Firsts come easy when you're a young team, but not when you've been around for four decades, not even when you've been in your league of less than one. Yes, first goals in new venues or first times you beat opponents happen all the time in a league that's still expanding, but real firsts? The achievements you want before they even happen? Whole seasons go by without writing those record books.
On Saturday, the Portland Timbers got a first they'll remember, one that was seven years in the making. Though the team had won at CenturyLink Field in Major League Soccer play before, they had never done so in the regular season, only claiming a technical victory in the first half of a 2013 Western Conference playoff. But with a 3-2 win today that ran their all-competitions unbeaten streak to 12 games, Portland finally can put Seattle away into the win column.
"For me, the most important (part) was the three points," Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese said, when asked about his team's piece of history. "That's the most important part. We were able to do it on a difficult field. [Seattle] looked good. They played well. They put up a big challenge against us."
That challenge meant the Sounders pulling back Portland leads on two occasions: the first, in response to Larrys Mabiala's 48th-minute opener, which VÃctor RodrÃguez leveled in the 51st; the second coming when Chad Marshall converted a corner in the 68th minute, canceling out a strike from Samuel Armenteros 11 minutes before.
Mabiala would have the final say, though, finding redemption after getting beat on Marshall's equalizer. Off a 74th minute corner, the Timbers found their main set-piece target for the fourth time, setting up Mabiala's second goal on the day, third in two games, fourth of the season, all amid posting the first multi-goal game of his career.
"I know this was a very important game for us and for the fans," Mabiala explained in the moments after the match, coming to grips with not only his day but his part in his team's historic result. "I was really motivated for this one. I don't know. I just need some time to realize what's happening right now."
The coming days will give Mabiala and his teammates time to find perspective on the performance, context which will include a new place in the standings (fourth in the West) and the new height of their unbeaten run. The obstacles the team's had to traverse along the way to that height have thus far prevented anybody from stopping, making an assessment, and putting Portland's run into context, but now, after a three-game stretch that's produced results against each conference leader as well as the team's closest rival, that perspective may be unavoidable.
"We concentrate only on what we have in front of us," Savarese said, taking himself and his team out of the perspective game. "We don't worry about what we have done in the past. We think only of what we have on the day and prepare for it, and the guys just believe that the only way to achieve is to work very hard, and we have."
That attitude should inform how others evaluate the Timbers. Although the Sounders' record right now doesn't say that Seattle is a top team, for Portland, the challenge was a unique one. It was not only a derby in a place the team had failed to win in the regular season before, but it came at the crest of the team's current run, having gone to league-leading Atlanta United FC last week to earn a draw and nearly taken full points.
That's why it would have so easy look beyond the Sounders, think of more formidable obstacles, and get taught one of Major League Soccer's truism. The league is designed so every team can be competitive, and even amid a long unbeaten run, no squad has so much talent that they can be guaranteed a result. Not on the road. Not against a rival. Not against a team that still has some of the more intriguing talents in Major League Soccer.
Portland conquered that. Now, the team comes home to another opponent they could easily overlook on July 7 against the San Jose Earthquakes. But in two wins over the 'Quakes already this season, the team's shown an unwillingness to get ahead of themselves. As is the case with the other 10 tasks in their unbeaten run, Portland took the Earthquakes challenge in stride. The attitude was one game at a time, throughout.
That's the perspective that's defined the Timbers' season. That's why they were able to see out Saturday's historic result.
