Club America 1-1 Portland Timbers, Then a "Loss": Penalties & Positivity

Make that pass again, Felipe. I'm waiting...

Take it. Take your meaningless, non-regulation, asterisk-weighted win, Club America. It means nothing, not even to you.

Oh, and stopping the game to put a lid on “discriminatory chants”? Sign me up for an all-day pass on that shit…and if I could come up with a functional way to punish a team for one of their shithead fans pointing a laser into a goalkeeper’s eyes during a penalty shootout, I’d do it tomorrow. Too easy to game, sadly. At any rate…

Club America 1-1 Portland Timbers; 5-(maybe)4 in penalties
About the Game
I can’t remember the last time I saw the Timbers counter-punch so cleanly. David Da Costa clipped a ripe peach of an assist off the outside of his right to send Ariel Lassiter clean through for Portland’s opening goal, but Felipe Mora’s chest-trap, reverse through-ball to Juan David Mosquera set my nether to fluttering and they still haven’t calmed down (might be in here). Sure, Mosquera pissed it away with a touch long enough for the record books, but the sweet, sweet memory still titillates.

America took over the rest of the first half and, factually, had more to show for it than I recalled (e.g., 7 shots, 2 on goal, with healthy side of corner kicks), but the Timbers defended stoutly and well (hold that thought) – up to and including Jimer Fory retreating behind an extended Maxime Crepeau to clip a(n offside) shot clear (also, remember him foundly, for…)

I didn’t see Fory’s first yellow card – heard it was something about dissent, and there’s this whole chicken-egg thesis waiting to be written about refs and their thin skin – but no decent ref gives a second yellow for the foul he committed, and yet…the Aristocrats! When the theretofore largely hapless America scored an equalizer off their 19th nervous corner (reference/gotta step there, Mr. Felipe Mora), all signs pointed to the wheels spinning off into outer orbit for the Timbers. Without dipping too far to over-determining, I credit Phil Neville for making a couple smart subs for breaking from depth – Kevin Kelsy for a reasonably overwhelmed Mora and Antony for a drifting Da Costa – and it just took a combination of holding on defensively and scaring America off throwing every player, plus a couple asshole fans, to carry the Timbers to one-third of a loss, instead of a full one.

Both teams had their chances – e.g., Mosquera could have toe-poked home another chance before than one time, in band-camp, when he spoiled Mora’s brightest moment – and both teams hit the post (more please, Mr. Kelsy), but I give the Timbers real credit for taking the game to penalties.

About that, yeah, Kamal Miller shanked his PK something awful, but I’m not going to let that spoil another noteworthy result or Kamal’s late steadiness. On a purely results level, Portland has their legs under them right now – and in one very encouraging way…

Five Thoughts I Had Whilst…
1) The Very Encouraging Way
The Timbers have allowed just one goal over their past four games. They’ve allowed a total of six since July 4th (5th, technically), over a total of eight games and, dropped points aside (looking at you, home loss versus Real Salt Lake and St. Louis on the road; don’t get me started on that stinking 0-3 loss at Toronto; oh, yeah, I get down), that’s my biggest positive for Portland as they turn into the stretch-run. To amend, restate, and otherwise pound one of the most famous talking points in sports another six inches into the ground, every goal your defense keeps out buys your offense time to score. As close observers know, the Timbers attack needs more minutes than most and may or may not need that and more for the foreseeable future. One related thought on that…

2) A Paper Mache Tiger
Without taking anything away from Portland’s spiciest first-half moments, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a full-field defense as easy to play through as America’s was at various points tonight. I mean, they struggled to manage Portland’s movement – Portland's! – like they’d never defended before tonight. Cheap shots at Club America aside, most of the Liga MX teams in the Leagues Cup strike me as a couple steps off their best selves – and the same applies to all the teams Portland played. I remain encouraged by the Timbers recent run of form, but that’s the wee hobgoblin tugging at my shirt sleeve as I type and think about the rest of MLS’s regular season.

Flipping to positives now, before I close with something more ambiguous…

3) Welcome Ba-ack
Antony wasn’t perfect tonight, but even if I didn’t love everything he did after he came on, I didn’t object to any of it either. I forgot the terror he can be in the hope field. The gate to defender’s nightmares has reopened, amen.

My future, per the shorts I wore.

4) I Only Obsess About This From a Delusional Embrace That This Was My Best Position and That I Coulda Been Something* (* No, not really, and for So Many Reasons)
With No. 2 above incorporated by reference herein, I’m genuinely coming around on Joao Ortiz. From defensive discipline, both in terms of positioning and fouling, to a vast improvement in the speed, choice, and quality of his passing – some of which even go forward! - to the confidence he showed in pointing (the impressive) Ian Smith toward the sideline, deep in the second half as Portland tried to kill the game, I believe Ortiz is coming into his own. And to the point of thinking he might be an asset through the end of 2025 and a revelation in 2026. Fingers crossed…and for more reasons than one.

5) The Whole…THING with Santiago Moreno
I don’t know whether a player can come back into a team after ditching them, but imagine it takes either great relationships going out or copious apologies coming back in. Going the other way, I don’t see much upside in keeping a player who wants to leave in a way that risks reputational damage – and, holy shit, yes, how does one not have questions about Portland’s front office/coaching culture? The theories I have about what caused Moreno’s meltdown don’t matter – for what it’s worth, my money’s on a combination of a loss of a regular starting role and a refusal to let him go – but I also see an opportunity in this particular crisis. Antony coming back on the field (knocking on wood to its limits!) and a new “winger DP” coming in (i.e., I know nothing about this guy, or even if that's the right guy; he'll come or he won't) forced Moreno into a role best described as an attacking No. 8 – notably, one that plays a lot like a winger, just into a different part of the field. And once you weigh that against how much you want to commit him to defending…well, maybe he did that same math and decided to go hunt for minutes elsewhere…even if he can’t do that, contractually(?).

That’s it for this one. I was happy with the performance, honestly. As much as the Moreno thing makes me jittery about the relationship between front office/coaching and the players, I think I see enough buy-in on the field to make me think things might work out. Might work out.