Portland Timbers

Team information

Inaugural season: 2011

Home field: Providence Park, Portland, Oregon

Owner: Peregrine Sports, LLC

Team colors: Green and gold

Overview

The Portland Timbers are a professional soccer team that plays in North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS). Portland has a soccer history dating back to the 1970s and an original Timbers franchise that was part of the North American Soccer League (NASL). While that team folded in 1982, the Timbers name was later attached to a lower-level soccer team in the 2000s before being revived when Portland was awarded an MLS franchise. The Portland Timbers began MLS play in 2011 and quickly became one of its most successful franchises. Since 2013, they have been led by Diego Valeri, a playmaking midfielder who holds all the franchise scoring records and was named one of the all-time greatest MLS players in 2020. Since his arrival, Portland has made the playoffs in all but two seasons and won the 2015 MLS championship.

History

Professional soccer leagues have existed in North America since the 1890s, but for most of the twentieth century, the leagues struggled to match the popularity of the other major professional sports. Prior to the 1990s, the most successful attempt at a major pro soccer league was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which began play in 1968 and folded in 1985. Portland joined the NASL in 1975 as an expansion franchise. Team officials sought the public’s input on a name and chose Timbers from among more than three thousand suggestions. The name was a reference to Oregon’s distinctive forests as well as the region’s logging industry.

The Timbers were among the league’s best teams right out of the gate, posting a 16–6 record and making it to the NASL championship game. However, by 1982, attendance had fallen off and the team was forced to shutter operations. In 2001, a new Portland Timbers franchise began play in the United Soccer Leagues (USL), an organization that oversees several lower-level soccer leagues in the United States and Canada. In 2007, the team was purchased by businessperson Merritt Paulson, the son of then-US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

By the late 2000s, the top-level professional soccer league in North America was Major League Soccer, which began play in 1996. MLS was created just after the United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the premier men’s soccer tournament in the world. The success of that tournament, coupled with an unexpectedly good showing by the US team, led to an increased interest in soccer across the United States. MLS started out with ten teams, and by the late-2000s, was looking to expand into other markets.

In 2009, an effort led by Merritt Paulson paid off when the city was awarded what was then the eighteenth MLS franchise. The team decided to keep the Timbers name and incorporate elements of the USL team’s logo in the new design. The 2011 version of the logo featured a large white axe set on a dark green circle with light green diagonal lines extending outward from the axe to resemble a pine tree. The name Portland Timbers was overset near the bottom of the logo. In 2016, the team adjusted the design to remove the team name, and in 2019, Portland changed the light green color to gold.

The Timbers began play in 2011 and posted a record of 11 wins, 9 ties, and 14 losses. They took another step back in 2012 with an 8-10-16 season. However, the situation turned around in 2013 with the arrival of Argentinian Diego Valeri who had been playing professionally in Spain. Valeri led the team with 10 goals in 2013 and helped Portland to the best record in the Western Conference, 14-15-5. The Timbers advanced into the conference championship before falling to Real Salt Lake.

Portland missed the playoffs in 2014 but bounced back a year later with a 15-8-11 record, good enough for third place in the Western Conference. The Timbers won their opening round playoff match against Sporting KC on penalty kicks before ousting Vancouver in the conference semifinals and Dallas FC in the conference finals. In the 2015 MLS Cup Final, Valeri scored a goal for Portland 27 seconds into the game and teammate Rodney Wallace added another just over six minutes later. The two goals turned out to be enough as Portland hung on for a 2–1 victory over the Columbus Crew. Days after the win, more than twenty thousand people turned out to welcome the team home and celebrate the championship.

After missing the playoffs again in 2016, the Timbers advanced to the postseason each year from 2017 to 2021. Portland made another trip to the MLS Cup Final in 2018 but lost to Atlanta United FC. During its run to the title game, Portland and archrival Seattle Sounders FC squared off in what is considered be one of the best games in MLS history. The two teams met in the conference semifinals—a two-game series in which total goals scored by both teams are added together to get an aggregate score. Portland won the first game against the favored Sounders 2–1. After a scoreless first half in the second game, the teams exchanged goals until Seattle scored on a late penalty kick to take a 3–2 lead in regulation. The teams’ aggregate goals were tied at 4–4, but Portland thought it had won based on a tiebreaker rule that gave away-game goals more weight. The team began celebrating its victory, but MLS had changed the rule prior to the season, and the two squads had to take part in a penalty-kick shootout. As Seattle missed two penalty kicks, Portland knocked home four to finally put away the Sounders.

In 2020, the MLS was among several sports leagues forced to suspend its season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The season had begun less than two weeks earlier when MLS shuttered operations on March 12. When the season eventually resumed in early July, the league held a twenty-four-team tournament called MLS is Back Tournament. Two teams—FC Dallas and Nashville FC—could not participate because several of their players had tested positive for COVID-19. Portland advanced to the tournament final, winning the title with a 2–1 victory over Orlando City SC.

The Timbers play at Providence Park, a 25,218-capacity stadium in downtown Portland. The team has a passionate fanbase and—prior to the 2020–2021 COVID-19 pandemic—typically sold out most of its home games. The Pacific Northwest is a hotbed for soccer, cultivating fierce rivalries between the region’s three teams: Portland, the Seattle Sounders FC, and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Each season, the teams face off in an informal regular-season tournament for the Cascadia Cup, a supporter-created trophy honoring the best team in the Pacific Northwest. The trophy has been awarded since 2004, when all three teams played in the USL. Portland has won the cup four times, with the last coming in 2017.

Notable players

Portland’s greatest player is undoubtedly Diego Valeri, who began his Timbers career in 2013 and remained with the team as of 2021. Valeri is the team’s all-time goal scorer with 100–87 in regular-season MLS play and 13 in the playoffs and tournaments. He is also the franchise leader in assists with 101, a figure that ranks among the top ten in MLS history. Valeri was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the 2015 MLS Cup Finals and won the league MVP award in 2017 when he scored a career-high 21 goals. In December 2020, Valeri was named to the list of the twenty-five best MLS players of all time in conjunction with the league’s twenty-fifth anniversary.

Nigerian striker Fanendo Adi played for the Timbers from 2014 to 2018. He is second on the team’s all-time goals scored list with 60. During Portland’s 2015 championship season, Adi led the team in goals scored with 16. Argentinian midfielder Sebastián Blanco has been with Portland from 2017 through the 2021 season. As of 2021, Blanco is third on the all-time team list with 38 goals scored and second in assists with 43. In 2018, he tied with Valeri for the club lead in goals scored with 10 each. Liberian-American midfielder Darlington Nagbe played for the Timbers from 2011 to 2017. He is tied for fourth place on the goals-scored list with 31 and is also third on the assists list with 33. American forward/midfielder Jeremy Ebobisse also has 31 goals in his tenure with Portland from 2017 to 2021.

Bibliography

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Eggers, Kerry. “Portland Timbers.” Oregon Encyclopedia, 17 Mar. 2018, www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/portland‗timbers/#.YZue8dDMJPY. Accessed 22 Nov. 2021.

Garcia, Kyle. “Diego Valeri Named One of 25 Greatest Players in MLS History.” SB Nation, 9 Dec. 2020, www.stumptownfooty.com/2020/12/9/22165615/diego-valeri-named-one-of-25-greatest-players-in-mls-history-portland-timbers-mls-cup-mvp. Accessed 22 Nov. 2021.

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Rucker, Jael. “Major League Soccer History: How MLS Became A Big Business.” ONE37pm, 18 Feb. 2021, www.one37pm.com/strength/sports/major-league-soccer-history. Accessed 22 Nov. 2021.