Portland exorcises its wild-card demons to advance in MLS playoffs

Old favorites deliver

With an injury list longer than anyone's in MLS and an exhausted core of regulars, Portland coach Phil Neville didn't have much to work with for this crucial game. His solution? Solve for the devil you know. He rotated out inconsistent-but-fit spark plugs like striker Kevin Kelsy and Cristhian Paredes in favor of reliable-but-tired regulars like Felipe Mora and Diego Chara.

The move looked questionable before a ball was kicked — Mora hadn't scored in 23 matches and 39-year-old Chara didn't seem capable of playing 90 minutes — but it proved to be inspired. Mora, fighting for his legacy with Portland and hungry to prove his worth, scored a quick brace in the first half to put his team in control of the contest. His second goal came after he won a header in the box; quite the accomplishment, really, considering he's just 5-foot-9.

And Chara? The legendary Portland midfielder, coming off his record-smashing 399th regular-season start with the team, turned back the clock and proved exactly why he's lasted so long in the league. He ran this game from start to finish. Salt Lake's pacy young stars simply couldn't play through him.

Experience matters in win-or-die situations like these. Neville was right to rely on his most loyal soldiers.

Profligacy gets punished

Neither Portland nor Salt Lake scored buckets of goals in 2025: the teams finished the season in eighth and ninth place and managed just 41 and 38 tallies respectively. (By contrast, 10th-placed San Jose scored a stunning 60, but conceded an even more stunning 63 to sink its playoff chances.) This game was always going to come down to small margins in the offensive third, and Portland wound up winning every single one of them.

Portland fired off just seven shots, but it scored nearly half of them; Salt Lake managed 17, but buried just one. That kind of wastefulness in front of goal haunted this young Salt Lake squad all season and wound up eliminating it from playoff contention.

A wild Western Conference

Portland's win finalizes the Western Conference picture and seals its eight entrants into the MLS Cup playoffs. With the Philadelphia Union winning the Supporters' Shield, Inter Miami winning most of the headlines and FC Cincinnati staying consistent throughout 2025, the Eastern Conference has dominated conversation in the league all season. But make no mistake: the crazy, ever-changing West still has plenty to say. Portland's emphatic win shows that even its lowest-ranked teams are capable of delivering clutch performances in a win-or-die scenario.