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| Yeah, why not? |
Near as I can tell, the Portland Timbers made a total and collective decision to do as little as possible tonight, just to see if they could get away with it. More than anything else, tonight’s 1-2 road loss to Real Salt Lake felt like watching a B-movie, like a real one. It has scene and setting like any other movie, action and dialogue, and real people playing the parts, but everyone involved feels it falling apart around them from one scene to the next, only no one can put their finger on the one change to make, so that everything can fall into place and make something half-decent. And so everyone keeps doing the things they’re supposed to, one bad scene after another; they keep going because that’s the only way to make it end and go home.
What the hell happened out there tonight? I’m too confused to be angry. Moving on…
Judging by what…just kept going on the field tonight, I assume Portland decided to open up the game by spreading out its players, probably with the idea of making space in which to run, play and generally frolick. Playing in Salt Lake usually means saving lungs and legs, so maybe the coaching staff issued a secondary order about taking chances carefully and only moving when the reward outweighed the risk. Setting aside the question of whether or not this was Portland’s game-plan - I have no insight into that - I don’t see anything odd or irresponsible about those choices…but what adjustments do you make when those choices don’t work?
When I talk about a “total and collective decision,” that absolutely includes the coaching staff - it might even start with them - because what the Timbers got nothing of value out of what happened tonight. Not only did the game-plan suck, it shouldn't take two dumps on said game-plan - Douglas Martinez's and Damir Kreilach's - to change the revise or even re-write the damn thing. Worse, they taxed the Diegos (Valeri’s and Chara’s) (slowly) aging legs with 90 full minutes at altitude - and with Portland hosting Los Angeles FC at home this Sunday (so that’s travel too). I mean, if you're gonna go for it, shouldn't you?
Worst, the two main players they called up to audition for playing time - Tomas Conechny and Cristhian Paredes - continued to show they’re not even ready to study under the understudies. Thus, worst feeds worse and you’ve got nothing to show from a trip to Utah.
Aside from resting one or both Diegos (Valeri), I didn’t object to the starting line-up per se. What I will argue is, if you’re going to burn their legs on the road, do it fucking right. When you spread out your players like that, you have to pressure the passer; even you only do it in the defensive third, you have to fucking do it somewhere on the field. The Timbers opted for some as heretofore untried (yet bold) Plan E tonight - i.e., pressure the pass exactly nowhere on the field until Aaron Herrera beats that super-high line you keep playing as if daring the opposition to beat your defenders in a foot-race, and for the fifth time. Good call….
The general…does that even qualify as a mind-set? Whatever it is, it caused even more panic on the defensive side. With the spacing spread, every turnover became a crisis - and the Timbers coughed up plenty all the way up to the game’s 60th by my count. When that happened, Portland’s midfielders collapsed back onto its back four, effectively creating a line of six to seven defenders defending deep ground and nothing else. As Timbers defenders kept retreating, Salt Lake attackers kept chasing a line of resistance that only seemed to react to the final ball. The fact that Portland's defenders continued to gaze in wide wonder at the ball from there is another, damning issue...
I’m going to stop here to acknowledge a certain reality: the numbers from the game warn me I’m misreading things. RSL didn’t post a ton of shots and the Timbers won a lot of duels, but to that I say, Damir Kreilach should have made it 3-0 here, and could have done it a few more times besides. When Portland gave up chances, they gave up either gifts or chaotic rugby scrums in their defensive third that looked as uncontrolled as hungry dogs chasing treats buffed hardwood. I’m going to take the duels won on faith, but I’d argue the team shape worked against getting the most out of those duels - and in either direction (e.g., the defensive ones happened in open space, without support, so every turnover just became a race, while you could play the ball forward, but everyone was so isolated, so…). The only thing between Portland and a blowout tonight was RSL’s defining lack of quality. That’s not a cheap shot, either, because this isn’t a team that’s keeping up in the West. The Timbers might look like dazed against them, but nearly all the rest of the West’s contenders handle ‘em just fine…and, just when you think RSL has something sorted out, they go and drop all three points in Vancouver.
On the one hand, yes, that left the door open for a Portland comeback, but, on the other, I don’t wanna talk about it (I just have my things; ignore them); suffice to say, I'd be bitching about a comeback, even if they managed one. Portland threatened one when they pulled back a goal through Valeri/Bill Tuiloma (set-piece; it was fine) and they could have tied it down the stretch, but I thought they looked pretty well fucked by the 90th, maybe the 85th, maybe even earlier, so no one had to think about anything but an awful night and several opportunity costs burned.
I can't think of anyone in green and gold who covered himself in glory out there. Jeremy Ebobisse, for instance, passed like shit, just uncharacteristically bad and Tuiloma and Larrys Mabiala played like they’d never met before: all that spreads around the blame properly. Both Chara and Valeri had a hitch in their passing tonight, like they had to cycle to the second option every time - maybe even the third one - but the entire machine grinded against itself tonight. Everyone looked tired, confused, and out of sorts, and we're back to the B-movie analogy and revisiting big questions like, what the hell did Giovannni Savarese & Sons want, or even hope to have happen down in Utah? Anyways, that's a preface for tearing into the new guys, so please re-read the sentence immediately before proceeding.
I want Conechny off the team. I don’t mean that in an “immediate termination/send him home” sense - honor the guy's contract, obviously, and treat him well - but in the sense that I don’t want to see him start or play again, um, ever. He’s never done anything particularly well - even if his attacking side’s a bit better - but he straight-up fucking died on defense tonight and over and over again. Yimmi Chara did more defending in five seconds than Conechny did over 45 minutes within five minutes of coming on the field and he made the right of Portland's midfield functionally useful. Bad on defense, I get, useless, less so. If you’ve seen enough from Conechny on the attacking side, congratulations, because I see decent footwork, a solid shot (if one in dire need of an opening), but not one good idea on how to make himself useful. I wish Tomas all the best, but I’ve lost interest.
The same goes for Paredes, really. In the here and now, the best thing you can say about him is that he regressed from good. While he wasn’t the only Timber on the field who only looked happy when attacking - complicated digression, but I’d say that only Chara and Pablo Bonilla played well on both sides of the ball, while Paredes, Valeri and Marco Farfan only looked good attacking, and Felipe Mora was invisible - Paredes has looked, for lack of a better word…vague out there for all season. He’s like a better version of Conechny, only playing more centrally, but he's just occupying space out there, and without playing any kind of role. They're both just warm bodies at this point - i.e., people you only put on the field when you run out of options. Depth is depth, but it's time to shop for the next set of potential. I’ll cop to the fact that’s a shitty thing to say about a human being, but, without an ounce of hostility in it, I’d can them both tomorrow. And now we wrap up the coaching staff’s role in all this…
The one thing I can’t get past is the fact that Gio stuck with some variation of the same thing for the entire fucking game. Once open play turned into a hot mess, why not go with a more defensive shape, one with a couple layers to play through and try to punch back on the counter? Portland might know how to do that. And, yes, I understand it’s a larger field and that forces choices in how you stack up, but why not force RSL to come to you and play through a thicket - that’s as opposed to, say, standing somewhere vaguely near an RSL defender waiting for something to happen while leaving acre-size patches over two-thirds of the field? Maybe their guy gets the ball, maybe ours does, what does it matter when it’s all the way on the other side of the field…wait, what? HOLY SHIT!!!
That last paragraph is my overall sense of the game. I still don’t get what happened. Why didn’t Savarese ever choose between reorganizing the team or screaming like a fucking maniac until they managed all that space in a way that makes the game-plan come off (e.g., by pressing the passer on defense)? Why did every Timbers look like he knew what to do for only 10 seconds at a time? Was that the players, the game-plan, or the players operating in the game-plan? Was it fatigue or altitude sickness? Did they all say, “fuck it” and get stoned on the bus on the way to the game like we used to do in high school?
I’ll close with something more likely: it could just be that RSL plays a style that frustrates the Timbers, a way that pulls them apart to limit the way they combine. Maybe RSL just makes the Timbers uncomfortable. It’s been a tough series for a while…
What the hell happened out there tonight? I’m too confused to be angry. Moving on…
Judging by what…just kept going on the field tonight, I assume Portland decided to open up the game by spreading out its players, probably with the idea of making space in which to run, play and generally frolick. Playing in Salt Lake usually means saving lungs and legs, so maybe the coaching staff issued a secondary order about taking chances carefully and only moving when the reward outweighed the risk. Setting aside the question of whether or not this was Portland’s game-plan - I have no insight into that - I don’t see anything odd or irresponsible about those choices…but what adjustments do you make when those choices don’t work?
When I talk about a “total and collective decision,” that absolutely includes the coaching staff - it might even start with them - because what the Timbers got nothing of value out of what happened tonight. Not only did the game-plan suck, it shouldn't take two dumps on said game-plan - Douglas Martinez's and Damir Kreilach's - to change the revise or even re-write the damn thing. Worse, they taxed the Diegos (Valeri’s and Chara’s) (slowly) aging legs with 90 full minutes at altitude - and with Portland hosting Los Angeles FC at home this Sunday (so that’s travel too). I mean, if you're gonna go for it, shouldn't you?
Worst, the two main players they called up to audition for playing time - Tomas Conechny and Cristhian Paredes - continued to show they’re not even ready to study under the understudies. Thus, worst feeds worse and you’ve got nothing to show from a trip to Utah.
Aside from resting one or both Diegos (Valeri), I didn’t object to the starting line-up per se. What I will argue is, if you’re going to burn their legs on the road, do it fucking right. When you spread out your players like that, you have to pressure the passer; even you only do it in the defensive third, you have to fucking do it somewhere on the field. The Timbers opted for some as heretofore untried (yet bold) Plan E tonight - i.e., pressure the pass exactly nowhere on the field until Aaron Herrera beats that super-high line you keep playing as if daring the opposition to beat your defenders in a foot-race, and for the fifth time. Good call….
The general…does that even qualify as a mind-set? Whatever it is, it caused even more panic on the defensive side. With the spacing spread, every turnover became a crisis - and the Timbers coughed up plenty all the way up to the game’s 60th by my count. When that happened, Portland’s midfielders collapsed back onto its back four, effectively creating a line of six to seven defenders defending deep ground and nothing else. As Timbers defenders kept retreating, Salt Lake attackers kept chasing a line of resistance that only seemed to react to the final ball. The fact that Portland's defenders continued to gaze in wide wonder at the ball from there is another, damning issue...
I’m going to stop here to acknowledge a certain reality: the numbers from the game warn me I’m misreading things. RSL didn’t post a ton of shots and the Timbers won a lot of duels, but to that I say, Damir Kreilach should have made it 3-0 here, and could have done it a few more times besides. When Portland gave up chances, they gave up either gifts or chaotic rugby scrums in their defensive third that looked as uncontrolled as hungry dogs chasing treats buffed hardwood. I’m going to take the duels won on faith, but I’d argue the team shape worked against getting the most out of those duels - and in either direction (e.g., the defensive ones happened in open space, without support, so every turnover just became a race, while you could play the ball forward, but everyone was so isolated, so…). The only thing between Portland and a blowout tonight was RSL’s defining lack of quality. That’s not a cheap shot, either, because this isn’t a team that’s keeping up in the West. The Timbers might look like dazed against them, but nearly all the rest of the West’s contenders handle ‘em just fine…and, just when you think RSL has something sorted out, they go and drop all three points in Vancouver.
On the one hand, yes, that left the door open for a Portland comeback, but, on the other, I don’t wanna talk about it (I just have my things; ignore them); suffice to say, I'd be bitching about a comeback, even if they managed one. Portland threatened one when they pulled back a goal through Valeri/Bill Tuiloma (set-piece; it was fine) and they could have tied it down the stretch, but I thought they looked pretty well fucked by the 90th, maybe the 85th, maybe even earlier, so no one had to think about anything but an awful night and several opportunity costs burned.
I can't think of anyone in green and gold who covered himself in glory out there. Jeremy Ebobisse, for instance, passed like shit, just uncharacteristically bad and Tuiloma and Larrys Mabiala played like they’d never met before: all that spreads around the blame properly. Both Chara and Valeri had a hitch in their passing tonight, like they had to cycle to the second option every time - maybe even the third one - but the entire machine grinded against itself tonight. Everyone looked tired, confused, and out of sorts, and we're back to the B-movie analogy and revisiting big questions like, what the hell did Giovannni Savarese & Sons want, or even hope to have happen down in Utah? Anyways, that's a preface for tearing into the new guys, so please re-read the sentence immediately before proceeding.
I want Conechny off the team. I don’t mean that in an “immediate termination/send him home” sense - honor the guy's contract, obviously, and treat him well - but in the sense that I don’t want to see him start or play again, um, ever. He’s never done anything particularly well - even if his attacking side’s a bit better - but he straight-up fucking died on defense tonight and over and over again. Yimmi Chara did more defending in five seconds than Conechny did over 45 minutes within five minutes of coming on the field and he made the right of Portland's midfield functionally useful. Bad on defense, I get, useless, less so. If you’ve seen enough from Conechny on the attacking side, congratulations, because I see decent footwork, a solid shot (if one in dire need of an opening), but not one good idea on how to make himself useful. I wish Tomas all the best, but I’ve lost interest.
The same goes for Paredes, really. In the here and now, the best thing you can say about him is that he regressed from good. While he wasn’t the only Timber on the field who only looked happy when attacking - complicated digression, but I’d say that only Chara and Pablo Bonilla played well on both sides of the ball, while Paredes, Valeri and Marco Farfan only looked good attacking, and Felipe Mora was invisible - Paredes has looked, for lack of a better word…vague out there for all season. He’s like a better version of Conechny, only playing more centrally, but he's just occupying space out there, and without playing any kind of role. They're both just warm bodies at this point - i.e., people you only put on the field when you run out of options. Depth is depth, but it's time to shop for the next set of potential. I’ll cop to the fact that’s a shitty thing to say about a human being, but, without an ounce of hostility in it, I’d can them both tomorrow. And now we wrap up the coaching staff’s role in all this…
The one thing I can’t get past is the fact that Gio stuck with some variation of the same thing for the entire fucking game. Once open play turned into a hot mess, why not go with a more defensive shape, one with a couple layers to play through and try to punch back on the counter? Portland might know how to do that. And, yes, I understand it’s a larger field and that forces choices in how you stack up, but why not force RSL to come to you and play through a thicket - that’s as opposed to, say, standing somewhere vaguely near an RSL defender waiting for something to happen while leaving acre-size patches over two-thirds of the field? Maybe their guy gets the ball, maybe ours does, what does it matter when it’s all the way on the other side of the field…wait, what? HOLY SHIT!!!
That last paragraph is my overall sense of the game. I still don’t get what happened. Why didn’t Savarese ever choose between reorganizing the team or screaming like a fucking maniac until they managed all that space in a way that makes the game-plan come off (e.g., by pressing the passer on defense)? Why did every Timbers look like he knew what to do for only 10 seconds at a time? Was that the players, the game-plan, or the players operating in the game-plan? Was it fatigue or altitude sickness? Did they all say, “fuck it” and get stoned on the bus on the way to the game like we used to do in high school?
I’ll close with something more likely: it could just be that RSL plays a style that frustrates the Timbers, a way that pulls them apart to limit the way they combine. Maybe RSL just makes the Timbers uncomfortable. It’s been a tough series for a while…
That’s all for this one. Hope it made sense…
Excellent analysis, as always.
ReplyDeleteEspecially in the current Timbers zero revenue reality, Paredes and Conechny are here (and probably playing sporadically) until our last day of the season. We're a little short on the sovereign fund or billionaire playtoy underwriting at this point.
I'm sure you noted the 3800 RSL fans in attendance. Does that number of fans even cover the cost of bringing in a skeleton staff to open the doors? Maybe. Maybe it really was to give things some tiny feel of normalcy. Did the Timbers get thrown off by the distant faint shouting from normally empty stands?
On a related revenue issue, it was just announced that there's no T2 in the top USL level next year. Future plans for the defacto reserve team are unknown as of today.