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| A universe that bounds angels to the earth. |
We all should have seen it coming as early as the 16th
second (yes, second) when David Guzman skipped past a loose slow-roller at the
top of the Portland Timbers’ defensive third, with prospects of a lethal
counter on the horizon.
Look, it was bound to happen. Off days are inevitable,
especially in a league like Major League Soccer, which seems to operate as if
it exists in the Harrison Bergeron Universe. If a team comes out flat as the Portland Timbers did last Saturday,
it loses, universe notwithstanding. Sure, off days happen, and I can’t see the Timbers coming out that flat any time soon – at least not unless they
want to chuck the career (guys, don’t…changing jobs sucks) - but the outlines
of something ominous lurks at the back of this one.
With so much to unpack, where to begin? Ah, I know! How
about a jinx/prediction:
“With too many of San Jose’s new guys failing to pan out (Danny Hoesens), or not panning out enough (Tommy Thompson, Jahmir Hyka, and Marcos Urena), and Chris Wondolowski shooting blanks even on the rare occasions he can find the ball, the ‘Quakes feel like a one-goal-per-game team right now.”
That was me, by the way. Anyway, pull Tommy Thompson out of that equation and every other
player in that sentence played to the direct opposite. Danny Hoesens got
dangerous time and again – including when he kicked off the chaos that led to San Jose’s first goal – Jahmir Hyka scored (though, in honesty, he’s been all
right), and Chris Wondolowski put some shine on his shooting boots before this
one, because he bagged two quick-twitch classics (or just goals) in this game.
Hell, even Marcos Urena shot well today – yeah, the same guy who’s limp-dicked
his share of tries (not fronting there; for all the things I do competently on the
field, absent a good wind-up, I’ve got a weak shot).
That's how one team beats another 3-0. Still, who knew it would be Florian Jungwirth, a defensive
midfielder converted to central defender, apparently (if only according to the
broadcast booth), who fed Wondo for both of his goals. And that’s where I
flip the microscope to Portland’s side.
Jungwirth played high a lot on Saturday; in other words, I
don’t think he ad-libbed those forays upfield. The highlights might chop this
off (hold on…shit, yes; both leave out too much), but, if you watch Jungwirth through both sequences,
you’ll see one person sorta volunteer to shut him down, and it’s the same guy
both times: David Guzman. Before writing this, I sat through the mini-game
again and even that thing is lousy with clips of Guzman jogging – and that applies
to high-threat-level situations, e.g. specifically, and what the hell, guy?,
San Jose’s second goal (link above).
Part of this feels unfair to single out Guzman; I mean, the man had the
flu the last time he dogged it out there. For all that, Portland was positively
tumescent up the gut (did I use that word rig…whoops, no; put down the
thesaurus, man, and walk away)…Portland was soft up the middle Saturday, it’s
simple as that. The midfield drifted from the defense too often, and that’s how
the Timbers gave Hoesens his first good video since his salad days (i.e., before he
took the field), and how, god willing, they convinced Urena he can shoot again (because anything that makes San Jose watchable will improve at least 20 minutes
of my life every week).
At this point, the question of whether Guzman had a good
game or not feels sec…no, tertiary to the biggest issue on my mind after this
one: any team will fall off a bit when it loses players of Diego Valeri’s and
Darlington Nagbe’s stature – this is MLS, after all – but if you’re a guy
looking to start every game instead of watching it from the bench, shouldn’t
that light a fire under your ass? The question isn’t whether Darren Mattocks or
Dairon Asprilla can replace Valeri and Nagbe (ummm…), but why those two players
looked as gassed as Guzman and Diego Chara on a day they should have taken as
much as a chance as they could. That's where my sub-headline comes on: was the
funk / hotboxing that afflicted this team so thorough as to affect everyone,
even those most motivated to strive for the shiniest of gold stars? Raising the
energy level is the one clear way that players like Mattocks and Asprilla can do to easily stand out, so why was that lacking? Victor Arboleda did a decent job of
it, at least…only he came on too late…
I want to pick up on something in the paragraph above – the
implication that Mattocks and Asprilla can never one-to-one replace Valeri and
Nagbe, regardless of the order. It was fairly early in the game when my brain stalled
on a question: did Portland fail yesterday because they tried to play Mattocks
and Asprilla the same way they play Valeri/Nagbe? Did Portland suffer from being a “system team” –
i.e., one that uses semi-interchangeable players to fulfill each of the eleven same roles? If
you want some sense of what I’m getting at, the New York Red Bulls feel like
the best example of a "system team" in MLS (Edit: I think Atlanta United FC might fit that descriptor better; just sayin'). I’m grasping at something, so bear with me, but how
much time does Portland put into re-thinking how the team plays when injury
happens? How much thought goes into what Mattocks does in the attack (runs real
fast and jumps real high), or what Asprilla does in the attack (don that
magnificent chin, then….um…), and how much does the team look for those runs
and those plays, as opposed to what they’re used to doing with Valeri and Nagbe
(aka, “pass the ball to him / now, go do things that make sense with that”)? Does it even change? Scary thought...
If a team doesn’t put enough time into making adjustments to
get the most of its depth, I’d argue that it probably looks a lot like what
happened Saturday – i.e., confusion, bad decisions/guesses on passes, and so
on. I tweeted a comment late in yesterday’s game ruing all of Portland’s
wayward passing – e.g. “The Timbers School for Wayward Passing” or something
like that. The Timbers coughed up the ball yesterday as if it was the object of
the sport. And that decided this game: Portland couldn’t keep the ball in the
attack, and looked only half-interested in winning it back when they defended.
A 3-0 loss feels honest under those circumstances. I think Portland
flattered San Jose, for what it’s worth, because they haven’t looked anything like
that for most of 2017. San Jose wasn’t great, in other words, but Portland sure made
them look that way.
That’s the best-case scenario for this loss – but it was bad. I don’t believe that Portland suddenly became a bad team Saturday night and
that’s what counts. Then again, sometimes a loss like that becomes the first
crack in a bursting dam. Teams, at least the good ones, become unsound over
time. So, let’s hope this is a blip, rather than a pattern.
Just a couple more thoughts to wrap up. Um...
Thoughts To Wrap Up
- Was Vytas Andriuskevicius Portland’s best attacking player
yesterday? I wrote it in my notes, so I can only assume I thought that at one time.
- Darren Mattocks had this great move around the 48th
minute, one that ended in a soft, shitty shot on or around goal. And, yep…
- Anyone else interested in giving anyone but Asprilla a
chance with this team? Me too.
- Just an open question here: how well do you think Liam
Ridgewell reads the game, especially when the pace picks up? Today might have been
the first time I’ve ever asked myself what I think Ridgewell does well as a
defender. The only answer I could come up with was organizing. A smart guy told
me he’s good at passing out of the back and I’m still looking into that, but my
list literally ended there. The sight of him standing there like some kind of
daft statue on San Jose’s second somehow feels damningly consistent of his
career as a Timber. I’ve seen that kind of slowness of thought, even
indecision, time and time again.
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