Blend of T2 and Timbers news!

My preview of tomorrow's match.

On the day of their first home playoff game, let's meet some of the members of the squad responsible for the rapid ascent of Portland's second team.

Now that he's playing with the first team, is he eligible to play tonight? If not, that's kinda sh*tty, he helps the team get to the playoffs then doesn't play with them.

I’m looking forward to it! It would be incredible if we could break the MLSNP Playoff attendance record during T2’s first ever Next Pro Playoff match!!

My guess is no, since they typically don't sell academy stuff, but I would love to show support to the T2 players specifically.

Not at his best, but a determined performance

Sorry for the delayed upload, was flying home from L.A!

Full podcast with both interviews here

My recap of yesterday's loss.

On the eve of T2’s historic MLS Next Pro playoff debut tomorrow (see link in story for free tickets), Green Is the Color throws it back to the 2010 Portland Timbers u23 16-0-0 PDL National Championship

#RCTID

Specifically with Seating, do you kinda just pick where you sit? Can you sit anywhere in the stadium? (Upper deck, Toyota Terrace, Pub Beer Patio, Field Seats, are any of these options?)

I’m here in Carson to watch the Timbers play the “LA” Galaxy

We lose 0-2

First goal against seemed like CBs not communicating and following dangerous runners. 2nd was a FK that hit an LA player's head. Velde had A LOT of our chances and seemed like most of our shots as a team were tame or blocked. We are just waving as we see teams get away from us. Hopefully we can rescue any hopes this Saturday.

MASSIVE MATCH for us in the playoff run. If we can get a win here, we might squeak into the playoffs. I won't see much of this match until close to the 2nd half. I'll go through and update as I can.

HYPE THREAD

Lineup Thread

Kick off is at 7:30 PM PST (probably closer to 7:40)

MLS Match Center

Portland Timbers 0 - 2 LA Galaxy

6' - Janssen scored, but was a whole body offside.

7' - Great sequence to put the ball across to an outstretched Janssen, but he can't get a toe to it and the keeper pushes it out.

17' - ⚽ goal them. Fuck. Yikes. Our CBs decided to let Reus run in between them and NEITHER picked him up. So WIDE open easy tap-in.

29' - 🟨 Yellow card for LA #17 (Accumulation this early? The ref last Saturday let their CB commit 5 fouls before he even WARNED dude about maybe potentially giving him a yellow. Joke league. Joke refs.)

31' - 🟨 Yellow card for LA #6 for kicking the ball away after a foul.

38' - 🧤 Great save for Pants. Nobody wants to defend. Pants lays out though.

39' - 🟨 Yellow card for Fory for the softest foul you'll ever see which conveniently stops the counterattack. Ref bit hard on that diving bullshit.

2 minutes of stoppage

47' - Velde got a decent chance to shoot and he put a low shot direct to the keeper. Cool.

47' - Fory finishes the half with the worst cross ever, which goes out for a goal kick.

Halftime

Well, what I saw of the first half was a team who wasn't good enough on either side of the ball to do anything. So, that's fun. Galaxy will be 6 points clear of us and RSL above us on the table. Playoffs are just getting further and further away.

Halftime Stats

48' - 🟨 Yellow card for LA #15 (foul vs DDC)

48' - FK is popped up over the bar by Janssen

50' - Miller with a FREE HEADER back post and he hits it straight into the ground and loses all power. Easy save

51' - Velde catches the ball that pops out after the next corner and hits a screamer that goes just wide.

53' - Velde cuts inside to take on the world but his shot is blocked.

54' - Velde gets ANOTHER chance and he hits it RIGHT at the keeper. COME ON DUDE! YOU NEED TO SCORE!

58' - Decent chance for Janssen. Ball could have been better and the header could have been better.

59' - Love Caicedo's physicality right there.

62' - 🟨 Yellow card for Velde (dumb late foul after getting stuffed by a defender)

63' - Smith ON 🔁 Fory OFF

63' - REALLY good idea from Velde. Instead of trying to hit it near-post, he nutmegs the defender faking the shot and Janssen was back post. Their CB cut it out, but it was a good ball.

64' - Smith's overlap opens space for Lassiter's shot and he just doesn't generate any power or accuracy on it.

66' - Velde is tired. Don't blame him. He's been busy the last 10 minutes.

67' - Velde shows it again by a lame shot trying to catch the keeper out on a giveaway.

74' - Izoita & Aravena ON 🔁 Caicedo & Janssen OFF

80' - ⚽ Goal them. We fucked. Just got beat on a FK header.

81' - Chara & Fernandez ON 🔁 Ortiz & Lassiter OFF

82' - 🟨 Yellow card for Da Costa

DM me if you're interested

EVERY GAME FROM HERE ON OUT IS A MUST WIN TO KEEP THE PLAYOFFS ALIVE!!!! WE NEED PRIME VELDE, PRIME DDC, PRIME LASSITER, AND ESPECIALLY PRIME KAMAL MILLER!!!!!

ITS MILLER TIME AND HE IS GETTING HIS YEARLY BANGER OF A GOAL!!!!! 10/10 PERFORMANCE BY THE BACKLINE INCOMING!!!! SHEETS WILL BE KEPT SO CLEAN THEY WILL START ADDING NEGATIVE GOALS TO THE GALAXY!!!!!!

Backheeled put Ned in the second highest category of CSOs. At the top were LAFC's John Thorrington and Nashville's Mike Jacobs.

In the "Better than the rest" category was LA Galaxy's Will Kuntz, Ned Grabvoy, and San Jose's Bruce Arena.

This group has done a good job, if not a transcendently great one. If you’re a fan of any of these teams you’ll be mostly satisfied – and even occasionally thrilled – with the DPs they’ve signed. ...

In Portland, Ned Grabavoy was the one who brought Evander to MLS, and while the relationship didn’t last, the success was real. The same goes for Jonathan Rodriguez, who was awesome before his injury. This season, we’re finally seeing David da Costa and Kristoffer Velde move closer to reaching the numbers you’d expect from DPs.

https://www.backheeled.com/who-best-mls-spending-transfers-ranking-every-cso-designated-players/

In other words, it's very supportive of the MLS schedule change:

The main takeaway: summer in North America is hot. For each of these metrics I took everything relative to their individual season (MLS teams press much more in 2026 than they did in 2013 and it made the plots look weird), and removed December because it’s only MLS Cup games, but the finding is very clear. Any metric that measures defensive effort dies in the summer. Total defensive actions drop from 265 per 96 in the spring to fewer than 240 by August. PPDA increases (less pressy) from 14 to 16 from March to July. Attacking third defensive actions, by definition pressing and counter pressing moments, 26 per 96 down to 23 per 96. Total possessions in a game! 270 down to fewer than 250. Across all the metrics that matter there’s a somewhere between 10 and 20% reduction from spring/fall to the heat of summer.

https://www.americansocceranalysis.com/home/2026/10/14/winter-is-coming

THIS IS ALL COACHING! Idc if you have all the players you need Marti, that is AWFUL tactical defending just having two player just stand there while your smaller guys are guarding two prolific strikers. They could have easily double marked them too. Ned has recruited too many small guys or were not good enough at man marking. Y

It’s Timbers Time and Chris and Matt discuss another wild ride this week as the team goes down to Kansas City and come back with a point in an end-to-end 3-3 draw… we talk about midfield rotations, the impact and importance of DP signings, the many Colombian Timbers (is there going to be another?)... and much more… RCTID!

This episode's key talking points include:

• Cole Bassett is finally dropped
• The obvious importance of elite DPs
• Is Good Vibes Only back?
• The first half shows a developing Martiball identity that’s growing every game
• Did Caicedo’s rusty sub appearance cost us the game?
• Marti’s late game shift to 352 is an interesting tactical wrinkle
• Eric Izoita gives another impressive cameo
• Velde over-dribbling in his own half cost the Timbers a huge game state advantage 
• Colombian Timbers Trivia
• Go support T2 in the Playoffs!
• Colorado and LA next game previews

Content Warning: A few “s” words and similar moderate swears 

Podcast Links:

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/timbers-time/id1878719096
Spotify Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6Gm0xFhBnPECrTVoryo2tA
RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/10f4a5654/podcast/rss
IG: timberstimepod

Listener Topics and Questions!

Thanks for listening and please do send us your questions or topics for analysis for the next episode: ⁠⁠⁠[timberstimepod@gmail.com](mailto:timberstimepod@gmail.com) or DM us on IG: timberstimepod or leave us a Reddit comment on our episodic r/Timbers post

Tillamook is a much better look

I had a chance to talk with Jack Cassidy for a podcast episode—love that the match in 5eatt1e, his first in charge of the senior side, was on the one-year anniversary of him being let go from his previous club (and that his wife sent him the screenshot from that day). He has a lot of solid words on player relationships and managing. Such a great person.

Go see T2 in the playoffs Friday!

The episode is also on Spotify, apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.