Portland Timbers 2-1 Red Bull New York & A Roll-Call

So, the MLS season is...a hug that lasts hours?

Officially taking the next step in the ever-evolving, attempted-shrinking approach to these posts (didn't work) – something that makes ever more sense as the Major League Soccer season shrinks to its borderline tantric close. This might read like a glorified, long-winded reddit post, but I feel like I’ve put readers through enough over the past 20-some-odd years.

By way of framing, I’d call Saturday’s 2-1 win over Red Bull New York great and on a couple levels. Allow me to explain…

The Game, Still More Briefly
With the pressure to post on the same night now alleviated, I’m coming back around to the live game experience. I caught this game from the Multnomah Athletic Club deck (weird experience, which I both do and don’t recommend; and is a mother/son LEGO build the equivalent of a purity ball, or…?), which, despite flattening the vertical space, afforded me a fantastic view of how wide the Timbers spread the field. That felt like a good choice given the Red Bulls’ style of play and, throughout the first half, that held up. Portland piled on the pressure and scored one offside goal (see the full highlights) before Kristoffer Velde engineered a real one at the 28th minute. The Timbers carried that one-goal advantage into the half and well beyond, but the Red Bulls tightened their press at the start of the second half and squeezed it until Emil Forsberg scored a follow-the-bouncing-ball equalizer that matched Matias Rojas’ opener for unlikely good fortune. Portland answered back mere minutes later with a solid team goal that makes a fella want to stand up, salute, and believe in The Product. This season’s budding star, Antony, scored it, but I was lot more excited about the break-neck poise and pace that created it. If Red Bull came close to an equalizer I don’t remember it – the final stats don’t really hint at one - but the main thing that stood out about the performance as a whole was how much Red Bull struggled to play through the Timbers all night. I appreciate that’s hardly their forte, and it did the soul good to see Portland handle a mid-table team like they knew their way around the pitch and, total bonus, neutralize the Red Bulls game-plan.

Long-form thoughts on the Timbers are below, but, before touching on that, let’s do a…

Quick Aside on Red Bull New York
As well as their press worked, they never really figured out a way to play through the Timbers. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting showed all right, but suffered from a lack of capable collaborators. Seeing long-time (likely unwilling) journeymen like Tim Parker and Raheem Edwards round out the starting XI feels like a salvage operation on a season that – and I forgot this till the broadcast mentioned it – followed a 2024 when Red Bull played an MLS Cup final. All signs point to them battling Chicago Fire FC for the last play-in slot in the East and, with Chicago dropping all three points at home against an admittedly challenging New York City FC team, they appear doomed to yo-yo back and forth until Decision Day. That said, and I’ve brought this up multiple times this season, Red Bull looked fucking doomed going into the playoffs last season and look what happened.

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

Did they fight crime in that movie? Don't recall.

Rather than march through the usual talking points, and with the end of the season looming, I want to take a slightly different approach for the Timbers section, one built around the idea of identifying “givens” and flagging open questions. As with playing an open hand in a card game, I think this’ll make sense as I go through. Squeezing this through the frame of what I’d like to see Phil Neville and the Pussycats do through the end of 2025…

The Givens
1) I Would Start James Pantemis Over Maxime Crepeau, But I Also Don’t Really Care
Pantemis made a minimum of one great save on Saturday, think he had two, and I generally trust him more on most aspects of the game. Again, it takes a lot for me to get wound up in a goalkeeping controversy.

2) The Back Three/Four Is Settled (In My Mind)
From left to right, Jimer Fory, Dario Zuparic and/or Finn Surman (does one start at the right or left; I don’t recall), and Juan David Mosquera. That’s my preference and it’s pretty strong, but I won’t panic if I see Kamal Miller start some sunny day. I’m comfortable with what Neville & Co. are doing back there overall.

3) David Ayala & [_________]
I’m fairly certain everyone is sold on Ayala and I count myself among everyone. The question is who partners with him on most occasions. More below and I have my answer.

4) Start Antony Every Time
Right?

Moving on to...

The More Complicated Stuff (But Is It?)
1) I’m Not Sure I Care Who Starts as a No. 9?
I lean toward Kevin Kelsy, but I’m fine with Felipe Mora. They offer different skill-sets, obviously - so maybe mix-‘n’-match according to the opposition? – but I don’t think the player that starts up top changes the game for the Timbers in 2025.

2) Still on Team Ortiz
For me, Joao Ortiz played one of his best games so far, if not his best ever on Saturday. He covers ground, anticipates passes better every week, cleaned up the hard fouls since April, and I rate his engine higher than Diego Chara’s right now and his forward passing higher than Cristhian Paredes. Starting him alongside Ayala feels like a no-brainer to me, so I’ll get a little jittery if things go wrong without him on the field.

Velde contemplating the end line.

3) Queueing Up the Pen for Velde
As far as I’m concerned, Velde created the Timbers opener on his own. Fory played a smart ball in, but the whole thing would have fallen apart without some deft, almost improbable control by Velde as the end-line closed in, the head-foot combo that teed up the cross in particular. He pairs nicely with Antony and they combine to give the Timbers some menacing speed on either side of the opposition defense. He's in any eleven I can think of until further notice, hence the pen comment.

4) Going with Rojas (Also, Wait for It)
I’d bet hard against him scoring that goal every time it came up, but Rojas looked pretty good operating inside the right channel behind the front line. He looks comfortable closer to goal in a way David Da Costa hasn’t and that begs some questions about the latter’s future…or at least it should. And yet…

One Remarkable Thing
I’ve talked up the Timbers bench and my belief that they have options here and there throughout the season, but listing the players that Phil Neville could call onto the field feels like useful exercise. In the order they’re listed on the official lineup:

Kamal Miller, Ariel Lassiter, Eric Miller, Omir Fernandez, Diego Chara, Cristhian Paredes, Trey Muse, Kevin Kelsy, David Da Costa

A couple of those guys can completely change what a defender has to deal with – thinking Lassiter and Da Costa, mostly, but Fernandez has energy to burn – and everyone else ranges from competent to useful to good.

All in all, the Timbers made some sneaky good moves over the past year. It hasn’t always panned out, and I think they’ll only go as far as Antony, Velde, and a half-random, rotating cast of characters can take them, but I give them a real shot at doing more in the 2025 playoffs than making up the numbers. And that feels pretty damn good after the past few seasons. Their remaining games will tell us all how far or close to reality that take is. Bring on Houston and, for the love of God, make that game count.