Notes From Cascadia: Portland Timbers Come Back Down to Earth

If the last two Portland Timbers losses have shown me anything, it’s this: Yes, we are an expansion team.

After experiencing the euphoric feeling that came along with attending our first two home openers at JELD-WEN field, the Timbers have begun a slow and steady decline back to mediocrity (reality). Sigi was right. This team cannot simply score goals off of anything other than set pieces and now that opposing teams have focused on that, we simply cannot score at all.

Look, if someone had told me before the season started that we’d be sitting at 5-5-2 at this point in the schedule I would have been thrilled. It’s just that darn 5-0 start at home that had me thinking ‘playoffs’. Playoffs? Well now that we know we won’t be undefeated at home, the next game proves to be a crucial one for us in seeing just what this team is made of. A Saturday rematch with the Colorado Rapids, who embarrassed us in our season opener, looms. Can we respond? Can strikers Cooper and Perlaza create some goal scoring chances on their own? I know this; the raucous sellout home crowd at JELD-WEN will be ready. The Timbers Army and fans share a similarity with Trail Blazer fans in Portland. They can almost will their teams to victory with their energy and spirit. That’s what we’ll need this Saturday against Colorado to get things back on track. Oh, that and some goals from our forwards maybe? If not I’ll just keep reminding myself that ‘Hey, we’re an expansion team’. It could be worse. We could be Vancouver.