The Portland Timbers Gazette
Market25 Aug 2036
Jhoan Merino is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Portland Timbers is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match23 Aug 2036
6 matches without a win for Portland Timbers
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Portland Timbers are no longer polite ones.
Market25 Aug 2036
James Dest asks to leave Portland Timbers
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Words exchanged at Portland Timbers
Matt O'Riley and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Aug 2036
George Bello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2036
Seattle Sounders tell Portland Timbers: David Weah is not for sale
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cameron Pulisic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Portland Timbers dressing room was either.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
Giorgio De Marzi knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giorgio De Marzi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
A promise honoured at Portland Timbers
Something was said to Caleb Swann and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Matt Wright
- Player ratings The one thing Matt O'Riley could not do
- Market George Bello linked with a move away