Some unusual things have happened during Portland’s playoff push to the MLS Cup final, so it was understandable when coach Caleb Porter was asked if he thought destiny had a hand in it.

“Do I believe in destiny?” Porter laughed. “That’s a deep question.”

Destiny certainly appeared on the Timbers’ side at the start of the playoffs, when Portland beat Sporting Kansas City on penalties after a 2-all draw.

In the 11-round shootout, jaws dropped when Kansas City rookie Saad Abdul-Salaam’s shot unbelievably bounced off both posts and out of the goal. Then goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey nailed his shot before deflecting Sporting keeper Jon Kempin’s chance, giving Portland the win.

The Timbers, playing their best soccer of the season, will play the host Columbus Crew today for the MLS Cup at Mapfre Park.

Things took an almost existential turn after Porter considered the destiny question in the pregame press conference.

“To succeed, you’re going to have to suffer some. But if you’re able hang on and going through the suffering then you survive. That says everything about our team: We’ve suffered a little bit, we’ve had pressure, it was fair,” Porter said.

The five-year journey from expansion franchise to MLS Cup finalists has been a long one for owner Merritt Paulson, who will be joined in the owner’s box today by his father, Henry, a former Treasury secretary and a former chairman of Goldman Sachs, and the rest of his family.

Henry Paulson, who spends much of his time these days working at an institute he started after he left government, is no stranger to the Timbers and his son’s work: He helped him buy the club in 2008 and pay the $30 million fee to enter MLS in 2011.

“I’ve been a sports fan, but I never, ever considered investing in a sports team,” the elder Paulson said in perhaps his first interview about the Timbers. But “he had come to me and convinced me with a compelling case that soccer was a great investment, and it has become increasingly clear that he had the capability to do this.”

As it has turned out, the Timbers have been a great investment, and Merritt Paulson has proved he has the capability to run the club, which has become a model franchise in MLS. According to Forbes, the Timbers are worth $185 million, the fourth-highest valuation in the league. The team has sold out all 90 regular-season and playoff home games since entering the league five years ago, and it had the sixth-highest average attendance in the 20-team league this year despite playing in one of its smallest markets.

More than 12,000 fans are on the waiting list for season tickets, so many that Paulson is looking at ways to expand the south end of Providence Park.

The team’s location today will be Mapfre Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, but its supporters will follow; the Timbers’ allotment of almost 1,000 tickets sold out in less than 10 minutes. When the team announced a contest for 80 free airline tickets to the final, more than 9,000 people entered.

The showdown on the field will feature teams with opposing strengths. The Crew scored 58 goals this season, tied for second in the league. Striker Kei Kamara, whose 22 goals tied him for the most in MLS, was a most valuable player contender, but wings Ethan Finlay (12 goals) and Justin Meram, who scored only seconds into a playoff match against the Red Bulls, can be just as dangerous, and Argentine playmaker Federico Higuain is a steady, opportunistic presence in midfield.

The Timbers, meanwhile, have one of the league’s stingiest defenses, and they continue to rely on a back line anchored by the Englishman Liam Ridgewell and MLS veteran Nat Borchers, whose stout play and huge red beard have made him a favorite among Portland’s hirsute set. The Timbers’ offense is led by midfielders Diego Valeri and Darlington Nagbe, a recent call-up to the U.S. national team, and the Nigerian striker Fanendo Adi, who led the team with 16 goals, a record for the Timbers in MLS.

Both teams finished with 53 points in the regular season, but Columbus had a bigger goal differential, so it won home field advantage for the final. That could be crucial: Portland is unbeaten in seven games, but Columbus has not lost at home in more than two months — since a 2-1 loss to the Timbers on Sept. 26. Adi scored twice that day.

For all the team’s success, Henry Paulson is careful to note that other than offering fatherly advice, he has assiduously stayed out of the way. He has, however, become a lucky charm of sorts. The Timbers have never lost a game when Paulson has seen them play in Portland, and their record is nearly as good when he watches them on the road.

The elder Paulson and his wife have become regulars in Merritt’s seat, and Merritt said he had been pleasantly surprised to watch as they warmed to soccer. But while Merritt Paulson can be as intense as the most devoted Timbers supporter during games — sometimes laying his feelings bare on his well-followed Twitter account during matches — he has noticed that his father can be superstitious. During the Timbers’ shootout win over Kansas City, Henry Paulson returned to the same spot in the owner’s box where he had been standing when the Timbers scored an equalizer in the second extra-time period.

“I had my hands over my eyes,” he said. “I listened to the crowd to figure out what happened.”

Merritt has his own superstitions, which include wearing a specific watch and pair of shoes. But “what I learned is it’s not about you; it’s about the 11 guys sweating and bleeding on the field.”

And maybe, a bit of destiny.