The Portland Timbers and Will Johnson parted ways on Friday, bringing to a close a remarkable three-year run in which the club, with Johnson as its captain, rose from irrelevance to preeminence.
Johnson’s departure from Portland comes after a season in which he struggled to make his way back from a broken leg and eventually lost his starting spot within the team. In the end, Johnson made just one appearance during the Timbers’ historic run this fall: A one-minute cameo in stoppage time of the first leg of the Western Conference Final.
That cameo on a chilly November evening at Providence Park, it turned out, was Johnson's curtain call.