When Lucas Melano landed at the Portland airport in August after almost two years away on loan, he called his Timbers contact who was picking him up.



“I’m here, but you have a couple of fans waiting for you,” he told Melano.



“What?!” Melano replied, surprised. Some Portland Timbers fans really came to welcome him back to the club in the middle of a weekday?



“Yeah, you need to take a picture with them—they’re here to welcome you,” Melano was told.



The fans, members of the Timbers Army, had one of their signature scarves ready for the Argentine forward. “Welcome back,” they told him as they draped a scarf over his shoulders—welcome home.



“That was my first five minutes in Portland and I was feeling the warmth of the fans,” Melano tells The Athletic. “It was crazy. It was amazing.”



The last time Melano had been welcomed to Portland was in...