SANDY, Utah – In a long and challenging season that saw the Portland Timbers open in a snowstorm in Commerce City, Colo., it made for a strange bookend to have their 2019 campaign end with snowfall in Sandy, Utah.
Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake in Round One of the Audi 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs was, as Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese put it after the match, “a game of two halves.” Portland did not register a shot in the first half and fell behind 1-0 in the 28th minute only to blaze back early in the second half to tie it in the 48th minute.