The Union celebrate a milestone day and night with a 2-0 win at the Portland Timbers

PORTLAND, Ore. — Was it the shoes?

No, actually, it wasn’t Jim Curtin’s latest pair of Twitter-viral sneakers that propelled the Union to a 2-0 victory over the Portland Timbers on Sunday night.

It was a spectacular bicycle kick goal by Dániel Gazdag five minutes into the first half, a powerful header by Sergio Santos two minutes into the second half, and a sterling defensive effort.

(Plus a little help from the officials controversially calling off a late Timbers goal for a close offside.)

This was a statement win by the Union (6-1-6, 24 points), the kind that will bring the spotlight back to the Eastern Conference’s first-place team after five ties and two losses in their last seven games.

“I think the club has grown a great deal — I think that a lot of people have taken note of that, and I’m grateful for all the media, the national media that’s taken note of that,” Curtin said. “Sometimes the Philly local fans are the hardest on us and that’s natural. That’s Philadelphia, that’s what we love, and I think the players gave them a great performance.”

For many years, fans would have celebrated some of those recent ties — especially the 2-2 result at Los Angeles FC in this season’s other big west coast trip. Now they’re lamented, because everyone knows the Union have the talent to not blow leads as they did in that ugly streak.

“Some people would think of that as pressure or accountability, whatever word you want to use,” Curtin said, and he knows too that the Union have rarely been truly pressured by their paying customers in their history.

“It’s a good thing,” he said of the newfound dynamic, “because it makes us feel like we have to do better at all times. It’s not good enough to be a team in the middle or towards the bottom, fighting and scraping for points.”

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This game was significant proof of how far the Union have come. It was the Union’s first win at Providence Park, one of the great cathedrals of American soccer, in the club’s 13-year history.

They had four losses and a tie in their five previous trips to Portland, and the Union hadn’t traveled here at all since August 2018 — just before Ernst Tanner was hired as sporting director.

“A really big three points for us,” Curtin said. “Yes, it’s early, but I’ll just say this is a special win, because this is a hard place to come.”

And for the record, Curtin said it was a coincidence that those fashionable Nikes were clad in Timbers-style green and gold. He didn’t even realize it until after he was on the field.

As for players who stood out, Gazdag and Santos for sure, but also Paxten Aaronson. This was his longest run yet in this year’s regular season, 48 minutes (including 10 minutes of stoppage time) as a substitute for Santos in the second half.

“Paxten stepped up in a really big way for us tonight, not different than when his brother Brenden got thrown out in front of a big crowd in Atlanta,” Curtin said, referring to Paxten’s big brother Brenden scoring on Atlanta United’s Brad Guzan in his MLS debut three years ago. “I think the Aaronson genetics, they have something in them that they rise to the occasion.”

» READ MORE: Paxten Aaronson keeps up a family tradition of playmaking skill

Curtin knew what he was doing bringing Brenden up. In the hours before the Union’s win, the word got out that Brenden is headed to Leeds United after the English club coached by American Jesse Marsch escaped relegation from the Premier League on the final day of the season.

While the deal isn’t official yet, it’s been in the works for months. Leeds is expected to pay Red Bull Salzburg, Aaronson’s current club — and one of Marsch’s former clubs as a manager — around $30 million for the Medford native. And thanks to the deal the Union struck when they sold Aaronson to Salzburg two years ago, the Union will get just over $5 million of that fee for themselves.

That will come on top of the $6 million Salzburg initially paid to acquire Aaronson, and a further $3 million in performance bonuses that have been achieved.

“It’s a wild ride, if you really look back [at] how quickly Brenden has risen,” said Curtin, a longtime close friend of Marsch’s. “To watch the kid go from a great MLS player to a great national team player to a great player in Europe, now going to the Premier League.”

Paxten was just as happy.

“He’s been dreaming of that, first getting to Europe and then a top league like that,” he said. “It’s every young kid’s dream.”

» READ MORE: Brenden Aaronson's star keeps rising in Europe and with the U.S. national team