ATLANTA, Ga. – Perspective is always impossible in the moments after an MLS Cup, whether your team wins or loses. Dealing with a season’s finality overwhelms any reasonable view, either casting the glories of the campaign at an undo height or seeing too much sorrow in the year’s suddenly more-bitter lows.
For the Portland Timbers, though, it is impossible not to see Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Atlanta United FC in the 2018 MLS Cup final through the lens of the entire season, one which began with a five-match winless run and ended in the league’s final game of the season.