Portland Timbers Review

The Portland Timbers have a very busy and important month in September when they play six very important games and they have to win most if not all if they want to be in the playoffs come the end of the season. This may not be as simple as it sounds because they have injuries stacking up to key players missing both of their starting center-backs Larrys Mabiala(Left Hamstring) and Julio Cascante(Left thigh injury). They also have more injuries to key players with star winger Sebastian Blanco missing the game against SKC with a slight calf strain and it is not certain when he will return because his wife gave birth to their second child and he did not train with the team. 

The results of this in the past month have been okay but not great and they need to get better if they want to make a deep run in the playoffs. They beat Real Salt Lake by a narrow result of 1-0 from a beautiful goal from Diego Valeri in the 16th minute although they didn’t play their best being out possessed 60% to 40%. They then faced Sporting Kansas City and both teams needing three points to keep the playoff race tight both teams went out attacking but the first half ended scoreless. 20 minutes into the second half Sporting Kansas City midfielder Benny Feilhaber mishit his cross and it went over the Portland goalkeeper and landed in the top corner of the net. With 10 minutes left Portland looked like they had let another home result slip away but midfielder Diego Chara broke through the backline of KC and played a ball to Striker Jeremy Ebobisse and he finished on a practically open net. Time was running out and Portland needed the win and in the 93rd minute, Bill Tuiloma played a long ball which was headed away right to Timbers midfielder Tomas Conechny. He nutmegged defender Graham Zusi and found Diego Valeri who did some good footwork and then got the cross over the goalkeeper and found the head of Brian Fernandez and scored. The Timbers have now not won a game in 5 games and somehow are still above the playoff line going into the final game of the season against San Jose, having lost two games in a row at home to eastern conference opponents D.C. United and the New York Red Bulls not scoring in either of those games and then trying to against Minnesota New England and Kansas City. They went into their final game of the season against San Jose knowing that if they won or tyed they were into the playoffs. The Timbers found a goal 29 minutes in through centre back Larrys Mabiala. Things were looking good for Portland 5 minutes away from halftime before MLS all-time leading scorer Chris Wondolowski scored and put San Jose back into the game. They went into halftime all tied up Portland knew that they either needed to put the game away and score or they needed to lock it down for another 45 minutes. Portland went out attacking and found a goal in the 59th minute through the Columbian Dairon Asprilla. They didn’t look back after that and then scored again in the 75th minute off a beautiful freekick from Sebastian Blanco. San Jose didn’t have any response and the Timbers won 3-1 and were in the playoffs! The Timbers will play Real Salt Lake on the 19th of October in a knockout game the Timbers beat Salt Lake both times that they played them this year with a 2-1 win and a 1-0 win.