Minus Diego Valeri, Diego Chara, and four more who started Wednesday night's win over Toronto, the Portland Timbers traveled cross-country to New England, on three days' rest, and did themselves proud in a 1-1 draw.

It was not, by any means, a great game of soccer. In a contest with more than 30 fouls, neither team registered a shot on goal in the first half. The Timbers' only shot on goal for the entire night, in fact, was their equalizer — a corner headed just over the line with 20 minutes to go by the venerable Lawrence Olum.

But considering how shorthanded they were, and considering the vacantness of their last two road performances, this was an unquestionable step in the right direction. The Timbers might even have taken all three points, if not for an achingly familiar goalmouth whiff from Lucas Melano in stoppage time.

With this point, the most difficult stretch of the Timbers' season is over. There are no more East Coast trips, and just one more midweek game. This next week will give the team a chance to breathe — with their playoff aspirations very much intact.

They've stemmed the bleeding. In doing so, they've had some luck: a matchup with a heavily rotated Toronto FC side, and then, today, a Revolution team without a goal in two games and win in eight.

This for New England, four points out of the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot with nine games to play trips to New York City, LAFC, Toronto, and Atlanta upcoming, was a must-win. The Timbers' weakened state made it doubly so.

The Revs controlled nearly 70 percent of possession in the first half, but were woefully ineffective — as the zero shots on target suggests — in creating chances. Outside of Kelyn Rowe, New England didn't have a forward player with any sort of quality in possession.

It was a moment of ingenuity from Rowe that got the game off to a misleadingly quick start, when his bullet of a one-time back-heel released Teal Bunbury through on goal. Jeff Attinella raced out well to meet him and make the save, but was clattered into by Larrys Mabiala.

Attinella would continue after a long delay, but wouldn't make it to the end. Ten minutes after halftime, he pulled up after taking a goalkick and was replaced, strangely, considering the history, by his new backup Steve Clark.

Not five minutes later, New England finally found the goal. A terrible, unforced giveaway in midfield from Olum, normally so conservative in possession, sprung the speedy Ecuadorian winger Cristian Penilla forward.

Bunbury didn't quite connect with the through pass, but caught up to it in time to float a cross into the middle of the area where Rowe met it with a stinging side volley. Clark made the save, but the ball rolled back out in front where Scott Caldwell, on the end of a long run from central midfield, arrived to poke it in.

It was a tough break for Clark, and a sour way for the Timbers to concede. After an hour of hard work, starting up top with Dairon Asprilla and extending all the way through the team, a goal off of a turnover by Olum of all players might have been a backbreaker.

Instead, the 34-year-old Kenyan made amends. Ten minutes after the Revs took the lead, with Melano just on for Cristhian Paredes, the Timbers got a rare corner.

David Guzmán hit it into a dangerous area, New England goalkeeper Matt Turner came for and didn't get it, and the ball deflected to the back post — where Olum drifted away from Rowe and stuck out a foot to redirect towards goal. It went over the line just as Luis Caicedo scrambled over to smash it away.

Olum wheeled away high-stepping with both hands in the air. The goal was correctly given, and both the veteran midfielder and his team had a reprieve.

At 1-1, with the game entering its final stage and the Revolution in desperate need of a winner, the Timbers were in good shape. They could sit back, invite pressure, let the Revs turn the ball over, and counter.

Sebastian Blanco, who captained the team for the first time and put in phenomenally feisty, effective shift, rose to the fore during the final ten minutes, but, acting alone up top with Asprilla shifted wide left to help on Penilla, this was Melano's time to shine.

The Argentinian forward had several opportunities to run in the open field, but it was deep into added time, when a superb Blanco run-and-cross should have given him a tap-in, that he should have netted the winner. Instead, he missed the ball entirely.

It was the exact kind of play that convinced the Timbers to give up on Melano the first time around, and, come this winter, the kind of play that will be evaluated in the decision over what to do with him next. In the more immediate context, it was the game's last chance.

In the end, it was an unremarkable 1-1 — a potentially killer blow for Brad Friedel's team and a worthwhile point for Gio Savarese's, the third straight 1-1 these teams have played at Gillette Stadium.

Savarese, rightly, was pleased. After so badly botching his squad rotation two weeks ago, he played his cards right this time around: going all-out to beat Toronto at home, and then girding a second-choice team for one of the season's most physical battles on Saturday night.

"They made the game very, very choppy and difficult," Savarese said afterwards. "They never give up. And for us, we had to match up physically, and we did. And that was the most important part. The guys gave everything, especially in the second half."

If that sounds like a familiar soundbite from the boss, that's because it is. The kind of effort that the Timbers expended in this game was the exact kind of effort they gave week after week during their unbeaten run. It's also, in this league, on turf, traveling from coast-to-coast, often what matters most in games.

Teams need to pull in the same direction, week after week. New England, if Friedel's ominous postgame comments are to be taken as an indication, are not.

"I told the players to their face that every single one of them are playing for their contracts, absolutely," the Revs manager said. “We’re learning a lot about what’s happened here the last few years.”

But New England's struggle in this game was easy enough to sort through. They couldn't outplay the Timbers, and they couldn't outfight them either. Some days in MLS, there is no finer compliment.