MLS Footnotes: Timbers can get back on track against shorthanded Galaxy

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

Editor’s Note: MLS Footnotes takes you inside the major talking points around the league and across American soccer.

No team in Major League Soccer is more relevant in its own city than the Portland Timbers. With a history dating to the mid-1970s, when the club competed in the star laden, Pelé-led NASL, Portland billed itself as “Soccer City, USA” long before joining MLS as an expansion team a dozen years ago.

Timbers fans have made Providence Park the most daunting away trip in the league for opponents. The stands are always packed; only the pandemic could snap the streak of 163 straight sellouts from their inaugural MLS match in 2011. On the field, Portland has been almost as good, with one MLS Cup, two runner-up finishes and an MLS is Back Tournament title over the last seven seasons.

The Timbers missed the playoffs last year, though, and they’re off to a rough start in 2023. Since beating Sporting Kansas City Feb. 25 to open the new campaign, Gio Savarese’s side has lost three in a row, including last week’s 5-1 shellacking in Atlanta.

It’s only Week 5, but Saturday’s visit from the LA Galaxy (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX) feels like a must have for the hosts.

“It’s early in the season, but it has a kind of first game, set-the-tone kind of vibe to it,” Timbers midfielder Eryk Williamson told FOX Soccer ahead of the game. “We know we have to get three points.”

That the match falls during a weekend reserved by FIFA for international games could help. While Portland will be without Colombian defender Juan David Mosquera, he’ll be their lone absentee. The Galaxy will be missing for players, including starters Dejan Joveljić and Kelvin Leerdam.

The Timbers will still have to stop the bleeding defensively. The 10 goals they have conceded over the losing streak equals the club’s most porous three game stretch ever. On the other end of the field, Williamson said they must be more clinical. “We want to score more goals, so it’s making sure we’re creating chances and putting guys in position to finish them.”

In MLS, slow starts aren’t always fatal. The Timbers also had three or fewer points through their first four matches in 2015, 2018 and 2021. They reached MLS Cup each year.

“Dropping three games isn’t ideal, but it’s a long season,” said Williamson, who had never missed the playoffs in his career before last year. “We’ll always fight back. We want to be a big club in this league, as we have been.”

MLS FOOTNOTES

1. Williamson’s U.S. future

The Timbers are lucky that Williamson isn’t gone, too. Had U.S. men’s national team interim manager Anthony Hudson invited an almost entirely European-based squad for this month’s two CONCACAF Nations League tilts, the 26-year-old could’ve been included. He almost certainly will be next month, when a USMNT comprised mostly of MLS players meets rival Mexico.

Williamson was a member of the USMNT squad that won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2021 — he started in the final against El Tri — but missed all of World Cup qualifying after tearing his ACL. He returned to the national team in January and now has his sights set on becoming a regular during the 2026 World Cup cycle.

“That’s one of my biggest goals,” Williamson said. “It’s a challenging group to get into, but I think that just adds motivation to it. It won’t be easy. I know I have to perform every game here in Portland.”

2. Fallen stars

The Galaxy is off to an even slower start than the Timbers, their worst in 13 years. Fans of Los Angeles’ original MLS team are losing patience fast.

The once feared Galaxy — which claimed a record five MLS Cups between 2002-2014 — have a losing record over the last six seasons. They’re quickly coming up on a decade of futility despite luring high profile recruits like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Jonathan dos Santos in recent years.

Still, it’s way too early to write them off in 2023. The Galaxy’s point total is a little misleading; they’ve tied two of their three games this year and have lost just two of 14 dating to 2022, not including playoffs. Facing the Timbers might be just what Greg Vanney’s team needs to get that first dub. The Galaxy have a 3W-0L-1T record in their last four meetings with Portland.

3. More Almada magic

Atlanta United attacker Thiago Almada is the early favorite for the most valuable player award — assuming the Five Stripes can hold onto the 21-year-old World Cup winner until the end of the MLS season.

Almada scored twice against the Timbers before leaving for Buenos Aires, where he celebrated Argentina’s title in Qatar by scoring his first international goal for the Albiceleste in a 2-0 stroll Thursday over Panama:

4. Unlucky seven

Almada is among seven Atlanta United players who are unavailable for Saturday’s trip to Columbus because of international duty. Only Orlando City, the Philadelphia Union and Minnesota United will be without as many bodies this weekend.

SKC is the only MLS club not to have any of its players summoned to a national team this month. Sporting hosts the Seattle Sounders, which will be missing six regulars.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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