The 2011 Portland Timbers season was the debut season for the Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer (MLS), the top flight professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. As the fourth incarnation of a professional soccer club to bear the Portland Timbers name, the MLS version of the Timbers began the 25th season in club history with three games on the road due to ongoing renovations to Jeld-Wen Field. The club's first game was played at Dick's Sporting Goods Park versus Colorado Rapids on March 19, which the Timbers lost 3–1. The first MLS match in Portland was on April 14 when the Timbers bested the Chicago Fire by a scoreline of 4–2 in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,627 at newly renovated Jeld-Wen Field. Season review March The Timbers came into their first MLS game nursing injuries to several players including expected starters Darlington Nagbe, Sal Zizzo and Troy Perkins as well as Bright Dike and Eddie Johnson. The defending champions Colorado Rapids took the field with the same 11 players which had started MLS Cup 2010 and dealt the Timbers an early blow with an 8th-minute goal by Jeff Larentowicz. The Rapids scored two more first half goals in rapid succession to put Portland down 3–0 at halftime. Timbers forward Kenny Cooper scored the first ever MLS goal for Portland from a free kick in the 80th minute but it was not enough as the Timbers lost their inaugural game 3–1. The Timbers Army — an independent supporters group for the Portland Timbers – sent over 400 members to Dick's Sporting Goods Park for the game, a record for away support in Colorado. Prior to the March 26 game versus Toronto FC, it was announced that defender Mamadou Danso had been called up for Gambia and would miss the match. Portland would also be without Nagbe, Perkins, Dike and Johnson because of injuries while Zizzo returned after recovering from a separated shoulder. Toronto opened the scoring in the 14th minute through Javier Martina. Backup goalkeeper Adin Brown suffered a strained hamstring in the first half and was replaced by Jake Gleeson at halftime. Gleeson made 3 saves during the game, including one which earned the young goalkeeper MLS Save of the Week honors, but Martina found the back of the net again in the 70th minute to put the game beyond reach as the Timbers