Portland Timbers 2-1 Los Angeles FC: A Song for the Unsung

Yes, that fucking good. "Everyone around the world...C'MON!!"

To venture into personally unfamiliar territory, seeing Liam Ridgewell pull up gimpy made me nervous. I’m generally cool on Ridgewell, but I’d also bought into this idea of balance and roles within recent Portland Timbers starting elevens, and balance between roles, and that idea seemed…threatened when Ridgewell lay face-down on the turf contemplating his bad luck, and by the idea of any given piece coming out of it. And so early in the game, too…

To spare one last thought for Ridgewell, I’m happy he played his way (back?) into my heart and confidence (just…I’ve always been a hardass with Ridgewell) before whatever injury struck him today, god speed and scare the shit out of the other guys as soon as you can, Liam, and thanks! Conversely, I was absolutely fucking thrilled, 1) to see Larrys Mabiala continue to look like Portland’s best central defender and, 2) that Julio Cascante came in, had at least two massive moments, and, one threatening ball skipping between his legs aside, looked like he could start if circumstance or Giovanni Savarese came calling. And the team has Bill Tuiloma in the back pocket inside its back pocket, and he’s been competent, if not good, and all that together could mean a stable central defense for the length of the season. Even if you think a great defense is the worst part of a championship team (it is), they matter immensely, and the Timbers have a sorted, solid defense, or at least one that keeps delivering - even via the understudies. And that leaves them only needing a slick attack in order to achieve unicorn-awesome, a real thing, look at the internet.

Before leaving the defense, I want to salute Zarek Valentin for starring in this afternoon’s game. My sense that I saw his face as much as anyone else’s and more than most hints at how often LAFC attacked Valentin’s flank, and all the LAFC clearances he sent back into their attacking third after set-pieces kept Portland in at least three attacks. I'm sure other players' names will get more mention after the game, but I think the broadcast booth mentioned Valentin’s more during it; he was everywhere he needed to be and a quarter-step early. Based on the past three, four weeks, Valentin wants to stay on the field pretty damn bad. That’s…just great.

As for the rest of the defense, I didn’t realize Jeff Attinella had been good as he’s been till the TV told me about it (that is, many, many minutes without giving up a goal), and Alvas Powell…shit, I don’t know. As much as it feels like an everlasting learning curve - especially in the attack, where he…he just has no timing - Powell...just works out back there. While he’s rarely the best Timber in any given game, he’s also rarely the biggest problem. Overall, though, Portland looks to have found a defensive - and, big deal - transition system that works for them. Based less on a five-game winning streak than how the Timbers have played through it, teams haven’t yet figured out how to attack their defense. I’m not saying those teams aren’t getting shots - I mean, even the Seattle “5-4-1” Sounders peeled off a couple - but Portland has kept a reasonably tight lid on most of those games. When a team has that, I mean, all they need is a goal or two. Two, as it happens, at least today.

Portland broke through (relatively) early in today’s game, when Cristhian Paredes put-back a Diego Valeri free-kick (why do you hate that goal, MLSSoccer.com, that you must hide it? ). That goal felt like a matter of time in a lot of ways, because the Timbers created a lot of shots on either side of that (proof), but that’s when - and it’s a funny game - Carlos Vela tied up the game for LAFC with…well, a bit of magic (yeah, yeah, I can think of 50 ways to fuck up that moment and, if someone asked me to do it, I could manage another 100 more fuck ups). Didn’t expect that so much - no one did, because no one expects second-act shit like that - but that’s where this post’s theme builds to a crescendo.

When Samuel Armenteros picked up the ball in Portland’s half of the middle third, who expected anything? I’ve seen this same man rated on the wrong side of a 30/70 ratio for good things, after all, and the entire move didn’t make sense (“pass it! pass it!” I kept yelling) till Armenteros cut inside against LA’s Walker Zimmerman (probably?) and got his hip all the way around the shot that won the game for Portland, and that’s now five wins in a row, each of them less surprising than the one before. Scripts change fast in this league. That Armenteros capped it off with one of the best goal celebrations I’ve seen in ages…we’re talking Kool and the Gang celebrations, people.

Portland’s win today relied on a lot of familiar names - e.g., Diego Valeri, Sebastian Blanco, Fanendo Adi (wait for it), and, sweet Jesus, make him forever whole and Forever21, only whatever his perfect age is, Diego Chara - but Armenteros sealed the win with a ballsy solo run and Cascante plugged a hole in the defense with a warm-up time that would make your finer trainers blush. And he was just fine besides that. Andy Polo, meanwhile, looks like he’s cheating a little farther forward to work with Blanco (or at least they did today) on the left, which will give the team more offense, and Paredes looks more and more like a decent successor to Chara (no!! too soon!), or just a good partner for something that can evolve into and out of either a 4-2-3-1, or a 4-3-3 as game states dictate. Things look good, basically. As for how good, that involves a story…

If you and I were plopped into two barstools, one beside the other, and, at the end of the game, you told me that Portland had more of the ball, I would have believed you. The box score numbers, though, says the opposite when it came to possession, but I guess that’s why a lot of possession stats have asterisks behind them - i.e., possession is important, except when it isn't. My developing theory about the Timbers hasn’t really changed: this is nothing more or less than a team that understands what each player needs to do and, at this point, their belief is a funk that rises off the field (for the image? Nah.). It’s working, whatever it is, and the players know it. They feel it.

To loop this back to Ridgewell (yes! continuity!), how many of the current starters, or even the fringe guys, are replaceable? If today suggested anything, the Timbers are in good shape in most parts of the field, maybe even damn good. By that I mean, each time a sub came in for a starter today, the team not only didn’t get weaker on the field, each gave LAFC a new variable to manage (OK, maybe just on the attacking side). To speak to The Greatest Fear - e.g., the statistical realities of what happens when Chara doesn’t start/play (bad things) - I think the team can field a decent screen even if he goes down. Or, more bluntly, if the team can’t figure out a solution between Paredes, Lawrence Olum and David Guzman, I mean, what do you get but the season you deserve? All the same, would things be the same on the other side of the ball? Am I just saying that Chara is always man of the match? Maybe.

The Portland Timbers have settled into a steady state, really, a great, counter-punching masterpiece in the tradition of…no, I refuse to go there, because the only reason it happens follows from the taint rubbed all over the word “counter-punch” (ssshhh!!!). What I mean is, it’s entirely possible that this formula will last only as long as Valeri and Blanco can stay on the field. It doesn’t take seeing Portland as an unstoppable menace to understand that having two players as good as Valeri and Blanco going wherever the hell they please and just going nuts…I mean, that’s a nightmare for any defense. You can man-mark one attacker, but coping with two, each of them given license to roam by a defense that not only holds up four-to-five-times more often than not, but one with a keen understanding of how to threaten your team’s goal in 3…2…1, and you’ve got the Portland Timbers, with Valeri and Blanco unchained and, IRL, a five-game winning streak. That a couple of those games came against some darlings of the chattering classes (e.g., NYC and LAFC; no, I chattered along with the rest of 'em) suggests a gauntlet raised, if not thrown.

This might not be the team, but it sure as hell feels like the structure to one. The Timbers don’t just have enough depth in central defense, they have solid pros like Valentin to anchor the defense move around as needed, and still bark orders. All in all, though, Portland seems to have a good base at the back. With Adi and Armenteros, the thinking mostly revolves around what the coaching staff can get out of each of them in any given game; in the here and now, the Timbers can throw some seriously different looks at an opposing defense. I mean, this team is solid, down even to Jake Gleeson covering better than well enough for Jeff Attinella.

Whatever “big-swing variable” this team has follows from injuries or absences to Valeri and/or Blanco. With the defense the way it is, I think (or hope) the Timbers can survive one or them going down. Both of them, though…you can talk me into praying, but not hoping.

In the here and now, though, Portland fans have a good team on their hands, one that both understands and buys into its system. If nothing else, this team proved it can transition in a post-Darlington Nagbe state - and, yeah, that’s the note I left subtly hanging above. That said, the methods of transition do seem to rely on having two, three, or even four players able to make it work, however they do it. Between Blanco, Adi, Valeri, and Chara, this team is currently spoiled for choice. Nagbe’s departure doesn’t really matter as a result, and that’s not a knock on or celebration of anyone. It’s just what’s happening. If any of those four players go down, though…

…and that’s why Ridgewell limping off the field bugged me so much. Balance is tricky.