While the Portland Timbers prepare for Thursday's Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals second leg challenge (7:30pm PT, FS1 | Match presented by Carl's Jr.), the man who scored the first postseason goal of the club’s Major League Soccer era is over 3,000 miles away, even though he still calls the Rose City home.
Five years ago, Ryan Johnson reached the apex of his only season with the Timbers by scoring the opening goal of the team’s Western Conference Semifinal, which just happened to be against rival Seattle Sounders FC. Fifteen minutes into that first playoff experience, while his team was still carrying the Cinderella feel of their unlikely first-place finish, Johnson quelled any notion that Portland’s regular-season success wouldn’t carry over.