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| Portland's attacking tactics, a visual. |
I’ll start with two thoughts. First, the fan-base grumpiness about this result, if just in my corner of twitter, is top-notch. Second, I’ve typed some version of “this won’t take long” 400+ times, but I’m pretty damn confident that the sum of what I just watched will help me deliver on that promise.
The Portland Timbers 1-1 home draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps fulfilled every expectation/failure laid out in my preview, if with the lonely exception that Vancouver pressed a bit around the 20th minute of the first half. Otherwise, that now-cursed thing functioned as a script, only absent the inspiration. Vancouver lined up the way I expected them to, they mostly defended as expected, they got a goal off a cross to the back-post (if the opposite of the one I expected; also, the failure was decidedly complex); the Timbers attack, meanwhile, did everything I hoped they wouldn’t, as in they literally checked every goddamn box. And that, ladies and gents, is the alpha, the omega, and the answer to every question except why this game didn’t end 1-0 in Vancouver’s favor.
To stick up for the kids who get a gold star for today, I thought Santiago Moreno, Larrys Mabiala, Aljaz Ivacic, and Claudio Bravo all had decent games – if mainly on the attacking side in Bravo’s case, and the man clearly has a day-job to which he does not always attend. I’m willing to give honorable mention to Dario Zuparic and Diego Chara generally, Cristhian Paredes here and there, and Yimmi Chara early in the game, but, collectively, that was 90-minutes of muscles twitching to pulses of electricity delivered with all the subtlety of a 12-year-old mashing buttons on Mortal Combat. Both teams made chances out of their moments of coherence – and, loathe as I am to say it, though the stats do back it up a bit (see shots on goal), Vancouver managed more than the Timbers – but that game delivered a bounty of bad soccer on all sides of those moments. Felt like watching MLS in the 2000s, and in all the wrong ways.
To his credit, Ivacic cleaned up most of the messes Portland’s defense left him – most critically, his two early saves in the first half – but the Timbers defense had a generally respectable night. For the...how many games have the Timbers played so far? 21? – call it the 11th time this season (this includes every game the Timbers allowed one or fewer goals), Portland’s defense did enough. And so, for the...huh, 13th time this season, I’ll close this very short post with a rant about the Timbers “attack.”
The Portland Timbers 1-1 home draw against the Vancouver Whitecaps fulfilled every expectation/failure laid out in my preview, if with the lonely exception that Vancouver pressed a bit around the 20th minute of the first half. Otherwise, that now-cursed thing functioned as a script, only absent the inspiration. Vancouver lined up the way I expected them to, they mostly defended as expected, they got a goal off a cross to the back-post (if the opposite of the one I expected; also, the failure was decidedly complex); the Timbers attack, meanwhile, did everything I hoped they wouldn’t, as in they literally checked every goddamn box. And that, ladies and gents, is the alpha, the omega, and the answer to every question except why this game didn’t end 1-0 in Vancouver’s favor.
To stick up for the kids who get a gold star for today, I thought Santiago Moreno, Larrys Mabiala, Aljaz Ivacic, and Claudio Bravo all had decent games – if mainly on the attacking side in Bravo’s case, and the man clearly has a day-job to which he does not always attend. I’m willing to give honorable mention to Dario Zuparic and Diego Chara generally, Cristhian Paredes here and there, and Yimmi Chara early in the game, but, collectively, that was 90-minutes of muscles twitching to pulses of electricity delivered with all the subtlety of a 12-year-old mashing buttons on Mortal Combat. Both teams made chances out of their moments of coherence – and, loathe as I am to say it, though the stats do back it up a bit (see shots on goal), Vancouver managed more than the Timbers – but that game delivered a bounty of bad soccer on all sides of those moments. Felt like watching MLS in the 2000s, and in all the wrong ways.
To his credit, Ivacic cleaned up most of the messes Portland’s defense left him – most critically, his two early saves in the first half – but the Timbers defense had a generally respectable night. For the...how many games have the Timbers played so far? 21? – call it the 11th time this season (this includes every game the Timbers allowed one or fewer goals), Portland’s defense did enough. And so, for the...huh, 13th time this season, I’ll close this very short post with a rant about the Timbers “attack.”
I approached this game with two disparate thoughts on my head: 1) that Vancouver have a recently mastered the art of forcing low-xG games; and 2) that they’ve also allowed 34 goals so far this season. For context, that latter number puts them in the top quartile for goals allowed on the season, if only just; for further context, FC Cincinnati put two very clean, run-of-play goals past the ‘Caps defense at midweek, if against a drunkenly-rotated ‘Caps line-up. So, again, in fairness, this was the ‘Caps (presently) best defensive line-up, and they really do compact the defense, on the other hand, fuck fairness in the ear, because how many times have Timbers fans fidgeted through frustration as they watched the Timbers attack hit the same, misplaced marks wave-to-wave and game-to-game?
I’m not able to dial up individual highlights, but, if you’re willing to sit through the (still somehow dull) four-minute highlights, I mostly want to draw your attention to how the attacks developed on Portland’s better attacking moments and/or the penalty on Felipe Mora that led to his equalizing goal. The...thing they managed to do in both cases – and even on Paredes shot around the 20th – is to play the ball into the middle, horizontal third of the field, or to the fringes thereof. And I think that’s the sum of what I want to say about both this game, and the Timbers season in general: they straight-up fucking need to get the ball into the center of the attacking third; even if the receiving players immediately passes it back out, opposing defenses have to believe they'll have to deal with that pass in order to keep the Timbers attack from aspiring to something higher/useful. To quote something from my notes, the Timbers default to trying to play around defenses instead of either at or through them – something that goes double to quadruple against a compact/well-organized defense – and that has amounted to defaulting to a Plan A that both fans and coaching staff have seen fail for 11+ games, and in this season alone. And you'd think the coaching staff would be sick of watching that segment of tape as the fans are, but, on the evidence...
I’m not able to dial up individual highlights, but, if you’re willing to sit through the (still somehow dull) four-minute highlights, I mostly want to draw your attention to how the attacks developed on Portland’s better attacking moments and/or the penalty on Felipe Mora that led to his equalizing goal. The...thing they managed to do in both cases – and even on Paredes shot around the 20th – is to play the ball into the middle, horizontal third of the field, or to the fringes thereof. And I think that’s the sum of what I want to say about both this game, and the Timbers season in general: they straight-up fucking need to get the ball into the center of the attacking third; even if the receiving players immediately passes it back out, opposing defenses have to believe they'll have to deal with that pass in order to keep the Timbers attack from aspiring to something higher/useful. To quote something from my notes, the Timbers default to trying to play around defenses instead of either at or through them – something that goes double to quadruple against a compact/well-organized defense – and that has amounted to defaulting to a Plan A that both fans and coaching staff have seen fail for 11+ games, and in this season alone. And you'd think the coaching staff would be sick of watching that segment of tape as the fans are, but, on the evidence...
Playing the ball wide to an over-lapping fullback and/or his support system and having him cross to very predictable runs, each with a total lack of goal-bound momentum keeps yielding the same goddamn, borderline unwatchable outcome nine time out of ten. No, I am not entertained, nor am I satisfied. If anything pissed me off about the Timbers play tonight, it was the total and complete lack of patience. From what I watched, the game-plan boiled down to trying to beat Vancouver’s defense before it got settled. Vancouver had every incentive and rationale to play against that, and so they did. The whole goddamn dynamic of this game called for patience going in – i.e., trying to pin the ‘Caps defense in and then pull it apart – and that demands something more subtle than trying to out-run a defense from ten yards behind (at a minimum) followed by going back to a Plan A every sentient being anticipated when that didn’t come off.
Here's to hoping things go better against, San Jose next weekend. Till then....
Thoughts from ProvPark- The game last night was more fun in person. For whatever reason, the crowd was lively and engaged and the subjective feel was that both teams were in it for the win and were trying hard. At a lot of home games this spring, the crowd participation has had a rote, slightly dull quality- with the decades-old chants that were dutifully recited like canonical texts. Many of the same chants last night, but recited with a little more feeling than usual. Maybe plenty of crowd beer-drinking and a beautiful evening had something to do with it?
ReplyDeleteYes, you're so right about our attacking style. We were going to live and die by crosses from the wings. Vanc really jammed up the front of their goal so that all we had left were runs down the sides. As I've ranted before, that doesn't work to the skill set that Niezgoda has. Maybe he'll flourish (like Ebobisse has) when he joins a team that can play to his strengths.
Totally appreciate the live perspective. And love this one "the decades-old chants that were dutifully recited like canonical texts." I'd put it down to a combination of a Cascadia opponent and sensation of their breath hot on Portland's neck.
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