Mora scored three goals over his last two games. To be clear, I committed to Team Kevin Kelsy early in the 2026 season, without regrets (doesn’t hurt Kelsy backed that up), but one can’t help but wonder what Mora could have done with more than 443 minutes. Scored a couple more goals, almost certainly, the man always works and I’ve always respected what he brought to the team, while also accepting he doesn’t fit the team the Timbers have evolved into over the past season or two (for good, and mostly ill). Making peace with departure still comes a lot easier than liking it.
The goals he scored – the first, a classic put-back versus FC Dallas, the second and third headed goals off corners(!) versus Real Salt Lake – all pointed to what made Mora effective as a player: reading the game, knowing where to go to receive a pass, sniff out a rebound or, almost comically, to find a gap between defenders half a foot taller than him to nod home. Didn’t even have to jump on that first goal against RSL…priceless…
Scoring that brace on Saturday put Mora within a goal of a now, deservedly-mythical Portland Timbers hat trick and – I’m pretty sure I mean it when I say this – I don’t think I even want to see a Timbers hat trick unless it comes in a moment that would have been as perfect as Felipe Mora scoring one in his farewell game. Had it happened, every person who attended that game live would have experienced one of those rare, privileged moments that gave meaning to suffering through 100 shit performances played under terrible weather and worse refereeing. A Mora hat trick would have ranked right behind the double post in the pantheon of “I’d go back in time and kill moments” in Portland Timbers history.
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| Still gets me, just looking at the image. |
I’m 90% sure Mora’s departure leaves Diego Chara as the last bridge to Portland’s best seasons. Mora came at the tail-end of that period and I would have bet my car that he had scored more goals for the Timbers than he did, but, as with Chara, his numbers don’t get to everything he brought to the team. Over the barren patches of the past four seasons, through stretches of games when the team couldn’t find its ass with an all-hands search party and a freakin' map, the team relied on him for most of the coherence it had. That work pulled him away from the goal, aka, what he's paid to do, but he did it well and, by all evidence, willingly. Chara’s bounty of yellow cards belies an approach to the game still strikes me as quiet and I believe Mora shares that same quiet approach. Neither player is demonstrative, never mind loud, and I suspect the concept of cockiness puzzles them, but they share an air of cool professionalism, something like the honorable drifter archetype from the old (good) westerns. Anyway, gonna miss him as a player. Probably the first tug at the band-aid for what it’s gonna feel like when Chara retires. Anyway, wanted to get that out.
As for the rest of this…look, the goal isn’t simple contrarianism, never mind trying to piss people off. At any rate, I’ll start with real brief notes on the past two games
Portland Timbers 2-2 FC Dallas
The Timbers started slow, fell behind twice, but still rescued a point at the death (God bless you, Felipe Mora). I watched this one live and, while it didn’t translate as frustration in real time, it did feel like the reversion to type (won’t lie) I expected. Rewatching the highlights tells me that a shot or three of one post or another slipped my mind and Portland looked better on the sharp end, but I stand by my memory that the performance as a whole had its share of flailing and panic (see Dallas' second goal; excused a little by Petar Musa’s footwork). The final stats push against that narrative: Portland gave at least as much as they got, but I’m filing that game away as one that could have got away from them and, let’s face it, almost did. Dallas is a strong road team this season and they lived up that billing and my broad impression of them – i.e., they know how to work the ball around to find that “chaos pass” that bends a shape and sets off a scramble. On the plus side, shots off the post land in the credit column for me (not to mention making the lucky bounces that led to Portland’s first goal feel a little more earned) and the team hung in and fought for the points; moreover, Kristoffer Velde came off the bench and visibly changed the game. I’m going to complicate that down below, and I don’t like anything about Dallas’ first goal, but, after acknowledging that I’d rather see this game end with two more points to Portland, that’s pretty much it for the actual debit side of things. Next…
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| Like the Bellas, Portland pulled through. |
The Timbers started slow (not copy/pasting, just reporting reality) and RSL went ahead on the kind of goal that, on the grounds that collective breakdowns are worse than individual fuckups, should concern Portland fans – even if that kind of whirling attack is what RSL does best, or at least tries most often, based on what I’ve seen. As everyone who wants to know by now, RSL’s Morgan Guilavogui volunteered for one of the all-time dumbest straight red cards I’ve ever seen at the 31st minute (probably in here; might even be most of it) – and that almost certainly changed the game. Portland had worked its way back into the game before the red card (because this will come up later) with enough oomph ‘n’ moxie to give them an honest shot at turning things around. They still labored to a point where the broadcast booth kept on about how little they’d made out of that man-advantage – e.g., crosses recur as an approach to a compact defense and Portland is genuinely bad at them from set up to execution – but, when Mora’s goals came, they arrived in close enough succession to put the game away. Yes, RSL scored what would have been a late equalizer (in here, toward the end), but for a justified offside call - a good reminder a game isn’t over until the final whistle – but RSL never had the better of the game from that point on. Per the stats, Portland ran up the numbers, but what I see in there for xG matches what I saw in the quality of some chances.
For reasons I’m about to get into, I trust the impression I got out of the Dallas game the most. For the RSL game, who knows where the game states would have gone had Guil…dammit, so many vowels (just hard to spell, man), had Guilavogui’s brain not farted so fatally, so early into the game? Sticking with the theme, I never assume perfect concentration from Portland’s defense in any game, a case the Dallas game carried forward in my mind. Though far from dominant, RSL’s not a bad attacking team, so I’m going to attribute some of Portland’s success on the attacking end to having less to worry about in the other direction. Which brings me to playing Seattle next Saturday…
What Passes for a Seattle Sounders Scouting Report
Look, we just played this team and most of what I said about them in the previous Scouting Report on them still applies - most of the same players, same (alleged*) problems - *with the canyon-sized exception that Seattle has played like warmed-over shit over the past five matchdays. In other words, they're largely the same team, but also a version of that team that 1) still have Jackson Ragen in the backline (and Yeimar…shit, is he even still with them?), and 2) isn’t playing with a headful of (possibly angsty) collective doubt. As I’ve said a couple times on as many platforms, Seattle’s defense has looked rattled, something that’s not like them both generally and historically. Defense is the one thing Seattle always gets right, even when they’re not scoring (up to and including MLS Cups), so giving up 12 of their 19 goals on the season over their past five (aka, they gave up just seven goals over their first 10 games) speaks to an aberration.
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| Hello, darkness, my old friend... |
If the Timbers lose that one, it won’t change my current read on this team. To sum up briefly: I do believe they came out of the World Cup break better than they went into it and I believe part of that was Phil flailing in a way that spread to the players. I have no clear idea where the ceiling is, but, on faith and belief, think it’s higher than 10th, even if some of that comes by an assist from the competition, or lack thereof. That’s not to shit on any of the Los Angeles Galaxy, San Diego FC, the Colorado Rapids, Austin FC or, even Sporting Kansas City, but 2026 hasn’t been an easy one in the Emerald City. Let Phil tell ya…
Right, that’s the meat of it. I’m going to close out with some talking points. Chime in if and where you wanna…
1) Good…But Don’t You Feel Like He Could Be Great?
Velde did more than any player this side of Mora over the past two games and came out of the World Cup break looking refreshed, even a little dewy. He can beat the first defender one time in every four (or five? six?) attempts and reliably draws two defenders…so what the hell is my problem, here? The best I can say is, don’t you dream of what could be if Velde had the ability to unbalance a defender then dish off a pass that wrecked the entire defense? Hell, I’m wondering how much better he could be if he just passed now and again instead of going into (not literally) every possession (but you get the idea) determined to beat every man in front of him and then shoot on goal. The fact defenders can assume Velde will commit to dribbling and shooting as safely as they can expect a sunrise is both a testament to what he can do and a limit. If you like Velde a lot (or defensively), you shouldn’t watch a game with me because this is an obsession, but, I have moved to acceptance here, much as I did with Darlington Nagbe. His job isn't to carry my expectations; it is to show up and do the things he does well. I’m not sure he can do otherwise and, honestly, I'm not sure it wouldn't fuck him up if he tried. He has my blessing to shine on like the crazy diamond he is. I celebrate this upside, if more now than before, but still stink this team needs a player to bring it together. Near as I can tell, that player is…
2) Cole Bassett(?)
Unless I concentrate both hard and (crucially) long, I’m more prone to losing players when I watch live. So I lost Bassett during the Dallas game, but he looked good as any Timber this side of Velde and Mora in the RSL game – and I mean that on both sides of the ball (though leaning 60 forward/40 back). I also think he’s the best passer in the midfield, if not the entire team (FFS, Mora was probably his tightest competition, so there’s that). Insofar as this team has glue (a glue?), it wears “Bassett” on his jersey. Based on what little I’ve read about Marti…shit. Marti, Marti…God, what is his last name? (No, don't tell me; I'll get it.) Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing what the Timbers new “forever coach” does with Bassett. Think I saw something about possession-based play within that nest of cliches…
3) Back to Not Getting David Da Costa
The ball doesn’t stick to Da Costa’s feet the way it does to Velde’s – e.g., I can see Da Costa making that dish-pass I dream about Velde making – while still thinking they share too much of the same approach. Portland probably needs more than one player up for beating defenders on the dribble, what with how objectively terrible they are at crossing the ball in open play, but I have yet to see Da Costa and Velde function in a way that looks like anything like complementary on a regular basis. Throw in the fact Da Costa’s, at best, an average passer, he doesn’t take freekicks (anymore? much?), I’m not sure I need all my fingers and toes to total his defensive contributions for the entire season, etc. Da Costa isn’t nullity and he certainly isn’t a liability; I think of him more as an oval peg in a round hole…
4) The Suitors
Chara started the past two games and, you know what? Can’t complain. I’ve moved to a place where I can accept him as the best option, while also marveling, in ways both good and bad, that the front office still can’t sign a better option. Seriously, how have they have scouted and spent on both Joao Ortiz and Caicedo only to land on the same guy in the starting XI? Finally, and most importantly…
5) They Don’t Have to Impress Me
They just have to pick up points and get better with the passing time. Regardless of what I think about this player, that moment, or the Second Coming, the Timbers picked up seven points out of the past nine on offer. Having those seven points means Seattle, Dallas and RSL didn’t get them and that’s a bunch of tidy work. I didn’t walk away from any of those games singing “we’re gonna win the league” in a flat, offkey Cockney accent, but I don’t need that and, right now, the Timbers don’t either. They just need seven points of nine and, ideally, ten points from twelve after the final whistle on Saturday.
Things are going all right, maybe even a little better. And I’m happy about it. Till the next one…
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