MLS today released the full schedule for its twenty-second season of play. Here are five thoughts on the Timbers' 2017 slate.
1. The Show Starts Here
The 2017 MLS season will start at Providence Park on the night of Friday March 3rd, as the Timbers host the first game of the season against expansion side Minnesota United on Fox Sports 1.
This marks the sixth consecutive year that the Timbers have played their first game of the season at home, and fourth time that game has been nationally televised. Portland is yet to lose a home opener in its MLS history, with its all-time record in such games currently standing at 3-0-3.
2. Kiss Saturday Home Games Goodbye
The Timbers will play just four of their seventeen regular season home games on Saturday. It's a record low for the club, coming after the team got just five Saturday home dates last season, and is a product, in large part, of the Timbers popularity: Nationally televised MLS games are played on Fridays and Sundays.
And while that's a plus for the club overall, it's a disappointment for the team's fans. Saturdays — and Saturday nights in particular — have always drawn the Timbers' best atmospheres and loudest crowds.
While the atmosphere at Providence Park on a bad day is still the best in MLS, the Timbers aren't immune from the effects of weeknight games and early starts. The irony is that the fervor of the Timbers' support is one of the reasons it's home games are so regularly featured nationally.
3. Showdown Against Seattle
The new MLS champion Seattle Sounders will make just one trip to Portland during the 2017 regular season, coming during MLS' Rivalry Week on June 25th. ESPN will have the broadcast of the game, which will feature one of the Timbers Army's biggest tifo efforts of the year.
This meeting will be the first between the clubs in Portland since the Sounders won MLS Cup in Toronto just over a month ago. The Timbers will travel to CenturyLink Field twice in 2017, with meetings in the Emerald City set for the end of May and the end of August.
4. Ending the Year at Home
As of this moment, the Portland Timbers' last away win in MLS play was on December 6th of 2015 in Columbus. The hope, and expectation, is that the road woes which derailed the Timbers' title defense last year won't carry over into 2017.
That being said, the Timbers still have to like that, for the first time ever, they'll play their final two games of the season at Providence Park. Portland will close the year with October home dates against DC United and Vancouver, with three of the club's final four games coming in the Rose City.
The first of that stretch of games will see Orlando City — Will Johnson's new club — make just its second-ever trip to Portland.
5. Other Notes and Dates To Watch
— Atlanta United, the other expansion club joining the league this season, will visit Portland for an ESPN game on May 14th.
— With MLS now at 22 teams, the Timbers will face just three clubs three times this season. Vancouver and Seattle, as expected, are two of those teams — the other is the San Jose Earthquakes. Next season, with the addition of LAFC, it is expected that the Timbers will only play their Cascadia rivals three times per season.
— MLS will break for the group stage of the Gold Cup for the first time in July, which means that the Timbers won't have to play that month without the likes of Darlington Nagbe and Alvas Powell. The league will not, however, break for FIFA international dates in March or June.
— The dates of the Timbers' preseason tournament, which this year will include Real Salt Lake alongside Minnesota and Vancouver, have been moved up one week.
The tournament will start on February 9th and end on February 15th, leaving more than two weeks between the final preseason game and the start of the regular season. In past years, the tournament concluded the week before the first game of the season.
This year's tournament will also feature two weeknight games and one weekend game, an inverse of the schedule for previous years.
— There is still plenty of race yet to be run in the Timbers' offseason. The club is closing in on a third Designated Player, with San Lorenzo winger Sebastian Blanco heavily linked.
Other items of business include the future of Jack McInerney, the potential return of Rodney Wallace, and the possible signing of another center back. Interestingly, there has been no word from any side on the status of Nat Borchers, who is out of contract with the Timbers and not being retained.
Today, Portland announced that it has signed three T2 players — goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh, center back Rennico Clark, and winger Victor Arboleda — to the first team for the new season. The club is also retaining young English winger Jack Barmby.
Training camp begins in just over a week. The club's first preseason game, in Tucson against the New York Red Bulls, is set for January 27th. The 2017 season is closing in.
