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“What you see now is a team that understands exactly what they do.”
BEAVERTON — There are drawbacks when facing four out of five games on the road.
For one, things don’t start easy for the Portland Timbers, with Saturday night’s match against Austin FC coming against one of MLS’ hottest clubs.
But Phil Neville didn’t quite see it that way on Thursday. Yes, the next month will be a challenge for a Timbers club that’s recently found its way into good form. Portland is on a three-game unbeaten streak, its roster is largely healthy and Neville has been particularly happy with the cohesion he’s seen from a young group.
And that last part is what gets him excited about this upcoming road trip.
See, Portland’s manager knew one of his biggest challenges in his second year with the club would be improving the overall togetherness of the group. The Timbers were often electric in an up-and-down 2024, but on numerous occasions during the season Neville commented on talent-versus-chemistry.
“I thought we had some brilliant individuals,” Neville said. “But maybe we didn’t have everyone pulling in the same direction.”
The start of the 2025 season has had its difficulties. The Timbers entered the year with key players such as Santiago Moreno, Juan Mosquera and Jonathan Rodriguez out with injuries while facing the challenge of replacing the scoring production of Evander, who scored 15 goals in 2024 before his transfer to Cincinnati. And while things got off to a rocky start with a 4-1 opening loss to Vancouver and a 2-0 road loss at Nashville in their third game, the Timbers have largely played stable, solid soccer for the last month — especially upon the return of Moreno and Mosquera to the starting lineup.
And though Neville believes his lineup is plenty talented, right now he’s placing the Timbers’ recent run of fortune on something else.
“Where I thought this season we could make incredible ground was in that chemistry off the pitch, the togetherness off the pitch, that brotherhood off the pitch,” Neville said. “We’ve worked really hard on that. I think there is a formation of a really, really good, together team. A team that’s together with good spirit.”
Neville credited a few things as catalysts. For one, he said veteran forward Felipe Mora “connects the whole team on and off the pitch. He looks after the families, the kids, the days off, the barbecues.” He also said having a large contingent of players from South America on the team has paid dividends — particularly amongst the four Colombians (Diego Chara, Jimer Fory, Mosquera and Moreno) who started for the Timbers on Saturday in their 3-1 win over Houston.
“There’s bound to be a friendship amongst people from the same country,” Neville said. “And what I would say about Diego in particular is he knits the whole group together. But then you have Santi, Jimer and Juan that gravitate towards each other. But they’re pulling in people, like Kevin Kelsy and Antony, into their group because of their personalities and characters.”
Chara, who joined the club 15 years ago as a 23-year-old designated player, knows how important it is for young players to feel that cohesion amongst the group, especially in a new country.
“I was lucky, when I came here we had a really good group of people that helped me to make that transition coming from Colombia and speaking a new language,” said Chara. “It’s helped a lot getting that confidence from the team and it gave me the opportunity to show my best performance every game.”
Neville said what’s really bound the group together has been the required English classes the Timbers are “forcing” the Spanish-speaking players to take twice a week.
“At the start, they really did want to turn off for the classes, but now they love coming to them and they have fun in their classes,” he said. “A common language within the group is important. We’ve recruited a lot from Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, South America, and when you have half the group that doesn’t speak the language, the biggest thing for me about leadership is communication. When you can’t fully communicate within the group, that’s going to cause — not problems — but it’s going to cause moments when people don’t understand what they’re doing.
“And I think what you see now is a team that understands exactly what they do.”
The Timbers flew to Austin on Thursday. That night, Neville said they had a dinner planned away from the hotel. They’ll have the whole day in Austin together as a team on Friday before the challenge of this early-season MLS schedule begins to show its teeth.
Four of the next five on the road will be a challenge. It will also be an opportunity.
“These road trips are really a time when we can come even closer together,” Neville said.
Extra time: Rodriguez getting close to return
The Timbers are just weeks away from having their final piece in place. Neville said on Thursday that designated player Jonathan Rodriguez had completed his visa process in Uruguay and traveled back to Portland on Friday. Rodriguez has been on the injured list for the first six games of the season due to a knee injury. Portland’s 31-year-old leading scorer from 2024 is now eligible to rejoin the active roster.
“We’re hoping to have him back as soon as possible,” Neville said. “He’ll be back training with us, hopefully next week, and see how it goes from there.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
