers to the club's first final since its inaugural NASL season of 1975.

It's been a special ride. From Maxi Urruti's last-gasp equalizer in the Wild Card game, to the miracle of the double post penalty, to Borchers' latest magnum opus, this team has felt destined. Now, the ultimate date with destiny has been set. Next Sunday at 1:00 PM in the heart of Ohio, the Timbers will play the Columbus Crew for a championship.

In the end, the Timbers won 5-3 on aggregate. It was the same scoreline as they beat the Seattle Sounders with in the club's first MLS playoff series two years ago — more on the Sounders in a moment — and when all was said and done, Portland held the away goals tiebreaker as well.

This wasn't the Timbers closest call, but it also was far from comfortable. Caleb Porter, miserably sick for the entire trip, could attest to that. As the Timbers desperately clung to their one-goal margin, the stage seemed to outflank a number of men in green and gold.

Darlington Nagbe, for one, faded badly after a bright start. Urruti botched several glorious chances to put the game away. The likes of Jorge Villafaña and Rodney Wallace, all of the sudden, couldn't complete a pass to save their lives.

But it was never too big for Borchers, or Diego Valeri — who threw ninety minutes worth of darts and could have had five assists in the last ten minutes.

Winning this big, for this long, takes contributions from every player on the roster. At different times on this run the Timbers have called on Jake Gleeson, Jack Jewsbury, Taylor Peay and George Fochive, and on this night it was Norberto Paparatto holding his own in place of Ridgewell, and Melano, the much-maligned five million dollar man, carving up that long-neglected Dallas defense to bring the curtain down.

It was a curtain that hardly came up for the first hour of the game. Playing David Texeira at forward gave the impression that Dallas was an AK-47 loaded with nerf bullets, and thanks to the dreadful weather and a weak crowd made weaker the effects of new stadium security measures, the home team didn't sustain a threat Oscar Pareja's substitutions insisted on the missing urgency.

Dallas showed every bit of its youth. Pareja's team rarely stamped it's authority on proceedings, but it was as resilient as promised. The Timbers, on the other end, played with just as much discipline and nous as their experience demanded. Defensively, Portland's effort was tremendous.

Mauro Diaz set up all three Dallas goals, but he never quite shook free in this series. Nagbe picked up on the playmaker where Jack Jewsbury and Chara left off in the first leg, while Fabian Castillo was almost unrecognizable as he tried to escape the back pocket of Villafaña. If the Timbers ceded anything to either of those players, this tie might have looked a lot different.

It also might have looked a lot different if Dallas had a true #9. It's hard to win MLS Cup without a top-class striker, and that's exactly what Fanendo Adi is. With his strike in the second half, the big man tied the club record for goals in a single season.

The Timbers deserved this. To a man, they executed. Over 180 minutes, this series wasn't as close as those unbearable final minutes suggested it was. Merritt Paulson helped lead the celebration post-game, while his coach glowered on the side of the temporary stage. On that stage, though, it was pure jubilation.

This team is a treat not just because it's so good, but because it's so damn likable. There aren't many bad apples in MLS — one perk of the league's still-humble makeup — but this Timbers group is unusual in every way. Their blend of leadership, character, and spirit is something to be cherished.

They're the first Cascadian side to reach the final, making it before the Sounders — who have held MLS Cup as their sole obsession since just after the Timbers joined the league. The poetry is unmissable. Porter, for one, will take Nagbe and Michael Nanchoff and Ben Zemanski back to Ohio and play for the title less than two hours from where their careers took off at Akron.

And it was Valeri, captain for the day, who stood out among many worthy candidates and lifted the Western Conference Championship trophy on the field where he tore his ACL on the final day of the 2014 season.

It was that injury that set the frame for this Timbers campaign to be one of attrition. Through a supporters' protest, several false starts, and a year's worth of frustration, this club has done a whole lot more than persevere. It now stands, just as it should, 90 minutes away from true immortality.