We've come to the end of the regular season, and with it, the end of the Portland Timbers' season. Last year's champs missing the post season has set a dubious MLS record, this is the first time both teams that played in MLS Cup have missed the post season the following year. As a Sounders fan, I'll try not to cackle too much as we break down what happened.





How Are They Out?

An end of season loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps sealed their fate, Vancouver took the Cascadia Cup by winning 4-1 too; ouch.

Why Should USMNT Fans Care?

Controversial midfielder Darlington Nagbe plays for the Timbers. Jack McInerney has gotten called in to the USMNT before, though he's out of favor now.

What Went Wrong?

Let's start with the elephant missing from the room, road wins. The Timbers failed to win a single road game all season long, with their away record being a grisly 0-11-6. You cannot take 6 points from 17 games and hope to make the post season, even in MLS. Hell, even the hapless Chicago Fire managed to stumble into a road win this season, and they've had a brutally long stretch without one, over two years! When road wins don't happen, but home wins do, the problem is clearly psychological and motivational; and that is the area a coach is supposed to take care of, for whatever reason Caleb Porter was simply unable to push the right buttons on the road.

Beyond that, a spate of injuries in defense, including a season ending (and probably career-ending) achilles tendon injury to veteran center back nat Borchers lead to Portland having the worst goals against in the western conference. Lucas Melano is at this point, a bust; a designated player striker should not be scoring fewer goals than a workaday striker like Jack McInerney, especially given that Melano has more starts and games played. Darlington Nagbe had a major drop off in his productivity compared to last year and didn't look nearly as good.

What Went Right?

Fanendo Adi continues to be a phenomenal goal scorer, 16 goals and 2 assists. Diego Valeri is one of the best attacking midfielders in MLS. Diego Chara remains a great central defensive midfielder. Jake Gleeson has been of the best keepers in MLS all season, despite his team's rotten defensive form.

How Do They improve?

Some real roster challenges lie ahead for the Timbers. Jake Gleeson and Liam Ridgewll just got busted for a DUI together, given that they are immigrants this could have serious ramifications for their ability to work in the US; if the team even still wants them. Nat Borchers is probably heading for retirement, and if not he may at least be out for the start of the season. Backup/secondary defensive midfielder Jack Jewsbury is retiring. Rumors persist, ever since Fanendo Adi missed that flight to Seattle, that Adi wants out, if he's gone in the winter transfer window that leaves a huge hole at striker, especially since fellow designated player Lucas Melano should be shown the door. That's a lot of holes to fill for the Timbers, and I'm not sure they all can be filled in time for the start of the season, much less to be a greatly improved team.

Overall though, as weird as it will sound to a lot of people, I think coach Caleb Porter should go along with Lucas Melano. I know, I know, you're saying that he won MLS Cup just last year, but the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the Timbers seasons must have a root and given the roster changes, I don't think it's the players. For the last 4 years Portland yo-yos from month to month between being amazing and being terrible, but one thing has been constant for the last 4 years, Caleb Porter. Caleb Porter seems to love drama and it seems to love him, following him from job to job, when the mix is just right, Porter can get great things done, including winning MLS Cup. But at other times, when the mix isn't right, it's a recipe for disaster. Aside from his first season in charge, where the Timbers took first in the west, in regular season totals the Timbers have floated somewhere around the middle ranges of the western conference, and that was fine and acceptable when the Timbers were a small spender, but they aren't anymore; Portland is 4th in the west and 6th overall in the league in salary spending, they should be doing better than they are. The drama with Fanendo Adi and the poor road form in general seems to point to coaching failures as well. Now, Porter fans need not worry, I doubt Merritt Paulson will break with traditional MLS thinking and fire a coach a year after they won it all, but I think that there should be some serious questions around Caleb Porter's future with the Timbers.