Portland’s late comeback win against San Diego the perfect advert for MLS’ best-of-three playoff format

(Photo: Zachary Meisenheimer/AFTN)

In 2023, when MLS altered their playoff schedule to include a “Best of Three” format in the opening round proper, it was met with mixed reviews. Football purists typically detested the idea as another way MLS was infringing on the traditions of the sport. Many of MLS’ North American fans welcomed the new concept warmly as they had been socialized most of their lives on playoffs being a “Best of X (# of games)” series.

What the change ultimately did was ensure that the eight (proper) playoff sides would be guaranteed a meaningful home match in the post-season. No longer would the advancing team be determined by a single match or a home-and-home aggregate total (either with or without the away goals rules) – where the higher seeded club could have a dominant first leg, thus making the return fixture virtually meaningless for the lower seed and their fans.

Last Saturday was a prime advert for what Major League Soccer’s competition committee was attempting to achieve. The stewards of the Portland Timbers Football Club were able to market the match as “Do or Die” and get as many possible bums in seats, while the players and coaches were able to encourage their supporters and the entire stadium to get behind them for one last time at Providence Park (due to them being the eighth seed, they are not going to be playing any further 2025 playoff games at home, no matter how things play out).

The match was mostly unhindered by what took place in the first game and turned into a slugfest with the sides trading periods of dominance and chances on goal. It was an evening of quality playoff soccer!

To give it all a little context, San Diego FC visited PDX on Decision Day, the final match day of the league campaign, and smashed them 4-0, which helped the California side clinch the top spot in the Western Conference ahead over Vancouver Whitecaps. On top of that, six days previous, San Diego deservedly defeated the Timbers on their home pitch to take a one match lead in the best-of-three series. The 2-1 result is one that Timbers’ coach Phil Neville helped his players put in the rearview mirror with a difficult training session midweek. Despite his players leaving that day in a “huff”, they all returned the following day and after he had run them through a video session discussing the game plan for the second match, they were fully onboard and ready to go.

Neville only made two changes to the side from the opening match – one in the defence and the other in the attack. Dario Zapuric replaced the suspended Jimer Fory (he was sent off in the first outing) at the back and Kevin Kelsy came in for Felipe Mora in the front line. Both additions played significant roles on the night. MLS Coach of the Year Candidate Mikey Varas went with an unchanged side that he hoped would duplicate the result from the one achieved in the Golden State. One important change found amongst the substitutes was the inclusion of Hirving “Chucky” Lozano. The dynamic Mexican attacker had been completely dropped from the squad for both the Decision Day encounter and first game of the series, following a bit of an altercation with Varas after he was taken off in the penultimate League game away to Houston Dynamo. However, on this occasion – the day after Halloween – Chucky would turn out to haunt the Timbers, at least a bit.

Even though the stadium was only about 80% full, the place was rocking. The 100 or so away supporters were boisterous throughout the night and brought their Latin flair. The Timbers Army were proud and loud, belting out all of their classics. The passionate Timbers fans also got things going with another quality post anthem tifo. They rigged up a banner of the No Pity van with the words, “WET COLD PORTLAND NOVEMBER”! The Timbers were ready to ride.

You could also tell Neville had his side raring to go as they came out dominating the opening 20 minutes of the match. Key to that was Kristoffer Velde. The half Argentine, Norwegian born attacker, that Portland brought in mid-August for roughly $5 million has taken a bit of time to settle in and contribute. He had three assists in eight League appearances but then scored the lone Timbers goal in the first match to get things rolling. He didn’t take his foot off the gas pedal as this one kicked off and he took control of the match from his position on the left wing. In the eighth minute he cut in from left and hit the post, only for the rebound to elude his teammates. Essentially everything good for the home side went through the man nicknamed Veldinho.

They would be rewarded in the 18th minute when Canadian ‘keeper, James Pantemis, played a long ball that Anthony, Velde’s counterpart on the right side, had managed to get a foot on ahead of San Diego defender Christopher McVey. It fell kindly for Velde, who took a touch before powerfully finessing his shot into the right corner of the net. The Timbers were rolling and looking for more.

In the 21st minute, Velde was involved again. This time he put in a deep cross from the left that Kelsy tried to get on the end of. However, instead of making contact with the ball he ended up kicking San Diego ‘keeper CJ Dos Santos in the head. As the play continued Timbers’ right back Juan Mosquera attempted to take advantage of Dos Santos being out of position but his low shot hit the seemingly lifeless body of Dos Santos. This let everyone know how series the situation was and the medical personnel were rushed on to the field, followed shortly by the stretcher. After a lengthy delay, Dos Santos refused to use the aid of the stretcher and was helped off the field, to be replaced by backup Pablo Sisniega. This was a concussion substitution, which meant that it wouldn’t count against San Diego’s limit of five subs and the Timbers would be given an additional sub to be used.

The long pause, really took the sting out of the game but Sisniega attempted to bring it back to life when his clearance was almost blocked on the half hour. The Timber who got their leg in front of that attempted pass was of course Velde.

Ten minutes later the home side thought they had doubled their advantage but Kelsy failed to hold his run and his strike was correctly called back for offside. The sides traded yellow cards before entering the 12 minutes of time added on, primarily due to the Dos Santos injury. This phase of the game was mostly uneventful and it looked like Portland would go into the break up a goal. However, in the 57th minute of the first half the visitors struck back. It all came from some pretty simple build up on San Deigo’s right flank. Then Corey Baird found Amahl Pellegrino open at the top of the box. He turned and fired past the statue like Pantemis.

A minute later and the game seemed to be turned on its head as San Diego seemed to be celebrating a go-ahead-goal. This time Pellegrino was the provider and first match hero, Anders Dreyer, was the one to finish the play off. However, Drew Fischer once again got the call right by indicating it was offside – albeit this time with the aid of VAR. This sent the sides into their locker rooms all tied up at one apiece after a first half of an incredible 61 minutes!

Varas was keen on seeing off the pesky Timbers in this match, so much so that he replaced the contributing Baird for Lozano. It seemed to be an inspired decision as only six minutes into the second half, the Mexican was finding the back of the net from a rebound. San Diego worked things well down the left and it was fellow substitute Franco Negri who put in a cross that was hit sweetly on the volley by Dreyer. Pantemis did well to keep it in front of him but unfortunately it went right to the last person you would want. Lozano adjusted his body perfectly to side foot home with the instep of his right foot. There appeared to be a hint of offside but VAR didn’t even call Fischer over to have a look. Our angle in the press box made it seem dodgier than when viewed back on the replay, where it appears that Mosquera’s heel may have played the Mexican star onside.

From that moment onward, there was a vibe in the stadium that the Timbers would be able to claw their way back into the game. Neville played his role, in using his subs to create new options going forward. David Ayala and David Da Costa were replaced by Cristhian Paredes and Omir Fernández on the hour mark to change things up in the middle of the park. Eight minutes later Ian Smith took over from Mosquera at right back and Mora became a stronger focal point for the attack in place of Kelsy. The 79th minute saw removal of Canadian defender Kamal Miller in favour of the more attacking Ariel Lassiter. The final sub, the one granted due to the Dos Santos’ concussion, was the most significant, with attacker Gage Guerra coming on in the 86th minute for Smith, who had been subbed in less than 20 minutes prior. It was the last roll of the dice for Portland and one that would pay off.

All the changes brought the chances Portland desired and they all had a similar look. Crosses from the left side finding a near post header. Unfortunately, all three went wide of that near post. The final two were diving headers. The most dramatic and closest was the middle of the bunch and of course was from Velde.

As the tension grew, eight minutes were added to the game and it took almost every second for the Timbers to finally find their equalizer. Lassiter took a throw-in deep on the left flank. A poor San Diego clearance enabled him to have a second chance and he put in a high cross to the back post. It was there that the ball was met by a soaring Guerra who powered home an emotional header for the striker who had spent the season working his way through the Timbers’ second team to earn minutes with the first team. He showed his character and quality in that after the restart he fell back to help cover for some of the defenders that had been taken off as Portland put everything into leveling the game. Neither side were able to find a third and the match went straight to penalties.

Before that happened, there was an interesting moment when Fischer informed the two captains, Portland’s Diego Chara and San Diego’s Jeppe Tverskov, that the shoot-out would be taking place in front of the Timbers Army. Tverskov was not impressed by this and Fischer seemed to indicate that he had no rational for this but he was told it had to be there. Chara then won the coin toss and chose for the Timbers to shoot second. Here is how the shots went:

SD: Dreyer – Goal (bottom left corner)
PT: Mora – Goal (bottom right corner)
SD: Lozano – Goal (bottom right corner)
PT: Paredes – Stopped (down the middle)
SD: Valakari – Miss (over bar in the middle)
PT: Fernández – Stopped (to the left/off cross bar)
SD: Ingvartsen – Miss (over bar to the right)
PT: Velde – Goal (upper left)
SD: Tverskov – Miss (hit bar, left)
PT: Anthony – Goal (mid left)

So after missing two of their first three, Portland scored their last two to win 3-2. That was only possible due to San Diego missing their final three kicks – two shot over the bar and the third hitting it. As the home crowd was going crazy, the Timbers’ players were starting to celebrate when a small fracas seemed to be kicking off in the middle of the pitch. San Diego’s Aníbal Godoy was extremely heated and seemed to want to fight someone. Neville held him back. Mosquera came over to offer to engage with the Panamanian midfielder but it all got broken up quite quickly and celebratory mood resumed throughout the ground.

This sets up an epic third game back down in southern California on Sunday evening, where the home side will try to avoid becoming another top seeded team to go out in the first round. If they do, Portland may very well help their Cascadian rivals to the north, as Vancouver would become the top seeds in the West, with a chance to host the Western Conference final if they can get past LAFC.

There’s still a lot of football to be played for all of that to happen, but with the drama of the MLS playoffs so far, don’t write anything off.