Abe Asher

Saturday night was a gut-check for the Portland Timbers. Without a win since mid-August, it would have surprised no one if the Timbers went on the road to a young, hungry, playoff-bound Columbus Crew side and continued to slide. Instead, battling to halt the drip of what felt like a season slipping away, the Timbers […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers, coming off a slightly humiliating home loss last Saturday against the New York Red Bulls, enter this weekend of MLS play just one point above the red line for the last Western Conference playoff place, in search of the club’s first win in over a month. Getting that elusive […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers It was a pleasant, sunny Sunday afternoon for a slaughtering at Providence Park. The New York Red Bulls, on three days of rest, sitting multiple starters aside from suspended captain Dax McCarty, and playing Rose City reject Sal Zizzo out of position at left back, turned in a first half that was […]

The Portland Timbers are back in action for the first time in 10 days with a 2 pm, nationally televised Sunday clash with the New York Red Bulls at Providence Park. With just six games left in the regular season, the Timbers are clinging to the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. […]

Between rare weekends off, the Portland Timbers face a crucial and unusual Wednesday night home match against playoff rival Sporting Kansas City at 7:30 pm from Providence Park. Thanks to injuries, suspensions, international call-ups, the resurgence of the Seattle Sounders and the emergence of the San Jose Earthquakes, this game will have a unique feel […]

After some 30 games of the 2015 season, the Portland Timbers ended up right back where they started on opening night Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field: minus Will Johnson and Diego Chara, playing with zero pressure, and admirably turning in a performance more skillful than simply gritty. Sure, the Timbers lost the battle to the […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers The final regular season meeting of the year between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders is the showpiece of the last MLS Rivalry Week of 2015. The game will kick off, after plenty of pre-game hullabaloo, just after 2 pm on Sunday afternoon. For Seattle, this game is an absolute must-win. The […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers It’s thanks to Boniek Garcia and Will Bruin, and their goals that put the Houston Dynamo 2-0 up on the Portland Timbers at halftime on Friday night, that a little life came back to Providence Park. Up until those goals, two lapses from the Timbers defense punished clinically by a Houston team […]

Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers return to the field and the thick of the MLS playoff race on tonight at 8 pm on Univision as they take on the Houston Dynamo. This is the second consecutive and final home match Portland has on a Friday night. The Timbers won the last one narrowly over […]

It’s been that kind of year. Rarely have the Portland Timbers played great soccer. Diego Valeri has been injured and bottled up. He’s provided little, and Darlington Nagbe has provided less. The Timbers have fewer goals per game than all but one team in MLS, and there aren’t any obvious answers in sight. And yet […]