It took a beautiful solo goal from Sebastian Blanco and a nervous final fifteen minutes, but the Portland Timbers stopped the bleeding on Saturday afternoon in Frisco — digging deep for a 1-1 draw against FC Dallas to get off the snide for the 2018 season.

It was a performance — and a result — that Giovani Savarese badly needed. Charged with provoking a response in his team after they were so thoroughly humiliated against the New York Red Bulls two weeks ago, the manager got the job done.

His team didn't play pretty, but it did play hard. Minus Liam Ridgewell, made casualty of own his criminal indifference last time out, and plus Diego Chara for the first time this year, the Timbers tightened the screws defensively and held onto their point with ten men down the stretch.

It's a game that Savarese will always remember, and for the Timbers, perhaps, the launching point for a season still only just starting to unfold.

Under pressure, Savarese's approach was pure pragmatism: he added a third defensive midfielder, choosing to start Chara, Lawrence Olum, and Christian Paredes all together, forgot the press, and dropped the team's defensive lines lower than we've seen them all year.

The setup was designed to ensure that the Timbers wouldn't get overrun in the middle of the field, and — save for one moment late in the first half — it yielded its intended result.

So easy to play through fourteen days ago, Portland's defended well. They largely managed to shepherd Dallas wide, where Michael Barrios saw a ton of the ball but had limited success running at Zarek Valentin. Mauro Diaz played some lovely soccer, but had to leave the central channel to do so.

Diego Chara's return was important in the defensive renaissance, but equally important was Bill Tuiloma — the young New Zealand international who got the nod in Ridgewell's absence and made a spry, confident MLS debut. Larrys Mabiala, after his torrid start to the season, played a solid game as well.

The problem was that one moment at the end of the first half when young Dallas center mid Jacori Hayes dribbled himself free on top of the box and played Roland Lamah, who took a touch, and fired a frozen rope of a shot past Jake Gleeson to break what was a 0-0 deadlock.

Trailing going into the locker room, the Timbers were in a difficult position. The first half defense was promising, yes, but a large part of the reason why was that the Timbers weren't getting players forward. They were defending with seven, and attacking with just three.

With the team setup so defensively, it was always going to take something special for the Timbers to get a goal — and after just one minute of the second half, Blanco would provide that moment.

The Argentine picked up the ball off of an Adi flick wide, took it down on the side of the box, cut inside against struggling Dallas left back Anton Nedyalkov, and launched a shot towards the far corner that flew over Jimmy Maurer and into the net to tie the game.

Savarese exploded in celebration on the sideline, and for good reason. The goal was a get out of jail free card of sorts — it gave the Timbers something to defend, allowing them to stay in their defensive shape, and continue to do well what they did well in the first half.

Maxi Urruti forced a strong save out of Jake Gleeson just before the hour mark, but back level at 1-1, the Timbers rode out the majority of the second half rather comfortably. That until Olum inexplicably tried to turn in a free kick with his right arm — an infraction for which he was given a second yellow card and dismissed.

That moment of madness tilted the game back in Dallas' favor. The problem was that Oscar Pareja had, one minute before, lifted Diaz — who hasn't played 90 minutes in an MLS game all season — for misfiring DP striker Cristian Colmán.

Without Diaz on the field, Dallas' final push was straightforward. They got the ball up the field, got it wide, and flooded the penalty area. That meant a flurry of half chances, but never a clean one. The Timbers wore the clock down as much as they could, and, after 97 minutes, got the result they came for.

It wasn't a win, but it felt an awful lot like one. After navigating the last two weeks, after dropping the team captain, after going down to ten men in the water break-inducing heat, the Timbers walked off the field — rightly — with a sense of accomplishment about them.

That wasn't accidental. For the first time all season, this team put in a complete, consistent performance. There were no passengers. There was a plan, it was executed, and, thanks to Blanco and a couple of good bounces in the defensive box, a point to show for it.

That's how you play on the road in MLS, and it's how you forge a winning mentality. Everyone working hard for each other, from minutes one through ninety. It's why Ridgewell mailing it in against the Red Bulls was so unforgivable, and why leaving him in Portland was absolutely the right call this weekend. If Ridgewell still has a pulse, he'll want to earn his way back in. If he doesn't, it'll be his own loss.

The Timbers' are more than halfway through their five-game road swing, and the final two games of the trip will see them face clubs that have yet to win to win this season. Snag three points in either match, and the New York game will feel a long ways away when the team finally returns to Providence Park.

This draw, unquestionably, was a step in the right direction. A couple more, and the Timbers will be back to the team we thought they could be when Savarese broke camp two months ago.