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Portland’s leading scorer injured his hamstring in the second half against San Jose.
BEAVERTON — The Portland Timbers returned to training this week without one of their most important players on the pitch. And according to manager Phil Neville, it’s going to be quite a bit of time before Antony returns.
Antony, the Timbers’ leading scorer with six goals, is expected to miss six to eight weeks following a hamstring injury sustained in the 46th minute of Portland’s 1-1 draw with San Jose on June 13.
Just out of the locker room to start the second half, Antony drove the ball across midfield, tangled with San Jose’s DeJuan Jones and fell awkwardly to the ground. Antony got up and limped around the field for the next few minutes before dropping to the turf in the 49th while grabbing his left hamstring.
“Disappointing because Antony was in incredible form,” Neville said on Tuesday. “What are we now, 10 days into Antony’s injury? So hopefully that six to eight weeks is now five weeks, but it’s going to be near six to eight weeks because his game is built on speed and that sort of acceleration at top speed. And with hamstring injuries, with those types of players, you’ve got to take it safe.”
The severity of Antony’s injury, coupled with a hand injury sustained by Ariel Lassiter last week while playing for Costa Rica that will keep him out “about two weeks,” has suddenly depleted Portland on the left side.
The Timbers sustained things without Jonathan Rodriguez this year on the wing because of the emergence of Antony. And while signing the 30-year-old Lassiter this offseason wasn’t one of Portland’s more heralded acquisitions, it was a depth move made to support a position with concerns surrounding Rodriguez’s health.
Now, all three of them are out, just as Portland emerges from a break to face Toronto on Saturday for its first match in 15 days.
In the short term, early-season acquisition Omir Fernandez will see a large rise in minutes. Fernandez came over from Colorado in exchange for $200,000 back in April and has appeared in nine matches with one start for Portland in his seventh MLS season.
In the long term, Neville said he hasn’t deviated from his pre-injury stance that the Timbers need some help once the July 24 transfer window opens up.
“We know what we want. We need two to three starting-level players,” Neville said. “There is obviously a spot there for a DP-level player, which we’re really looking hard at. The recruitment team is doing some great work. We’ve got some good options. And now, it’s about finding the right options with the right profile. I think that’s really important, that we have a group that’s hungry, that we have a group that are really together. We want to bring somebody in here that’s going to add to that group.
“If we don’t find the player that’s going to come in and improve them, we’re going to go with the players that we’ve got because we’ve got an outstanding team, an outstanding group who feels if we’re close to where we want to be. And now I think it’s adding two, maybe three players to become starters in the team, not just to come and give us depth.”
Extra Time
Mora adjusts to role with Kelsy
With Antony and his six goals on the shelf, the Timbers will look to players such as David Da Costa, Santiago Moreno, Kevin Kelsy and Felipe Mora to shoulder more of the offensive load.
For Mora, whose five goals are tied with Kelsy for second on the team, the ask is yet another requirement from a uniquely challenging year for the 31-year-old forward. After scoring a career-high 14 goals and starting in 22 of his 29 appearances in 2024, Mora has started 12 of 18 matches in 2025 as he’s split time with Kelsy, the 20-year-old whom the Timbers spent $6 million to acquire this offseason.
There is an expectation for Mora to be a leader on this team. There is also an expectation for Mora to perform, whether he starts on the pitch or comes off from the bench.
“Last year I had a great year and, yeah, this year has changed and we’ve been doing a lot more rotations,” Mora said. “At the end of the day, it’s a coach’s decision. All I can do is work hard.”
Mora has 5 goals and 3 assists in 968 minutes. Kelsy has 5 goals and 0 assists in 718 minutes.
“They both deserve to start. That rotation has really worked and I think they know it’s worked and they understand the fact that it’s worked, but they don’t like it,” Neville said. “And Pipé being the senior player and someone that was a big part of the success last year, I think at times he has had to really focus on his positivity because he wants to play in every single game.
“We spoke to them the other day and we gave them a lot of positives in terms of their roles within the team, whether they start or they come on. We’re a team that likes to play one center forward and a No. 10 behind. That’s the way we like to play. So it’s something that they’re going to have to accept and I think that we’ve accepted it really well.”
The Phantom of Providence Park
I’m sure Neville didn’t enjoy watching Portland’s 1-1 draw with San Jose from a Providence Park suite. I did, however, enjoy seeing the flood of pictures that came out from fans that night who caught a glimpse of the team’s manager not exactly sitting things out while he served his one-game suspension for Yellow Card accumulation.
First, from the Apple TV broadcast during a moment in which Neville said he was just “ordering popcorn.”
Second, the view from the stands.
Among the Reddit comments on a similar post:
PASS IT TO ANTONYYYYY
DA COSTAAAAAAAAAAA!
It was an experience for sure!! Just Heeeey!!!! heyyyyy!!!
Love him or hate him, you gotta appreciate that Phil is passionate about the team.
Who hates him?
That last one got me thinking a bit. While Neville’s hiring in the winter of 2023 was met with less-than-stellar reviews from the Portland fan base, a year and a half later, it seems the winds have shifted from That’s our coach? to That’s our coach!
Winning certainly is the driving factor — I don’t think the supporters were feeling the same way during last year’s early nine-game winless streak — but I think Neville’s openness and passion for the club have played a large role in the eventual embrace from supporters.
“I definitely think I’m in a better place now than I was on Day 1, “ Neville said. “I think what I said on Day 1 was that I needed to commit and meet the Timbers Army and the fans and that they needed to get to know me. I feel it on the streets. I feel it in every shop I go in. I feel it downtown. I feel it in the stadium, particularly on match day. I feel as if we’ve got an incredible bond at this moment in time.
“…The funny thing was, there were obviously people in the suites next to us who were totally engrossed in everything that I was doing. I think they fed off my emotions and energy as well.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
