If you're reading this, you made it.

You didn't disintegrate when what should have been Saad Abdul-Salaam's game-winning penalty hit the inside of the left post, skidded along the goal-line, hit the inside of the right post, and skidded just clear of the North End goal at Providence Park.

Your head didn't go flying off your body when Maxi Urruti resurrected the Timbers on the stroke of midnight in extra time. You didn't burst into flames when Jack Jewsbury skied his penalty, or burst into tears when Adam Kwarasey saved the spot-kick of Sporting Kansas City backup goalkeeper Jon Kempin to finally end a night that will be remembered and talked about for as long as they play soccer on 18th and Morrison.

Or maybe you did all of those things. Maybe we all did. But today, this morning, we—just like those 2015 Portland Timbers—are still kicking. Don't know how it happened? Still can't believe it? Get in line.

The final box-score from Thursday night's one-off MLS Wild Card game between the Portland Timbers and Sporting KC will read that the two teams tied 2-2 after extra time, and that the Timbers won 7-6 on penalties.

It took 22 penalties for the Timbers to advance to the Western Conference Semifinal that they'll have had just over 60 hours to rest for when the first leg kicks off on Sunday in Portland. But it might take 22 years to weave through all the stories, piece together all the narratives, and digest everything that happened in this once-in-forever game.

Heroes were made, of course. Kwarasey, for instance, will deservedly be hailed. But more than that, humans were made. No one who saw it will soon forget the image of Darlington Nagbe, five yards behind his teammates, sitting on the cold turf, back turned to the shootout, head buried in a towel, unable to watch.

Just in front of him, Dairon Asprilla prayed on his knees. Jorge Villafaña lay collapsed on the ground. Nat Borchers, who volunteered to go second in the shootout and lashed one of the gutsiest penalties you'll ever see into the upper left corner to get the Timbers going in the shootout, ran out to drag Diego Valeri away from the spot after he missed his attempt.

Maxi Urruti, who may have made his last meaningful contribution in a Timbers shirt, wasn't going to miss his penalty if the Great Wall of China had sprung up in front of the net. Caleb Porter said after the match that Abdul-Salaam's penalty staying out was either the work of the Timbers Army or God. On this night, the lines between divinity and reality were blurred nearly unrenderable.

That's why we'll remember most the players who rose above the moment. Borchers, a lion of a soccer player who lost the 2013 MLS Cup Final with Real Salt Lake to Sporting Kansas City in a game that went to a shootout with 20 penalties, was never cowed. Kwarasey was so cool under the weight of his considerable responsibility that he stopped for a log-side chat with Timber Joey between kicks in the latter rounds.

This team was so far into uncharted territory—the Timbers' first MLS extra time match, their first playoff knockout game, the longest shootout in playoff history, the longest game in team history—that it became difficult to think in complete sentences let alone speak in them.

The game itself played out how the Timbers expected it to. Portland dominated a physical first half, but was unable to break through a typically well-organized and tough-as-nails Kansas City setup. They got their goal—their first against SKC since April 2013—through with a gutty strike from Rodney Wallace, and appeared to be sailing through to Vancouver when trouble hit.

It started with Porter bringing on George Fochive in place of a disappointing Lucas Melano and moving from the 4-3-3 to the 4-2-3-1. The Timbers got pinned in, Sporting found their rhythm, and, unsurprisingly considering the history of the two teams, Kevin Ellis knocked home a Graham Zusi cross to level the game in the 86th minute.

Krisztian Nemeth reserved his moment of brilliance for extra time, skinning Fochive and firing the go-ahead goal in from virtually no angle to put Kansas City in the driver's seat. The Timbers, battling all kinds of fatigue and without any sort of cohesiveness, were all but out when Dairon Asprilla spun and fired in a cross that Urruti prodded in.

It wasn't a beautiful game—and it certainly was an ugly close-out—but the Timbers won without Diego Chara and the inactive while activated Will Johnson, against their bogey team, without great games from any attacking players. Clearly, Portland doesn't say die. A spirit burns within that team and that stadium that is nothing short of remarkable.

That spirit was called upon time and again, as the shootout dragged on interminably and each moment one-upped the last moment in craziness and importance. These teams were just too evenly matched. There was nothing between them. All game, and all year.

Valeri was saved by Kwarasey's superman denial of Dom Dwyer. Jewsbury, who churned through 130 minutes soccer, had his miss canceled out by Matt Besler. Jorge Villafaña was bailed out by Kevin Ellis; Alvas Powell by a couple of goal-posts.

In sports, there are two kinds of playoff runs. One kind rushes through your body and pulses through your veins, giving you untold energy you never knew you could muster. The other kind instead demands so much emotional output, so much physical tension, that it is quite literally life-sucking.

That's what Thursday night was — and it was so draining, so mind-bending, and so long, it felt like the Timbers pulled off an entire six-match playoff run in a single game.

There is no mixture of words that could do this night justice. Instead, you'll remember Thursday by who you hugged after Kwarasey's final save. You'll remember it by who you called after it was over, by the ticket or program you grabbed, and, most vividly, by how you felt.

That's what sports can do. And I'll be damned if we'll ever see a sporting event like this again.