Los Angeles Galaxy 1-2 Portland Timbers: Freelancing and Foundations

It's easier, basically, with certain advantages...

As I look back on the wide wonder that just happened, I want to start with the Los Angeles Galaxy and caveats related thereto. As noted during the in-game commentary, and despite having the firsttwo best chances to get a go-ahead goal, both of them through their latest prize-pony, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez (and one of them a penalty kick that forced a double save out of Steve Clark), the Galaxy played like they couldn’t tell one end of the field from the other. Don’t take that literally, by any means, I’m just arguing that LA had an aimless air about them, something that looked more like faith in some vague notion that everything would all work out, as opposed to belief that it would. Taking action toward making it all work out didn’t seem to occur to them until they were two goals down and one man up (fine, that happened sometime before, but I’m riffing), so call that piece of information as something that, as a Portland Timbers fan (probably), should internalize as you digest what just happened tonight.

The game ended 2-1 in Portland’s favor and, it bears noting that Chicharito pulled back LA’s lone goal, and with a run that I don’t think I see all that often in MLS. As they called the game from the broadcast booth, John Strong and Stu Holden hinted at the notion that Guillermo Barros Schelotto didn’t seem to provide a frame for what LA did, particularly in the attack – i.e., their thought was that he told his team to take the field and figure it out. I don’t know how true that is, but I do know that several Galaxy players put in good shifts tonight – e.g., I saw good, consistent work/ideas from Rolf Feltscher, Emiliano Insua, Sacha Kljestan, and Cristian Pavon (especially this guy, aka, Diego Chara's kicking post). I also saw a roster that shares the fatal weaknesses as LA’s worst teams – i.e., the loosely-competent (e.g., Perry Kitchen, Daniel Steres, arguably Sebastian Lletget) serving a star (again, Chicharito).

I bring all that up as a caveat, because I’m about to get way the hell over my skis on this one.

I was impressed by what I saw from the Timbers tonight – especially with four relative noobs in the Starting Xi (that’s the “starting Xi” not that Starting XI), in which I include Marvin Loria, Chris Duvall, Eryk Williamson and Dario Zuparic. For what it’s worth, I think Duvall and Williamson did great – the latter, in particular, but they both impressed me – and Zuparic was…more or less fine until that second, deserved yellow card. (Loria, meanwhile, gets filed under “if you can’t say something nice, shhhh, say nothing.) Given how open the question of who’s depth and who’s a starter feels right now, I’ll take that as an operating assumption for the rest of this post…moving on…

If LA did anything wrong tonight, it was everything that lead to Portland’s second goal (which, tragically/typically, the highlights don't show). The last time I saw a team panic to a place of pure survival instinct happened just three nights ago when FC Cincinnati basically went fetal against Columbus, but LA let the Timbers pass the ball around their defensive shell for a full minute, maybe even two, and then collapse at or around the exact same spot they did seven minutes earlier on Portland’s first goal and the same player slipped in the shiv – e.g., Sebastian Blanco. Between them, those two goals gave Portland enough padding to withstand Chicharito’s goal and 20 more minutes of soccer.

To linger on the biggest caveat of all, LA could easily have been two goals up before Portland could make its greater general quality come good; that’s the shot across the bow, should you choose to see it. I noted the fact that Clark saved a first-half penalty, but I have not yet mentioned that Larrys Mabiala, generally the rock at the heart of Portland’s defense, gifted Chicharito a shot that might have been easier than a penalty kick on LA’s second chance (in case you skipped the link, it's horrific). More to the point, Portland labored like as they did for so much of 2019, not to mention the beginning of 2020, by following the same painfully familiar, low-upside steps: 1) play the ball to the center of the other team’s defensive third; 2) play the ball wide, often to Blanco, sometimes to Jorge Villafana and (#RIP) to Jorge MoreIra; and 3) watch them hit one cross over everybody to the other side of the field, then, if you’re lucky, repeat the same thing going the same way. The Timbers worked this same “magic” for much of the first half, and it went about as well as you recall. They did something else, though, and that was look very, very comfortable keeping their shape and playing from their defensive third to LA’s defensive third. The argument I’m getting at here is fairly straightforward: the Timbers always looked like the better, more coherent team; they just had some issues with breaking down LA.

Here, I want to circle back to Williamson and Duvall, aka, my two happiest surprises from tonight’s outing. Duvall started very strong, taking players on, looking strapping, and so on. He had a bit of a soft middle, especially on the attacking side, but he locked down the defensive right during the second half and cleared out his share of threats out of the middle. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen Duvall do well for other teams and, as such, don’t see any reason why he can’t do the same for Portland. Williamson, on the other hand, looked THE part, as in I see him as a certain kind of option with Diego Chara…and I hate to even say this, but…until Chara’s legs, inevitably, give out. [Ed. – No, Chara did not look remotely tired at any point tonight; I’m just acknowledging that aging and time are a thing.] Williamson didn’t just keep possession with your standard d-mid range of passing: he turned Galaxy players over and over again, turned upfield and found options to kick off the Timbers’ transition game. Tonight, anyway, he did the Darlington Nagbe thing without being Nagbe. It was impressive and, to tuck my head back behind my skis, I’m on wait and see until I can call it the path to the future, but I definitely want to see it again.

If I had to credit anyone for actually turning the game, I’d point to someone I haven’t mention yet, and who I didn’t hear mentioned enough in the broadcast, Diego Valeri. By the end of the first half, Valeri started stealing back to Portland’s defensive third in search of the ball. From there, he roamed around the deeper, central parts of the pitch searching for openings. The larger problem was pretty simple: Portland needed to break the habit of the 1, 2, 3 path described two paragraphs above and find some way other than crossing to break down LA. I’ll be the first to admit that I got halfway through “what the hell was that?” (emphasis in real-time) when Valeri poked that pass to the(ir left) of LA’s central defense; a pass that looked like an easy pick-up for LA ‘keeper David Bingham became the “what the hell just happened” pass that scrambled LA’s defensive assignments and gave Blanco the space, time, and opportunistic window to find Ebobisse for the game’s opening goal.

And that’s where I want to close this post – the idea of letting good players figure out how to win a game. That’s more or less what Valeri, Blanco, Ebobisse and, later, Yimmi Chara did tonight, if with a mighty assist (and one considerable debit from Zuparic) did tonight. LA tried to do this tonight, but, between tonight and the first two games on 2020, this is something they still need to figure out. The Timbers, meanwhile, have a legitimate core of players – to run up the spine, Clark, Mabiala, Chara, Valeri, Blanco, yes, even Ebobisse – who have the reps and the muscle memory to try new things in game – I mean, besides, God forbid, resorting to the maddening crosses on 2019.

Without putting too much (or, honestly, any) faith in what the rest of 2020 has in store, a shortened season could be a real blessing for players like Valeri, and maybe even Chara and Blanco. I also just pulled up the Timbers’ full roster and, maybe it’s the time off, maybe it’s the good mood, maybe it’s…how I watch these games, but the roster I’m looking at looks a little taller and, more to the point, one hell of a lot more flexible, and in every direction but explicitly forward, that what I saw at the beginning of 2020.

That’s to say, assuming we get a 2020 season (and, personally, I’m at 40/60…and for interesting reasons I’ll get into in a subsequent post), I think the Timbers have a decent shot at making some noise. Till the next one, assuming it comes…