A cross-country flight from New York to LA, a gigantic Open Cup win against the best team in the league, a flight up the coast, and a somewhat ugly, vaguely disappointing slog of a draw right here in Portland. It’s been a strange week.
1) Just last week, I declared our 1-0 road win over NYCFC to be our best win of the year. Well, that game held the title for only three short days, because on Wednesday, the Timbers had their new best win of the year, a 1-0 win over LAFC.
On three days rest – with one of those days taken up by a 3,000 mile flight – the Timbers faced a team that hadn’t lost at home all year, that had a home goal differential of +22, that was coming off 5-1 and 6-1 victories, and was playing its first choice lineup.