 |
| Searching...as am I. |
First things first, what adjective would you, personally,
apply to that win: impressive, inspiring, expected, or solid?
Also, I have my poll…
Over the opening 30 minutes, just about everything around
and about the Portland Timbers felt good, loose, and something
heartwarmingly-close to cruise control. Whenever that changed over the next 60
minutes, Portland ‘keeper, Jeff Attinella, held up to the task; his 36th minute save might have knocked the socks off, but I got the bigger boost later in the
game, when he lunged forward to clear a ball about 30 yards from Portland’s
goal - i.e., well inside no-man’s land. Attinella played that moment with
confidence, like he knew where the people around him would either be, or go,
when he stepped forward. The general trends look strong and real, but that
detail - a growing sense of who does what, when and where on the field - goes
farthest in terms of making me think Portland could have places to go this
season. (Mostly*.) With five road games behind them (e.g., Portland has home games in the bank), and a 1-0 win picked up last night against the San Jose Earthquakes at Avaya Stadium - I feel
like I’m going to go home happy more often than not in 2018.
Whether glorious or not, Attinella’s saves amounted to rounding
up to some dangerous strays because the Timbers won this game on their merits.
Alternately, it could be argued that San Jose lost this game on their faults;
Anibal Godoy’s knack for the hard, pointless foul took the honors, but,
contrary to Ross Smith’s mid-second-half commentary, Portland transitioned at
will against San Jose, and for most of the game. San Jose responded in kind
more often than I’d like - especially from minutes 55-75 - but they never could
break through. And, when they did…Attinella.
So, again, impressive, inspiring, expected, or solid?
The team kept good shape for most of the game, and didn’t
give the ‘Quakes much, but the Timbers hardly racked up chances. I know Fanendo
Adi had a few (left foot, kid) - the kind that inspire the “oh, shit, that was
close” stomach drop a little more than the rest - and the game played openly,
as a whole, but I didn’t get the shooting gallery I saw as a real possibility.
In fact, this game looked ever more likely to end goal-less as the game clock
clicked higher. Beneath the lack of drama, though, a specific tension that
would finally turn the game developed. As he got overwhelmed, little by little,
Godoy resorted to more and dumber fouls, starting with his clumsy tug on Diego
Chara in the middle (or thereabouts) of the second half. When Godoy finally
fouled Diego Valeri in a dangerous place, but…c’mom, how many times does that
free kick go missing? Or, more bluntly, it didn’t really occur to me to cross
my fingers or anything else when Valeri stepped up; that’s the difference
between hoping for something to happen and thinking it will, never mind
expecting it. And, can I say it? Valeri hit that with textbook perfection. No,
not like the shitty textbooks Texas dumps on the country like Chinese steel,
but one of the good ones. I’ve seen prettier, big-bending free kicks than the
shot Valeri dipped over San Jose’s wall, but not many that followed directions that neatly. San Jose’s ‘keeper, Andrew Tarbell
(who is good), set his wall, took his position in the gap left behind, and
Diego “Bless’d King” Valeri, chipped the ball over the wall, beyond Tarbell’s reach
and - HELLO, beautiful! - first road win of the season!
Not to kick San Jose while they’re down, but this game really
did feel like a good chance for 1-3 points the second I saw it pull up 3 days
ago. San Jose has dropped points at home already and leak goals (this is just
the second time this season they’ve limited a team to just one goal), so even a win
always looked plausible. I’m also not surprised to see them hit enough shots
towards Portland’s goal to win this open, yet oddly stymied game. San Jose has
some neat players, and all over the field - Florian Jungwirth (who I’d take
over Ridgewell at the same salary tomorrow), Vako, Danny Hoesens (wonder what
he could be on the right team), and Jackson Yueill and Chris Wehan look like two
decently promising young players - but the overall learning curve for ‘Quakes
head coach, Mikael Stahre, lags a couple steps behind where Giovanni Savarese
has the Portland Timbers right now.
It’s in a good place - i.e., I think the last three games credibly
track the team’s progress - but, again, it’s not perfect, and this was against
the San Jose team described immediately above (and, honestly, I could be
overselling their sorry state), who could have scored today and that would have
darkened the lens to a deeper shade of grey. But Portland is unquestionably
defending better than they did at the start of the season. If you want to get
inspired, check out Valeri’s late defensive tracking (where do you find this? beats
me, just re-watch the whole game and start looking for it after the 80th), but
this is mostly down to better shape from all concerned. On that, while I
singled out Chara in a tweet last night (nice overhead kick, kid!), but I want to give one goddamn big nod to Larrys Mabiala, because he was visible in all the ways you
want to see a central defender. And I think Mabiala makes the best possible
segue into the next, final segment…
* There, I grabbed that asterisk way up in the first, full
paragraph. Look, Portland set and held the pace for most of last night, with something
plausibly close to their first team, and I think that, paired with *MOST*
people having a better sense of what they’re doing out there, has hoisted the
Timbers into plausible, (too) early playoff contention. For all that, one
question remains wide open, at least where I live:
How good are Cristhian Paredes and Andy Polo, and what the
fuck are they doing out there? Because I think that matters.
I paid more attention to both players as the game moved on,
trying to figure out who went where, if generally, and whatever kind of
unmistakable upside either player promised. Broadly, I saw Polo more on the
defensive side and Paredes more on the attacking side; on balance, I recall
Polo picking off passes and running down lose touches (a little Chara-esque)
and Paredes winding up a couple shots of varying good judgment - e.g., nothing egregiously
ill-advised, but also nothing like the path to Timbers trophies and future
riches for Paredes. Whether or not I have that right, both players definitely play
behind the front three of Adi, Valeri, and Sebastian Blanco, aka, it’s
Christmas every game in these parts (as in, the Timbers play the Christmas
tree). Polo and Paredes first mission is shape, but they’ll both fill-in behind
the front three to provide options for keeping the attack going
So, how’s that working? I drew out real, if multi-layered
clues, in all the above - e.g., generally defended well, with an assist from
heroics, created some changes, but not a ton - aka, well, but also
barely-San-Jose-Earthquake-beating. While other factors come into that (see:
Portland’s history on the road in every year except 2015, maybe 2013), this
touches on the sharper question of how far Portland can ride this set-up. I
think it’s still being answered, and don’t think I’d get much argument about
that. Both players look, if not better, than more certain with each game, and I
think fans see that play out in the more solid defense. As such, I think the
question becomes how much Polo and Paredes, together or separately, can provide
on the attacking side. The higher they can raise their level on that, the
farther the Timbers can go, at least on this line-up.
Not to put too fine a point on it, these are our
“Replacement Nagbes.” On the surface, that could read like needing two players
(Polo/Paredes) to replace one (Nagbe), but, as much as I love and miss “Darling,”
I’d argue he didn’t give Portland enough on the defensive side to for that 2:1
ratio to hold up. I’m thinking closer to 1.5:1. The conversation doesn’t even
kind of need to end with those two, and not just because it leaves open major
questions like what happens when David Guzman comes back. There are sub-questions
to consider as well, starting with whether, say, Andres Flores can push either
Polo or Paredes to excellence or out of a job (and why not Eryk Williamson,
just for funsies?).
Well, that’s all ahead for the Portland Timbers and all
their fans. What both have for now is a solid game and…a solid win. Maybe an
expected one, but definitely a solid one…
…now, the win over New York City FC, that was impressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment