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| Won't lie. I wanted to do better with this.... |
Have you ever seen one of those old movies, or even a parody of one, where a central character whispers a dozen farewells on his/her way to the beyond?
The Portland Timbers gave their best homage to that trope tonight in a slow-fade 2-3 road loss at the San Jose Earthquakes. The foreground the blunt reality, San Jose wanted it more. Their energy was better, they contested the ball faster - or, in far too many cases, at all - and they just, for lack of a better word, competed tonight in a way the Timbers only did either one player or one moment or a time and, yes, the “or” in that clause is 1,000% conscious, deliberate, not a typo, etc.
As documented in two or three places, I expected goals in this game. Moreover, I expected the game to turn on which team scored the most goals - i.e., basic logic meets basic math - and it did. And, finally, I don’t know what happened to the Timbers tonight, I really don’t. Rather than say they gave up…tempting as that is, I feel alright letting them off the hook with, they couldn’t see the path forward, so they tried to walk directly into the trees. Big ones too.
Where to begin with dissecting this one? And is there a point to the project? Hold on. I'll find one or two...
To make up for cavalierly shitting on San Jose’s defense going into this one, I hereby acknowledge that Tommy Thompson, aka, The Goal-Less Wonder, waltzed his way to one step inside the penalty spot before a there-but-for-the-width-of-Bill-Tuiloma’s-boot the Timbers would have gone down 4-2. After a certain point - here, I’m thinking rather pointedly about the ‘Quakes’ second, jail-break-perfect counterattacking goal - everything about the game rhymed with that moment. Even the laws of gravity seemed to tilt against the Timbers from that point forward and, yes, now confirmed, Portland did something less than half of shit over the course of that second half.
I, like a lot of people, have waited patiently for the Timbers to find a rhythm and start doing something with it this season and assumed they would. Even if I didn’t trust it, I hoped that Portland’s 7-2 win over Sporting Kansas City had knocked off the rust…but, no. Moreover, assuming you stick with the implicit premise of my review - i.e., that an early goal invites teams to play toward Portland, which opens up space for their counter - well, the wheels fell all the fucking way off that one tonight. Once San Jose landed on a method to stuff the Timbers transition outlets - related, does anyone think that’s some state secret by now? - the game ended as a contest. For the record, that happened somewhere around the 65th minute. Or the 70th, in the event I want to spare anyone’s blushes.
Insofar as I’ve implicitly credited San Jose for the win above - and, as depicted by the passing map as well as anything, they deserved it - it’s worth driving home the things they did right tonight because, if I was a team about to face the Timbers, I’d study this one. San Jose disrupted Portland’s game to incoherence with a steady, but not overwhelming press. By the middle of the second half, they’d figured out how to pinch Portland’s primary outlets into 15-yard pockets - also, hold that thought - and that left the Timbers flailing hopefully toward their secondary outlets, all of which had a San Jose defender on his back. That didn’t go well, obviously, but San Jose won by by finishing the chances they had, with Jamiro Monteiro shoving in the dagger and twisting it.
And that’s in every way but the details. Two set-piece goals aside - and pretty soft ones on both counts - Portland struggled to keep the ball for far too much of this game. Worse, once San Jose got the upper hand on energy/momentum, the Timbers did fewer things right by the minute. Not even Eryk Williamson and Sebastian Blanco coming on changed the dynamic, at least not for long.
If I have a great frustration with this game, this is where it kicks in. Portland spent the last 20, 25 minutes trying to “hero-ball” their way out of danger. They sent one hopeful lob to one isolated Timber after another, but those reliably resulted in a turnover and the ball rolling with gravity toward their goal for the fifth time in five minutes. Credit where it’s due, Liam Ridgewell pointed to the general area of what hurt as early as the first half when he talked about a need for the Timbers to get on the ball, to move it around like they knew what to do with it. They regained it for about 15 minutes after Blanco and Eryk came on, but, just like in the first half, San Jose found a way to choke it out. It’s what they didn’t do in these moments - i.e., offer options for other players to find, think about a way around San Jose’s press, as opposed to trying to play over and/or through it - that decided the game. All the ‘Quakes had to was finish their chances.
If one number gives an impression of where the Timbers are at this in the 2022 season, it's three. They have just three wins, a number that puts them in the company of Columbus Crew SC, the New England Revolution, Inter Miami CF, Toronto FC, SKC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and, hey, San Jose. If that’s not a who’s who of Major League Soccer’s presently-struggling teams, someone will have to tell me what I’m missing.
The Portland Timbers gave their best homage to that trope tonight in a slow-fade 2-3 road loss at the San Jose Earthquakes. The foreground the blunt reality, San Jose wanted it more. Their energy was better, they contested the ball faster - or, in far too many cases, at all - and they just, for lack of a better word, competed tonight in a way the Timbers only did either one player or one moment or a time and, yes, the “or” in that clause is 1,000% conscious, deliberate, not a typo, etc.
As documented in two or three places, I expected goals in this game. Moreover, I expected the game to turn on which team scored the most goals - i.e., basic logic meets basic math - and it did. And, finally, I don’t know what happened to the Timbers tonight, I really don’t. Rather than say they gave up…tempting as that is, I feel alright letting them off the hook with, they couldn’t see the path forward, so they tried to walk directly into the trees. Big ones too.
Where to begin with dissecting this one? And is there a point to the project? Hold on. I'll find one or two...
To make up for cavalierly shitting on San Jose’s defense going into this one, I hereby acknowledge that Tommy Thompson, aka, The Goal-Less Wonder, waltzed his way to one step inside the penalty spot before a there-but-for-the-width-of-Bill-Tuiloma’s-boot the Timbers would have gone down 4-2. After a certain point - here, I’m thinking rather pointedly about the ‘Quakes’ second, jail-break-perfect counterattacking goal - everything about the game rhymed with that moment. Even the laws of gravity seemed to tilt against the Timbers from that point forward and, yes, now confirmed, Portland did something less than half of shit over the course of that second half.
I, like a lot of people, have waited patiently for the Timbers to find a rhythm and start doing something with it this season and assumed they would. Even if I didn’t trust it, I hoped that Portland’s 7-2 win over Sporting Kansas City had knocked off the rust…but, no. Moreover, assuming you stick with the implicit premise of my review - i.e., that an early goal invites teams to play toward Portland, which opens up space for their counter - well, the wheels fell all the fucking way off that one tonight. Once San Jose landed on a method to stuff the Timbers transition outlets - related, does anyone think that’s some state secret by now? - the game ended as a contest. For the record, that happened somewhere around the 65th minute. Or the 70th, in the event I want to spare anyone’s blushes.
Insofar as I’ve implicitly credited San Jose for the win above - and, as depicted by the passing map as well as anything, they deserved it - it’s worth driving home the things they did right tonight because, if I was a team about to face the Timbers, I’d study this one. San Jose disrupted Portland’s game to incoherence with a steady, but not overwhelming press. By the middle of the second half, they’d figured out how to pinch Portland’s primary outlets into 15-yard pockets - also, hold that thought - and that left the Timbers flailing hopefully toward their secondary outlets, all of which had a San Jose defender on his back. That didn’t go well, obviously, but San Jose won by by finishing the chances they had, with Jamiro Monteiro shoving in the dagger and twisting it.
And that’s in every way but the details. Two set-piece goals aside - and pretty soft ones on both counts - Portland struggled to keep the ball for far too much of this game. Worse, once San Jose got the upper hand on energy/momentum, the Timbers did fewer things right by the minute. Not even Eryk Williamson and Sebastian Blanco coming on changed the dynamic, at least not for long.
If I have a great frustration with this game, this is where it kicks in. Portland spent the last 20, 25 minutes trying to “hero-ball” their way out of danger. They sent one hopeful lob to one isolated Timber after another, but those reliably resulted in a turnover and the ball rolling with gravity toward their goal for the fifth time in five minutes. Credit where it’s due, Liam Ridgewell pointed to the general area of what hurt as early as the first half when he talked about a need for the Timbers to get on the ball, to move it around like they knew what to do with it. They regained it for about 15 minutes after Blanco and Eryk came on, but, just like in the first half, San Jose found a way to choke it out. It’s what they didn’t do in these moments - i.e., offer options for other players to find, think about a way around San Jose’s press, as opposed to trying to play over and/or through it - that decided the game. All the ‘Quakes had to was finish their chances.
If one number gives an impression of where the Timbers are at this in the 2022 season, it's three. They have just three wins, a number that puts them in the company of Columbus Crew SC, the New England Revolution, Inter Miami CF, Toronto FC, SKC, the Vancouver Whitecaps and, hey, San Jose. If that’s not a who’s who of Major League Soccer’s presently-struggling teams, someone will have to tell me what I’m missing.
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| Inspiration for the future. He just won a decathalon. |
I can’t remember where I wrote this, or even when, but I had this broad thought that 2022 had the look of season where, because they could no longer rely on out-playing them, the Portland Timbers would have to lean into out-competing their rivals. The opposite happened tonight. Highly relevant thereto, players like Marvin Loria and Santiago Moreno got the start and the opportunity to prove they belonged there tonight (yeah, yeah, getting to it), and both of them blew it. And, sure, some of that’s unfair: only one of J.C. Marcinowski’s hand stood between Cristhian Paredes and a first-half brace, and Nathan Focaccia (sorry, someone planted the seed and it grew) almost picked San Jose’ ‘keeper’s pocket in the same time-frame, all of which is to say, there but for the grace of a little more sharpness, this whole thing could have turned out differently...
Only it didn’t, and also probably not. In the most basic terms - e.g., road game, 1/3 of the way into the season, some players missing, etc. - there’s nothing enormously wrong with that, Portland has ‘round about 20 more chances to get it right, and so on. The blunter issue is that every team plays 17 games on the road every season (right?) and you want to bite the lower-hanging fruit as it passes. If you catch my meaning…
…that said, my overall read on San Jose goes something like this: they are a good offense in search of a good defense. They can attack reasonably well with four players and, based on what I’ve seen, they can cause real chaos with just five. I wish I could explain Portland in as few words, but…pfft.
Some Talking Points
1) Justin Rasmussen, in the Ring of Fire
I can’t think of a Timber who didn’t go over his “stupid give-away” limit tonight, but Rasmussen’s rookie-jitters finally cracked under the pressure tonight. I’m not turning on the kid - it’s not like Portland doesn’t have dodgy fullbacks on loan - but I’d be stunned if his passing choices/execution tonight didn’t provide the floor on which all others stood.
2) I Like Nathan
And I mean that to the point where Jaroslaw Niezgoda might want to start thinking about things. And I say that as someone who doesn’t blame Niezgoda for his…limited 2022. Focaccia plays a similar game - i.e., finding seams, running onto through-balls - but with more energy. And he’s saucy. For example, his shot at the 28th minute might have been low-percentage, but, I won’t lie seeing any Timber take a swing from range gave me little tickle.
3) The Replacements
Neither Loria nor Moreno impacted the game tonight - though, if forced to rate one over the other, I’d give Moreno a thin edge…even if on a trip to nowhere. For what it’s worth, I don’t expect more than the odd miracle out of Loria - unlike Paredes, he hasn’t launched (and all that implies) - but I really want to see Moreno take more ownership in the attack. To put that another way, I want Moreno to be more like Nathan, but also effective. A fantasy, in other words. I want a fantasy...but maybe that's already because I've already had a fairytale...
4) Whither Dairon?
My main memories of Dairon Asprilla from tonight include, falling asleep in possession shortly after he came on and failing to anticipate a (perhaps optimistic) diagonal pass into space. The biggest difference between Portland’s 2022 and their 2021 is nothing more than less than Asprilla’s form. And yet I’m also stuck with the reality that he’s looked like…two mistakes in every game he’s come on this season. So…what do you do?
5) The Core Is…Adequate, the Rest a Riddle
Issues with fullbacks notwithstanding, I don’t have a problem with any part of the 3-4 of the 3-3-4 Portland allegedly lined-up in tonight, i.e., a reasonable mixture of Portland’s center-backs and fullbacks with the (Flying) Chara Brothers and Cristhian Paredes in front of them suits me just fine. Going the other way, you can give and take from that as health, form and circumstance advises, but, something has got to happen with Portland’s front-line before this season gets too far ahead of them.
That’s it for tonight. All in all, I feel fine, but also like there’s work to do. On the field and off of it.
Only it didn’t, and also probably not. In the most basic terms - e.g., road game, 1/3 of the way into the season, some players missing, etc. - there’s nothing enormously wrong with that, Portland has ‘round about 20 more chances to get it right, and so on. The blunter issue is that every team plays 17 games on the road every season (right?) and you want to bite the lower-hanging fruit as it passes. If you catch my meaning…
…that said, my overall read on San Jose goes something like this: they are a good offense in search of a good defense. They can attack reasonably well with four players and, based on what I’ve seen, they can cause real chaos with just five. I wish I could explain Portland in as few words, but…pfft.
Some Talking Points
1) Justin Rasmussen, in the Ring of Fire
I can’t think of a Timber who didn’t go over his “stupid give-away” limit tonight, but Rasmussen’s rookie-jitters finally cracked under the pressure tonight. I’m not turning on the kid - it’s not like Portland doesn’t have dodgy fullbacks on loan - but I’d be stunned if his passing choices/execution tonight didn’t provide the floor on which all others stood.
2) I Like Nathan
And I mean that to the point where Jaroslaw Niezgoda might want to start thinking about things. And I say that as someone who doesn’t blame Niezgoda for his…limited 2022. Focaccia plays a similar game - i.e., finding seams, running onto through-balls - but with more energy. And he’s saucy. For example, his shot at the 28th minute might have been low-percentage, but, I won’t lie seeing any Timber take a swing from range gave me little tickle.
3) The Replacements
Neither Loria nor Moreno impacted the game tonight - though, if forced to rate one over the other, I’d give Moreno a thin edge…even if on a trip to nowhere. For what it’s worth, I don’t expect more than the odd miracle out of Loria - unlike Paredes, he hasn’t launched (and all that implies) - but I really want to see Moreno take more ownership in the attack. To put that another way, I want Moreno to be more like Nathan, but also effective. A fantasy, in other words. I want a fantasy...but maybe that's already because I've already had a fairytale...
4) Whither Dairon?
My main memories of Dairon Asprilla from tonight include, falling asleep in possession shortly after he came on and failing to anticipate a (perhaps optimistic) diagonal pass into space. The biggest difference between Portland’s 2022 and their 2021 is nothing more than less than Asprilla’s form. And yet I’m also stuck with the reality that he’s looked like…two mistakes in every game he’s come on this season. So…what do you do?
5) The Core Is…Adequate, the Rest a Riddle
Issues with fullbacks notwithstanding, I don’t have a problem with any part of the 3-4 of the 3-3-4 Portland allegedly lined-up in tonight, i.e., a reasonable mixture of Portland’s center-backs and fullbacks with the (Flying) Chara Brothers and Cristhian Paredes in front of them suits me just fine. Going the other way, you can give and take from that as health, form and circumstance advises, but, something has got to happen with Portland’s front-line before this season gets too far ahead of them.
That’s it for tonight. All in all, I feel fine, but also like there’s work to do. On the field and off of it.
Yes, last year's Asprilla and a pre-injury Niezgoda or Mora and we're a different team. So far, Dairon seems like a player with something else absorbing his focus. Homesickness? Boredom? Frustration? Women? Substance obsessions? Dislike of rainy weather?
ReplyDeleteWhatever it is, he appears to be otherwise occupied. And he's operating at about 70% of last season.
I know there are teams out there where their fans are posting, "Well, our defense is all squared away; now let's fix the rest of it." I wonder what that feels like? Did I feel that way in 2015?
Also, I think that the low-level warfare between the FO and a faction of the TA has caused the normal back-channels of team information to have dried up. We have no clues as to what the Timbers are planning. Do they believe that everything's just fine in the long run? Are they on the verge of wholesale changes? "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."
On the last paragraph, that's a fair question; the era of (comparative) transparency has died, and there probably is a bit of "well, fuck you guys, too" in that. Going the other way, I've seen this graph kicking around twitter that shows the history of the Timbers investment in the team and, if memory serves, it has nosed down over the past two or three seasons. My brightest assumption is that they're waiting for the current "golden generation" to age out before they go big again. And that brings up another double-edged sword: fans lose their shit when favorite players aren't allowed to retire in Timbers green, and it makes you wonder whether the FO gets cold feet about cutting losses in the face of that. To return to the original direction, if the FO is on "well, fuck you guys, too" maybe they're not even thinking about the fan-base. As you said, riddle, mystery, etc.
ReplyDeleteI guess, actually, most team organizations are opaque to their fans. You're right; we had a long stretch where all parties liked the concept of "we are all doing this together." One might argue that some in the TA took that to mean that we were now the American FC St. Pauli and would officially lean in a certain political direction. Never mind that politics is always kept at arm's length in US pro sports, and never mind that it has meant on-pitch mediocrity and financial shakiness for St. Pauli (20 year residents of the German lower divisions).
ReplyDeleteThe investment graphing may be accurate, but its meaning is muddied by: 1) the effect on club cash flow of the newly-built east stands; 2) low attendance of fans due to the pandemic - MLS teams depend on gate revenue more than any other major US sport. And national tv money for the whole league is $90M+, or about $3.5M per team if it's even divvied up without expenses. Low attendance is the crippler for the Timbers funding player buys.
Oooh. Your first paragraph points to a super-compelling thought: how many Timbers fans would would trade mediocrity for a club they could love unconditionally? (Is that a poll I smell?)
ReplyDeleteMy guess is- a fanbase that matches up more with Timbers USL attendance in the early 2000s. The highest USL per game average was 10k (with the fan knowledge that MLS was arriving the next year). So adding for greater team visibility nowadays and subtracting all those who can't stand following perennial doormats - maybe 12-15k average? And when you go to paltry attendance, our team might get sold to someone who'll want to move it to a fresh city. You know- building the Texas division even more with the San Antonio Timbers?
ReplyDeleteFair point. Against that, and I may be misremembering, MLS hasn't moved many clubs over the years. That follows from being a baby league, sure, and the risk has probably gone up given more viable markets, but the Timbers have an X-Factor they can lean into: a happy Timbers Army makes for good TV. And, dammit, you made me wistful for the USL days. All that room to stretch your legs, beer damn-near free...sigh....
ReplyDelete