Columbus Crew SC 1-3 Portland Timbers: A Delightful Response...to Everything

Not the Wes Anderson-inspired image I imagined, but still solid.

For your own benefit, drop the phrase “or so it appeared” at the end of every sentence below, and send a thank you to the profit-grubbing partnership of Major League Soccer and ESPN for instituting a black-out policy that forced me to watch this game with one less eye than usual. (Which says so very much.) That’s your caveat for the post below and, crikey, I’ve never used the phrase “I’ll just fucking walk away” about soccer in my life. Well, except that one time I shut down this site. I really did forget about that…

That’s to say, the only version of the Portland Timbers’ 3-1 (three?) win over Columbus Crew SC was the 20-minute one, e.g., the condensed version available exclusively on the app I was compelled to download (GRUBBING BASTARDS! OK, it’s out of my system, but do insert the magic phrase after every sentence). With that, I’ll start to talk about the game…instead of cable TV’s cadaverous grip on what’s left of their profits…sorry. For real this time.

“Again, I really like the response from Portland.”

- Columbus Broadcast-Booth Guy, I think

I totally agree, Columbus Broadcast-Booth Guy! As much as I can only have a head-full of disconnected thoughts on this game, I was delighted to see every Timbers player flying into every 50/50, and in every frame. They didn’t play hungry, the played starved – as well they should have given the start. Even if this loss dimmed their star – perhaps more than a little – Columbus is a 4-3-1 team, with a 3-1-1 home record (no less significantly, do the math on the number of games the Crew have played at home). Given Portland’s record coming in – and their defensive record as much as anything else – this projected as a win for Columbus, maybe even a chance to knock a couple teeth out of Portland.

It went the other way, obviously. The question is why.

For starters, God knows Jeff Attinella saved the game and tried to throw it away at the same time. MLSSoccer.com’s selection of highlights failed to capture Attinella’s closest/best moments (for the were the same and many) (also, the inadequacy continues…Don), but they did capture his two, uncharacteristically, wait-is-he-throwing-the-game? mistakes. To give Columbus credit, and Pedro Santos (the scorer of Columbus’ goal; second link) a little more, they kept Attinella and the Portland defense active throughout. To give Portland a little more credit, the Timbers’ defense held up, both largely and desperately and, no less signficantly, they punched even on the numbers. And it took the kind of team-wide effort that carried Portland to the final last season – e.g., when Bill Tuiloma coughed up a rare mistake…somewhere in the middle of the game, and Cristian Paredes lunged an incoming ball to Attinella (and the ref did the right thing and didn’t call it an intentional pass back to the ‘keeper, and no one complained; bravo, all around). To stick to that subject…because it feels damned big…

Maybe the other 7/9th of the game told a different story, but did Paredes have a coming out party Saturday night? There was the play identified above, plus a couple solid, regular interventions, plus shots in anger both on and…in the general vicinity of goal at the 51st and 56th minute. There was also his quick-witted assist for the game-burying goal, aka, Jorge Moreira’s screamer/GOTW candidate (probably…right?). And a bunch of questions follow from that. In no particular order…

Did Portland Really Play a 4-4-2?

Effectively, maybe, but I guarantee you it didn’t look like this in action. The number of times I saw Moreira (who will forever be, for me, “More Ira”) forward told me that Savarese designed a system in which he would go into the attack while Andres Flores (who played the same side) hung back to cover. First, yes, Flores is this year’s Lawrence Olum, that reliable, predictable guy that bails out your more effective formation designs, but, back to the subject: did the Timbers play a 4-4-2? The more I look at it (with or without magic potions and a 7/9th blind spot), yeah, it probably played as a 4-4-2 on the defensive side, while flexing into a, hold on…going with a 4-3-4 in the attack (holy shit, I finally get formations), with Paredes, Chara and Flores blocking, while Sebastian Blanco, Diego Valeri, Jeremy Ebobisse and Moreira ATTACK!!!! (really, really well, ideally). This, as it happens, looks like a plausible system, especially with Moreira looking more comfortable…

…but I also think it allowed Portland’s second goal, and that’s significant, especially where it concerns Jeremy Ebobisse, aka…

The Forward We Have

The goal Ebobisse scored tonight looked enough like the goal he scored a few weeks ago against the LA Galaxy – and I think that drives home the point about the kind of player Ebobisse is, and the kinds of goals he’s going to score. While he can score headers, and he can run the channels sometimes, Ebobisse is, 1) a decent back-to-goal forward, and 2) a player who looks comfortable, natural even, scoring off the kind of combination approach that lets him fall off, play the ball, and try to make a run off of it. Whether or not that’s how you think a forward should work, or whether that is or isn’t high percentage (leaning isn’t, but hopeful), Ebobisse is pretty clearly the best forward the Timbers have right now. And that has certain implications.

Portland’s Best Goal of 2019

While I already linked to this goal above (see under “quick-witted assist”), this game-assassinating goal is my favorite of the 2019 season for the simple, significant reason that Portland’s newest players made it: Tomas Conechny had to get creative to get his drop to Blanco, who fed Paredes, who passed to Moreira for the goal. With a couple key players thinking about putting on a totally different kind of shorts every morning (retirement shorts!), it’s both encouraging and necessary to see new players look comfortable, not just on the ball (because, expected), in an operating system. Hoping and praying Timbers fans see more of it, and soon.

And…yeah, I think it’s a bunch of loose ends after that. Oh, before that, I should give Columbus a respectful farewell.

Caleb Porter, et al.

You had chances, even with Gyasi Zardes testing the uses of invisibility, both Pedro Santos and Federico Higuain had several chances – good ones, too, built on good work or bad mistakes. Hell, each of them had a crack at making Jeff Attinella look like an ass, even if only one of them pulled it off. With the trends going the way they are – i.e., beating the vulnerable (e.g., Atlanta and New England, both at home; also, you got your ass kicked by Portland, just two days ago), and losing to arguable equals on the road (e.g., Philadelphia and Montreal) – is it possible you’ve found your level?

OK, yep, that’s everything. It’s not that I don’t have any questions left – among them, did Columbus really assign Waylon Francis to defend Larrys Mabiala, because that looked like a bad idea and is Diego Valeri really one goal away from a (fucking)70/(fucking) 70 career in MLS? (Actually, no, he's one away on both, but, still, holy shit.) My one and only question about that: where is my goddamn countdown clock? Or count-up clock, however this has to work? What I’m really getting at is, why did I have to hear that from Columbus Broadcast-Booth Guy, when it should exist in some kind of clock form until Valeri hits that goddamn high, and wake me up before you go-go, jesus Christ, I am going to bed.