'Get your pens ready': On Antony's return, the DP addition and a tease for more
"It's going to be a big week," Portland's manager promised.
BEAVERTON — The manager couldn’t wait to spill the beans.
Phil Neville was a handful of questions into a press conference that the eyes of the MLS were paying a bit more attention to than usual — yes, the Timbers were readying for their Leagues Cup match against Club America, but while Portland was training news broke Monday morning of the club’s long-awaited DP signing.
According to GiveMeSport's Tom Bogert, Portland has signed Norwegian winger Kristoffer Velde from Olympiakos, giving the Timbers an attacking boost to fill the role of the injured Jonathan Rodriguez.
And while Neville would give his thoughts on what he promised to be a “big week” to come, the query that had the coach jumping to answer regarded someone already on the roster.
In the morning’s training, Antony looked like Antony, running gracefully around Portland’s practice pitch and peppering shots on net.
Antony’s looking pretty healthy out th….
“He’s good to go,” Neville interrupted. “He’s ready to start.”
So maybe there was a hint of sarcasm when Neville was asked earlier how the week had been, and he bowed his head and lowered his voice and said, “Yeah, really miserable.”
To recap the misery:
The Portland Timbers are 2-0 in Leagues Cup play and the only club in the tournament yet to concede a goal heading into Wednesday’s match with Club America. The Timbers have recorded clean sheets in three consecutive games, and Monday saw a completely healthy roster participate at training — including David Da Costa, who left Portland’s 4-0 win over San Luis on Wednesday with a shoulder injury, and Antony, who has been out since June 6 with a hamstring injury, yet still leads the team with six goals.
“We’ve gone through ups and downs for sure this year as a team and having to throw out a bunch of different lineups in preparation,” defender Kamal Miller said. “We were on such a good run earlier in the year and then Antony went out and that changed a lot for us…It seems like everyone is coming back at the right moment.”
And then there’s the reported new addition.
The Timbers haven’t been shy when talking about the summer transfer window, with owner Merrit Paulson telling reporters back in June that the club would “have access to what they need for the positional additions that we need.” The biggest need then, and now, for the Timbers was an attacking winger to replace Rodríguez, who led the Timbers in scoring in 2024 but played just 149 minutes in 2025 before undergoing season-ending knee surgery.
In Velde, the Timbers have reportedly paid $5 million for a 25-year-old who scored 29 goals and assisted on 18 more across all competitions from 2022-24 with Lech Poznań in the Polish league, and scored six goals with two assists this past year with Olympiakos of Super League Greece.
Velde is half-Argentine, half-Norwegian and has one appearance with the Norwegian senior national team. And while neither Neville nor the Timbers would specifically confirm Velde’s signing, the coach did little to douse the flames as he dribbled around a question about how the winger’s profile slots in with the club.
“Three weeks ago, I sat here and I said that I had lunch with the Paulson family, and I said that they could see the good work that everybody's doing, and they're going to back us,” Neville said. “And I think this week you'll see that the owners have backed us in a big way.”
“We know that it's a DP spot out there to sign and I think the work that Ned [Grabavoy] has done behind the scenes has been phenomenal, really. You don't get anywhere in this business without the backing of your owners. And over the last month, I think we felt the full weight of ownership support — excitement. They see where this team is going. They see the vision of this club. And I've got to say, I think this is going to be a big week for the Portland Timbers and I think that if you are a Portland Timbers fan, this week there's going to be one or two really, really, really good bits of news.”
At the end of the press conference with an afternoon flight to catch to Austin, Neville got up from his chair and started for the door before leaving one last nugget for the room:
“It’s going to be a big week,” he said. “Get your pens ready.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor