The Colorado Rapids’ RAZ bus pulled into the south end of Providence Park with just under ninety minutes to go until their Decision Day clash with the Portland Timbers, and the team inside stepped out into the kind of Rose City rain that appeared to be celebrating the Timbers’ impending return to the playoffs.
It wasn’t their day. The Rapids were slow out of the locker-room to warm up, slow to start the game, and, in the end, quick to capitulate.
For the Timbers, the final regular season game of 2015 was part coronation and part respite. The achievement of finishing third in this year’s Western Conference ahead of — pinch yourselves — Seattle and Los Angeles is remarkable, especially considering that the Timbers were placed seventh and under enormous pressure just eleven days ago.
The task ahead of the Timbers is considerable as well. Sporting Kansas City has won more trophies in the last five years than Portland has playoff appearances. They have all kinds of experience, and have shut out the Timbers twice in the last month-and-a-half and three times this year.
Thursday night’s Wild Card game in Portland is going to be the war that Sunday afternoon wasn’t. Darlington Nagbe was tremendous, Jorge Villafaña got the goal his play this season has so richly deserved, Fanendo Adi pipped Obafemi Martins to be MLS’ highest-scoring Nigerian, and good vibes rang around the old stadium from start to finish as the playoffs returned to Portland.
Colorado was mostly abysmal. Starting Luis Solignac and playing him for the majority of the game should be cause for forfeiture, but the game went on and the Timbers had their share of hiccups. Caleb Porter decided to replace the suspended Diego Valeri with George Fochive and return to the double-pivot midfield, and the result was a disjoined first half in which the Timbers struggled to find any semblance of rhythm or creativity.
Fochive and Diego Chara’s incompatibility was on full show, but even with Colorado nabbing a goal that took a deflection off of a subpar Liam Ridgewell, Nagbe made sure that the occasion was couched in comfort. Nagbe’s opening free-kick goal was slightly lucky, but his go-ahead goal was an unexpected gem from a player who has finally shaken the yips.
Chara’s injury at the end of the first half — on the day he was named Supporters’ Player of the Year for the second time — might have been a blessing in disguise. Chara will be fine for Thursday night, and Fochive came alive playing just in front of Jack Jewsbury — who Porter was full of praise for post-game.
From the point of that substitution, the Timbers kicked on. The goal given to Villafaña which took a massive deflection was the result of some scintillating buildup play, and the capper — Adi’s sixteenth — was thanks to a terrific cross-shot from Darion Asprilla.
Porter said that his team looked nervy after the Rapids equalized, but it was clear from the get-go who the luck was going to favor all day long. The Timbers are got the breaks a good team gets against a bad team on Sunday afternoon.
This team is bought in completely. They have no doubts. Aside from Nagbe, Adi looks like a man on a mission. He ran straight to the bench to embrace Porter after scoring — and unlike when this same scene played out in March against LA, Porter, with vigor, embraced him right back.
The last three games have gone some distance to repair Porter’s reputation and maybe even save his job. Despite remaining doggedly dour, and chastising the media no less than four times in his press conference after the match, he must be elated with how his team has finally found itself.
Porter now has plenty of options going into the playoff game. He can return to the 4-3-3 and single pivot — the optimistic, attack-minded approach — or play a 4-2-3-1 — the pragmatic, safety-first approach — with either Jewsbury or even possibly Will Johnson next to Chara.
It’s a puzzle Porter has to solve. Since winning his first match against SKC on the road in April 2013, Portland hasn’t won or even scored a goal against Peter Vermes’ team. The last time the Timbers won at home against Sporting? That was in 2012 thanks to an own goal. The last time a Timbers player scored at home against Kansas City was Darlington Nagbe’s 2011 MLS goal of the year.
But all that might not be such a bad thing. This feels like a new day in Portland for a team that has delighted most this season in excising its demons.
The Timbers should go into this match with confidence. Their peaking at the right time, and clearly due against a Sporting side that has shown signs of tiring. Plus, Thursday has been kind to Portland in the past — it was the day that the Timbers stomped Seattle out of the playoffs two years and a week ago.
The club should sleep well tonight. Despite its incredible capacity to frustrate this season, its foundations never shook. The Timbers stayed the course, traversed plenty of adversity, and, when push finally came to shove, they stood up and made their case.
When asked about the matchup against Sporting, Porter appeared unbothered. His team will play anyone right now. The second season awaits.
