BEAVERTON, Ore. – With one game remaining in the Portland Timbers' 2016 MLS regular season and with so much on the line, including playoffs and playoff seeding, the message from Timbers players and staff was unanimous.
Win and they're in.
“You don't really care about the past,” head coach Caleb Porter said after training on Friday. “You don't care about anything other than the result; it's what it comes down to. We just have to win this one game. That's it. Doesn't matter how we do it. Doesn't matter who's in the lineup. Doesn't matter what's happened in the past. We win and we're in. And that should give us a lot of motivation, a lot of fight, a lot of intensity, a lot of excitement.”
According to midfielder Jack Jewsbury, it was last week's match against Colorado – a match that the players knew they had to win to keep their postseason hopes alive – that helped set the team up for this Sunday's finale against Vancouver Whitecaps FC (1p.m. PT, ROOT SPORTS) and which helped put them in this win-at-all-costs mentality.
“A lot of times people have counted us out and I think quite a few of them are doing it again,” said Jewsbury. “When people have done that, I think this team has risen to the occasion and has proved people wrong...There's a lot of confidence in that locker room right now that we can do the same thing this year [as we did last year].”
That confidence will certainly help buoy a team that will be missing two regular starters, Liam Ridgewell and Diego Chara, due to yellow card accumulation. But if the team is worried about missing those two players, you wouldn't tell from the tone of both Jewsbury's and goalkeeper Jake Gleeson's comments.
“We have such a deep team and such a good squad,” said Gleeson. “So it's just about getting them in and getting them confident and going out and doing the job [on Sunday].”
“This is why we play,” he added. “This is why we train. This is why you spend all that time practicing and trying to perfect things because when that whistle blows you’ve got to go out there you have to step up and do the job.”
Porter, though, is not looking past this weekend's opponent, Whitecaps FC, despite that team's failure to qualify for this year's playoffs. Despite having an opportunity to grab the Cascadia Cup if they can defeat the Timbers by three or more goals, the Whitecaps need no extra motivation on Sunday.
“Their motivation is to stop us from getting in,” explained Porter. “They'll be up for it for sure. It's their final home game...they want to be able to hang their hat on something at the end of the year. [Whitecaps head coach] Carl [Robinson] will have his group ready; he'll have them fighting...it's going to make for a really exciting final but I like our chances.”
And Jewsbury, a veteran of these Cascadia Cup rivalry games, knows how motivated the Whitecaps and their fans will be at BC Place on Sunday.
“I don't think at this point you take anyone lightly, especially in a rivalry game,” he said. “Sure, for them, they'd love nothing more than to keep us out of the playoffs and play the spoiler team….They're going to come out firing.”
But Gleeson insists that the Timbers themselves possess all the motivation necessary to go out on the field on Sunday and qualify for the playoffs.
“I think we're a team that when push comes to shove, we're up to the challenge,” he said.
Added Porter: “There's a lot to be excited about, a lot to fight for [for both teams]...so it's going to be a spicy game.”
