CHAPTER 1 ROSE CITY BREAKTHROUGH The Portland Timbers missed the Major League Soccer MLS playoffs in 2014 and there was little reason to believe 2015 would be any different Portland began the 2015 season with its two best players midfielders Diego Valeri and Will Johnson sidelined by injuries suffered the season before The loss of Valeri was especially difficult He was a brilliant attacking midfielder and one of the Timbers best players at setting up and scoring goals With much of the team’s offensive production on the sidelines Portland tied in its first three regular-season games Then the Timbers lost their fourth game to rival Vancouver It wasn’t until their fifth game against FC Dallas that they finally broke through with a win But that did not Portland’s supporters group the Timbers Army celebrates a goal in 2012 4
put an end to the team’s uneven play The Timbers notched victories in just three of their first 12 matches Eventually though the offense found its footing The team rattled off six wins in its next seven matches Portland was finally able to put together strong offense with a stingy defense In the six victories the Timbers averaged two goals per contest That was an improvement from their first 12 games when they averaged less than half of that The team also allowed only two goals combined in the six wins 6
Fanendo Adi celebrates his penalty kick goal against Real Salt Lake Although they were winning the margin of error for the Timbers was slim That proved to be a problem when inconsistency struck again The main issue was that Portland simply could not put together a complete match Injuries were a problem too The absence of key players contributed to a rough patch beginning with a 3 0 loss at Philadelphia on July 11 The Timbers went on to win only three of their next 11 matches That left Portland in danger of missing the postseason again with only three games to go 7
