Colorado Rapids 2-3 Portland Timbers: The Simplest Joys (and Choices)

Life is better when time/space bends.

“I expect more of myself than that.”

- Samuel Armenteros, saying exactly what you want a player to say

Armenteros undoubtedly endeared himself to, well, every person who cries green and gold in either mood (joy and sadness, obvs), and he hit the perfect tone with his humble and hungry post-game interview with Nat Borchers. Diego Valeri, on the other hand, probably struck a deeper vein when he had his turn to chat with Borchers; so long as a team knows what it’s doing out there, the questions start and end with doing it and, in Valeri’s words, not thinking about the past. What I mean is, sometimes a pile of clichés about just doing better, being better says everything. Especially when you’re on a six-game winning streak. Alternately (or not), there this:

“The Timbers probably aren't thinking much about the big picture.”

I lifted that from MLSSoccer.com’s recap, precisely because I’m not entirely sure what it means. These Timbers are playing well and just needs to keep doing…just that - i.e., as Valeri and Armenteros said, between them, they just need to keep doing what they do, only more and better. The scales balanced out in the box score, but a Colorado Rapids team looking for bright spots needs better. The Timbers, meanwhile, have all the good news they could possibly want: a confident road win where the opposition could only score through the Timbers defense - e.g., Julio Cascante’s trying-too-hard (but thanks for trying!) own-goal and a late, late show penalty that I, frankly, didn’t care enough to get upset about. And here’s why:

“I expect boring and low-scoring. Worst-case, the Colorado Rapids hold down the fort for 80+ minutes, then steal a goal/win after Portland’s legs/lungs give out.”

“Best case the Portland Timbers scores early, forcing the Rapids to play. Could run up the score on that  (8/10)”

That tweet, by me and one day before the game, amounts to what I expect to be a mediocre movie and walking out…just thrilled. This game was my Wachowski (Then?) Brothers' Speed Racer, basically, with way less cool lights/effects (OMG, it's full of stars) and perhaps a couple fewer fleets of fancy. Don’t me wrong: that’s a good thing. The Portland Timbers have again achieved the state of semi-boring, somewhat-reliable predictability that results in one win after another. Six wins, in fact.

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.

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.

MLS Week 10: A League of Dilemmas & Ten Things

Neutral fans for Chicago v. Atlanta

“And there is that long ball to start things off for the Rapids.”

- Confirmation of general reality from the broadcast booth, #SKCvCOL

I don’t just love the unsubtle dig in at the Rapids’ in that line, it also sums up in a small number of words why I didn’t tune into Sporting KC v. Colorado. The same goes for SKC: I don’t watch them much because I feel like I know where they are. The same goes for Columbus Crew SC gutting out a goal-less road draw at the Seattle Sounders after going down a player (Pedro Santos…who really needs to check his shit) at the 15th minute: neither team is doing much right now and aren’t of much interest as a result.

So goes the process of elimination when I decide which games to watch every weekend on either side of whatever the Portland Timbers get up to. Because it’s half-driven by catching a spoiler - and only half; I still watched New York Red Bulls v. New York City FC, because that’s just good data (not to mention very impressive) - it’s a fairly imperfect method. For instance, I doubt anyone but fans of both teams and betting members of the sadomasochism community picked the Chicago Fire versus Atlanta United FC as a top bout for the weekend. Two other spoiled games lead me to that one, but I’m at least a little glad I tuned in because Chicago managed better than I expected, even playing at home; they also have a point of semi-major concern I’ll look at in one of the 10 Things below.

At this point in the season, though, I’m not sure Major League Soccer’s teams are so much rounding into either good or bad teams, as teams are sorting to, for lack of a better word, types. For instance, the Montreal Impact has to be the biggest “trap” team in MLS, terrible one weekend, lethal as poison the next, just ask the New England Revolution (but…more on that below). In Toronto FC and the New York Red Bulls, you’ve got the two teams likeliest to land 20 blows before you even hit the ground; New York City FC, on the other hand, has stumbled hard enough over the last month to fall from a permanent state of grace. The win against FC Dallas (again, more later) between two…just bad losses (NYCFC got shut-out in both and lost by a combined total of 7 goals) keeps the dreaded “glass jaw” label at bay until a bigger sample says otherwise, but, seeing a team who had rolled as fast as NYCFC take those hits…damn. (During the broadcast, Adrian Heath called the Red Bulls loss, “a shattering reality check,” or something like that.)

If you see omissions in the short (implied) list of top teams above, the team you have in mind might show up below. Might not, too. I’m confined to what I catch and I missed all the talkies and write-ups on this stuff this past weekend. Also, if you’re wondering where the Timbers fit into the puzzle above, I’ll wrap up with that after the 11th Thing down below.

San Jose Earthquakes 0-1 Portland Timbers: Paredes...Polo...Paredes...Polo...

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!