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| And here I shall stay until I am moved... |
To come right out and say it, the Portland Timbers' 1-1 home draw against Los Angeles FC broadcast a freaky signal. On the one hand, you’ve got the bare result - i.e., a loss at home and against a direct rival - while, on the other, you had had the Timbers best-possible attacking set-up pin-down and straight-up fuck-up one the league’s reigning powers, yes, even with several key players missing, but didn’t they already kick their own ass by shipping Walker Zimmermann, I mean, it’s not like the Timbers stipulated to that in the pre-game, but I digress…
To continue a stray thought in the above, the Timbers got all the way up LAFC’s head and well into their ass from, loosely, the 35th minute to the 55th, and it was equal parts relentless and delightful. As often happens with LAFC and Portland, they played a wide-open game, with both teams wanting space and, where they wanted to, giving it, and with most of the defending coming in either final third; it was confident and tidy on both sides. All that chaos failed to show up as shots in the box score for a reason, in other words, but the Timbers put their boot on the game and created enough chances until they finally unlocked LAFC’s defense for Jeremy Ebobisse. That goal didn’t just put a bow on a team effort: it reminded anyone who’s watching of all the ways that Portland’s attack can hurt you…which is not to say that Ebobisse hasn’t scored plenty in 2020, because he has. And that’s global for the Timbers at the moment.
That’s genuinely impressive, by the way, because not every fan gets to follow a team with actual game-winning talent. I know people in that predicament and I experience it myself, if not as acutely. The affliction is real…
And there’s no real flip on this one, no point where I cut against what feels like a reasonable assumption right now: the Timbers are, at worst, competitive for just about any trophy for 2020 that COVID-19 doesn’t take out of the running first. When you consider the grand/decidedly uneven scheme that is the MLS 2020 “regular season” schedule - Portland has lined up against the Seattle Sounders, aka, league special boo, and…fallen legends LAFC, and [mumble, mumble] San Jose [mumble, mumble], while Eastern Conference “royalty” like Toronto FC, the Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew SC have faced a lot of FC Cincinnati, L’Impact Montreal, DC United, Inter Miami CF, and the New York Red Bulls - even if to varying degrees, you can’t help but have questions about all the hidden strengths and weaknesses getting buried with every passing week. To clarify and confirm everything in the above, yes, I do think that Seattle, Portland, and LAFC are playing among the hardest schedules in MLS right now, and I suspect that’ll come through in the end. In other words, the team that crawls out of that pile should have a dynamite shot at a trophy.
To pump the sunshine a little higher, look back on the Timbers’ first half, aka, a mystic-style exploration in bend-don’t-break, followed by a composed and steady probing of enemy weaknesses, no small number of them started by either Diego Chara or Eryk Williamson breaking through a tackle then pushing against one line after another ahead of them. Whether it happened that way, or by way of somewhere between two and four passes, the Timbers displayed a reliable capacity to turn scurrying defending into a bombing raid toward LAFC’s goal. All in all, I’d call tonight’s effort something like 70 minutes of good-to-great soccer.
I won’t dodge the fact that they let it slip away, at least not beyond hoping they clean that shit up in the playoffs, should they come about, amen. Going from a cool-as-you-like win to a draw kicks yer ass to penalty kicks in a single-elimination setting and that’s always an issue for the team that wants to call itself better…and I think the Timbers do this season. And I think they’ve got the line-up to back it up, at least for now. I think they’re about one injury away from that cracking up, and that’s where the talking points for this post kick off…
- Get Better, Ebo! No….Like Now. No, Right Now
I’m being facetious with the title (seriously, take all the time you need, man), one idea that struck me tonight was this: Jeremy Ebobisse could very well be the most important player on the team right now. Turns out I hadn’t contemplated this as a possibility until it happened, but he delivers a very specialized skill-set in Portland’s attacking set-up, the passing, the running, the heading, the combination play, and….shit, we slept on this, didn't we?
- The Replacements
Felipe Mora does a fair amount of what Ebo does - gods bless him for it too - but, for all his value (speed, silky use of a shiv), I don’t see Jaroslaw Niezgoda replacing Ebo’s particular skill-set, and adding that to the loss of Blanco all the sudden does feel like a bridge too far, and please someone tell me I’m panicking, because I feel like I’m panicking…do you have a paper bag? No, a big one.
For all the jokes, good and bad, Ebobisse holds the attack together in a way that’s easy to miss so long as you confine the argument to where he starts in one game or another. In some ways, he’s been the one constant over the past two-three seasons, the man who’s (literally) always on the field, making the system work to the extent that it does. Given that, isn’t he something like the muscle memory to the Timbers attack? Whatever answer you give to that question goes a long way toward deciding what you do with the Timbers’ attack regardless.
I don’t actually have a lot after this, at least not beyond the obvious - e.g., how much better is this team when you’ve got Williamson and Chara in central midfield (it’s impressive, honestly), how good is Felipe Mora right now (no, seriously), and, yes, the Timbers can still blow any lead.
Because I watch a team that permanently operates in a space without hope, I can’t stop thinking about how lucky Timbers fans are to have such immediate hope so close at hand. If Ebobisse goes down for a spell, sure, we can talk, but, so long as he’s healthy - and Portland stays more or less whole as a team - the Timbers will make the post-season, where they’ll have as good a chance as anyone, and better than several. They’re built well for that, e.g., sturdy in defense, hyper-dynamic in central midfield, and blessed with goal-scoring threats all over the front 3-4 players. LAFC fits that same profile, even without their best, because they’re a very good team, so comfortable playing open, and that means they can win…at least so long as they try to pull it off…
…and gods bless the teams who try to pull it off and do something fun. Dammit. Hold on, I’ve got a couple more notes…
- Jorge Villafana is having a career season. Full stop.
- Chris Duvall is fine, and Portland is lucky to have him.
- Yimmi Chara continues to impress me. He’s arguably the cheat-code that allows the rest of the offense to go wild. And he delivers offense. Again, the Timbers killed it for off-season signings in this damnable season.
And…yes, that’s it for tonight/today and/or this game. Until the next one, have another round!
To continue a stray thought in the above, the Timbers got all the way up LAFC’s head and well into their ass from, loosely, the 35th minute to the 55th, and it was equal parts relentless and delightful. As often happens with LAFC and Portland, they played a wide-open game, with both teams wanting space and, where they wanted to, giving it, and with most of the defending coming in either final third; it was confident and tidy on both sides. All that chaos failed to show up as shots in the box score for a reason, in other words, but the Timbers put their boot on the game and created enough chances until they finally unlocked LAFC’s defense for Jeremy Ebobisse. That goal didn’t just put a bow on a team effort: it reminded anyone who’s watching of all the ways that Portland’s attack can hurt you…which is not to say that Ebobisse hasn’t scored plenty in 2020, because he has. And that’s global for the Timbers at the moment.
That’s genuinely impressive, by the way, because not every fan gets to follow a team with actual game-winning talent. I know people in that predicament and I experience it myself, if not as acutely. The affliction is real…
And there’s no real flip on this one, no point where I cut against what feels like a reasonable assumption right now: the Timbers are, at worst, competitive for just about any trophy for 2020 that COVID-19 doesn’t take out of the running first. When you consider the grand/decidedly uneven scheme that is the MLS 2020 “regular season” schedule - Portland has lined up against the Seattle Sounders, aka, league special boo, and…fallen legends LAFC, and [mumble, mumble] San Jose [mumble, mumble], while Eastern Conference “royalty” like Toronto FC, the Philadelphia Union, Columbus Crew SC have faced a lot of FC Cincinnati, L’Impact Montreal, DC United, Inter Miami CF, and the New York Red Bulls - even if to varying degrees, you can’t help but have questions about all the hidden strengths and weaknesses getting buried with every passing week. To clarify and confirm everything in the above, yes, I do think that Seattle, Portland, and LAFC are playing among the hardest schedules in MLS right now, and I suspect that’ll come through in the end. In other words, the team that crawls out of that pile should have a dynamite shot at a trophy.
To pump the sunshine a little higher, look back on the Timbers’ first half, aka, a mystic-style exploration in bend-don’t-break, followed by a composed and steady probing of enemy weaknesses, no small number of them started by either Diego Chara or Eryk Williamson breaking through a tackle then pushing against one line after another ahead of them. Whether it happened that way, or by way of somewhere between two and four passes, the Timbers displayed a reliable capacity to turn scurrying defending into a bombing raid toward LAFC’s goal. All in all, I’d call tonight’s effort something like 70 minutes of good-to-great soccer.
I won’t dodge the fact that they let it slip away, at least not beyond hoping they clean that shit up in the playoffs, should they come about, amen. Going from a cool-as-you-like win to a draw kicks yer ass to penalty kicks in a single-elimination setting and that’s always an issue for the team that wants to call itself better…and I think the Timbers do this season. And I think they’ve got the line-up to back it up, at least for now. I think they’re about one injury away from that cracking up, and that’s where the talking points for this post kick off…
- Get Better, Ebo! No….Like Now. No, Right Now
I’m being facetious with the title (seriously, take all the time you need, man), one idea that struck me tonight was this: Jeremy Ebobisse could very well be the most important player on the team right now. Turns out I hadn’t contemplated this as a possibility until it happened, but he delivers a very specialized skill-set in Portland’s attacking set-up, the passing, the running, the heading, the combination play, and….shit, we slept on this, didn't we?
- The Replacements
Felipe Mora does a fair amount of what Ebo does - gods bless him for it too - but, for all his value (speed, silky use of a shiv), I don’t see Jaroslaw Niezgoda replacing Ebo’s particular skill-set, and adding that to the loss of Blanco all the sudden does feel like a bridge too far, and please someone tell me I’m panicking, because I feel like I’m panicking…do you have a paper bag? No, a big one.
For all the jokes, good and bad, Ebobisse holds the attack together in a way that’s easy to miss so long as you confine the argument to where he starts in one game or another. In some ways, he’s been the one constant over the past two-three seasons, the man who’s (literally) always on the field, making the system work to the extent that it does. Given that, isn’t he something like the muscle memory to the Timbers attack? Whatever answer you give to that question goes a long way toward deciding what you do with the Timbers’ attack regardless.
I don’t actually have a lot after this, at least not beyond the obvious - e.g., how much better is this team when you’ve got Williamson and Chara in central midfield (it’s impressive, honestly), how good is Felipe Mora right now (no, seriously), and, yes, the Timbers can still blow any lead.
Because I watch a team that permanently operates in a space without hope, I can’t stop thinking about how lucky Timbers fans are to have such immediate hope so close at hand. If Ebobisse goes down for a spell, sure, we can talk, but, so long as he’s healthy - and Portland stays more or less whole as a team - the Timbers will make the post-season, where they’ll have as good a chance as anyone, and better than several. They’re built well for that, e.g., sturdy in defense, hyper-dynamic in central midfield, and blessed with goal-scoring threats all over the front 3-4 players. LAFC fits that same profile, even without their best, because they’re a very good team, so comfortable playing open, and that means they can win…at least so long as they try to pull it off…
…and gods bless the teams who try to pull it off and do something fun. Dammit. Hold on, I’ve got a couple more notes…
- Jorge Villafana is having a career season. Full stop.
- Chris Duvall is fine, and Portland is lucky to have him.
- Yimmi Chara continues to impress me. He’s arguably the cheat-code that allows the rest of the offense to go wild. And he delivers offense. Again, the Timbers killed it for off-season signings in this damnable season.
And…yes, that’s it for tonight/today and/or this game. Until the next one, have another round!
My left back has a first name, its J-O-R-G-E, my left back has a second name is V-I-L-L-A-F-A-Ñ-A!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, somehow, someway, we have collectively slept on the criticality of King Jebo, despite his obvious, ongoing, and constant importance in so many facets of the game. It's like March 2015 and Diego Chara - clearly he's amazing and holds the team together and an IRON MAN... but are we about to see him go to All-Star levels? Like then as now, he should probably take a bigger paycheck in a bigger league, and we'd be lucky to hold onto him. Unlike then, now we are not using him to his full potential, and that almost hamstrings his chances of getting the transfer he so fully deserves.