The Columbus Crew take on the Portland Timbers Saturday night at Lower.com field. It will be the 14th meeting all-time between the two MLS sides. Since Portland entered MLS in 2011, the Columbus Crew are 3-3-7 against the Timbers. That is the lowest win ratio against any MLS team that the Crew have played more than five times.

This begs the question, what is the deal with Portland? Why do the Crew struggle so much against the Timbers? Columbus continually fails to earn a satisfying result when matched up with Portland.

Games against the Timbers feel uniquely off. Even last year, amid an MLS Cup-winning season, the 3-2 loss in July felt very “un-2023” like for The Crew. Fans will remember the game as a Cucho-less Crew loss right before the start of The Leagues Cup.

Last year’s game was Lucas Zelarayan’s last MLS match before he left for Saudi Arabia. It was a classic Zelarayan performance, he did everything in his power to pull a win or draw towards the Crew, but even he was powerless against this worsening phenomenon

The prior year, 2022, was an excruciating last-second collapse that all but settled The Crew’s fate in missing the playoffs.

Perhaps the circumstance can be traced back to what some would argue the worst defeat in Crew history. Fans are well aware of what occurred in the 2015 MLS Cup. The dark arts of soccer were on display as Portland lifted MLS Cup on The Crew’s home soil inside then-MAPFRE Stadium.

The very next year the MLS season started with a rematch between the two teams that saw Portland walk away with a 2-1 home win and the debut of the dreadful, yet cult favorite For Columbus kit. The result set the tone for an incredibly disappointing 2016 campaign.

Logical readers of this article may point to travel distance as the root cause of the discrepancy, but Columbus often fares much better against Portaland’s Cascadia rival Seattle. The Crew has delivered memorable wins against the Sounders, Justin Meram’s last-second winner, Emilio Renteria’s quarter-field chip, and of course the 2020 MLS Cup.

Conversely, Crew fans have to go back in time to 2017, (seven seasons) since they’ve earned the full three points from a game against Portland.

Diving even deeper into history makes the situation more confounding. The first player to register a goal in this matchup? None other than Columbus born, 2008 Massive Champion, Eric Brunner. He scored a game-winner header against his former Columbus Crew back in 2011 to send the Portland fans into a frenzy and set Columbus on a course of utter frustration.

Perhaps the Black & Gold would be well intended to invite Brunner to be the match ignitor Saturday to reverse the energy back towards the hometown Crew.

The truth is, much like The Crew, Portland is more often than not, a damn good soccer team. Both teams are known to make deep runs into the MLS Cup playoff and earn their fair share of hardware. Each team’s success plays into their identity and culture in ways most MLS teams dream of. As a result, both fan bases are some of the best in the country.

Saturday’s affair will be no different. Perhaps some new characters of the story will emerge and tip the scales slightly towards the Black & Gold.