Abe Asher

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers When the Portland Timbers won MLS Cup in 2015, you could feel it coming for weeks. They were the best team in two countries. It was clear. This year, the Timbers were never that. They finished in fifth place in the Western Conference in the regular season, in eighth place overall, and […]

Portland Timbers For the second time in four years, the Portland Timbers are 90 minutes away from a championship. That first MLS Cup appearance couldn’t have gone much better. In 2015, the Timbers went to Columbus, led for more than 89 minutes after Diego Valeri’s opening goal, and won their first league title ever. This […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers were scoreless in more than 320 straight minutes of play against Sporting Kansas City this season and trailing them 1-0 in the second half of the second leg of the Western Conference Championship on Thursday night, in need of a goal to save their season, when the impossible happened. […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers After playing to a tense 0-0 stalemate in leg one of the Western Conference Championship on Sunday night, the Portland Timbers and Sporting Kansas City will meet for leg two tonight at what promises to be a frigid Children’s Mercy Park. The Timbers will advance to MLS Cup with a win or […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers If the Portland Timbers’ triumph in Seattle two weeks ago was the height of playoff insanity, the first leg of the Western Conference Championship against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday night was pretty close to the height of traditional playoff intensity: crackling atmosphere, grueling pace and physicality, and margins so fine that […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers More than two weeks after their heart-stopping triumph in the second leg of the Western Conference Semifinal in Seattle, the Portland Timbers are ready to take the field at Providence Park for the final time in 2018 — knowing that a win would put them on the precipice of MLS Cup (4:30 […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers Dairon Asprilla wasn’t going to miss. He just wasn’t. So after more than three hours, more than 1,200 passes, more than 30 shots, five goals, one premature celebration, and eight penalty kicks, it was all over but the paperwork. Because if there is one thing about Asprilla, one thing that everyone who […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers On Sunday at Providence Park, the Portland Timbers took a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference Semifinal against the Seattle Sounders. Tonight, the Timbers will head north to CenturyLink Field and try to hold that lead — knowing that any result will take them to within one step of a return to […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers Ten minutes into their showdown with the Seattle Sounders in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinal on Sunday afternoon at Providence Park, the Portland Timbers appeared to be in serious trouble. Seattle had dominated the opening stage of the game and had just taken the lead through their Peruvian striker […]

Sam Ortega/Portland Timbers Five years after they first met in the MLS Cup playoffs, the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders have been drawn together in the postseason again — with the first leg of a Western Conference Semifinal edition of American soccer’s greatest rivalry set for Sunday afternoon at Providence Park (2:30 p.m., TV on […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers They didn’t have more possession, they didn’t have more chances, and, for the final 30 minutes, they didn’t have more players. But the Portland Timbers did have Diego Valeri, Jeff Attinella, and a whole lot of moxie when it mattered it most — and their reward on a cool, rainy Wednesday night […]

Portland Timbers For the first time since 2015, the Portland Timbers are back in the Wild Card round of the MLS Cup Playoffs — facing a eminently winnable do-or-die knockout game tonight in suburban Frisco against a struggling FC Dallas team (6:30 p.m., TV on ROOT Sports, UniMas). The Opponent There is very little reason […]