Caleb Porter has spent a lot of time this year talking about results. How the need to get results dictates that the Timbers play a regressive brand of soccer, how the need to get results means the prioritization of short-term success over long-term vision. Porter has felt very real pressure to get results (wins), and on Sunday night at Yankee Stadium, the Timbers won for just the second time in seven games this season.

The result was 1-0, on a late deflected goal from Dairon Asprilla, some terrific goalkeeping from Adam Kwarasey, and a whole lot of spurned opportunities from a New York City FC side playing without David Villa, Mix Diskerud, and for that matter, Frank Lampard.

It's a balancing act. At the end of the year, these points will absolutely matter. On the other hand, it's hard to take joy from such a languid, poor, haphazard win. This team needs to get better. Fast. Because it's not an expansion team next weekend. It's the Seattle Sounders.

The very plain truth is that the Timbers won this game because New York City FC is a last-place team that took the field without their two best players after having played a midweek game when Portland did not. Orlando didn't let the Timbers off the hook for a similarly flat performance last weekend, and if Portland isn't better at CenturyLink Field in a week's time, the Sounders will sink their teeth in.

Even this game could have gone much differently than it did. NYCFC's first half performance covered up the fact that they were playing on short rest without their big guns. Behind some skilled players like Patrick Mullins and Ned Gravaboy, New York looked like a vintage Jason Kreis team in the way they moved the ball, pressed, and worked in tight spaces. The finishing, however, was notably absent, and would only grow more notably absent as the game wore on and times grew more desperate. But in that first half, Portland hardly got the ball at all. Darlington Nagbe had maybe four touches.

To the Timbers' credit, they came out and played better in the second half. Fanendo Adi had several chances to score, but played one of his worst games in a Timbers shirt. It felt—in every aspect, including the setting and fact that Fox Sports 1 bumped the game for a rain-delayed NASCAR race—like a dud of a game between two last place teams.

It's not all doom and gloom: This was a victory for the Timbers, after all. Credit goes to the bright spots where they existed. This was a first truly great performance from Kwarasey, who came with several big saves when called upon and played a much cleaner game than the laissez-faire efforts we've become accustomed to over the last month.

Nat Borchers was fantastic. He usually is, but it was especially evident in this game. The difference right now between this year and last year is two-fold: It's not having Diego Valeri, but it's also having Borchers next to Liam Ridgewell instead of the rotating cast of clowns that coughed up goal after goal throughout the 2014 campaign.

Asprilla got the goal, though his backflip was better. Jorge Villafaña was dogged, and Jack Jewsbury brought his exceeding calm to proceedings. At least those are two Timbers from whom you know what you're going to get. Everyone else was mostly dreadful.

An injury to Rodney Wallace necessitated a surprise debut start for Ishmael Yartey, who, aside from some spunky little runs, looked pretty much like what you'd think a once-hot-prospect who can't get minutes in the second division in Switzerland would look like.

Alvas Powell almost single handedly gave the game away three separate times, and, for good, resounding measure, he picked up a yellow card the exact same way he did last weekend: He didn't get a call, and responded by running after his opponent and pushing him to the ground. Progress!

There's a lingering question about the mental fortitude of this team. The Timbers' game management after taking the lead was atrocious. Maxi Urruti was bombing away from 20 yards out in 4 v. 2 situations, Gaston Fernandez wasn't much better, and the defense managed to give away a gilt-edged chance to Khriy Shelton, but the rookie didn't make the most of his moment.

Porter gets the win here, but what he'll do in Seattle is anyone's guess. The Timbers' lineup wasn't set until just before the match against NYCFC, when Porter opted to start Yartey and bench Urruti. Portland's best lineup is the one that they started the year with: A 4-2-3-1 with Wallace and Asprilla on the wings, Jewsbury and Chara in the middle. That same lineup that Porter deemed wasn't creating enough offense after a similarly drab 0-0 draw against Sporting Kansas City.

There are no easy answers right now. Porter is somewhat at a loss. He was scratching his head after the Orlando City game, and he was scratching his head in the first half of this contest. That's why the three points gained are so vital. Nothing is coming easy right now.

Next week has to be better, but that's the bottom line Portland will want to focus on. Three points won at a time when wins have to be snatched without a second thought.