With three of the last five games on the road, the Portland Timbers face another daunting task: three straight road games.  While there have been some moments in the last few road games  in which players and fans felt like there was more to be desired, the Timbers have demonstrated not only a commitment towards winning but one of class as well.  Take for instance the San Jose game with Steve Lenhart recklessly slide tackling every player in sight, or when Alan Gordon "inadvertently" elbowed Silvestre in the face, or maybe more recently when Mario De Luna pushed the innocuous ball boy for no apparent reason (I'll touch on this in my next article); the Timbers have kept their composure and have come away with a bevy of hard fought points on the road.  Recent history would suggest that the Timbers squad would perform morbidly on the road, seeing that they have only won a few sporadic games over the course of two seasons. But this squad is different; this squad is calm, collective and has a moral fortitude that makes me proud to sport my Timbers green.  Ultimately, they play inspired football and I love it.

In April, I wrote an article that outlined a couple recipes for success for Timbers games on the road. Let us reevaluate/breakdown these components in application to these last three road games. 

It was oh-so-easy for the Portland Timbers Saturday against Chivas USA. The Timbers strolled in the park for 90 easy minutes, and no one needed to put up a fight, except a brave ball-boy against a petulant and ill-tempered Mario de Luna. It was an effervescent victory delivered with panache and without a drop of sweat.

At times it looked like Manchester United was playing Reading. The gulf in class between the Timbers and Chivas USA couldn’t have been summed up by the team’s respective places in the Western Conference standings or the fact that the most experienced of Chivas’ back-three was former Timbers’ fringe player Steve Purdy. It was one of the most lopsided games you will ever see in Major League Soccer.

After defeating the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 at Jeld-Wen Field on April 14th, there loomed a daunting six road games in the span of eight for the Portland Timbers.  Being an avid Timbers fan, I was well aware of our abysmal road record; fully expecting a meager three or four points out of the possible eighteen.  But what has transpired instills me to think that we have a new Timbers team on our hands.  A Timbers squad with moxy and vigor; they're hungry and it is very apparent after coming from behind against a talented Sporting KC team and tying with San Jose and FC Dallas.

This new influx of Timber talent may have turned me into a spoiled troll, but both 1-1 draws on the road have been rather dispiriting.  I say this largely because the Timbers were ahead of both of those games and just had some defensive let downs.  Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts is playing out of his mind, making mind-defying save after mind-defying save.  The weakness to me seems not a lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball either, it's the mindset.  The mentality of "We have the lead, so let's play defensively" has backfired against them and left the Timbers with a tinge of despair when the final whistle blows.  

Those of us of a certain age remember Northern Exposure, a quirky television series that ran on CBS from 1990-95. The series was set in the fictional town of Cicely, AK (though it was filmed in Roslyn, WA). The residents of Cicely were a collection of quirky misfits who came to Alaska looking for a place where they could start over.

Janine Turner played Maggie O’Connell, a Grosse Pointe debutante turned Alaska bush pilot because … well, why not? Maggie was single because, through no fault of her own, all her boyfriends died in freak accidents. No one could explain Maggie’s curse, but she did seem destined for spinsterhood. With a trail of bodies defining her romantic history, who’d be willing to take a chance on breaking the curse?

I mention Northern Exposure because the travails of the Portland Timbers’ back line remind me of Maggie’s boyfriends. The Timbers have lost two central defenders, David Horst and Mikael Silvestre, to season-ending injuries. Both Horst and Silvestre were playing well when they were rendered hors de combat. Horst steadied the back line with his heart and hustle. Silvestre did the same through guile, experience, and dependability. The loss of two players of such high quality would hurt any team. It would have decimated the 2011 and 2012 Timbers. This edition has shown character and resilience despite the loss of two top-flight central defenders. They’re a wee bit short of central defenders at the moment, though.

It could not have started any worse for Mikael Silvestre in Portland. The Timbers’ newest high-profile player looked like a deer getting stomped by Red Bulls in the headlights of the club’s high-profile MLS season opener.

In his first 45 minutes, Silvestre looked old, slow, and French. He also looked destined to become the next casualty in a long line of accomplished international players to come to America for a paycheck and a career swansong, only to never devote the kind of focus, drive and effort required to be successful in MLS.

Rafael Marquez, anyone?

I can only start this column one way.

I stand with Jason Collins.

I stand with the LGBT community.

Now the question is, will NBA teams?

One of the things that makes sports special is that every so often, the games intersect with reality – the teams are forces of change, good and healing.

We saw that yesterday as the Portland Timbers hosted Atticus Lane-Dupre, an eight-year-old boy with cancer. His one wish was to take his soccer team, the Green Machine, and go to Jeld-Wen Field to play some soccer with the Timbers.

It never felt like an MLS game. The atmosphere was great, matched by the quality of play on the field. There was attacking intent, solid refereeing, and two class franchises contesting a pendulum of a game that went back and forth, until it came to a rest in the camp of the Portland Timbers.

The final score was Portland 3, Sporting Kansas City 2 Saturday night, in a match that would have looked more at home in the Netherlands or Germany. It was a landmark evening for the Timbers. Not only did Portland win their first road game almost six months earlier in the season than they did last year, but the Timbers out-footballed one of the best teams in the league, coming from behind twice, and leaving Kansas City as the hottest team in North America. 

The beautiful game. It’s a simple, succinct, romantic way of describing football; a game with many dimensions and factors, demons and angles. The beautiful game is the sport at its best – something to live up to. It’s more than a style of play; it’s a state of mind.

It’s one thing to win. It’s another thing to win with tenor, the flowing vibe of pizzazz and skill rolling through a team like a perfectly-played piano concerto. At its best, the beautiful game is mesmerizing, inspiring, and awing.

It’s not easy to play pretty. In soccer, anyone can play kick-ball, anyone can battle, or scrap, or hoof, but it takes real talent to be able to connect passes, confidently string together attacks through fluid movement, accuracy, touch and instinct, resisting the urge to put a foot through the ball, instead caressing the ball, spreading it around the field like fine jam on a piece of toast.

When the goal came from rookie substitute Adam Jahn in the 92nd after almost two consecutive hours of the Portland Timbers blanking the San Jose Earthquakes, it hurt. But it didn't hurt nearly as much as it would have if Chris Wondolowski had buried his free header in the dying moments of the team's clash at Jeld-Wen Field the previous Sunday, and it didn't sting as much as it would have if Alan Gordon, Steven Lenhart, or Wondolowski had struck it. The Timbers drew San Jose 1-1 Sunday night. It was the most sterling of performances from Caleb Porter's team, and it certainly didn't have the most sterling of finishes. But it was a fair point and a solid result for a team still on the rise. 

It was always going to be hard for the Timbers / Earthquakes rematch to create the kind of firestorm that would live up to expectations. The teams' meeting in Portland had everything a classic soccer match could ask for - controversy, fighting, a red card, a dazzling goal, and a massive fall-out. There is something to be said for how the Jeld-Wen cauldron stirs the most passion in teams, home and away, and how road Timbers matches rarely explode the same way home games do. 

After two impressive home victories against San Jose and Houston, the Portland Timbers face a tough challenge, as six out of their next eight matches are on the road.  Now before we get ahead of ourselves thinking that we can pull nine points out of possible eighteen, let us take some things into consideration.

Timbers Overall Road Record: 3-21-10.

Three wins.  Three measly wins on the road in two seasons!  That is abysmal, and if the Timbers want to be considered playoff contenders, they have to win on the road.  Not just tie.  Luckily, after watching every match this year, I must admit, this squad seems a little different than past Timbers teams.  This team has character; they have spunk, they play with an unmatched tenacity, and it shows.  They were down 2-0 at Colorado and they roared back to obtain a 2-2 result.  The same can be said with the Sounders game on March 17; they literally persevered to the very end.  I am dubious that past Timbers crews could put up these consistent results in such fashion.