I was pretty adamant on Saturday that the absurd conditions at Dicks Sporting Goods Park made it essentially impossible to have any meaningful takeaways from the Portland Timbers’ 3-3 draw. This was, after all, a match that was not just the coldest ever played in MLS history, but also one that took place in the middle of an absolute snow storm. They had to pause the match multiple times in the second half alone to shovel snow off the field markings, which had the side-effect of creating ball-movement-altering trenches around both penalty areas.
These ridiculous, hostile conditions can only serve to radically increase the variance in a game, both in the way the ball plays, and the mental and physical conditions of the players.