There is a thing that happens in the exact moment something beautiful and unexpected starts to unfold on a field or a court or, blast it all, a pitch.
Like the anticipation of a cresting wave.
The murmur from 25,218 people rises with a pass from one side of grass to the other, then falls when it is passed back. Rises, then falls.
In a press box, a venue where no cheering is allowed but one that is populated by human beings with primitive emotions and five distinct senses that, in a perfect moment, can suddenly be triggered all at once, someone can’t resist and lets out a kind of yelp.
Like an unswallowed burp.
And then the wave crests and everything is so loud that you yourself can be forgiven for letting out a flood of language that is too profane for this space but in the moment is all that you’ve got to properly convey the absurdity of what has just occurred.
That was Dairon Asprilla’s goal in the 71st minute on Saturday night.
“When you have a dream,” Asprilla would later say, “you try every time.”
His dream arrived like a lightning bolt. A sonic boom. A first love.
It was an audacious bicycle kick that shot a thousand volts into the Timbers’ fading heart and summoned from the ether a 4-1 win over the rival Seattle Sounders.
What you need to know is that the Timbers have struggled terribly this season. Their prospects have been grim. A prized and expensive acquisition, the Brazilian midfielder Evander, has yet to make a significant impact. He, as well as other Timbers, have been beset by injuries.
The resulting truth of it all is that the Timbers had not won a match since a 1-0 edging of Kansas City in their first game. Since then, four losses and two ties.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, a city whose name is only uttered inside the confines of Providence Park when an expletive precedes it, the loathed Sounders had been dynamite. They were a victory away from maintaining their early stake atop the Western Conference.
And when Raul Ruidiaz broke a nil-nil tie in the 58th minute by hammering home a cross that had sliced through the Timbers’ defense like a chainsaw through adolescent pine, it felt inevitable.
The Timbers, who had played even up to that point, appeared ready to unravel.
“We struggled a little bit for a few minutes,” Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese confessed.
But then, the crest of the wave.
Santiago Moreno lined up from outside of the 18-yard box and lofted a ball in front of the mouth of the goal. A poet might say it floated in front of Asprilla like a cherry blossom to the ground.
But no, this was a weighted pass that through the perfect combination of timing, physics, creativity and guile presented itself in such a way that Asprilla had no choice but to twist his body into a pretzel and uncork himself like a Roman candle.
“Everything changed after the great goal by Dairon,” said Timbers forward Jarozslaw Niezgoda.
That wave had crested, but more repeatedly slammed to shore.
Juan Mosquera fired a laser from the far edge of the box that just missed the corner of the goal.
Then, Nathan Fogaça held off a defender to break away and skitter a goal past Sounders’ goalkeeper Stefan Frei.
The Timbers were winning. They had just been losing. Lost, even.
Now that was the most apt description for the Sounders.
“They didn’t even know what happened in that moment,” Savarese said, “because it was so quick.”
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Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders: April 15, 2023
Five minutes later, another attack by the Timbers. Fogaça’s first shot, blocked. An attempt by Moreno to follow it, also blocked.
They were like a battering ram. Teammates taking turns trying to overpower Frei.
And then, like Mario finally breaking through a wall of bricks, Niezgoda was there with his left foot to take the rebound off Moreno’s miss and lace it into the back of the net.
There would be another goal, by Mosquera, but it was delirium by that point.
Hands were on heads. Everything was laughter. An unbelievable rout. And against Seattle, too.
Outrageous things have happened in this rivalry before. None more so than in 2021 when Portland went three hours north to Lumen Field just two weeks after getting drilled 6-2 by the Sounders and beat them 2-0, spurring a run to the MLS Cup final.
Was this as good as that?
Was it as meaningful?
We can’t answer that yet.
But another thing you need to know is that the Timbers had scored multiple goals only once all season, and not since a 3-2 loss at LAFC on March 4. They had managed only six goals all year.
The dam finally broke in a magic moment on Saturday. A moment where the air felt crisper, the beer tasted better.
And the Timbers became a better team.
“We started doing more of the things that we asked the players to do,” Savarese said.
They started playing faster, playing the ball wide and switching the point of attack. They hit better crosses.
If Asprilla’s bicycle kick can do all that for the Timbers in one game, what might it do for the rest of their season?
— Bill Oram | boram@oregonian.com | Twitter: @billoram
