Timbers allow others to choose their fate
Portland fell 1-0 to Seattle on Saturday.
The strategy for the Portland Timbers coming into 2025 was relatively simple: yes, the team was missing a substantial piece from 2024 with the departure of Evander, but what was lost in goals should have been mitigated by an improved defense.
And Portland’s defense is better — notably so when compared to 2024.
Portland allowed 56 goals last season. This year, that number has been cut to 44 with one match to play.
The catch, of course, is the offense can’t fall to such a level that winning games is impossible.
Right?
The Portland Timbers lost to Seattle 1-0 on Saturday. It was the ninth time Portland’s been shut out in 2025 — it only happened five times in 2024 — and it came with pretty devastating consequences. Seattle finishes ahead of Portland in the Cascadia Cup, the Timbers suffered their first loss in Seattle since 2017, and worst of all, Portland no longer controls its own playoff destiny.
Sitting in seventh place after 33 games, the Timbers are just three points up on eighth-place Dallas and four points ahead of ninth-place Real Salt Lake, who have both played 32 games.
The top seven teams in each conference automatically make the playoffs, while seeds No. 8 and No. 9 play in a one-game wildcard — like the one Portland lost 5-0 to Vancouver last season.
And in truth, the Timbers have been struggling to score ever since that season-ending shutout. The Timbers haven’t scored more than two goals in a game since March. Last year, Portland had three players who scored 14 or more goals. This year, Antony leads Portland with 7 — and he missed more than a month due to a hamstring injury and has only one goal since June.
Saturday was another example of the team waiting around for someone else to step up.
Sure, Portland manager Phil Neville can point to some positives — outside of Seattle’s goal in the 16th minute, it was a relatively even match. David Da Costa played better than he has of late, Neville was pleased with Kevin Kelsy’s performance and Maxime Crepeau was solid in the net.
But Kristoffer Velde struggled. Felipe Mora had a chance to score for the first time in 21 games and put it right in the keeper’s chest.
“There were four or five wrong offside decisions,” Neville said.
There’s always been something this year. Some of it real, like the injuries to Jonathan Rodriguez and Antony earlier in the season. But some of it is beginning to feel like a looping record for a team that completely changed the way it played in 2025 — just to be three points shy of last year’s points total with one game to play.
No, Evander isn’t on this roster, but these Timbers are talented. Kelsy and Velde are an intriguing pair to center the offense around the next couple of years. Finn Surman has been a revelation on defense. There are two above-average keepers. Ian Smith is one of the best steals of last year’s draft.
The parts are there.
But there’s one game left. The time to figure it out has ended.
“The only thing I said to the team at the end is that now is really the time where it’s now or never,” Neville said. “…This whole group needs to take a big jump forward, and so do I. But I’ve got no doubts about where we’re going.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor