The rosters may have affected expectations....
A mash-up of the Portland Timbers beat an even more deconstructed version of the Seattle Sounders down in Tucson, AZ last night. The final score was 2-1, and, no, the result doesn’t matter. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting, or some unlikely collision of optimism and pessimism. I don’t really know how pre-season works – is there something in a players’ contracts regarding how hard you “go in”? does the coach send them onto the field with something like, “play, but not really, but I’m also watching, so play” for motivation? - I only know it’s different. Not just because of that, but due to the literal throw-shit-at-the-wall line-ups you see, and probably should see, up until the game right before the start of the season…
…if I were a coach, I’d tinker even in that game. Experiments are how we learn, and these are cheap.
Portland Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese did something noteworthy with his 2/3, 1/3 line-up: he fielded two competitive, and reasonably-balanced units. To save you from clicking through a link, here were Portland’s line-ups for the 60/30 shifts, respectively:
First 60: Attinella, Valentin, Mabiala, Cascante, Villafaña, Guzmán, Paredes, Polo, Valeri, Blanco, Melano
Second 30: Clark, Farfan, Tuiloma, Dielna, Miller*, Flores, Chara, Asprilla, Loría, Conechny, Ebobisse
Both units showed good faces and bad ones – also, I don’t think either of those specific line-ups will ever see the light of day in regular season. “Team First 60” had a little more attacking “pop,” while “Team Second 30” had mostly effort/promise mixed with stabilizing influences all ‘round (went with the buddy system, usually a good call), but, regardless of whether the world will see either specific line-up, both sets could manage a game if it had to. I don’t think they’d hold up through a season, but Portland has emergency arrangements, and that’s my happy thought for today.
The bad news is complicated. Both units, isolated parts of them, and individual players all looked good at some point tonight; there was a blessed minimum of stinking up the joint. At the same time, neither Team First 60 nor Team Second 30 faced the Sounders’ best at any point last night. The Sounders played a decent, reasonably experienced line-up for the first 75 minutes – e.g., players like Will Bruin (who had a couple chances, even a PK shout), Harry Shipp, but it was Handwalla Bwana who stood out, and for more than scoring Seattle’s goal – but that team featured…maybe three, four marginal starters for Seattle? They played a passel of toddlers for the game’s final 15 minutes – aka The Seattle Super Junior Sounders! - and that’s who Dairon Asprilla bullied to create the game winner. As far as that goes...
No, this game doesn’t mean anything. It’s not disappointing, or worrying. It just kind of begs a “why” without providing an answer better than, “it’s preseason.” I still didn’t like seeing Team First 60 lose its hold on the game for five-minute stretches at a time against Seattle with the cream skimmed off. The defense got pulled apart too often and, on Seattle’s goal, over-compensated its adjustments and lost shape. The overall balance tilted more toward Portland by the end, but that was when Team Second 30 faced off against The Seattle Super Junior Sounders! Not that it’s a silver lining, but I do expect Seattle will have another good season, and this depth will be part of that. Bwana looked actually game-ready, but everyone else who wasn’t Jonathan Campbell passing out of the back (the rest of Campbell was pretty all right) played well.
Just about every Timber did something good and well at some point last night, and that’s all the positives the Timbers need out of the rosters Giovanni Savarese fielded. To hazard some theories on why Savarese organized them as he did, Team First 60 appeared to test how Andy Polo, Cristhian Paredes, and Lucas Melano handled riffing with the major attacking pieces of the starting squad – e.g., Diego Valeri and Sebastian Blanco. Team Second 30 felt like the flip-side of that, with Dairon Asprilla, Marvin Loría, Tomas Conechny, and Jeremy Ebobisse getting a chance to show how they run the offense, but with enough risk-mitigation behind them for support. (As long as it had Diego Chara in front of that but I’d bet on a back four of Marco Farfan, Bill Tuiloma, Claude Dielna, and Roy Miller to hold up reasonably well against most MLS competition.) Savarese fielded functioning line-ups in both cases, and got to see different parts mesh regardless, and that’s a good thing…but without being sufficient unto itself to slip that nagging “is that all there is,” that’s been tailing me since last night.
That’s enough on a meaningless game (that’s still…bugging me). I’ll close out with notes on any player not always presumed to start – even if some of ‘em (see: Polo, Andy) do it fairly often. Going in the order in which I find them in, first, my thoughts, then my notes:
Claude Dielna – As much as he might have benefitted from battling toddlers, Dielna looked strong, composed on the ball and his passes out of the back looked crisp and precise enough to work against most first teams. In fairness, I am dying for a central defender to take over the Timbers defense, so notes on Dielna could involve a little projection for a while.
Cristhian Paredes – Going the other way, I’m so invested in seeing this kid make the leap that I might make up shortcomings to criticize. Overcoming that starts with not expecting him to play like Chara, never mind become him. (That’s stupid because Chara has magical space-shrinking properties very few others possess). So, Paredes, on his merits: he made some good reads that let him steal the ball (more early in the game, than late), but I didn’t like where I saw him when Seattle had possession inside the Timbers half. It looks reactive at first glance – like he’s expecting to be able to recover – but maybe that’s how he manages that role.
Lucas Melano – He looks better, even if he throws the occasional, pointless curve (e.g., two dummies to the opposition), his runs were good, his speed caused problems, etc. He’s still missing something, young Lucas, and, to misapply a word, I’d call it a lack of “intentionality.” It’s in the same family as killer instinct, but it has more to do making decisions that shape what happens in the space around him. I understand that all players improvise, but Melano never seems to stop.
Andy Polo –I’ve never seen anyone do the “options, guys! gimme options!” gesture more than Polo, but he looks better (and more interested) playing further up the field. Don’t expect him to star, but I am watching for growth.
Tomas Conechny –Conechny’s most comfortable performance in a first-team Timbers uniform. He looks like he knew where he fit, showed some nice aggressiveness, and played sharp. Noted.
Dairon Asprilla – He’s a genuinely atrocious passer at times, but he’s good when given a decisive moment (he rarely makes them on his own), and he’ll out-work just about anybody.
With the three players immediately above, this is my final take-away: I want those three fighting like starved dogs (well…maybe not that much) to get on the field with Valeri, Sebastian Blanco and Chara. The more of them that can provide viable options when on the field with those three, or play well enough to give them time off of it, the better Portland’s 2019 will be.
That’s it for this game. When’s the next one?
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