Portland Timbers 1-0 Seattle Sounders: Good Vibrations

Before you say that's tacky...the tip's green?

This steps either into or around the main theme, but it’s such a good way of describing the game…

I watched the Portland Timbers clip (or more?) the Seattle Sounders 1-0 at home in Seattle, and with a Sounders fan. We talked steadily throughout the game, bringing up details when prompted by the game or otherwise, but we rarely got out of our respective man-spreading sprawls on his couch. Not many of the few shots/saves/near-misses that came before the one that counted lit the kind of fire that makes the body lurch involuntarily, and few of them came after any kind of sustained pressure.

As the time ticked down, things got a little more tense. The Samuel Armenteros trip/flop (we report, you decide) was probably the first time something riled me out of my slouch, but the real shift came after Sebastian Blanco skipped his shot over Stefan Frei - and, yes, hold that thought, because the time Diego Valeri slipped by two sleeping S.O.Bs and nearly scored stirred up the room a little as well, but I digress. At any rate, the Sounders fan, a guy I’ve known for (literal) decades, started…emoting after Blanco’s goal, and that's his normal state. From there to the end, he started cursing Seattle’s missed passes, missteps and bad decisions, and, after a wee pile of fuck-ups, he had to…step away for a moment. And that’s kind of the lesson.

For as long as this game looked destined for dueling zeroes - i.e., about 87 minutes, yeah? - stakes was low. Skin went into the game after Blanco’s goal, and that’s when it got fun.

87 minutes from 90 is a long time to wait for any kind of decisive emotion, but you know what they say about patience (they’re for it, and imply its holiness), and that’s the main theme alluded to at the top: the most encouraging thing about Portland right now is that they’re finding ways to win stubborn games like this. Each of the Timbers’ consecutive 1-0 wins (the other one) required them to overcome some relevant detail - e.g., they had a road-jinx to grapple with in the win against the San Jose Earthquakes and a five-man backline (aka, a stacked defense) to overcome against the Seattle Sounders. For what it’s worth, I think Seattle’s formation posed the bigger challenge; solidly mediocre as that side has been all 2018, they’re defending well, and, outside a couple howler moments, that really didn’t change this afternoon.

Sven Svensson (fine, Gustav Svensson) really stood out today. He’s the only Sounders defender who read Valeri’s earlier clean break into the area on Fanendo Adi’s tap-back, after all (see "nearly scored" link): were I a Sounders fan (auch, soap, soap! My kingdom for some soap (gotta wash out my mouth!)), I’d be passing how both Alex Roldan and Jordy Delem utterly spaced Valeri’s run through a rigorous “what it all means” analysis. And it was Svensson again, who almost cut out Armenteros’ feed to Blanco for the winner. Honestly, the Swede has caught the eye just about every time I’ve watched Seattle. I get the feeling that he and “Captain” Cristian Roldan have made some kind of silent pact to hold this ailing Sounders squad together till, oh, half their damn squad stumbles out of sick-bay.

Seattle had a couple reasonable forays this game - e.g., a nice sequence in the first half that freed (I think) Kelvin Leerdam in a ton of space on Portland’s left, and another in the second half, and before Blanco’s goal, where the Sounders absolutely should have scored. Nouhou Tolo had a clean shot on goal that he put straight to Jeff Attinella, but I didn’t see much outside of that. I just confirmed via the box score that Portland hardly lined up shots on Seattle’s goal - down to pissing away their advantage in shots (looking at you, Larrys Mabiala) - so this game played out as I expected, anyway.

I’d argue that, at least this tight game, had less to do with the rivalry than with the state of both teams. As I’ve said in this space over and over and over (hold on, how many games has Portland “rocked” the Christmas tree?), Portland has opted to attack on the cheap - e.g., mostly through Blanco, Valeri and whatever forward they start, and nearly to the point of exclusivity - and that set-up was always going to struggle against a team lined up in Seattle’s…yeah, I’ll say it, almost embarrassing 5-4-1. I appreciate the circumstances - back-to-back road games in two of Seattle’s tougher venues, specifically - but that’s less a formation than a cry for help. And, to confess the obvious, Portland’s Christmas tree draws from the same inspiration - i.e., you’re going to have to beat us to win the game - only Seattle lacks the positive upside (or healthy personnel) of Blanco, Valeri and (more often than not) Adi running riot in an open field. (I’ve decided to call this particular formation “The French Tickler,” which can only make sense to people who understand the reference from America’s finer bathrooms, and maybe even not by them....so I added a visual.)

Overall, though, apart from that one time Seattle all but walked the ball into Portland’s 18 and held it there for a period that felt like eternal Hell (but probably only took seconds), and they should have scored, today didn’t cough up a lot of negatives. Alvas Powell’s passing was atrocious (how many times can one man make a pass to the same wrong spot?), and I’m getting a little anxious about that feeling too close to a norm, but nothing else really caught my eye. The point of obsession from last week’s post - the trends in the contributions by Cristhian Paredes and Andy Polo, which, barring new arrivals, could very well set Portland’s ceiling for 2018 - carried over into this week. Nice shot by Polo this week, too. Even questions like that take a back seat to general positives like the Timbers collectively playing out of pressure smarter, something that feels like it’s coming together because they know where to look for one another.

So long as the team can play this solid, the three-headed snake (mini-hydra? or, per the above, “The Tickle”?) of Blanco, Valeri and Adi gives me every reason to believe that Portland can hang with the competition this season. Tempting as it is to discount this game based on Seattle playing with half of its attacking talent tied behind its back, Portland took the same set-up to the bank against New York City FC, to that point one of Major League Soccer’s better attacking teams (haven’t seen what happened to them this weekend…no spoilers), and it held up just as well. This team is decent, or good enough, and may yet improve besides.

I’m going to close this with a big tip of the hat to Blanco. He’s lived all the way up to billing in 2018, and there’s a lesson in there, maybe even two. Blanco is playing where he’s comfortable, for one - a lot like Valeri, basically - and he’s having games where he’s the most dangerous player on the field (e.g., today) as a result. That also opens another thought/argument about players, and how anyone thinks about them. In the seasons after Portland won MLS Cup, especially in periods when the team stumbled, one mantra that floated around the Timbers was, “we need a winger.” (“We need a central defender” was another, and hold that thought.) That Blanco arrived as “a winger” gets at something equal parts important and messy. A team needs [position] only to the extent, and/or on the assumption, that that specific position is necessary to a good team. Blanco should open up a space where people can re-think that entire conversation, because he’s showing that Portland doesn’t need a winger, so much as they need, in the biggest possible terms, some arrangement on the field that works. If that’s dropping seven dudes behind the ball and letting the other three go absolutely ape-shit in front of them, so be it. The aesthetics matters too - and that’s my knock on today; ‘twas a predictable semi-snooze-fest (be honest) - but, with Blanco and Valeri, in particular, the main thing you want to give them is freedom and room.

I’m not sold on what Portland has as either Cup or Shield winning, but neither looks as implausible in May as they did at the beginning of April. That said, the run of games from here to the end of June (e.g., and abbreviated: v LAFC; @ Colorado; v Galaxy; v SKC; @ Atlanta; @ (a likely stronger) Seattle (on June 30)), should give all observers a better sense of what Portland fans have for hope and entertainment this season. I see a future of close games in the above - except maybe Atlanta, where the risk of a blow-out is real - but I also see getting 2/3 of the points out of that run as within reason. That would leave the Timbers in a decent state for the rest of the season and some giants (some of them paper) behind them. This latest run has set things up pretty nicely. Just sayin’…

And, finally, to pick up that stray though I asked you to hold, I think Portland has found a centerback. I’m liking Mabiala more and more with every outing. Think we landed ourselves a solid with that one.

OK, that’s it. Barring a miracle, inspiration, a miracle of inspiration, or an inspired miracle, I won’t be posting a wrap for MLS’ Week 11. I will, however, quietly do some homework for the next one. Till then.