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| Eye of the Tiger. Also, wrong movie. |
At some long-forgotten point during my long career of amateur commentating soccer career, I had an over-fondness for boxing metaphors. With that, let’s dip into the ol’ well once more...
Everyone who has seen even one Rocky movie knows one thing: the more often he gets punched in the head/face area, the better he fights. It might have happened in one movie, it might have happened in all of them, but I distinctly remember a sequence (or five) where Rocky barked something like “is that all you got? hit me harder” (think he said that to both Clubber Lang and Drako), and, as Rocky’s corner started to panic (though not Burgess Meredith, he died during Rocky II, I think), Pauly always said, “no, no, he’s getting madder,” or something like that. And that's how Rocky won the Cold War.
Rocky got punched in the head a whole bunch of fucking times tonight – the official stats counted seven times on target – and All That Jazz Ivacic parried them all away, one of them at dead-cert equalizer by the most active/dangerous player in the San Jose Earthquakes’ line-up, Cristian Espinoza (who, honestly, should take a bow; helluva game, sir; also, The Mothership stiffed us on stand-alone clips, but the highlights would be derelict if they didn't have a few of Ivacic's finest). That “hair-of-their-chinny-chin-chin” madness was more feature the bug in the Portland Timbers 2-1 win over San Jose. And, seeing that I begged for a win, I’m not going to scrutinize it overly...despite this being the same San Jose team I semi-officially wrote off (if halfway) in something I posted just this past Friday, and despite a record of failure that goes back to 1980-fucking-2, aka, when I was a bone-thin knee-high instead of the corpulent gentleman I’ve grown into today...
...deep breath...because that’s all I take these days. And, holy shit, where to begin?
As noted early in my game-thread for the match, San Jose came out nearly as hungry as Dairon Asprilla. After an opening 10 minutes where the teams seemed to punch even, San Jose clawed their way to higher ground and, for too much of the first half, tilted the field toward the Timbers goal. My sparse notes for the first half included phrases like, “SJ clearly not intimidated” and “POR D posture a bit low early,” and I feel like both of those held up pretty well. Whatever anyone thought of each of them, a succession of yellow cards to Portland players – Josecarlos Van Rankin (39th minute/deserved); Yimmi Chara (40th minute/richly-deserved) and Claudio Bravo (41; full disclosure, I didn’t see that one, so I’m not judging its validity) – pinpoints the moment of peak out-of-fucking-control for the Timbers. I think San Jose scored off the free-kick Bravo handed them (don’t honestly recall what I was doing), but, again, who set up the goal that bobbled its way to where Benjamin Kikanovic had nothing to do but stab it into an empty goal? Yep, Espinoza. Related, Ivacic deserved better from that bobble...
Was I dejected going into the half? To the extent I let spectator sports get me down, Hell, yes! But a couple things happened at the half: 1) Giovanni Savarese subbed Cristian Paredes for a player who reminds me more and more of what pisses me off about FC Cincinnati’s Yuya Kubo every time I watch him (sometimes the strangest things help you find the words), aka, Marvin Loria; 2) the Timbers made the clear and conscious decision to match the ‘Quakes’ energy. By my count, Portland pinned San Jose in for the first, full 12 minutes of the first half and, by the same force of will San Jose poured toward them in the first half (again, ROCKY), the Timbers shoved in a goal by sheer force of will. Seriously, watch that goal again: the only beautiful thing in the length of that 0:55 video clip is Jaroslaw Niezgoda’s “I-don’t-know-what-the-fuck-just-happened-either-but-we-may-still-our-bonuses” smile after Diego Chara’s “assist” capped off one of the Timbers’ best chances of the game, if to that point. Which tees up the winner...
If Portland has needed anything this season, it was for an attacking player to wake the fuck up and start scoring goals. Asprilla played like an enthusiastic volunteer for the job for the first time this season. Before Niezgoda’s yeah, sure goal, between making his own lanes and running his ass off, Asprilla had been the Timbers’ most dangerous player to that point. The game got away from him around the 20th minute, but, once the Timbers got the right set up on field – and I’m getting to that – Asprilla finally got the service he needed and, on a (short, yet muscular) warrior’s run to the back-post, he powered home the winner over Paul Marie’s back. Related, I never picked up on the complaint San Jose served up after that goal, because what I saw was Marie’s arm wrapped around Asprilla’s waist, followed by a, “welp, I got beat” gesture after the goal went in? Was there something I missed?
That’s it for the summary. Hope I captured the spirit, etc., but, to pick up the implied sub-text: this was San Jose 2022 at home, aka, the kind of game literally any team has to win, so long as they want to stay competitive. Don’t get me wrong (and why does that always sound more obligatory than sincere every time I type it?), I put a high value on this win, and to the point that I don’t think there’s a word for the thing I did when Asprilla scored the winner, but also that I can’t think of the words to describe it. The only thing I can compare it to is a particularly artful resolution of a plot-point. Everything in its place, and so on...
Everyone who has seen even one Rocky movie knows one thing: the more often he gets punched in the head/face area, the better he fights. It might have happened in one movie, it might have happened in all of them, but I distinctly remember a sequence (or five) where Rocky barked something like “is that all you got? hit me harder” (think he said that to both Clubber Lang and Drako), and, as Rocky’s corner started to panic (though not Burgess Meredith, he died during Rocky II, I think), Pauly always said, “no, no, he’s getting madder,” or something like that. And that's how Rocky won the Cold War.
Rocky got punched in the head a whole bunch of fucking times tonight – the official stats counted seven times on target – and All That Jazz Ivacic parried them all away, one of them at dead-cert equalizer by the most active/dangerous player in the San Jose Earthquakes’ line-up, Cristian Espinoza (who, honestly, should take a bow; helluva game, sir; also, The Mothership stiffed us on stand-alone clips, but the highlights would be derelict if they didn't have a few of Ivacic's finest). That “hair-of-their-chinny-chin-chin” madness was more feature the bug in the Portland Timbers 2-1 win over San Jose. And, seeing that I begged for a win, I’m not going to scrutinize it overly...despite this being the same San Jose team I semi-officially wrote off (if halfway) in something I posted just this past Friday, and despite a record of failure that goes back to 1980-fucking-2, aka, when I was a bone-thin knee-high instead of the corpulent gentleman I’ve grown into today...
...deep breath...because that’s all I take these days. And, holy shit, where to begin?
As noted early in my game-thread for the match, San Jose came out nearly as hungry as Dairon Asprilla. After an opening 10 minutes where the teams seemed to punch even, San Jose clawed their way to higher ground and, for too much of the first half, tilted the field toward the Timbers goal. My sparse notes for the first half included phrases like, “SJ clearly not intimidated” and “POR D posture a bit low early,” and I feel like both of those held up pretty well. Whatever anyone thought of each of them, a succession of yellow cards to Portland players – Josecarlos Van Rankin (39th minute/deserved); Yimmi Chara (40th minute/richly-deserved) and Claudio Bravo (41; full disclosure, I didn’t see that one, so I’m not judging its validity) – pinpoints the moment of peak out-of-fucking-control for the Timbers. I think San Jose scored off the free-kick Bravo handed them (don’t honestly recall what I was doing), but, again, who set up the goal that bobbled its way to where Benjamin Kikanovic had nothing to do but stab it into an empty goal? Yep, Espinoza. Related, Ivacic deserved better from that bobble...
Was I dejected going into the half? To the extent I let spectator sports get me down, Hell, yes! But a couple things happened at the half: 1) Giovanni Savarese subbed Cristian Paredes for a player who reminds me more and more of what pisses me off about FC Cincinnati’s Yuya Kubo every time I watch him (sometimes the strangest things help you find the words), aka, Marvin Loria; 2) the Timbers made the clear and conscious decision to match the ‘Quakes’ energy. By my count, Portland pinned San Jose in for the first, full 12 minutes of the first half and, by the same force of will San Jose poured toward them in the first half (again, ROCKY), the Timbers shoved in a goal by sheer force of will. Seriously, watch that goal again: the only beautiful thing in the length of that 0:55 video clip is Jaroslaw Niezgoda’s “I-don’t-know-what-the-fuck-just-happened-either-but-we-may-still-our-bonuses” smile after Diego Chara’s “assist” capped off one of the Timbers’ best chances of the game, if to that point. Which tees up the winner...
If Portland has needed anything this season, it was for an attacking player to wake the fuck up and start scoring goals. Asprilla played like an enthusiastic volunteer for the job for the first time this season. Before Niezgoda’s yeah, sure goal, between making his own lanes and running his ass off, Asprilla had been the Timbers’ most dangerous player to that point. The game got away from him around the 20th minute, but, once the Timbers got the right set up on field – and I’m getting to that – Asprilla finally got the service he needed and, on a (short, yet muscular) warrior’s run to the back-post, he powered home the winner over Paul Marie’s back. Related, I never picked up on the complaint San Jose served up after that goal, because what I saw was Marie’s arm wrapped around Asprilla’s waist, followed by a, “welp, I got beat” gesture after the goal went in? Was there something I missed?
That’s it for the summary. Hope I captured the spirit, etc., but, to pick up the implied sub-text: this was San Jose 2022 at home, aka, the kind of game literally any team has to win, so long as they want to stay competitive. Don’t get me wrong (and why does that always sound more obligatory than sincere every time I type it?), I put a high value on this win, and to the point that I don’t think there’s a word for the thing I did when Asprilla scored the winner, but also that I can’t think of the words to describe it. The only thing I can compare it to is a particularly artful resolution of a plot-point. Everything in its place, and so on...
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| When shit works, shit works. |
...but, again, San Jose at home, a really effective evil eye...as I tweeted in a preview, this was a must-win. The Timbers did and that’s all that matters. And, in closing, talking points! And these are very personnel specific...
1) I Get That Starting Line-Up, If With Explanations
I’m not 100%-sure what Gio started for a formation – though I do think the official version comes close – but, barring some abundance of caution around both players, I have no goddamn idea why Gio didn’t start Cristhian Paredes (who has been pretty damn solid all season) and Santiago Moreno (why interrupt what has become an encouraging progression arc?), but I know Paredes has come in and out and his some chronic injuries, still, if he’s good to go, please do so. Whether this happened or I’m just ret-conning the idea to make a point, the Timbers got stuffed going the other way late in the first half, hence all the yellow cards, hence the go-ahead goal, assuming the official line is the real one, I wouldn’t run that line-up again and on the grounds it doesn’t have enough spine.
And pretty much every other thought follows therefrom:
I don’t know what Marvin Loria's doing out there. I don’t think anyone does, and that’s a major issue. And that’s not me shitting on him. Loria has talent, but he lingers too long on the ball, and without compensating with a sufficiency of solo brilliance (this is the Kubo thing; and the sum of it is riveting), going forward and he doesn’t have enough defensive upside to make up for it. Complex problem, man....
I don’t know how this related to Loria, but the Timbers don’t press coherently. The more I watch teams that do it well – and there are multiple approaches, e.g., the Red Bull “that ball is MINE” approach or the teams that coordinate their press by releasing on a succession of triggers (this is my new jam, btw, something like what Philly does, but) – that’s the kind of system where I can see Loria thriving. I don’t think he/they have found his role yet. Related...
I’m seeing Yimmi’s limitations more and more. About that, it’s less that I don’t think that’s he’s a good player than I think the Timbers aren’t using him right. Based on his skill-set, balance, and style of passing (i.e., simple, direct, looking to combine), Yimmi strikes me as a No. 8, not a winger.
Yimmi also strikes me as part of the succession plan after Diego retires. Based on tonight, I don’t see how that happens any time soon. Diego played man-of-the-match-level and on both sides of the ball. And, in my mind, he gets Man of the Match for leading the charge and boosting morale. Still got all of it.
The more I watch Moreno play – and this goes double when Asprilla’s at his best – I don’t see a better role for Sebastian Blanco than super-sub. Also, I think he could kick a lot of ass in that role. That is not a demotion. I like Moreno’s energy, but his touch keeps ramping up.
Eryk is important. I’d trade managing his minutes today for the last five games of the regular season (provided the Timbers stay over/near the playoff line) and as far as he can go into the playoffs. Give him enough minutes for everyone to stay familiar, just with an eye to getting maximal minutes out of him when he can do the most damage.
Bravo is fine, or at least he’s not a real issue. He does things well, he does things badly. The Timbers can cover the things he does badly in order to let him do the things he does well.
Dario Zuparic can be very, very good on his day.
That may not be everything I can squeeze out of my head, but that’s definitely enough. There is nothing to hate about this win. It was more fun than pretty, or even confident, but that’s three points in the bank in a game they had to win. Salud.
1) I Get That Starting Line-Up, If With Explanations
I’m not 100%-sure what Gio started for a formation – though I do think the official version comes close – but, barring some abundance of caution around both players, I have no goddamn idea why Gio didn’t start Cristhian Paredes (who has been pretty damn solid all season) and Santiago Moreno (why interrupt what has become an encouraging progression arc?), but I know Paredes has come in and out and his some chronic injuries, still, if he’s good to go, please do so. Whether this happened or I’m just ret-conning the idea to make a point, the Timbers got stuffed going the other way late in the first half, hence all the yellow cards, hence the go-ahead goal, assuming the official line is the real one, I wouldn’t run that line-up again and on the grounds it doesn’t have enough spine.
And pretty much every other thought follows therefrom:
I don’t know what Marvin Loria's doing out there. I don’t think anyone does, and that’s a major issue. And that’s not me shitting on him. Loria has talent, but he lingers too long on the ball, and without compensating with a sufficiency of solo brilliance (this is the Kubo thing; and the sum of it is riveting), going forward and he doesn’t have enough defensive upside to make up for it. Complex problem, man....
I don’t know how this related to Loria, but the Timbers don’t press coherently. The more I watch teams that do it well – and there are multiple approaches, e.g., the Red Bull “that ball is MINE” approach or the teams that coordinate their press by releasing on a succession of triggers (this is my new jam, btw, something like what Philly does, but) – that’s the kind of system where I can see Loria thriving. I don’t think he/they have found his role yet. Related...
I’m seeing Yimmi’s limitations more and more. About that, it’s less that I don’t think that’s he’s a good player than I think the Timbers aren’t using him right. Based on his skill-set, balance, and style of passing (i.e., simple, direct, looking to combine), Yimmi strikes me as a No. 8, not a winger.
Yimmi also strikes me as part of the succession plan after Diego retires. Based on tonight, I don’t see how that happens any time soon. Diego played man-of-the-match-level and on both sides of the ball. And, in my mind, he gets Man of the Match for leading the charge and boosting morale. Still got all of it.
The more I watch Moreno play – and this goes double when Asprilla’s at his best – I don’t see a better role for Sebastian Blanco than super-sub. Also, I think he could kick a lot of ass in that role. That is not a demotion. I like Moreno’s energy, but his touch keeps ramping up.
Eryk is important. I’d trade managing his minutes today for the last five games of the regular season (provided the Timbers stay over/near the playoff line) and as far as he can go into the playoffs. Give him enough minutes for everyone to stay familiar, just with an eye to getting maximal minutes out of him when he can do the most damage.
Bravo is fine, or at least he’s not a real issue. He does things well, he does things badly. The Timbers can cover the things he does badly in order to let him do the things he does well.
Dario Zuparic can be very, very good on his day.
That may not be everything I can squeeze out of my head, but that’s definitely enough. There is nothing to hate about this win. It was more fun than pretty, or even confident, but that’s three points in the bank in a game they had to win. Salud.
What I didn't see- Ebobisse tearing us up- thereby proving all the Twitterers right that we had traded away our own Sergio Aguero out of sheer perversity. I saw one good chance for him; he just lurked around the rest of the match. I am glad for him that he's played in his best position at SJ.
ReplyDeleteMaybe keepers thrive (Ivacic, currently) with the Timbers because our backline never lets them daydream, wave at their friends and fool with their water bottles. Every game will require one or more jump-out-of-your-skin, full-horizontal stretch, reaction saves.
Cloak of invisibility- donned last night by Yimmi; dramatically cast aside by Dairon. Moreno continues to zip around the midfield in a most pleasing way; I think it was his cross that Asprilla headed in.