Portland Timbers 3-0 Real Salt Lake: Hitting Every Mark (and Hot Damn!)

How I'm keeping a clear head, or attempting to.

I saw a couple things in the time between the Portland Timbers absolutely nailed their final dress rehearsal for the 2019 season and actually sitting down to watch it. In fact, on my way to queuing up the archived stream, I saw the Bizarro-world score – i.e., one that had Real Salt Lake beating Portland 3-0 – but the opposite happened, of course. The Timbers won the game 3-0, and it took less than five minutes for the correct timeline to assert itself when Jeremy Ebobisse handled an Andy Polo cross and quietly slotted home Portland’s first goal.

Another moment better illustrates the way the game played out. Somewhere around the 68th minute, the ball rolled to Diego Valeri, with RSL’s Kyle Beckerman standing not more than a yard away. Beckerman bit hard to where he thought Valeri would take the ball, but Diego opened his body and guided the ball upfield, toward RSL’s goal. Beckerman grabbed Valeri to stop the break, picking up a yellow card for this pair of bad decisions. That one, short moment translates to the game writ large, because every player in Timbers green had moments very much like that happened over and over. The team brimmed with confidence yesterday – Zarek (freakin’) Valentin picked off a ball and pirouetted away with it with La Liga flair around the 10th minute, fer crissakes – and, to take the dimmest possible view of it, maybe that follows from having RSL’s number last season; maybe the two teams’ composition gives Portland a standing edge for now. A sunnier interpretation argues that good decisions and solid technique aligned in a way that promises at least some bright spots in the season that starts just one week from now.

What made me giddiest, though, was that RSL didn’t play a bad game. They forced at least three tough saves out of Jeff Attinella (at least) – including an early attempt by (I think Corey Baird) that took a desperate swing of the legs to keep the ball out of the goal. The ball that fed the attempt came from Damir Kreilach (playing as a second forward; see last paragraph) with a detour near Julio Cascante, and that underlines the very important point that Portland wasn’t perfect. But Cascante had a decent game, I’d argue his best of the preseason. And where he got beat, Attinella stepped into the breach left behind. Again, that phenomenon played out over and over, and all game. This, however, was more typical: at one point, RSL tried to play Baird around the right back (Jorge Villafana) the same way Portland had sent Andy Polo around (I think) Aaron Herrera throughout the first half to reasonably devastating effect (see, the first goal, and the third, just on the opposite side); in that moment, Baird had Villafana rummaging around his back pocket and with two more defenders left to beat inside. The organization was good, y’all.

 

Polo hogged the highlights/stats sheet, but, to reach for an oxymoron, the entire team stood out. By that I mean, if I had to name an MVP for Portland, it would be passing and movement from the team as a whole. The support was phenomenal and omnipresent, the passing crisp and occasionally fancy. Portland looked comfortable playing in tight spaces – something I’m starting to understand as a minimal threshold for competence in MLS, in that the teams that can’t pass with that kind of confidence basically can’t compete. (Yes, that’s a warning shot for FC Cincinnati, who showed virtually no capacity to either do that, or handle it when Columbus Crew SC did; as in, the thought was very much on my mind as I watched this game.)

The fact that it’s still preseason renders this something of a context-free game, so I’m going to resist projecting anything more onto this win, and call it what it is: damn close to the perfect launch into the 2019 regular season - and playing on the road, no less. The only players who need singling out are guys like Cascante and, more so, David Guzman, players I (frankly) crapped on as recently as Wednesday. The specific occasion (e.g., losing to a USL team, and looking like shit doing it) played some role in me typing with a mouthful of bile, but Guzman delivered a solid demonstration of his upside yesterday, his capacity to pace the team from deeper on the field. Between them, though, the past two games make the case that Guzman can only be effective with the right player beside him – or maybe just the right kind of player; as in, Diego Chara is Plan A, but might, say, Cristhian Paredes work as a Plan B? – and that’s something to file away for when injuries and/or the need to rest certain players comes up later in the regular season. Still, happy to see Guzman show that, contrary to a point I made in the post on Wednesday's loss to Phoenix, he has a role to play with the team. Or, in Cascante’s case, that he’s up to providing an option if he doesn’t wind up with the starting role…

…elsewhere, signing Valentin to an extension looks like a real win-win. As I see it, the Timbers have a very strong and confident Valentin in the back pocket in the event Jorge Moreira can’t bring enough upside to replace him. In other words, Moreira can only get better as he gets familiar and, if he doesn’t…meh.

If I had to name a point of necessary caution, it’s this: two of Portland’s goals more or less benefit of good fortune. I think that goes without explanation on Polo’s goal (five-holing Nick Rimando from that angle comes around about as often as Halley’s Comet), but it took some atrocious defending by two RSL defenders (Marcelo Silva and Herrera, again, I think) to let Sebastian Blanco get in behind them. Celebrate that silky build-up all you want – it deserves it – but that goal doesn’t happen without two dudes’ brains farting loudly.

And…yeah, think that’s it. Oh, just to mention it, when I talk about Ebobisse and Lucas Melano playing together, I see them fitting a lot like Kreilach pairs with Baird, only it’s Ebobisse and Melano in those roles. Don’t know if we’ll ever see it, but it’s nice to have template to point to when you’re trying to explain it to people. Otherwise, call yesterday a good win that has me feeling good about next week’s 2019 season opener against the Colorado Rapids (in Colorado), and it is good that the season starts next week*. So, in closing, that’s good, good, and good!

(* To share a programming note, tickets to Seattle Sounders v. FC Cincinnati for next weekend fell in my lap, so, unless I can figure out how to fit things together, I’ll be a little late getting to the Timbers next weekend. Also, the same phenomenon will repeat two weekends from then, and for the same reason.)