A special week continues with a special edition of Breaking Lines, this week featuring four ex-players' unique perspectives on the best rivalry in Major League Soccer.

For the Seattle Sounders, Brad Evans was a cornerstone in midfield and defense as the team established itself is a perennial, while eventual Timber Steve Zakuani was, after joining the Sounders in 2009, one of the most dangerous wide attackers in the league. And from Portland's perspective, midfielder Ryan Pore helped usher the Timbers from USL to MLS, while Jack Jewsbury, after joining the club in 2011, wore the team's armband and help it build toward a first star.

On Wednesday, the four former Timbers and Sounders got together to talk early rivalry moments, the teams' place in the MLS universe, and what the rivalry meant to each of their careers.

For almost two months, the lives of the Portland Timbers' players were lived as snapshots. Whatever they were doing in mid-March, they were doing in mid-May as stay-at-home took effect. Last week, though, that changed, with the beginning of individualized training in Beaverton allowing soccer players to get back to their soccer field.

On this episode of Breaking Lines, we talk to Timbers defender Bill Tuiloma about that return, what his mindset was like in the last days of working out at home, how he's kept in touch with friends and family in Europe and New Zealand, and which Marseille teammates came closest to creating a Michael Jordan effect in l'OM's dressing room.

His connection to Portland goes back to the team's United Soccer League era, spanning from central defense during his time on the field to, now, the broadcast booth, where he works with Jake Zivin and Nat Borchers on the Timbers' broadcasts. On this episode of Breaking Lines, we track Ross Smith's path from an aspiring player in Guelph, Ontario, to Cascadia, where a second career with the game has kept him in the sport he loves.

Legends are made during legendary times. And Ann Schatz has worked through a few. From the Tonya Harding scandal through Sabrina Ionescu's greatness, the Thorns' original play-by-play voice has touched on some of the biggest (and strangest) stories in Oregon sports.

It's experience that gives her a unique perspective on what we're going through now. Checking in with Breaking Lines from her COVID-19 isolation, Schatz describes why, amid all the surreal moments she's seen, our current is incomparable.

Schatz also goes through her best Thorns memory, the team's impact on sports in Oregon, and, just under one week removed from the latest WNBA Draft, her view from courtside of the era in the history of Oregon Ducks women's basketball.

As we continue to shelter in place, many fans have seen a greater percentage of their sports entertainment come from their phones, with podcasting still going strong as game have paused. Within those podcasts, though, a few tropes have emerged, drowning the last four weeks of audio offerings in Mount Rushmores, random rankings and countdowns, and absurdist fantasy drafts …

None of which, we are above. On this episode of Breaking Lines, the show indulges in all three, with #Statman Mike Donovan joining us to share Timbers and Thorns Mount Rushmores, a draft of players into front office roles, as well as a ranking of the five best losses in the modern history of Portland’s two professional teams.

Only two players have been with the Thorns longer than Emily Menges, making her, Christine Sinclair and Tobin Heath the most tenured NWSL players in Portland. Perhaps as relevant for the 2020 season, the trio are the only players who experienced the team’s other makeover - the one it undertook after missing the 2015 postseason.

On this episode of Breaking Lines, we talked to Menges about her team’s rebuilt squad, Portland’s new, clearer priorities for the 2020 campaign, and what it means to be a Thorn. Before that, though, we ask about what took her to the Australian league for the first time this offseason, what it was like trying to make her way back to the U.S. amid COVID-19’s spread, and what her life is life right now, with teammates at a distance.

Amid an offseason of major acquisitions, Raquel Rodriguez's could prove one of the most important.

One of the most accomplished players in Costa Rican soccer history, Rocky Rodriguez spent the first four years of her professional career with Sky Blue FC, establishing herself as one of the more versatile midfielders in the National Women's Soccer League. Following a winter trade, she's relocated to Portland, where she's adapting to life in a new city and with a new club.

On Wednesday, Breaking Lines caught up with the former Mac Hermann Trophy winner to talk about Penn State connections, her time in New Jersey, and why she feels a new challenge in Portland is exact what her career needs, right now.

Like the rest of us, the Portland Timbers and Thorns have seen their lives change over the last two weeks, going from an environment where team was a part of their everyday existence to one where social distancing is the rule.

On this episode of Breaking Lines, we catch up with five of those players -- Blake Bodily, Simone Charley, Steve Clark, Andrés Flores and Tyler Lussi -- for a snapshot of what their lives are like now, how they are staying prepared for what comes next, and what a team sport athlete's life is like when team is not possible.

At the end of the 2019 season, Chris Duvall was somewhere he’d never been before: the USL. Having been released by the Houston Dynamo two months before, the former New York Red Bull and Montreal Impact defender had to undergo a professional regroup with the Oklahoma City Energy, where he finished his sixth professional season.

Now, Duvall is back in Major League Soccer, signed to the Portland Timbers’ first team, and joining Breaking Lines to talk about his 2019 offseason, his path of Wake Forest to the pros, and the feeling of being in green and gold for a Providence Park opener.

Hosts Judah Newby, Jake Zivin and Joe Sleven talk about the team's opening loss to Minnesota and how they're approaching Nashville SC. They also chat with Timbers defender Jorge Villafaña, president of business Mike Golub and with Drake Hills of the Tennessean.