Last Saturday’s episode of Timbers 360 appears to have accidentally leaked the hire of Marti Cifuentes, who most recently was the gaffer for Leicester City and Queens Park Rangers while in the EFL Championship. He’s only briefly mentioned at the beginning of the show, almost as if they had a longer segment planned. Three days later there has still been no official announcement from the Timbers, although news outlets and reliable sources are reporting it. His stints with QPR and Leicester City were not the greatest, but he did well in other European leagues. He’s supposed to be an attack minded player whose teams play with a clear identity.

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Don Garber appeared Chad Ochocinco Johnson and Raheem Taylor-Parkes’ The Late Run podcast. He recalls the story of taking the presidnet of NBC Sports to a Timbers game. The verdict: “This is the best sporting event I’ve ever been to in my life.” Don also thinks the fact that people boo him means the league is succeeding.

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A historic 5-1 beatdown of the Sounders in Seattle. It’s the first time the Sounders have given up 5 goals at home. It’s hard to pin down the stats but I think this evens the score in all-time MLS era games, all competitions, although we’re still behind in all eras. Featured image is a fan with an Oregon Trail themed scarf. Legend! Video of the announcer calling the Sounders “embarrassing” after the jump.

Interim Jack Cassidy we trust!

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Spotted this on the Timbers reddit. Mojotooth changed the text of the member benefit email that usually offers season ticket holders a chance to attend a training session. “As a 2026 Timbers Annual Member you have the exclusive opportunity to be the Timbers’ head coach for one of the following three upcoming matches!” Pretty damned funny, especially considering the lack of meaningful updates from the FO on our head coach search. We’ll see how that goes tonight. Kind of strange that they scheduled a big rivalry match mid-week during the World Cup. They’re hoping those “we’ll take it from here” ads running this week during World Cup will get some people to tune in. A Cascadia match usually delivers, although they have felt kind of flat lately.

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It’s crazy that Finn didn’t get in as coaches selection or Commissioner’s pick. The announcers highlighted him and his performance as an MLS player in every match he played in the group state of the World Cup, and he even scored a goal. The only thing that makes sense is he’s already traded overseas and they haven’t announced it yet. If you ask me (nobody did) Crépeau  over Pantemis is a bit of a head scratcher too.

World Cup fever. This is a Pre-game photo of Robbie Rensenbrink and Johan Cruyff before the Timbers faced off against the Washington Diplomats in 1980. Rensenbrink and Cruyff both played on the the Netherlands World Cup team in 1974. Rensenbrink would play in the World Cup again in 1978. Photo: Gino Buysrogge.

Source: NASL Jerseys.

Finn Surman scored a goal in the World Cup! Is he the first Timber to score a World Cup goal? No, yes. It depends. I believe he is the first Timber to score a gaol while on the roster. Rob Rensenbrink scored four in 1978 and Takayuki Suzuki scored one in 2002, but both had yet to join the Timbers when they scored their goals. Let it soak in. Finn Surman scored a World Cup goal.

As the corner was about to happen, I called out to my son in the other room and said jokingly “Get in here, or you’ll miss Finn Surman scoring a goal against Egypt.”

Photo: Uncredited – Timbers

Check out this rare 2010 fan pic of Multnomah/Civic stadium when it was called PGE park. This was a USL match against the Seattle Sounders. It’s a little disorienting to see a complete lack of stands on the east side. Then there’s the Oregonian building, in its death throes. Thanks to Reddit user witzpdx for the pic.

Well it finally happened. The Timbers and Phill Neville “mutually” parted ways. That’s what you say when you still like the guy, but he isn’t delivering the results needed. I don’t care for teams firing coaches willy-nilly without giving them enough time to make corrections, but that certainly wasn’t the case here. Most fans think we gave him too much time. Whatever your thoughts on his coaching ability, you cannot fault the guy for lack of effort, or lack of buying into the City of Portland. Sure, he looked like he bought most of his sideline Timbers gear from Target or Ross, but he was all in. Would he still be here had the San Jose game gone any different? I felt like we actually played well that match, and it mostly came down to 3 individual mistakes, and a lack of finishing from our side. Smarter soccer people than me (low bar) feel the same way. He was a likable guy, results not withstanding. I regret not getting the Portland Table Soccer Club going again in time to invite him to play Subuteo with us. I also regret the prolonged chanting of “Neville Out” while the team was still desperately trying to score goals. It should have been saved for after the final whistle.

That was fun. A 6-0 win over Wooden Spoon leaders SKC and a historic blowout for the club. Also the fastest a team has scored four goals in their MLS era. Coincidentally, our largest victory in MLS play used to be the 7-2 win over Sporting Kansas City on May 14, 2022. Near as I can find, our largest previous victory was a Concacaf Champions League win, 5-0 over CD Marathón on April 13th, 2021. I think that was our first MLS era hat trick. All I know for sure is that we still haven’t scored one in MLS play. Yimmi Chara!

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