Don Garber was on CNN touting the kickoff of the 2026 season finally…. It’s just a day away and I only started seeing promo spots for the new season on Apple TV a couple days ago. While the Timbers status may have gone for big fish in a small pond to medium sized fish in a larger pond, MLS still loves showing footage of the Timbers Army to promote the league.

The tifo is done and the test pull went well. You’re in for a treat… well assuming you’re not sitting in the Army and you can actually see it. This view is from the tifo warehouse above the Axe & Rose. As supporters, we are amazingly lucky to have this location. Hats off to the TA board and everyone who helped make it possible. Additional photo after the jump.

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The official release of the 2026 Away kit is finally here.

The Civic Stadium Kit celebrates a landmark of Portland history and civic pride. The cherished home to the Timbers and Portland’s professional soccer, the stadium has played host to countless memorable sports and entertainment events, including college football, pro baseball, Women’s World Cup and concerts by legends Elvis Presley and David Bowie.

The kit honors a century of memories in the heart of Soccer City, USA.

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This guy… when healthy he really shinned for us. He always pushed us, and quite frankly, needed the rest of the team to play above their level to get the most from him. Unfortunately age and injury caught up with him. If only we had gotten him a few years earlier. Pundits expected something to be worked out with his contract in this, his final year. Details about whether or not his contract could be bought off were mixed, I had read that particular clause was not ablate be applied to him. The Timbers social media post said they “waived” him and exercised a buyout of his contract. Seems like a bit of a diss. To me, waiving a player means not exercising an option to retain a player, or deciding not to re-sign a player after a contract ends. This is definitely in the best interest of the team, but supporters will undoubtedly remember him fondly.

File this under not unexpected but still upsetting. We let Dario’s contract expire at the end of 2025. The talk was that the FO (stupid FO…) was in negotiations with him for a return, although I can’t recall ever seeing a concrete source for this. It’s a fact that our back line was strongest with Zup in the lineup. It’s only a shame that it took Neville three quarters of the season to realize it. He and Ned must have a short term season memory problems. Zup was a warrior, and a funny guy. He always gave everything on the pitch, and wasn’t afraid to call out a lack of… heart? It’s shame he won’t get a proper send off from the fans. I pushed hard for him to win the Supporter’s Player of the Year in 2022 but it somehow ended up going to Aljaz Ivacic, and we all know how that ended. If you don’t follow the link.

Goodbye Zup. You will be missed.

Reddit user JayChucksFrank snapped this picture of some Timbers staff attending the Suns vs Blazer match on February 22nd. I guess this is some sort of soft reveal via clues in the instagram account, which is an odd way to do it. It’s also on display in the Portland Art Museum, and it still hasn’t been officially revealed. It’s been a worst kept secret than the signing of Cole Basset. The Timbers have been hinting at Goose Hollow theme with pictures and videos of geese in social media. Goose Hollow is the neighborhood the stadium resides in, so I suppose those arches are supposed to reference the architecture of the stadium entrances in the North End. It doesn’t quite speak to me, but it’s not terrible. It has the look of something that might grow on me in person. Outside of a stint of incredibly boring white away kits, the Timbers jerseys have been mostly good. I include the 2023-24 home plaid kit as one of the bad ones. To me it looks like packaging for store-brand tea of some sort. Don’t forget about the mostly reviled 2015 primary kit. The initial negative reactions were eventually softened after winning MLS cup in them, even though the team originally wanted to where the fan favorite alternate kit, but was denied by MLS for some reason.

Photo: JayChucksFrank – used with permission.

That looks like the 1981 Away kit. Number 11 is Stuart Lee who played for the Bolton Wanderers, Wrexham, Stockport County, and Manchester City before coming to the timbers for 2 seasons. He later played for a slew of NASL teams including the Kansas City Comets, Carolina Lightnin, Los Angeles Lazers, St. Louis Steamers, Tampa Bay Rowdies, and Dallas Sidekicks. Number 21 is Jimmy Kelly who hailed from Northern Ireland. He had 2 stints with the Timbers and also played for Glentoran, Cliftonville, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wrexham, Walsall, and the Kidderminster Harriers. Wish I could tell you more about the source of this photo, but that’s the internet for you.

UPDATE: Found the original online source, of course it is NASLJerseys.com. Still no idea what the original print source was. Obviously some Timbers advertising. This page also identifies the other players in the picture.  Bernie Fagan (18), John Bain, Bruce Gant, Kenny Palmer (dressed as ref), Willie Anderson (12)

Ladies and Gentleman, our David Ayala replacement… The Portland Timbers officially announced the signing of Colorado Rapids midfielder Cole Bassett. The transfer cost $2.65 million, with a potential addition of $1.05m based on performance incentives. Cole was a Colorado home grown, and in the photo above he looks about as pissed off as the Rapids supporters were when they found out they were losing him. He’s 24 years old but due to the needlessly complex MLS roster rules, he’s somehow going to occupy a U22 Initiative slot spot. He’s under contract till the end of 2027, which is the first year of ne new MLS split year schedule. That will be interesting.

Source: Timbers.com

The Timbers acquired Frank Boli in 2023 from Hungarian side Ferencvárosi Torna Clube. They had an option to keep him for 2024 but they didn’t exercise it. I could have sworn he played for us for more than one season. He ended up going to Atlético San Luis after he left the Timbers. It looks like 2024 was the last year he played professionally. I don’t remember a lot about him, but my recollection is fuzzy positive one. Boli was born in Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Cost. He’s on Instagram if you want to follow him, but his posts are infrequent.

As of r the interview, Redditor u/acquiesce sent him some questions, and Frank obliged to answer. There are no bombshells in there, in fact he’s almost too diplomatic to make it very interesting, but it always nice to hear from a player after they’ve left. Thanks to u/acquiesce for letting me repost this. I added some bonus videos of some of Frank’s goals after the interview.

Photo: Timbers.

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Our Oceania scouting team is woking hard. The Timbers announced that signed Australian defender Alex Bonetig from the A-League’s Western Sydney Wanderers. Turns out I’m already pronouncing his name wrong. Pronunciation: BON-eh-tig. He’s signed through the 2027-28 season with a club option for 2028-29.It seems like Ned wants Alex to form a partnership with Finn Surman, but if Flight of the Conchords has taught me anything, it’s that Australians and New Zealanders are mortal enemies.

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