PORTLAND — That long stretches of fine work can be undone in the blink of an eye makes soccer both intoxicating and infuriating for a team’s fans.
The Portland Timbers and their followers were reminded of that truth on Sunday at the University of Portland’s Merlo Field. The Timbers did a lot of nice work in front of 4,884 fans. And the record book will show that they won their final match as a second-division club, 1-0 over the Vancouver Whitecaps.
But the Timbers needed at least two goals to cancel Thursday’s 2-0 loss in British Columbia. Vancouver won the two-game series, 2-1, and advances to the semifinals in search of its third championship in five years.
The Timbers will immediately turn their attention to building their Major League Soccer squad, which is scheduled to begin play in five months as a member of the top professional league in North America.
Their decade-long run in second tier professional soccer ended in familiar fashion — with a playoff series loss to the rival Whitecaps, and without a championship.
“It’s frustrating,” said Timbers coach Gavin Wilkinson, who will move to the front office as technical director responsible for building the MLS roster. “During the season, we had their number. We outplayed them, and we deserved the results.”
But the Whitecaps scored twice in the opening minutes on their home turf on Thursday, and the Timbers could not match that over the 170 minutes or so that followed.
“It’s going to take quite a while to get over this,” Wilkinson said. “In saying that, we’ve got to look at the positives. We’ve got to look at next year. We’ve got to look at the fan support, and making sure we repay the fans and the city with putting a quality team on the field.”
The Timbers showed quality on Sunday. They out-shot the Whitecaps 15-5, and if not for a big effort from Whitecaps’ goalkeeper Jay Nolly might have really given the capacity audience at the University of Portland reason to cheer.
“To be honest, we played a perfect game tonight,” said Ian Joy, the team captain. “We scored a goal at the right time. The rhythm was fantastic. The boys played some great soccer tonight. They showed great passion and we put ourselves into a great position. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t to be.”
Portland created seven scoring chances in the first half. Few of them were high-percentage, but Doug DeMartin had four cracks at goal including three well positioned headers and Bright Dike (Dee-Kay) made a couple of dangerous runs into the penalty area.
The Timbers broke through four minutes after halftime with an artistic goal. Joy, overlapping from his left back position, raced up the wing to run down a one-touch pass then crossed the ball that midfielder James Marcelin directed home with his head. It was a stylish play built of hard work and hustle, and it made for an entertaining finish as the Timbers kept Nolly busy. They were particularly dangerous from two corner kicks and a series of free kicks.
“I think Jay Nolly was their best player by far tonight,” Wilkinson said. “He came up with a couple of big, big saves. He showed the intensity and desire in and around the box that maybe we were missing (on Thursday).”
Ryan Pore, the leading scorer this season for the Timbers, said the team responded well in a desperate situation on Sunday.
“We knew we had huge bricks on our back,” Pore said. “I think everybody was motivated from that bus ride home to today. Give Vancouver credit. They defended their butts off.”
Sunday’s quality effort wasn’t enough to overcome that Whitecaps determined defense, or Portland’s own defensive mistakes in the opening minutes of the two-game series.
“You have to look back at last Thursday night,” Joy said. “We made our mistakes there. We got punished. And that’s why we have this feeling right now. It hurts very badly.”
