Portland Timbers 3-2 Chicago Fire: The Worst Rom-Com Ever...

The competition....

If you feel like you just watched the most pointlessly meandering rom-com in history tonight, you’re not alone. Everything from form to road records to comparative statistics to the Portland Timbers scoring the first two (semi-random) goals said that tonight would end happily for the Timbers; it was always a question of what obstacles would intervene to keep the lover (Portland) from its beloved (all three points). To start with the most salient critique, the plotting was terrible. In spite of a 3-2 win by Portland....yeah, I was bored.

Set aside the timing of C. J. Sapong’s second goal for the Fire – the rough equivalent of someone standing to object to the marriage only to reference something that already got resolved in Act II – because the whole goddamn production actually fell apart when the soccer gods decided to kill the villain in the 1st fucking act. First of all, who does that? Second, when Aleksandar Katai got sent off for (literally) busting Julio Cascante’s chops, this game was always going to end the same way – i.e., with a Timbers win. Tonight had all the narrative tension of the lovely couple playfully bickering about the color of the crockery suggested on their wedding registry.

That said, I’ll be the first to admit that I doubted Portland would score its third goal. Thank God they did too, because that was the only consciously-constructed goal that they managed tonight. It gave me some belief that they could score when called upon against a better team (if in the throes of transition), because I’m not so sure anymore. Don’t get me wrong; Portland’s first two goals were fine: the delicacy of Jorge Moreira’s chip takes real talent live, and it’s not like the Timbers didn’t find a way around Chicago’s stubborn defense to score the second goal; they still both had a haphazard, “look-what-I-found” feel to them, and this was against one of the worst road teams in MLS (Chicago), and one that’s hardly lighting it up generally to boot.

All the same, it’s not like Chicago pushed meaningfully pushed back. The two shots they put on target against an avalanche of run of play went in; moreover, even when they scored their first goal through Nemanja Nikolic at a point in the game when it could have mattered…yeah, it didn’t matter. From that 74th-minute moment, Portland spent periods of as long as 3-4 minutes passing the ball around the bunker the Fire set up around its goal. The Timbers rarely got either through or around that bunker, but did it really matter? Sure, Chicago could have tied this game, but they didn’t. And they never looked much like doing it, and I think that’s all the story I need to tell about this game.

This was not, however, a great outing for Portland. They struggled to break down a team that defended inside its own half again – and badly, at that. That left the Timbers the luxury of not playing its best, sharpest soccer. For instance, if you watch Marvin Loria (who had a good game and, arguably, the best performance of the first half), he’s just as surprised as the Chicago defense when Sebastian Blanco hit that ball over the top to set up the opening goal (e.g., he’s aware, but his run didn’t prompt the pass). Portland’s second goal relied on a similar, if different brain-fart, and that’s my big take-away from this win: the Timbers will face better teams than Chicago away, and what happened tonight won’t beat some teams in the regular season, but also most teams in the post-season. Just about every player in who started in midfield had more than one moment when he under-hit a pass, or his foot hitched on the “grass” when he passed the ball, etc. Tonight’s performance was only “fine” or, as some excited individuals put it, “dominant” because the Chicago Fire are a semi-atrocious, thoroughly-passive team. Oh, and they suck on the road.

At the end of the day, Portland needed to win this game because they had to. Anything less than all three points would have been stumbling out of the casino and ditching your chips. Mission accomplished, if in the most torturous way, but, hey, they can’t all be masterpieces, amirite?

Thus ends the narrative, time to wrap up with some half-formed thoughts. In no particular order…

- Larrys Mabiala passed pretty goddamn badly tonight (to the extent where his poor pass set up Chicago’s first chance), but the psychic pain of seeing him pull up gimpy on his left knee said something about how I rate him in the team.

- Fun with Tactical Wrinkles, Part 1: Did anyone else see how far up the field Giovanni Savarese shoved Cristhian Paredes? It played out to good effect on Portland’s second goal (assist!), but 1) it’s possible he only got away with it because Chicago was so bad (as in, don’t count on it going forward), and 2) he didn’t really contribute more than one warm body to the attack after that.

- Fun with Tactical Wrinkles, Part 2: Did anyone else notice where Zarek Valentin set up when Portland attacked? If not, I saw him tucked inside at the top of the attacking third and serving as a distribution hub over and over again. You? Part of me wonders whether or not he’s done this for a while (i.e., I’ve always rated Zarek as a passer), while the other part wonders (again) whether or not this was part of a larger attempt to use Chicago as a low-risk laboratory to figure out how to break down a compact team.

- As much as I hate to say it, Diego Valeri was among the worst culprits when it came to under-hitting or misdirecting passes. Hold that thought…

- I sincerely hope that Savarese organized his substitution patterns tonight with an eye to hosting Atlanta United FC so that Blanco can start while Valeri rests. I hope Ebobisse starts and Brian Fernandez comes on to force them to deal with a different look – or, if not that, something similar thereto (God forbid, play them at the same time). I wouldn’t mind seeing Portland gamble on the youth to get a result against Atlanta – even if it’s to play for a draw. The game against Seattle is a must-win on principle, so I guess that’s the thought process. At the same time, I think Portland can get a result against Atlanta, whatever form it takes. Moreover, I’d give Portland’s first team an even chance against Atlanta’s, so file that away.

All in all, this felt like a game that was only important if the Timbers failed to pick up three points. They did that, however gracelessly, thus ends the sermon…

…for what it’s worth, the game against Atlanta barely matters too – e.g., I don’t go in for the “psychological edge” stuff – but I still want to see a result/concept/…some piece of intelligence come out of it. If nothing else, tonight’s win proved the Timbers can beat a team with no chance of making much noise in 2019. With apologies to the city of Chicago, and a fan-case I genuinely admire, good night.