Where the Timbers Stand After a Turbulent End to 2024
Another long, busy offseason stands before a Timbers team that once again fell short of expectations.
Two days removed from one of (if not) the worst losses in the Portland Timbers’ MLS history, general manager Ned Grabavoy and head coach Phil Neville addressed the media at the club’s training facility in Beaverton.
An up-and-down first season in the PNW for Neville, one which produced the most potent attacking trio the club has ever seen en-route to winning Cascadia Cup in Seattle on Decision Day, careened into the side of a mountain with a 5-0 loss at home to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Wild Card round.
So for the third season in a row, Timbers players and coaching staff find themselves clearing out their lockers and going home for the year while the top eight teams from each conference begin their post-season campaigns.
“I think the result on Wednesday night will stick with us all of the offseason. It was the manner of the defeat, the scoreline obviously … we had real high expectations for this match, for this season, and I think I said it after the game, ‘we fell below the expectations of where we wanted to finish and where we wanted to be,’” said Neville.
The magnitude of that loss was something that nobody saw coming — Not the owner, not the front office, not the coaching staff, not the players, not even those most critical of the aforementioned stakeholders. I know I didn’t.