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| Straight up Umbrella Academy, man... |
There isn’t really much to say about the Portland Timbers' 0-3 loss to dread rivals, the Seattle Sounders. If I had to liken it to anything, I’d go with high-stakes arm-wrestling (e.g., the good kind, where arms come off) or most tug-o-wars: basically, a contest that stays in balance for some length of time - about 70 minutes in this case - only to have things unravel very, very badly for one side or the other…
…this time, sadly, the Timbers were the team that unraveled. It’s in the way that you use it, or something like that. It comes and it goes…
All in all, this was your usual classic, tight rivalry affair, a game in which neither team took any real advantage until one team (again, Seattle) took all the advantages. The only real question - and it’s one larded in 500 pounds of bacon fat - is whether or not this worries Timbers fans in the near or short term…of which, near as I can tell, most Portland fans don’t even believe in a long-term - i.e., they believe COVID will fell the season before any meaningful resolution arrives - e.g., an MLS Cup, if one weighted to the bottom of the sea.
The long-term side of the equation deals in the simplest question of all: how big an obstacle does this Seattle team make on the way to…whatever happens at the end of an actually successful MLS 2020, assuming one even happens? And that’s where the rubber really hits the road: even post-Chad Marshall, post-Kim Yee-Hee, and without the (ever dubious) Javier Arreaga, the Sounders arrived in Providence Park as their usual, damnable, stubborn selves. They generally try to pace the game, trusting a succession of reliable defenses to give them time to experiment, while they let the attacking talent sort it out. Which they did - or rather, he did, with he being RaulRuidiaz (and then he got the secondary assist on the Seattle’s…reinsurance(?) goal), and, honestly, I could stop writing right here and you’d know nearly everything relevant about this game. Again, this was two good teams standing off until one of them broke through, at which point it became the team that broke through punishing the trailing team for trying. Oldest story in soccer, people…
A couple stray notes aside, I don’t think I have anything to add. The Timbers just came off a run where they seemed to beat anyone who took the field against them and that was always going to come to an end. It did last night, that happened, and there’s nothing to do but get on with the next game. That’ll be…shit, Wednesday night at San Jose, aka, more opportunities to get flustered. In the grand scheme, though, does it matter that the Timbers lost horribly Sunday night? Will it really matter what they do tomorrow night against San Jose, or Saturday against Real Salt Lake, or even the following Wednesday against the Los Angeles Galaxy? To rephrase a question that I posed in my recap of FC Cincinnati’s draining 0-0 draw against DC United, what happens after these six games? While I understand that no universe exists in which 2020 doesn’t end weird/badly, there are definitely better and worse scenarios based on everything between direct body-count and a tournament that doesn’t leave a critical mass of MLS fans feeling like the ultimate champion of…Whatever…Cup 2020 a dirty trophy.
Full Disclosure, and before getting to the (frankly spare) specific commentary, I only started watching this game at the 38th minute, and I was deeply distracted through most of it. In other words, about 60% of whatever I’ve said above and below follows from direct observation, so caveat lector, etc. Going the other way, the balance of the MLS-in-15 coverage listed heavily toward this, frankly, dreary game’s second half. To wrap up the game, Seattle’s first goal was lucky (see "Raul" above) and, while the highlights for it suck irresponsibly, Seattle’s second goal was equally opportunistic ("Ruidiaz"). The Sounders produced a better goal for their reinsurance capper, but, the big-picture question turns on whether whatever happened tonight constitutes a pattern - even if it’s just a pattern that happens against Seattle, because even that’s fatal in the right context. More to the point, did Mabiala just have a good night - e.g., something you can appease withouth sacrificing to someone or something.
To close out with specific commentary, only one of which relates specifically to the game:
1) Felipe Mora
Mora had a strong hold-up sequence shortly after he came on, one that saw him bring another Timber into the play, but he kept going from there. That’s another way of saying, this suggests that other ways to unlock Mora exist, only the Timbers haven’t figured them out yet.
2) Yes, I would have given Duvall his goal even given Eryk Williamson’s positioning. Conceptually, I read the offside rule as a prohibition against cherry-picking. It became an exacting standard and that’s the kind of history you can’t re-write…but I still want to. Always.
(A) PREVIEW(?)
I’ll probably do a thread after watching some MLS-in-15s on San Jose, but, until further notice, I’ve bought into the idea that the Timbers’ fate is theirs to write. Would a loss at San Jose rewrite that - especially after a 0-3 home loss to Seattle? We’ll see…
…this time, sadly, the Timbers were the team that unraveled. It’s in the way that you use it, or something like that. It comes and it goes…
All in all, this was your usual classic, tight rivalry affair, a game in which neither team took any real advantage until one team (again, Seattle) took all the advantages. The only real question - and it’s one larded in 500 pounds of bacon fat - is whether or not this worries Timbers fans in the near or short term…of which, near as I can tell, most Portland fans don’t even believe in a long-term - i.e., they believe COVID will fell the season before any meaningful resolution arrives - e.g., an MLS Cup, if one weighted to the bottom of the sea.
The long-term side of the equation deals in the simplest question of all: how big an obstacle does this Seattle team make on the way to…whatever happens at the end of an actually successful MLS 2020, assuming one even happens? And that’s where the rubber really hits the road: even post-Chad Marshall, post-Kim Yee-Hee, and without the (ever dubious) Javier Arreaga, the Sounders arrived in Providence Park as their usual, damnable, stubborn selves. They generally try to pace the game, trusting a succession of reliable defenses to give them time to experiment, while they let the attacking talent sort it out. Which they did - or rather, he did, with he being RaulRuidiaz (and then he got the secondary assist on the Seattle’s…reinsurance(?) goal), and, honestly, I could stop writing right here and you’d know nearly everything relevant about this game. Again, this was two good teams standing off until one of them broke through, at which point it became the team that broke through punishing the trailing team for trying. Oldest story in soccer, people…
A couple stray notes aside, I don’t think I have anything to add. The Timbers just came off a run where they seemed to beat anyone who took the field against them and that was always going to come to an end. It did last night, that happened, and there’s nothing to do but get on with the next game. That’ll be…shit, Wednesday night at San Jose, aka, more opportunities to get flustered. In the grand scheme, though, does it matter that the Timbers lost horribly Sunday night? Will it really matter what they do tomorrow night against San Jose, or Saturday against Real Salt Lake, or even the following Wednesday against the Los Angeles Galaxy? To rephrase a question that I posed in my recap of FC Cincinnati’s draining 0-0 draw against DC United, what happens after these six games? While I understand that no universe exists in which 2020 doesn’t end weird/badly, there are definitely better and worse scenarios based on everything between direct body-count and a tournament that doesn’t leave a critical mass of MLS fans feeling like the ultimate champion of…Whatever…Cup 2020 a dirty trophy.
Full Disclosure, and before getting to the (frankly spare) specific commentary, I only started watching this game at the 38th minute, and I was deeply distracted through most of it. In other words, about 60% of whatever I’ve said above and below follows from direct observation, so caveat lector, etc. Going the other way, the balance of the MLS-in-15 coverage listed heavily toward this, frankly, dreary game’s second half. To wrap up the game, Seattle’s first goal was lucky (see "Raul" above) and, while the highlights for it suck irresponsibly, Seattle’s second goal was equally opportunistic ("Ruidiaz"). The Sounders produced a better goal for their reinsurance capper, but, the big-picture question turns on whether whatever happened tonight constitutes a pattern - even if it’s just a pattern that happens against Seattle, because even that’s fatal in the right context. More to the point, did Mabiala just have a good night - e.g., something you can appease withouth sacrificing to someone or something.
To close out with specific commentary, only one of which relates specifically to the game:
1) Felipe Mora
Mora had a strong hold-up sequence shortly after he came on, one that saw him bring another Timber into the play, but he kept going from there. That’s another way of saying, this suggests that other ways to unlock Mora exist, only the Timbers haven’t figured them out yet.
2) Yes, I would have given Duvall his goal even given Eryk Williamson’s positioning. Conceptually, I read the offside rule as a prohibition against cherry-picking. It became an exacting standard and that’s the kind of history you can’t re-write…but I still want to. Always.
(A) PREVIEW(?)
I’ll probably do a thread after watching some MLS-in-15s on San Jose, but, until further notice, I’ve bought into the idea that the Timbers’ fate is theirs to write. Would a loss at San Jose rewrite that - especially after a 0-3 home loss to Seattle? We’ll see…
What you mostly missed in the first 38 minutes was classic Timbers - in the sense that early match events got all our hopes up just to make the 3-goal collapse even more disheartening.
ReplyDeleteThe foreboding began with the cryptic news that Zuparic wouldn't be present. Not injured; just not available. Also, are there stamina or attitude issues with Niezgoda? 'Cause we play him with the caution due a 19 year old from T2, not a top scorer in the Polish league. Very odd to watch from the outside.
Oh well, next up SJ.