Everyone took their places for Providence Park's last Saturday night game of the 2015 MLS season expecting to see something big happen.

The Portland Timbers, with new energy and purpose, were so hot out of the gate against Sporting Kansas City that Caleb Porter spent the majority of the first thirty minutes of the match imploring his team to settle down, settle in, and dominate the game.

And dominate they did, but score they did not. Kansas City, reveling as always in their role as the fatigued, undermanned spoiler, played their part to perfection: Stout in defense, and once, and only once, inspired on offense.

It's been a season full of false starts and false hope for the Timbers, but this loss, which cost so much effort, may very well be back-breaking. When Krisztian Nemeth diced up the Portland defense and slide the game winner past Adam Kwarasey, it was devastating at the very least. Liam Ridgewell collapsed to the turf—and the Timbers' season might have collapsed with him.

After the match, Porter sounded like a manager defeated. He's played all of his cards. This is the one the Timbers had to have. They knew it, they played like it, and they still lost. It's one thing to not show up, quite another to show up, give everything, and come up short.

There are no obvious answers. Not in personnel, anyway. Rodney Wallace worked his tail off. Diego Chara was everywhere. Jack Jewsbury was solid, Fanendo Adi was dominant, and Darlington Nagbe repeated his nails performance from last weekend.

Who do you blame? Maybe Diego Valeri? The Argentine talisman didn't complete a pass for the first twenty minutes of the game, and, aside from a few isolated moments of individual brilliance, wasn't dialed in all night long. Alvas Powell continues to be an embarrassment on the ball, but he certainly didn't cost the Timbers the game. Neither did referee Ismail Elfath, even though he had a number of questionable moments.

It's hard to have any major complaints with Porter either. You can quibble with his decision to disrupt Portland's shape and leave them open to a counter-attack when he brought off Jewsbury for Dairon Asprilla, but it's impossible to say that it was that substitution that cost the Timbers the match either.

Portland hasn't scored a home goal since August, and haven't won a home game for over two months. After two straight years in the top three in MLS in goals scored, the Timbers have fallen all the way to 19th in the league in that statistic this year.

Porter didn't just forget how to coach. In 2013, everything clicked. In 2014, a bad offseason and a circus defense held a good side back from success. This year? Who knows. On paper, this is Portland's strongest MLS team in a landslide. But this is also a team that has made a fool of everyone who has believed in it, time after time after time.

Give Sporting credit. They absorbed the Timbers' best punch, and they did it without half of their regular starting lineup, three nights removed from winning the US Open Cup on penalties in Philadelphia. From the moment they made Portland switch ends and attack the Timbers Army in the first half, they were able to do the little things to ensure success.

In 270 minutes against SKC this season, the Timbers scored no goals. They couldn't figure this team out, and every time Tim Melia got a goal-kick and Kwarasey stood helplessly and haplessly on the other end of the field counting the seconds ticking away on his fingers, that became more and more clear.

There were chances—a few drives from Nagbe, a few from Valeri, another pair of golden chances for Lucas Melano, and a late look for Maxi Urruti—but the final product was always found wanting.

Three games remain for the Timbers—at Real Salt Lake, at LA, and then home on the final day of the campaign against the Colorado Rapids—and the hope now is that Portland sneaks in and gives itself a shot in a one-game Wild Card matchup.

Porter's teams, including this year's addition, have always had a history of bouncing back after defeats. But you have to wonder, how many times this Timbers team can build itself up, let itself down, and spring back up like nothing happened.

Games like these take an emotional toll. At this point in the season, momentum is huge. Belief is huge. The margins are so thin in the MLS—and especially in the Western Conference right now—that getting hot at the end of the year is nothing short of mandatory for postseason success. Porter and the Timbers know that. But they couldn't deliver on it.

On Saturday night, I didn't see a helpless team. I saw a team with plenty of good players battle. But what none of those players and none of that fight could mask is that this team hasn't found itself all year. There have been flashes, fleeting moments, where the Timbers look like they'd put it together, but it just hasn't clicked.

There are three games left. Anything can still happen. As the message all season has been, counting the Timbers out is unwise. But counting them in? That's far more dangerous.