The Portland Timbers Gazette
Squad31 Jan 2028
Juan Mosquera in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portland Timbers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Portland Timbers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joao Ortiz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Joao Ortiz
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Portland Timbers count the cost of losing Ryan Pulisic
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
David Da Costa gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say David Da Costa is on it.
Market31 Jan 2028
The Antony talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Portland Timbers know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
- The dugout Kristoffer Velde has been promised minutes
- The dugout Brandon Bye knocks on the manager's door
- Boardroom The Portland Timbers board choose calm
- Squad Sam Moore is out on the grass again