So close, yet so far

In their penultimate game of the season, the Portland Timbers drew 1-1 at D.C. United Wednesday, but still maintained a mathematical chance of making it to the Major League Soccer playoffs.

However, the Timbers were knocked out of playoff contention after the New York Red Bulls 1-0 win over Philadelphia in their final match on Thursday. With only pride to play for in the last game, the Timbers scored an injury time equalizer in a 1-1 tie at Real Salt Lake on Saturday.

“I disagree about there being nothing to play for. I think you have to play for a lot of pride,” Timbers head coach John Spencer said in a media statement. “The playoffs have passed us now but our fans traveled in the hundreds again to support us. So there’s something to play for.”

With these results, the Timbers finished their inaugural MLS season in sixth place in the Western Conference with 42 points from 34 games. The team finished with 11 wins, 14 losses and nine draws (9-5-3 home, 2-9-6 away).

“The reality of it is that you are an expansion team and, for pretty much every guy in this locker room, it’s their first year to play together,” Timbers captain and midfielder Jack Jewsbury said. “Getting quality games, getting games where there’s a lot of pressure on you, I think is key in terms of building to the future. That’s hard to say because this year we had the goal of making the playoffs and we fell just a bit short, but I think that we’re proud of where we’ve come.”

In the MLS, the top three teams from the Eastern and Western Conference are based on points and automatically qualify for the playoffs. The remaining four spots are decided based on the overall points total of the teams, irrespective of the conference.

The last two teams to make it to the playoffs were the New York Red Bulls and the Houston Dynamo. Both these teams finished the league with 46 points, four points ahead of the Timbers. If the Timbers had won their last two games, they could have made it to the playoffs.

Going into the D.C. United game Wednesday, the Timbers would have qualified for the playoffs if they won their two remaining games and New York dropped points in their last game against Philadelphia. The Timbers would have also gone through if they earned four points (a win and a draw) from their last two games, and if New York and the Columbus Crew both lost their final matches.

However, the Timbers were no longer the masters of their own playoff fates after they drew 1-1 against D.C. United. Timbers forward Kenny Cooper’s first half goal in the 24th minute was cancelled by a 73rd minute equalizer by D.C. United’s Dwayne De Rosario.

“I thought we played well; I thought in the first half we controlled the game,” Spencer said after the D.C. match. “I think it was the middle of the game where we lost three or four minutes of possession, which was expected. [D.C. United] was the home team and they were fighting for their lives.“

Although this result ended D.C. United’s playoff aspirations, it also meant that the Timbers now relied on Philadelphia to defeat New York the next day. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. A first-half Philadelphia goal handed New York a 1-0 win.

“We are obviously disappointed. You never want to leave [your playoff fate] in the hands of someone else,” Jewsbury said. “The realization that we were definitely eliminated from playoff contention is tough.”

Former D.C. United goalkeeper Troy Perkins, who now plays for the Timbers, was named the Man of the Match. Perkins came up big in stoppage time and made a string of saves to keep his team alive. He finished the game with six saves.

Despite being knocked out, Spencer insisted that his team would give its best against Real Salt Lake. “Once you put on the uniform, whether it be U-12s, PDL [Premier Development League] or first-team reserves, you’ve got to have the right mentality to fight for 90 minutes and giving it 100 percent,” Spencer said. “This is what we’re trying to create here. [We’re] trying to create a good mentality and a winning culture for this club.”

“There’s three points on the line and no way are we taking the foot off the gas. We’re coming here to try and get three points,” Spencer added. “If we can’t make the playoffs, we want to finish as close to the playoffs as we possibly could.”

On Saturday, the Timbers fell behind in the first half injury time against Real Salt Lake through a Alvaro Saborio goal. However, the Timbers did not give in and leveled the score in the 91st minute on a goal from defender Futty Danso to earn a 1-1 draw in their final outing.

“We could have sat back and just felt bad for ourselves and thought: ‘Here we go again, we’re going to lose another game on the road,’ but they didn’t,” Spencer said. “They kept on going and kept on going. Credit to them; I think that everybody that’s connected to the club tonight has got to be proud of that performance.”

In a scrappy game that saw five yellow cards handed out by the referee, both teams were head to head (15-15) in attempts on goals. Jewsbury was happy with the way the team responded to going a goal down.

“I think it says a lot about the class of this locker room. We’ve got a group of guys that has fought no matter what the circumstances are,” Jewsbury said. “Obviously, we could have said ‘season’s over’ and not given the same amount of effort as we have all year. I thought we played really well tonight.”

At the end of the season, Spencer thanked the Timbers fans for their support. “Our fans are, by far, the best in the league,” Spencer said. “Yeah, we don’t play well every night—no team does in the league, regardless of how good you are—but you’ve got to be able to fight every single week. I think we showed tonight that we have that resilience. It gives me great pleasure to think what could happen in the future with this group.”