If I had a nickel for the number of times a referee drastically shifted the flow of a game at Providence Park this weekend by showing an early red card to a player on the home team, I'd have two nickels.
Which isn't a lot, but my god how did that happen twice??
Anyway, let's talk about the BroSo and what we can take away from the Portland Timbers' 1-1 home draw against LA.
The Timbers can be a good soccer team
Yeah, you read that right. I am positing that the Portland Timbers, winners of just one soccer game, holders of 14th place in the Western Conference, can actually be a good soccer team.
Don't just take my word for it – the Timbers themselves have shown us that.
For just a little over 60 minutes of soccer over the past two games, Portland has been the better team on the pitch. They were straight up outplaying the Houston Dynamo through the first half two weeks ago, and for about 19 minutes on Sunday they were also outplaying the LA Galaxy. The biggest improvement obviously comes from the offensive end of the field, where Portland has shown significantly more cohesion and danger.