Portland Timbers 2-1 New England Revolution, The Late (Late), but Still Pretty Good Show

Treat yourself!

Just rewatched the full highlights and think I heard something about both the Portland Timbers and the New England Revolution rolling into Saturday on unbeaten streaks. Sound salesmanship, but also inaccurate.

Still, the most affirming talking point about the Timbers in 2025 is the fact that, unfortunate trips to the North side of the Great Lakes region notwithstanding (one for your therapist or for your priest, depending on one’s outward reaction), Portland has improved on winning more of the games they should win. Hosting a Revolution team running (currently) four points under the Eastern Conference play-in line definitely makes the list and – drink ‘em if you got ‘em – Portland won this one. As for how they looked doing it.

Portland Timbers 2-1 New England Revolution
About the Game, Briefly
Given the past three or four weeks, just seeing Portland start as the better team counts as a l’il victory (so treat yourself!). They crowned that period of…let’s go with subtle dominance with a go-ahead goal that, all things considered, took a couple happy accidents to come together. That’s not to dismiss (or diss) the goal – the Timbers put together a might chain of “yes, and” to create the opening – but I doubt Santiago Moreno consciously weighted his cross to fall to Ian Smith (who didn’t line up where they had him…right?) and I bet Smith only hits side netting on that same shot once in every half dozen attempts (but prove me wrong, kid; prove me wrong). Now, the worrying thing…

The Revolution equalized 15 minutes later and in a way that highlighted one of Portland’s regular weaknesses (see Stray No. 5), but I was less concerned by that than how close Portland came to stumbling into a five-minute fall apart, i.e., one of those back-to-back goal, multi-goal, bed-shitting breakdowns that sees a game slip away from a team. Just two (or three) minutes after Luca Langoni finished around a firmly-seated Kamal Miller, New England’s Peyton Miller teed up Leo Campana for a simple, short finish that would have handed them the lead. Per the final score, Campana skied it, thereby sparing Portland from chasing the game.

That still left the Timbers chasing the win and they got there. Lady Luck blew on the proverbial dice, a deflection put a little extra on David Da Costa’s half-hopeful shot and made into the winner, you don’t score on the shots you don’t take, and so on. With an eye on the final stats, I’d call Saturday’s win a little fortunate, but not lucky. Moreno had two more strong shots all on his lonesome and, if memory serves and the highlights didn’t hide something, that was at least one more than the Revs had. Call it a decent overall performance that got its reward, take the three points and focus on getting the next three ASAP.

I’ll wrap up the review section with some stray notes on the Timbers, but I wanted to knock around the team they just bested, more or less.

Yer running outta chances, ya little asshole!

Most roads forward from the defense roll through Carles Gil and that’s not so bad. He roams all over, looking for his spot and he still has a knack for doing something useful eight times out of ten. That didn’t buy the Revs even one point, but it made a respectable grab at it; the only tragedy comes with the blunt fact they need more than attempts sooner rather than later. New England wasn’t missing many regulars, (I’d call Tomas Chancalay the big wild-card absence and Ilay Feingold the familiar one), which means someone on staff should have some idea of where to find either the panic button or, if it comes to it, the ejector seat for Caleb Porter. New England has some truly solid pieces – after Gil, there’s Matt Polster, Alhassan Yusuf, and Mamadou Fofana, who has genuinely impressed me every time I’ve watched him (good brain, crazy athletic) – but starting slow in an unforgiving Eastern Conference has shrunk their margin for error to where they can’t make many of them without running the risk of missing the MLS Cup Playoffs. Their last three losses – back-to-back home losses versus Eastern powers Cincinnati and Nashville, then Portland last weekend – doesn’t just further shrink the margin, it begs pointed questions about what the Revs would do in the playoffs even if they did make it.

That closes the recap. Let’s close this late, late post with…

Some Strays on the Timbers
1) Team Joao
Despite the caveat below, I want to see Joao Ortiz start every time he’s available. Per the transitive (associative? fictive?) property, I’m content, even happy, to see Diego Chara come on as a heady, brain-killing sub. His attacking qualities have started to reveal themselves, he’s calmed the wild tackles and just looks like a better fit. Now the caveat…

1a) Ooops, Did They Do It Again?
I rate the sum of David Ayala’s possession/attacking upside higher than Ortiz’s, but still feel compelled to ask/speculate: have the Timbers signed, in effect, yet another No. 8?

2) Moreno’s Best in a Minute (He Wants to Stay!*)
I saw someone refer to Moreno and Da Costa as something dual No. 10s and…sure, to the extent they had some responsibility as default providers, sure. As much as I still believe both players lack that certain je ne sais quoi that makes a No. 10 and 10, I, 1) don’t believe Portland has one of those on the roster and, 2) Moreno looked more interested on Saturday than he has in a while. (* This goes back to paranoid speculation in the post after the Toronto loss; see second link above.) The entire situation isn’t ideal, but it’s what the Timbers have and, fuck it, it’s working 4th-place well enough. As for one thing that might improve it…

3) Feeding Kelsy
He’s young, he has a lot to learn, but I also wonder whether Phil has figured out how to get the best out of Kelsy. While I accept he’ll need to do some of things Felipe Mora did so well (and, if that’s how the cookie crumbles, will need to do well again), I’m rolling toward the argument that Kelsy fits best into a system where he stretches the field by running against the defense. I think that suits Portland’s generally transition-reliant attack, but I’m just putting a pin in the thought for now.

Not this Grant.

4) The Kid Has It
Finn Surman was a hell of a find. He’s in the conversation for Portland’s best defender right now and that’s just damn impressive. On the other side of the coin…

5) A Move While It’s Still Possible
I have no idea as to Kamal Miller’s current trade value, but I’d like to see Portland’s front office start shopping before it dries up. This comes with the usual caveats – i.e., I want even Timber to succeed, etc. – but I also can’t shake the confident belief that Portland can do better. I’m in on this to where I’m open to a high-upside prospect, even if it means getting everything Portland can squeeze out of The Other Miller (aka, Eric) for several months.

Right. That’s it for this one. Oh, and the whole thing about getting everything into one weekly post? Not gonna happen. So, yeah, this one’s late and maybe someone’s to blame for that, maybe even someone in the room with me right now as I’m typing it…

…his name is Grant and he’s scaring me.

At any rate, congrats to the Timbers for gutting out a win. Till the scouting report – which will go up Thursday.