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| I fail. I succeed. I live. I die. |
How can a game be everything you want, only less? That’s how I feel about the Portland Timbers’ narrow, yet necessary 1-0 home win over piteous FC Dallas. Neither team covered itself in glory tonight - in fact, one could argue that, if Portland strained that hard to beat Dallas, therefore… - but let’s dwell on the happy shit, for there was some. But first, a word on Dallas.
They have had a terrible season, without question, and…. yep, they’re the last team in the Western Conference again, but I see them playing most teams close every time I check box scores and the highlights, they get their chances, and so on. Still, why not sleep on a team that shows no real sign of waking up? As for tonight, and box score be damned, they had the better chances to go ahead early - Ricardo Pepi knocked on Heaven’s Door when he pinged the post on a great cross from Paxton Pomykal in the first half (and Pomykal had a great chance of his own later) - but I also suspect that’s Dallas’ season in a nutshell: a lot of not nearly enough. Call it the wages of life as a selling club (au revoir, Tanner Tessmann), and not getting enough out of players they bank on like Franco Jara (bordering on flop) or Matt Hedges (broken), but Dallas presents as a team all but screaming for an on-field ratio of mentors to mentees of 1:3 at a minimum.
A player like Justin Che provided a good example tonight: he got beat, he lunged, he poked he missed, and so on, but he also played the full 90 without allowing a total collapse. At the same time, against a team with a better idea of what they want to do in the attacking third? That shit’s fatal…
…sadly, Portland is not that team, or wasn’t tonight. There was so much nothing before Diego Valeri came on at the 65th minute, and even then it took some minutes before things - or, rather, Jeremy Ebobisse’s, on review, fairly low-percentage, and yet entirely wonderful goal - to come together. And I’m serious about that: 80% of this was a game of snatching coherence out of its opposite; getting into timelines and brass-tacks makes no damn sense. Somehow the same game contained an endless parade of soccer players making soccer plays (i.e., so many players did so many good things on an individual level to keep possession and/or the ball going where the team wanted it to) while still containing multitudes of futility.
Overall, a win is a win is a win. Teams need ‘em, coaches live and die by the same…and why do I think Luchi Gonzalez will always have more time than Giovanni Savarese? At any rate, Portland won, they…more and less deserved to, and my main thought is on to the next one. For now, though, here are five specific thoughts on tonight’s inglorious, yet beloved three points.
1) Overloads Should Never End in Crosses
Portland’s attack was all kindsa baffled tonight and I feel like that bastard had a wealth of parents. But, the one thing Dallas was able to do tonight over and over again was compact against Portland’s overloads on the flanks and force crosses to a set defense with some dudes standing around in their midst. Also, credit to them, because Portland does have a tendency to overwork the flanks and, to float a theory (that Dallas attempted to prove tonight), if you can pin Portland on the flanks and cut off easy outlets to the inside, they’ll float in hopeless crosses. And most teams can hold them from there.
2) What Valeri (et. al.) Did
Near as I can tell, he provided options inside before Dallas’ defense could collapse. More importantly, Valeri broke the Timbers’ stifling pattern of having too many attacking players do the same thing - e.g., some guys go wide while others compress against Dallas’ forever retreating back-line (HT: Russia, most wars) where they would become “some dudes standing around in [the] midst” of Dallas’ defense. Adding some vertical dimension to Portland’s attack drew Dallas out of its bunker and it was what was missing…or at least that’s my theory. I follow a guy (@jsbpdx) who obsesses over this, and I think this is what he’s after. I’ll let him answer, though, assuming he finds this.
3) Good Energy, Big Positive
Whatever happened in the off-weeks (I haven’t written about the Timbers since the end of June), and especially since that sleeping loss at Austin FC, every Timbers player came out to play tonight. Offense, defense, midfield, and Steve Clark, they chased everything they failed to step to and generally looked like they intended to either fight or figure it out. And, yes, it sure did take them motherfucking long enough, but they got there, at least in this game. It sounds simple, but putting one foot in front of the other really is Steps 1, 2 & 3.
4) Forza Renzo
I may part company with any number of you on this, but Renzo Zambrano has not impressed me since 2019…until tonight. First up, big caveat, this was against a(n again) last-place team and the midfield space had a lot of room, but, Zambrano shared the same global aggressive vibe, he tackled smartly and well, and his distribution, while obvious and arguably too safe, was decisive and within, and a little above, approved standards. As someone who actively wants to see Portland start to full-blown rely on the next generation, this was heartening, but I need to see Renzo in a bigger battle - Wednesday against Los Angeles FC will do nicely - before I can get excited about him.
5) Dairon and the Final Ball
Asprilla left the game in spirit before he left it in body, but this was a very “him” game tonight. For every strong, line-breaking run he made, he had a misplaced pass; for all the times he left Justin Che on his youthful can, he’d play a blind ball to where he thought someone should be instead of to where they were - or, gods forbid, backing it out and restarting the attack. Look, I know Asprilla has his fan club, and he’s got power and no small amount of technique to burn, but his decision-making and quality in decisive moments just needs to rise beyond technique and audacious instinct. For what it’s worth, I started looking at Asprilla differently the day I started seeing him as, for lack of a better word, one of ours, but someone needs to make a decision about how to make the most of what he does well - finishing, conceivably(?) - instead of asking him to play as, say, a winger. It’s less that he’s bad at the latter - I’d call him a several steps above sufficient, fwiw - but he’s just not that “killer pass” kind of player.
And…yeah, that’s everything for this one. I’m going to take these three points and pass out. Do what you gotta do, boo. Till the next one…
They have had a terrible season, without question, and…. yep, they’re the last team in the Western Conference again, but I see them playing most teams close every time I check box scores and the highlights, they get their chances, and so on. Still, why not sleep on a team that shows no real sign of waking up? As for tonight, and box score be damned, they had the better chances to go ahead early - Ricardo Pepi knocked on Heaven’s Door when he pinged the post on a great cross from Paxton Pomykal in the first half (and Pomykal had a great chance of his own later) - but I also suspect that’s Dallas’ season in a nutshell: a lot of not nearly enough. Call it the wages of life as a selling club (au revoir, Tanner Tessmann), and not getting enough out of players they bank on like Franco Jara (bordering on flop) or Matt Hedges (broken), but Dallas presents as a team all but screaming for an on-field ratio of mentors to mentees of 1:3 at a minimum.
A player like Justin Che provided a good example tonight: he got beat, he lunged, he poked he missed, and so on, but he also played the full 90 without allowing a total collapse. At the same time, against a team with a better idea of what they want to do in the attacking third? That shit’s fatal…
…sadly, Portland is not that team, or wasn’t tonight. There was so much nothing before Diego Valeri came on at the 65th minute, and even then it took some minutes before things - or, rather, Jeremy Ebobisse’s, on review, fairly low-percentage, and yet entirely wonderful goal - to come together. And I’m serious about that: 80% of this was a game of snatching coherence out of its opposite; getting into timelines and brass-tacks makes no damn sense. Somehow the same game contained an endless parade of soccer players making soccer plays (i.e., so many players did so many good things on an individual level to keep possession and/or the ball going where the team wanted it to) while still containing multitudes of futility.
Overall, a win is a win is a win. Teams need ‘em, coaches live and die by the same…and why do I think Luchi Gonzalez will always have more time than Giovanni Savarese? At any rate, Portland won, they…more and less deserved to, and my main thought is on to the next one. For now, though, here are five specific thoughts on tonight’s inglorious, yet beloved three points.
1) Overloads Should Never End in Crosses
Portland’s attack was all kindsa baffled tonight and I feel like that bastard had a wealth of parents. But, the one thing Dallas was able to do tonight over and over again was compact against Portland’s overloads on the flanks and force crosses to a set defense with some dudes standing around in their midst. Also, credit to them, because Portland does have a tendency to overwork the flanks and, to float a theory (that Dallas attempted to prove tonight), if you can pin Portland on the flanks and cut off easy outlets to the inside, they’ll float in hopeless crosses. And most teams can hold them from there.
2) What Valeri (et. al.) Did
Near as I can tell, he provided options inside before Dallas’ defense could collapse. More importantly, Valeri broke the Timbers’ stifling pattern of having too many attacking players do the same thing - e.g., some guys go wide while others compress against Dallas’ forever retreating back-line (HT: Russia, most wars) where they would become “some dudes standing around in [the] midst” of Dallas’ defense. Adding some vertical dimension to Portland’s attack drew Dallas out of its bunker and it was what was missing…or at least that’s my theory. I follow a guy (@jsbpdx) who obsesses over this, and I think this is what he’s after. I’ll let him answer, though, assuming he finds this.
3) Good Energy, Big Positive
Whatever happened in the off-weeks (I haven’t written about the Timbers since the end of June), and especially since that sleeping loss at Austin FC, every Timbers player came out to play tonight. Offense, defense, midfield, and Steve Clark, they chased everything they failed to step to and generally looked like they intended to either fight or figure it out. And, yes, it sure did take them motherfucking long enough, but they got there, at least in this game. It sounds simple, but putting one foot in front of the other really is Steps 1, 2 & 3.
4) Forza Renzo
I may part company with any number of you on this, but Renzo Zambrano has not impressed me since 2019…until tonight. First up, big caveat, this was against a(n again) last-place team and the midfield space had a lot of room, but, Zambrano shared the same global aggressive vibe, he tackled smartly and well, and his distribution, while obvious and arguably too safe, was decisive and within, and a little above, approved standards. As someone who actively wants to see Portland start to full-blown rely on the next generation, this was heartening, but I need to see Renzo in a bigger battle - Wednesday against Los Angeles FC will do nicely - before I can get excited about him.
5) Dairon and the Final Ball
Asprilla left the game in spirit before he left it in body, but this was a very “him” game tonight. For every strong, line-breaking run he made, he had a misplaced pass; for all the times he left Justin Che on his youthful can, he’d play a blind ball to where he thought someone should be instead of to where they were - or, gods forbid, backing it out and restarting the attack. Look, I know Asprilla has his fan club, and he’s got power and no small amount of technique to burn, but his decision-making and quality in decisive moments just needs to rise beyond technique and audacious instinct. For what it’s worth, I started looking at Asprilla differently the day I started seeing him as, for lack of a better word, one of ours, but someone needs to make a decision about how to make the most of what he does well - finishing, conceivably(?) - instead of asking him to play as, say, a winger. It’s less that he’s bad at the latter - I’d call him a several steps above sufficient, fwiw - but he’s just not that “killer pass” kind of player.
And…yeah, that’s everything for this one. I’m going to take these three points and pass out. Do what you gotta do, boo. Till the next one…
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