Abe Asher

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers play their first MLS home game for the better part of a month on Sunday against the Houston Dynamo (3:00 PM, TV on ESPN2) with a number of question marks swirling around the team. First and foremost is the future of Fanendo Adi. The team’s leading goalscorer took his […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers It wasn’t pretty, and had it been, it wouldn’t have been worthwhile. For the Portland Timbers, Wednesday night was about guts. It was about responding to adversity, about commitment, both individual and collective, and about we-have-to-get-a-clean-sheet-if-it-kills-us. And when it was all said and done, the ten men standing for Portland had done […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers After drawing the Chicago Fire on Saturday in Illinois, the Portland Timbers — still in search of their first shutout of 2016 — return to Providence Park for the club’s fifteenth and final MLS match before the league breaks for the group stage of the Copa America tournament. And Wednesday’s game is […]

Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports It was a game that only its mother could love — perfunctory, and little more. The Portland Timbers’ trip to Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois on Saturday night yielded plenty of wind, another series of sensational stops from Jake Gleeson, and a whole lot of soul-sapping soccer in what would conclude […]

Molly J. Smith/Portland Timbers After a cathartic 4-2 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Portland Timbers set about the slightly less glamorous task of piling up points and dragging themselves up the Western Conference table before MLS breaks for the Copa America in early June. First up for the Timbers is a Saturday night match […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers From the get-go, it was clear that Sunday afternoon’s Cascadia Cup clash at Providence Park between the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps was pulsating with the kind of manic energy that only a rivalry can produce. Portland thrived on it. Vancouver, to put it lightly, didn’t. The result for the Timbers, who, […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers For a third year in a row, the Portland Timbers have had a frustrating spring. But beyond the numbers—12 points from their first twelve games for a lowly ninth place in the Western Conference—there is cause for alarm. The Timbers haven’t kept a clean-sheet all season, shipping a league-worst 22 goals. Beyond […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers For 55 minutes on Sunday afternoon at Providence Park, the Portland Timbers had New York City FC on the ropes. Jack Jewsbury was flying around like it was 2006. Diego Valeri created six chances in the first half alone. Even NYCFC’s handball-induced opening goal didn’t really dampen the spirit of a team […]

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports After consecutive 2-1 road losses to Vancouver on Saturday and Dallas on Wednesday, the Portland Timbers find themselves, not for the first time this year, badly in need of a response ahead of another marquee, nationally-televised home match against New York City FC (4:30 PM, TV on FOX Sports 1). The […]

Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News via AP For the second time in five days, the Portland Timbers earned a halftime road lead. And for the second time in five days, they let it slide away. Thanks to the suffocating Texas heat, fatigue carried over from the weekend, a simple lack of desire to win an […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers followed up their best win of the season two Sundays ago against Toronto with a major letdown — letting a first half lead slip at BC Place in a 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps. But the team’s attention quickly turned to Dallas, where the Timbers are readying to […]

Ben Nelms/The Canadian Press via AP For an hour at BC Place on Saturday, the mojo that the Portland Timbers’ road to a home win last Sunday against Toronto FC held. Despite plenty of Vancouver Whitecaps pressure, the Timbers led through a beautiful team goal and a series of phenomenal saves from Jake Gleeson. Then, […]