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| As often happens, what you don't talk about matter most. |
Won’t lie. I know where the condensed games live (thanks,
@FWjmcg!), but I’m still coming to grips with the idea of watching any video on
my phone for more than three minutes. That’s my previous record, by the way. It
might have gone high as five once, but…I mean, shit, doesn’t the whole thing
feel like a compromise? It seems like we’ve spent a couple decades making big
ass TVs, and no we’re watching sports on tiny little phone screens? Ain’t
wrong, but it ain’t right either.
Right, the game. The Portland Timbers pushed Los Angeles FC to a goal-less draw in Los Angeles, and with the emphasis on “push.” If anyone
tells you that the - just to mention it, visiting - Portland didn’t look the likelier
team to win, they watched a different game than I did. This confirmed a couple
theories, by the way, particularly as evidence about where LAFC fits into the
larger picture of Major League Soccer. On that, and lifts my bluntest phrasing
out of this sprawling monstrosity, “they’re dropping points in pretty non-elite
ways.” Here, the “they” means LAFC. And they did it again tonight.
I didn’t know what to expect today more than anyone else. I’d
heard plenty about the LAFC hype-train, but I think even their fans know to
take a shot of that with the famous combination of lime and, yes, salt. LAFC
might have beat the Timbers on every facet of the box score (except
clearances!) but the highlights better match what I recall; on the quality of
the shots and, yeah, that’s all Timbers. One team hit the post (thanks
again, Samuel Armenteros), while the other floated a couple vague, wet farts toward
goal…to think what could have been had Diego Valeri buried that ball he picked
off Steven Beitashour’s ambling toe.
God’s honest truth (also, we’ll see), I don’t have a lot to
say about this one. In real-world terms - that is, getting a point on the road against
a well-regarded and direct rival, and generally looking like the home team
doing it, that’s mission accomplished in any league. Portland looked comfortable
for most of the night, even on the back foot. LAFC, on the other hand,
struggled to contain Portland’s counter (or just its general hyper-verticality
and mobility), and couldn’t punch back with anything Jeff Attinella couldn’t
swat away. The field tilted Portland’s way on all that, contra the box score and,
no, in no way do I think this predicts how Portland will do in Wednesday’s U.S.Open Cup game against this same Los Angeles FC team. Both teams have had their,
“no, you throw the first punch” moment, but the real fight - or some version of
it, with or without pearl-clutching squad rotation from either team - comes
this Wednesday.
Because the Timbers won this round in just about every
meaningful sense, here’s to hoping that’ll carry them to victory and the final whistle
next mid-week, and that’ll get them to the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup. (In
which, and looking at the rest of the competition, I like our chances - and
LAFC’s, by translation…shit! that’s a lot to play for.) That game, though, will
unwind as it does regardless of what took place today. And with both teams
knowing the other a little better. I’m not even gonna say how I see that
playing out, because I don’t want to jinx…just anything. Back to tonight, and
this’ll be, like, crazy brief, if only for me:
There are only so many different ways I can say “the
Portland Timbers are playing really well” and “Diego Chara is this team’s most
important player,” so that is my entire comment on both points. Almost. Look,
what makes Chara so goddamn good - no, vital - happened around the 35th minute.
That’s when “Commander” Adama Diomande got down Portland’s left, somewhat
behind the defense. Julio Cascante ran him down and, like a good defender with
an attacker on an island and his goal behind him, Cascante just stood him up.
Chara tracked back within half a second, and from the other end of the field. With
Diomande all alone, Cascante stood by to cover a breakdown, while Chara just
bit after the ball until he got it. Little moments like that matter every bit
as much as Samuel Armenteros flicking the ball to himself and scoring (what the
hell? why not relive it?). I’m confident that those same moments have the
Timbers where they are right now - e.g., in fourth place and with games in hand
to take down at least one team. LAFC could be next too. Aim high, y’all.
While I’m on the defense, does anyone else get the feeling
that Cascante and Larrys Mabiala have quietly cemented their status on the
Timbers’ back-line, and that’s wherever they land? I say that with less malice
to, say, Liam Ridgewell, than appreciation for how sturdy those two have
become.
On that formation, beyond “what the fuck was up with that?”,
I didn’t necessarily mind it. I saw it presented as a 3-2-3-2, a 3-5-1-1, and
even a 5-3-2, and that was fine. If I had to guess, it was the “3” at the back
that mattered, the Mabiala, Lawrence Olum, Cascante clog in front of the drain
that was Portland’s goal, something that makes sense given LAFC’s (allegedly)
hydra-headed attack. For better or worse, a case can be made that Giovanni
Savarese constructs his team from the back, meaning, he’ll figure out how to
stop the opposition first, then go from there. (That said, Portland plays an
elegant version of that thanks to personnel.) More to the point, I think that
formation is a myth, because when hasn’t Olum played as just another defender
since _________?
And I think that’s the best through-line I can pick for Portland’s
season so far. There are so many things about this team that fans take as
givens, and rightly so. For instance, Chara will own just about any game in which
he plays; also, Diego Valeri will do 20 things in any given game that looks like
the kind of straight-up kung-fu master shit that you’ll still be asking about
10 weeks later. I don’t dwell on that stuff, precisely because it is the normal
for the Portland Timbers. The same goes for Attinella, and…just a shit-ton of
players. Every time Attinella’s goal got threatened, he shifted to block it (that's the key) in
a place that looked good enough to make you ask whether it wasn’t the perfect
place.
By way of closing up shop, I don’t want to give anyone the
impression that the Portland Timbers blew LAFC off the park. Sure, the Timbers
generated the better shots, had the better game-plan; but hasn’t that been true
for most of this season, or even just past the first twelve games? To update that
broad idea, this was a major test for this Portland Timbers team - a question
for auditioning their road game in the event they play a home-away series, say,
during the playoffs - and the Timbers passed. Comfortably, too, and without
cheating.
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