It was coming.

After battling, scrapping, and being denied by Nick Rimando and Alan Gordon and Robert Earnshaw and injuries and lapses and luck, the Portland Timbers finally broke through beneath a full moon on a clear April night in the Rose City.

Results business, huh? How about this result: Portland Timbers 3, FC Dallas 1.

It was coming, but it was still cathartic. The Timbers' first win of 2015, sealed with special flourish by Diego Chara, let forth a surge of joy tinged with unmistakable relief. The ushers in the Timbers Army were high-fiving fans on their way out of the building—it was that kind of night.

It's win number one for the Timbers, and it wasn't without acrimony. By the time the final whistle blew, we had a bloodied Liam Ridgewell with tape across his nose, Caleb Porter throwing tissues and telling Oscar Pareja to "look at the scoreboard," and Merritt Paulson pumping his fists on the field. For the Timbers, who believed in themselves through another tough March, it was a how-do-you-like-us-now three points.

The hope is that this win is the first of many. After starting the year with five straight games against 2014 playoff teams, the Timbers will now face the two MLS expansion teams, Orlando City and New York City FC in their next two games. Opportunity looms.

It's worth mentioning that in 2013, Portland's greatest ever season, it also took five games to get the team's first win, and that first win also came at home against a team from Texas.

This one wasn't easy. Part of that was down to Dallas, who no matter how good they get, can't shake their unresting need to make every game soap opera. Part of that need is down to their diminutively talented manager Parjea, who has always run a loose ship.

The David Texeira elbow on Ridgewell set an early tone, and should have been a red card, considering that Texeira was at a standstill in front of Ridgewell when he threw it, and no case could have been made for its unintentionally.

Ridgewell was the wrong guy for Dallas to designate as their punching bag. He didn't flinch, and his center-back partner Nat Borchers got his first Timbers goal courtosy of Portland finally letting Jorge Villafana take a real corner-kick. George Fochive was nails again, and it's staggering how much Alvas Powell and Villafana have improved since the start of last season. The road side had their chances—and the Timbers still can't defend set pieces—but Dallas was the second best team all night.

More on that in a minute, however, because it's the altercation between the two managers at the end of the match that has drawn the most ink after this game. The truth is that I have no problem with Parjea for disliking Caleb Porter. I probably would dislike him too if I coached against him. Porter complains incessantly and, on a good day like this Saturday night, is an incredibly brusque mix of cocky and haughty.

But also I have no problem with Porter for laughing off Pareja's complaints and throwing away his tissue. Porter gets into it with opposing managers all the time—just ask Bruce Arena and Carl Robinson—but it always goes both ways with Dallas. Don't forget that one of their assistant coaches was ejected here last year for throwing a punch at a fan. In this case, Pareja acted like a child. He was the one who refused to shake hands.

More importantly, credit has to go to Porter for how he coached the game: patient tactically, and, for once, spot on with his substitutions. Porter opted to start both Maxi Urruti and Fanendo Adi together again, despite the dismal chemistry between the two, and while the inter-play between Urruti and Adi was still lacking, Porter stuck with it and the two-forward look gave the Timbers different options up top all night.

Still, Porter needed to find a way to get a bottled-up Darlington Nagbe into the game, and the way he did it—making an unusual change in replacing Rodney Wallace with Dairon Asprilla—worked two-fold. It moved Nabge from the right to the left, where he was more effective, and got the Columbian Asprilla involved for a pedestrian Wallace. Just a minute after the switch, Nagbe and Asprilla would combine to set up Portland's game-winner by Urruti.

Urruti just about played his best game for the Timbers. He didn't just work hard defensively, he worked smart defensively; and although he's still maddeningly inept at times—a 40-yard shot at the end of the first half and the 10-yards-offside tally—he poached his goal with aplomb. It was almost an exact replica of his first ever goal for the Timbers, in 2013 against the LA Galaxy.

But the best goal and most satisfying goal of the night belonged to Chara. #21 was already having himself a night. With Nagbe mostly neutralized, Chara sprung most of the Timbers' attacks with pinpoint distribution to go along with his usual stellar defensive work. But the moment of the Timbers' young season came in the 86th minute. Dallas had substituted their resident midget Michael Barrios into the game, and with his first touch, he lost the ball under pressure from Chara and Fanendo Adi, who collected the ball and slipped Chara in.

In this fixture against FC Dallas in 2013, Chara had an identical opportunity—racing behind the defense, one v. one with the goalkeeper. He dragged his shot wide. This time, he charged forward, slotted the ball past Chris Seitz, and beamed like he'd just found the chocolate bunny on Easter morning. Chara smiles like a 10-year-old, runs like a 20-year-old, and has the head of a 30-year-old. He's not just a special talent, he's a unique talent. It's Chara's birthday tomorrow. This goal comes 364 days after the last game he scored in, April 5th of last year against the Seattle Sounders.

Chara's goal was the moment that made a fairly benign win a statement. It was a familiar all-around game for the 2015 Timbers—tight, direct, and not especially pretty—but it had an unfamiliar ending: unreserved ecstasy.