Charlotte FC 2-0 Portland Timbers: About the Thing That Happened and the Thing to Happen

Evander II is dead, long live [Evander II.]

Over the opening six to eight minutes of today’s final preseason game, the Portland Timbers played some of the finest soccer I’ve seen from them since the salad days of mid-June to mid-July 2024. The defensive lines pressed high and disrupted 90% of what Charlotte FC tried to do and Diego Chara sat deep, playing balls long wide to Jimer Fory on the right and…Eric Miller on the left.

Treat the words after the ellipses as a short way of saying that the lineup that Portland started today – a 3-5-2 (probably?) with Felipe Mora and Kevin Kelsy up top, Fory and E. Miller on either side of a midfield block built around Chara, Joao Ortiz, and David Ayala, a back three of Dario Zuparic, Zac McGraw, and Kamal Miller, and Maxime Crepeau in goal – was not and, ideally, will not, could not, and cannot be Phil Neville’s Plan A for the 2025 campaign. I have no insight into how long regular starters like Santiago Moreno, Jonathan Rodriguez, Juan David Mosquera and [New Evander] will get back on the field. I can only hope that start trickling in soon enough to take advantage of one of the softer opening stretches the Timbers have seen for gods know how long. Between First Kick and mid-April, Portland has four home games, three of them winnable and one against a dismantled and limping Los Angeles Galaxy team, and even if Nashville SC has improved (rumors of a flawless preseason have reached this monitoring station), I’ve seen tougher road games. That’s 24 points up for grabs, the balance of them for the taking. Gods know a strong start would do this team good.

Getting back to today’s 0-2 loss to Charlotte, the remaining 72 to 74 didn’t go so good. Even when the game was somewhat even – aka, the first half – Charlotte managed to turn possession into chances before Portland could. Worse, the Timbers faded out of the game, both gradually and quickly (neat trick, btw), and to a point where forcing a draw looked like the best possible outcome for a generally impotent Timbers team. That possibility went “poof” when Charlotte opened the scoring at the 65th minute by working the ball up Portland’s left and finishing the play by findin Kerwin Vargas in a half-space, in the channel (with the butcher knife). From there, there was nothing left to do but let the clock run out…but then new guy, Joao Ortiz, squared the ball one step away from Tyger Smalls (great name, no notes) and he literally lumbered out the field and finished off one of the clumsiest goals I’ve ever seen scored by a professional (which you can relive through the link above, if you so choose). In a world where Portland looked like they’d ever score, that might have a hurt a little. On this one, it just felt like finishing a thought.

When I called this a good early test for the Timbers (on Bluesky; does that count yet?), I meant it. To put some rubber on the road, I’d give Charlotte a better than even chance of beating every team that the Timbers play over the first eight games of the season – and today only deepened that impression. Given that, no, I didn’t wake up this morning expecting a Portland win. For all that, I went in with an open, even hopeful, mind. I didn’t need the Timbers to score on Charlotte, never mind win to give me a little something to daydream about; I just needed to see things fit together a little better, or even just some evidence that Phil Neville had come up with a style of play that anyone who pulled on the jersey understood well enough to put into practice. Even after seeing the starting lineup and figuring out how it fit together, I held on to that.

If you know, you know.

I’m not going to adjudge anything broken at this point, especially about the new players. I’m not even going to suggest it. By the latest count, and again, the Timbers are a minimum of four players off their best possible self – i.e., I assume Jonathan Rodriguez, Santiago Moreno, Juan David Mosquera, and [New Evander] will come into the first team and that’s one Felipe Mora short of a full remodel, with whatever happens with Kelsy as a raise. Moreover, between the absurd length of Major League Soccer’s regular season and nine teams from each conference making the playoffs, the Timbers can be literally fucking terrible for most of the season and, if they get their shit together and hot at the right time, still have a real shot at winning MLS Cup. And, please, take that as both a back-handed indictment of the league’s overall competitive format (fucking embarrassing!) and a roundabout way of uplifting the idea of just enjoying every game for the communal experience of bonding with the team and other fans. There’s no getting around the sad, embarrassing fact, that any given MLS Match Day has the stakes of a Marvel movie in the multiverse (i.e., it has none, there are no stakes; anyone who dies will come back), so treat every game as something to just…enjoy…

…and, best practices, brace yourself for a less-than-perfect season. Hey, if you feel the tears welling up, start laughing and beat the sadz to the punch. The season will play out as it does and, at this point, the only thing that matters to me right now is a good result versus Vancouver next Sunday. I’ve been carrying the taste of eating a bowl full of crow, seasoned with a shit-infused crema, since last October and I’ve love for that to go away. And, if I’m being honest, I really, really want good results to continue from there, if only on the grounds that Portland will surely get tougher games going forward, very much including one of the two or three “surprise, surprise, surprise” teams that pop up every MLS season.

That’s it for the big drop. It’s just talking points and questions from here. Feel free to chime in below in the comments or to bark back on Bluesky. This is intended as a conversation, not Moses declaiming from Mount Sinai.

Re the New Guys
1) My Favorite New Signing So Far
Ariel Lassiter, and it’s not even close. The dude plays hungry and he’s been around and around and around.

 

2) Show Me Anything
I don’t know what to make of Ortiz and that has me feeling uncomfortable as anything so far. His time with the team so far feels not just like a test-drive, but one with a Gen-Z driving stick. If Phil knows what to do with him, I haven’t seen an indication of it yet.

3) The New Mason Toye Toy?
Where are people on Kelsy? If your answer is a “he works hard,” you just described Nathan Fogaca. I appreciate the difference in size and skill-set, and I’m open to believing he’ll find his groove and accept the service he’s seen so far has been more hopeful than good, but what I’ve seen so far looks like the softer performances I saw the two times I watched him play with FC Cincinnati.

A Tweener
4) On Fory
The youngster plays good crosses. After watching the Timbers spread the field over the only two preseason games I’ve watched, I’m concerned that the Timbers build the attack around crosses. To be clear, yes, I know not all the players are available and the biggest swing (Da Costa) hasn’t come in yet, but I want to see that as an option, not the prime directive.

Re the Old Guys
5) A Concern
Ayala played a disturbing number of simple giveaways today and his crosses lack the ideal velocity. With the final midfield shape still very much an open question, I’m happy to put this down to a rough day at the office, but Portland’s midfield needs some refined quality. Chara did the best with that today, and good on him, but this is my main area of concern.

6) Another Concern
I know how I feel about Zac McGraw starting. It isn’t positive. That said, the center of a back three, or as the stay-at-home guy in a back four, feels like the best possible spot for him and he does have his upsides. I am also very much open to other options.

7) A Thought
Cristhian Paredes has impressed me as much as any Timbers midfielder this preseason. I just don’t know if there’s a place for him on the field, particularly once Moreno and [New Evander] come back. If Ortiz can settle in as a No. 6 – and his passing style (obvious) points to that – he might. Suffice to say, a lot remains to be sorted in the Timbers midfield.

That’s it for this one. I’m off to make Chicken Tortilla Soup, maybe watch some nostalgia, maybe even sleep. If this goes up before 8:30 on Saturday night, know that I only got to the Chicken Tortilla Soup.