At the start of the 2015 Major League Soccer season, very few pundits and fans believed the Portland Timbers would make the playoffs, let alone earn a berth in the MLS Cup. 

The Timbers surprised plenty of people across the league on Sunday, when they held off a late surge from FC Dallas to win the Western Conference Final 5-3 on aggregate. 

"This is a great moment for this club," manager Caleb Porter said, per the club's website. "It's our first trophy, but we want the biggest trophy and we have one more game still to achieve that.”

Although many are still shocked the Timbers advanced to the final match of the postseason, the little details suggest Portland is more deserving than any team in the Western Conference. The Timbers were the best road team in the league this season and a formation tweak by manager Caleb Porter late in the year was the final adjustment needed to make a run into December. 

Winning on the road is one of the most difficult things to do in MLS, but the Timbers managed to perfect earning results on their travels over the final three months of the regular season. Since their 0-0 draw at Avaya Stadium with the San Jose Earthquakes on August 2, the Timbers dropped one game on the road, a loss to rival Seattle on August 30. 

During that time frame, the Timbers went into some of the most volatile home environments in MLS and secured three points. Portland twice went into Rio Tinto Stadium and took down Real Salt Lake. It also defeated the LA Galaxy by an emphatic 5-2 score in October. One of Portland's other road victories came on September 26 in the place it will contest the MLS Cup on Sunday. 

Having a win at Mapfre Stadium under their belts will be a key factor for the Timbers entering the MLS Cup, and given their road form in the postseason, it is hard to count them out of hoisting the trophy after 90 or 120 minutes. 

While Porter made plenty of tactical tweaks throughout the season, the biggest addition to his squad came in the offseason as the Timbers acquired center back Nat Borchers from Real Salt Lake. Borchers ended up making a game-saving tackle in the second leg of the Western Conference Final to avoid extra time. 

"When you have good players, they do that," Porter said, per the Timbers' club website. "I really wasn't all that nervous, to be honest with you, because I knew it was down to the players at that point and I also knew I had experienced guys, good players. I knew I had guys that would get it done, and I just have a belief in this team that we're going to advance." 

The only concern entering the MLS Cup for the Timbers is who will partner Borchers at center back, but Liam Ridgewell made it clear after the match at Toyota Stadium that he would start in the final, per ESPN's Jeff Carlisle: 

The adjustments inside the season also benefited Porter and his squad immensely. During the final weeks of the regular season, Porter shifted to a lone defensive midfielder patrolling the space in front of the center backs. Diego Chara has thrived in that role and he has turned himself into even more of an enforcer than he already was. 

By trusting Chara to work alone in front of the back four, Porter allowed Darlington Nagbe and Diego Valeri to play with less defensive responsibilities and surge forward in attack. With the attack-minded midfield pair finding more space, players like Fanendo Adi, Rodney Wallace and Dairon Asprilla have benefited from more chances in recent weeks. 

Even with Valeri and Wallace out due to suspension in the first leg of the Western Conference final, Portland rarely missed a beat in attack. Now with the attack fully staffed, the Timbers are set to give the Columbus Crew quite the test with the MLS Cup on the line. 

Although it isn't the sexiest final in the biggest market, Sunday's championship match in Columbus should end up being one of the best in league history thanks to Portland's success on the road in 2015. 

Joe Tansey covers MLS for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @JTansey90. 

Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com

Source: Click Here