Robert Mara On Wednesday night, the Portland Timbers got a season-saving win at Real Salt Lake. Still tied on points and trailing on a tiebreaker for the sixth and final playoff spot with the San Jose Earthquakes, everyone is preparing for the final game of the season next Sunday at home against the Colorado Rapids […]
Abe Asher
Abe Asher covers city news, politics, and soccer for the Portland Mercury. His reporting has appeared in The Nation, VICE News, Sahan Journal, and other outlets.
Timbers Beat Real Salt Lake, Save Themselves Again
When it came right down to it on a Wednesday night at the Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, it just didn’t look like Real Salt Lake believed. It looked like RSL’s lions, Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, and Nick Rimando, knew deep down that their team wasn’t good enough—on the night, and on the season. […]
Timbers v. Real Salt Lake Match Preview
Two Saturdays ago, it was all hands on deck for a huge Portland Timbers home game against Sporting Kansas City. But the Timbers lost 1-0, and over the last week and a half, increasingly sharp questions have come the way of a team and coach who find themselves on the wrong side of the red […]
State of the Timbers: The Fans Are Still King
Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers put together a terrific marketing campaign ahead their inaugural MLS season in 2011, but the best plug I witnessed for the new team was at the old PGE Park in 2010. It was the team’s last year of minor league soccer in a minor league baseball stadium, and all […]
Timbers Left Devastated By Sporting Kansas City
Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers Everyone took their places for Providence Park’s last Saturday night game of the 2015 MLS season expecting to see something big happen. The Portland Timbers, with new energy and purpose, were so hot out of the gate against Sporting Kansas City that Caleb Porter spent the majority of the first thirty minutes […]
Timbers v. Sporting Kansas City Match Preview
Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers With their backs against the wall last weekend in Columbus, the Portland Timbers delivered a gutsy 2-1 win to stay in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race. On Saturday night at 7:30, Caleb Porter’s team returns home to Providence Park for their penultimate game of the season against newly crowned […]
Timbers Get Huge, Gut-Check Win in Columbus
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 […]
Timbers v. Columbus Match Preview
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 […]
Paul Riley Out As Portland Thorns Head Coach
Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns have parted way with head coach Paul Riley, bringing to an end a two-year reign for the British coach that promised much and delivered little. Riley’s contract expired at the end of the NWSL season, which concluded for the Thorns almost three weeks ago following the club’s worst […]
Timbers Handed Home Humiliation by Five Star Red Bulls
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 […]
Timbers v. New York Red Bulls Match Preview
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. […]
Timbers v. Sporting Kansas City Match Preview
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 […]
