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| Happy to have it, disturbed I needed it. |
Sweet Jesus. Feels like you need a chart with an interpretive guide with an addendum to read that one. On the plus side, the Portland Timbers picked up their second handful of three points in 2022 with a 3-2 win at the Vancouver Whitecaps. On the down side, Vancouver looks as shitty as their record - i.e., 1-4-1, but for the San Jose Earthquakes, etc. To nudge the cold, hard facts back toward a positive direction, Portland grabbed those three points on the road, never a bad thing. But let’s dig deeper
First and foremost, I’d argue Portland looked the better team throughout - can I get a “thank God” on that, HA-llelujah! - and I’d be stunned if the numbers don’t back that up. Checking………okeh, let’s take a step back and define “better,” because maybe there’s a language barrier here, or maybe I’m just not vibing with the data-dorks at MLSSoccer.com, but they’re saying most of differently, so maybe it’s time to take another step back to look at all this from a greater distance.
What went right for the Whitecaps today?
I thought Ryan Gauld looked all right, or he looked like what I remembered at least - e.g., hyper-active (in a good way), eager to combine and make things happen. He kept Timbers defenders and midfielders chasing all over the place, drew one penalty and came close to drawing a couple others - something I can’t stress that enough given Silvio Petrescu’s beer-googled evening of refereeing (i.e., the VAR was busy). I also thought Russell Teibert played a strong game, too, and in the same kind of omni-present way. Finally, above and beyond terrorizing Josecarlos Van Rankin for most of the night, Cristian Dajome scored a peach of a goal off a collective mental slip by Portland’s left side. Still, I’m not sure I’d call what I watched a two-goal performance by Vancouver; they scored their second goal on their second penalty kick - and on a call I wouldn't have made, fwiw - and it’s hard not to score one when you get two free cracks from 12 yards out. Petrescu/the Timbers D handed them some padding, in other words. Now, about the Timbers' performance...
It left me more happy than frustrated, for one, but it’s complicated from there. Marvin Loria found space down the left for as long as he played and, sure, give the man credit for the cutting inside to create the penalty kick that put Portland ahead (and on one helluva kick by Dairon Asprilla), but I’d also argue Loria killed more plays than he helped along over the course. And I think that makes Loria the perfect talisman for this win. Only a couple Timbers played a solid 90 (or less, depending) - fwiw, I’d put Bill Tuiloma, Diego Chara, Cristhian Paredes and, at long last, Aljaz Ivacic in that group - but just about every player had a moment or two when he did something a little better than. For instance, Asprilla didn't have a bad night - e.g., he stretched the field nicely and did some stout hold-up work - but it didn't add up to much besides a lot of running around. Until, that is, his moment when it arrived (aka, the penalty kick). He capped it off with a lovely gesture to a grieving Zac McGraw…just, all the emojis, guys, except maybe the poo and the fruit teenagers use as innuendos, and those moments exonerated whatever flaws marred Asprilla’s (et. al.’s) game and that gets to how the Timbers got a good result against a team that, so far, looks like it’s going to through some things instead of go anywhere in 2022.
It was no different for Jaroslaw Niezgoda; he played his best game of the season today, for my money, but things looked destined to stay one step ahead of him until he got isolated on the left against Vancouver’s Florian Jungwirth, straight-up lost him and buried a shot that moved faster than sight. That put Portland up 2-0 and, honestly, I stopped worrying from there, even as Vancouver started clawing the initiative out of Portland’s hands and/or feet. If anything disturbed me about tonight, it was the way the game slipped away from the Timbers after the 60th minute or thereabouts. They'd done pretty well to that point, slowing the game by passing around the back when it suited them, and pressing against the 'Caps D in the same way. Just globally, the Timbers have yet to find the happy space between “don’t let anything bad happen” and “making things happen” in 2022; broadly, Portland manages games better when they operate, both tactically and mentally, as "acting" versus "acted upon." Initiative matters, basically, even if it's just punching out of a defensive crouch. At any rate, that felt like a lot of what allowed Vancouver’s first goal (Dajome's) and how the (very) end of the game felt like such a consuming panic.
Thankfully, Yimmi Chara’s scored a back-breaker/insurance goal before all that and, again, Yimmi's played to the overall zeitgeist. He was busy, of course (he’s a Chara), but another afternoon of nothing to show seemed on tap until he pushed a ball through Vancouver’s left channel and kept pushing Vancouver defenders until they panicked and the ball popped loose. Again, Yimmi met the moment, burying the ball with power and confidence and that put enough fluff back into Portland’s cushion to see this one out. To dip back into the numbers, they show the Timbers fired all of five shots. So, no, this wasn’t a dominant, attacking display from Portland. It was on the other hand…or for the most part, a composed, strategically-assured game by the Timbers - i.e., the game-plan of stretching Vancouver vertically paid off, as did both center backs - Bill and Larrys Mabiala - stepping with menace to any ball that rolled to even the fringes of Zone 14.
Execution, on the other hand, wasn’t the greatest. Again, I think Loria offers a great symbol for what that looked like. The defense came in and out of it, at least collectively, often as the offense did. As much as I disagree that Claudio Bravo’s late, late shoulder into Deiber Caicedo counted as a penalty, that doesn’t change the fact that Caicedo got in behind, or that Gauld made a threatening run along the same seam earlier in the game; moreover, the fact Petrescu called the Bravo/Caicedo thing means he could have easily called the other. None of that erases all the magnificent clean-up that Larrys and Bill die from the face of the goal to the top of Zone 14 throughout, so much as it acknowledges the fly in the ointment. Put it all together and it comes to something like, Portland had a globally sufficient game.
And, no, I can’t get past the fact this was against Vancouver, a team that looks like its record, aka, largely ineffectual, still in the early stages of figuring it out - which I'd call a bit of a surprise given how much of their roster they returned. And it very much bears noting that, factually/circumstantially, the Timbers were one Aljaz Ivacic penalty kick save away from splitting a point with a team that, by broad agreement isn't all there, isn't all that good and that…well, sucks. I mean, even if I think The Mothership’s xG graph oversells it a bit, credit to Vancouver for pouring it on late and for never giving up.
Again, all the above makes this a tricky game to peg for progress. Going in, I saw it as one Portland should win, so I was mostly watching for how much sweat they shed to make it happen. Still, don’t be shy about celebrating the three points, not least because the opposite would have put some quivers into the Timbers’ brave face about remaining a competitive team. Moreover, these are the kind of points a good team picks up, and is it really worth thinking about beyond that?
It's off to East Texas from here, but to close with some talking points…
1) Paying It Back
Aljaz Ivacic played his best game of his Timbers career today. The penalty notwithstanding, he made at least two more strong saves and threw in one theatrical save for his video resume. The bigger thing was his aura. Ivacic looked comfortable back there tonight and for the first time this season, to my lightly-bloodshot eyes, and this is a good development, full stop. And may it continue forever and in multiple vessel-‘keepers. One of us, one of us, etc.
2) A Hesitant Bravo
I want Claudio Bravo to retire in Portland just so I can see the full arc of the story of his remarkable self-confidence. The broadcast booth kept commenting on his calm when he headed/chested the ball back to Ivacic and with some menace lurking and, for the record, Bravo got away with it every time. For me, that’s no different from how he plays - e.g., he tackles like he knows he’ll win the ball, even when he can’t and doesn’t. Bravo’s unique in that he has the decision-making profile of a forward - i.e., high-risk in search of high-reward, even with the risk higher and the reward less certain. Still, I like Bravo and I’m…let’s call it 75% confident he’ll come good in the end.
3) A Practical Question, Perhaps Because I’ve Stopped Paying Attention
How much does scoring the first goal help the Timbers? To sharpen the point, how much does scoring the first goal put Portland in a situation where they can play their best - aka, wide-open - game? Opportunities to get vertical and scramble a retreating defense come most often against teams pushing to get back into the game, so that feels like a yes.
3a) Why It Matters
And yet, isn’t that an argument to prioritize defense - i.e., to shrink the risk of going behind a goal as close to zero as possible? But, to get back to the “acted upon” argument floated above, I’m not sure how Portland arrives at its best possible, collective defense right now…
…and that goes double against the better teams in the Western Conference. And, no, Vancouver isn’t one of them. Bottom line, the only thing I’d take from this result is the one most people guessed going in - i.e., Portland has a better team than Vancouver. That still leaves the question of who else Portland is better than wide open. At least for now.
First and foremost, I’d argue Portland looked the better team throughout - can I get a “thank God” on that, HA-llelujah! - and I’d be stunned if the numbers don’t back that up. Checking………okeh, let’s take a step back and define “better,” because maybe there’s a language barrier here, or maybe I’m just not vibing with the data-dorks at MLSSoccer.com, but they’re saying most of differently, so maybe it’s time to take another step back to look at all this from a greater distance.
What went right for the Whitecaps today?
I thought Ryan Gauld looked all right, or he looked like what I remembered at least - e.g., hyper-active (in a good way), eager to combine and make things happen. He kept Timbers defenders and midfielders chasing all over the place, drew one penalty and came close to drawing a couple others - something I can’t stress that enough given Silvio Petrescu’s beer-googled evening of refereeing (i.e., the VAR was busy). I also thought Russell Teibert played a strong game, too, and in the same kind of omni-present way. Finally, above and beyond terrorizing Josecarlos Van Rankin for most of the night, Cristian Dajome scored a peach of a goal off a collective mental slip by Portland’s left side. Still, I’m not sure I’d call what I watched a two-goal performance by Vancouver; they scored their second goal on their second penalty kick - and on a call I wouldn't have made, fwiw - and it’s hard not to score one when you get two free cracks from 12 yards out. Petrescu/the Timbers D handed them some padding, in other words. Now, about the Timbers' performance...
It left me more happy than frustrated, for one, but it’s complicated from there. Marvin Loria found space down the left for as long as he played and, sure, give the man credit for the cutting inside to create the penalty kick that put Portland ahead (and on one helluva kick by Dairon Asprilla), but I’d also argue Loria killed more plays than he helped along over the course. And I think that makes Loria the perfect talisman for this win. Only a couple Timbers played a solid 90 (or less, depending) - fwiw, I’d put Bill Tuiloma, Diego Chara, Cristhian Paredes and, at long last, Aljaz Ivacic in that group - but just about every player had a moment or two when he did something a little better than. For instance, Asprilla didn't have a bad night - e.g., he stretched the field nicely and did some stout hold-up work - but it didn't add up to much besides a lot of running around. Until, that is, his moment when it arrived (aka, the penalty kick). He capped it off with a lovely gesture to a grieving Zac McGraw…just, all the emojis, guys, except maybe the poo and the fruit teenagers use as innuendos, and those moments exonerated whatever flaws marred Asprilla’s (et. al.’s) game and that gets to how the Timbers got a good result against a team that, so far, looks like it’s going to through some things instead of go anywhere in 2022.
It was no different for Jaroslaw Niezgoda; he played his best game of the season today, for my money, but things looked destined to stay one step ahead of him until he got isolated on the left against Vancouver’s Florian Jungwirth, straight-up lost him and buried a shot that moved faster than sight. That put Portland up 2-0 and, honestly, I stopped worrying from there, even as Vancouver started clawing the initiative out of Portland’s hands and/or feet. If anything disturbed me about tonight, it was the way the game slipped away from the Timbers after the 60th minute or thereabouts. They'd done pretty well to that point, slowing the game by passing around the back when it suited them, and pressing against the 'Caps D in the same way. Just globally, the Timbers have yet to find the happy space between “don’t let anything bad happen” and “making things happen” in 2022; broadly, Portland manages games better when they operate, both tactically and mentally, as "acting" versus "acted upon." Initiative matters, basically, even if it's just punching out of a defensive crouch. At any rate, that felt like a lot of what allowed Vancouver’s first goal (Dajome's) and how the (very) end of the game felt like such a consuming panic.
Thankfully, Yimmi Chara’s scored a back-breaker/insurance goal before all that and, again, Yimmi's played to the overall zeitgeist. He was busy, of course (he’s a Chara), but another afternoon of nothing to show seemed on tap until he pushed a ball through Vancouver’s left channel and kept pushing Vancouver defenders until they panicked and the ball popped loose. Again, Yimmi met the moment, burying the ball with power and confidence and that put enough fluff back into Portland’s cushion to see this one out. To dip back into the numbers, they show the Timbers fired all of five shots. So, no, this wasn’t a dominant, attacking display from Portland. It was on the other hand…or for the most part, a composed, strategically-assured game by the Timbers - i.e., the game-plan of stretching Vancouver vertically paid off, as did both center backs - Bill and Larrys Mabiala - stepping with menace to any ball that rolled to even the fringes of Zone 14.
Execution, on the other hand, wasn’t the greatest. Again, I think Loria offers a great symbol for what that looked like. The defense came in and out of it, at least collectively, often as the offense did. As much as I disagree that Claudio Bravo’s late, late shoulder into Deiber Caicedo counted as a penalty, that doesn’t change the fact that Caicedo got in behind, or that Gauld made a threatening run along the same seam earlier in the game; moreover, the fact Petrescu called the Bravo/Caicedo thing means he could have easily called the other. None of that erases all the magnificent clean-up that Larrys and Bill die from the face of the goal to the top of Zone 14 throughout, so much as it acknowledges the fly in the ointment. Put it all together and it comes to something like, Portland had a globally sufficient game.
And, no, I can’t get past the fact this was against Vancouver, a team that looks like its record, aka, largely ineffectual, still in the early stages of figuring it out - which I'd call a bit of a surprise given how much of their roster they returned. And it very much bears noting that, factually/circumstantially, the Timbers were one Aljaz Ivacic penalty kick save away from splitting a point with a team that, by broad agreement isn't all there, isn't all that good and that…well, sucks. I mean, even if I think The Mothership’s xG graph oversells it a bit, credit to Vancouver for pouring it on late and for never giving up.
Again, all the above makes this a tricky game to peg for progress. Going in, I saw it as one Portland should win, so I was mostly watching for how much sweat they shed to make it happen. Still, don’t be shy about celebrating the three points, not least because the opposite would have put some quivers into the Timbers’ brave face about remaining a competitive team. Moreover, these are the kind of points a good team picks up, and is it really worth thinking about beyond that?
It's off to East Texas from here, but to close with some talking points…
1) Paying It Back
Aljaz Ivacic played his best game of his Timbers career today. The penalty notwithstanding, he made at least two more strong saves and threw in one theatrical save for his video resume. The bigger thing was his aura. Ivacic looked comfortable back there tonight and for the first time this season, to my lightly-bloodshot eyes, and this is a good development, full stop. And may it continue forever and in multiple vessel-‘keepers. One of us, one of us, etc.
2) A Hesitant Bravo
I want Claudio Bravo to retire in Portland just so I can see the full arc of the story of his remarkable self-confidence. The broadcast booth kept commenting on his calm when he headed/chested the ball back to Ivacic and with some menace lurking and, for the record, Bravo got away with it every time. For me, that’s no different from how he plays - e.g., he tackles like he knows he’ll win the ball, even when he can’t and doesn’t. Bravo’s unique in that he has the decision-making profile of a forward - i.e., high-risk in search of high-reward, even with the risk higher and the reward less certain. Still, I like Bravo and I’m…let’s call it 75% confident he’ll come good in the end.
3) A Practical Question, Perhaps Because I’ve Stopped Paying Attention
How much does scoring the first goal help the Timbers? To sharpen the point, how much does scoring the first goal put Portland in a situation where they can play their best - aka, wide-open - game? Opportunities to get vertical and scramble a retreating defense come most often against teams pushing to get back into the game, so that feels like a yes.
3a) Why It Matters
And yet, isn’t that an argument to prioritize defense - i.e., to shrink the risk of going behind a goal as close to zero as possible? But, to get back to the “acted upon” argument floated above, I’m not sure how Portland arrives at its best possible, collective defense right now…
…and that goes double against the better teams in the Western Conference. And, no, Vancouver isn’t one of them. Bottom line, the only thing I’d take from this result is the one most people guessed going in - i.e., Portland has a better team than Vancouver. That still leaves the question of who else Portland is better than wide open. At least for now.
Till the next one…
While I would not call Vancouver a good team, they weren't bad enough that we could kibuki our way through without nervous twitches. The NW three really like beating each other and try a little harder for those matches.
ReplyDeleteSo- are the shoves and ankle-scrape tackles this year by our defense more a sign of seaking a rep as hard guys, or the high-anxiety response to being a step behind the play? Yeah, I know - some of both.
Really happy for Niezgoda and Ivacic that they had confidence-bolstering games. Also liked Yimmi's staying with the play in the Vancouver box and making something out of a jammed-up run at goal.
Pretty small traveling Army contingent up north. A late-pandemic reaction to travel hassles as much as anything, I'm guessing?