 |
| Explain that entire civilization and make it POP. |
Had FC Dallas’ Paul Arriola not flubbed on one-and-a-half breakaways, had Jesus Ferreira not been called offside on Dallas’ best team attack, had Aljaz Ivacic failed to see the same player’s shot curl around Larrys Mabiala at the tail-end of their best chunk of the game, and had the Timbers not worked the ball smartly from right to left – and for once – to set up their best chance from open play, I could have started watching that game around the 85th minute and walked away without feeling I'd wasted 85 minutes of my life.
MLS Week 24 featured all kinds of good, compelling games, many of them with scores ending in results positively begging for a longer look. This was not one of them.
On a weekend when chaos reigned, the Portland Timbers served up another plate of the same-ol’-shit, a ho-hum motherfucker of a 1-1 draw at home against a team that, say it with me, “is above them in the standings, but not playing their best at the moment.” I’m at the point where the words “unbeaten run” have become a triggering event. If you want to find something to feel good about in this one, you’ll have to sift through a ton of dirt. And archaeology feels like a good metaphor for this one: sometimes you have to look at a potsherd and expand on it to explain a whole goddamn forgotten civilization. Or maybe you just chuck the potsherd and figure it was worth forgetting.
Tthat’s my cue to admit to missing just about everything besides Dallas’ still-later equalizer. As noted in the game thread, I thought Matt Hedges nodded home the equalizer; in reality, it came off Diego Chara’s head, and I can’t think of a louder way to whisper, “maybe you’re cursed” than that. Unlike many a Timber, Chara had a decent night, i.e., leading a defensive line that had, comedic fuck-ups notwithstanding (see Arriola’s two spurned chances), managed Dallas’ feeble attack well enough. I touched on Dallas’ salad days above – the first 20 minutes of the second half, give or take – but, again, it took Portland’s worst moments to give them their good ones.
Going the other way, at least they had them. If you take the chance flagged in the mess of a run-on sentence that started this post and maybe the chance that teed up Portland’s late, yet not late enough penalty kick, the Timbers didn’t do collectively much all night, 16 shots and five shots on goal be damned. The few things that happened for either team came in individual moments – again, see the above run-on sentence. With only a few exceptions – e.g., Santiago “Wee Wrecking Ball” Moreno on the attacking side, Dario “Hack the Bone” Zuparic on the defensive side, a couple bail-outs from Ivacic and Marvin Loria finding the rare openings – everyone in green and flat yellow fell somewhere between good enough (e.g., Bill Tuiloma, David Ayala), undistinguished (e.g., Yimmi Chara) and invisible (e.g., Jaroslaw Niezgoda, but also look at that passing map).
On a night when they really needed to perform, the Timbers didn’t. And that loops back to the unbeaten run. If you look at their recent results one game at a time, not one of them look so bad – i.e., they’ve played one “peer-level” team after another and haven’t given up much; better yet, they’ve thrown in the odd moment of glory (what else do you call a 3-0 win in Seattle?). The Timbers have gone 4-0-6 in their last 10 games and that’s been enough to lift them over the playoff line...where they’ve proceeded to tread water as if they’re waiting on....I don’t know what. And I guess that’s the best words I can find to wrap up this post: I don’t know what [the hell is going on, but it’s getting hard to watch out of anything but loyalty].
MLS Week 24 featured all kinds of good, compelling games, many of them with scores ending in results positively begging for a longer look. This was not one of them.
On a weekend when chaos reigned, the Portland Timbers served up another plate of the same-ol’-shit, a ho-hum motherfucker of a 1-1 draw at home against a team that, say it with me, “is above them in the standings, but not playing their best at the moment.” I’m at the point where the words “unbeaten run” have become a triggering event. If you want to find something to feel good about in this one, you’ll have to sift through a ton of dirt. And archaeology feels like a good metaphor for this one: sometimes you have to look at a potsherd and expand on it to explain a whole goddamn forgotten civilization. Or maybe you just chuck the potsherd and figure it was worth forgetting.
Tthat’s my cue to admit to missing just about everything besides Dallas’ still-later equalizer. As noted in the game thread, I thought Matt Hedges nodded home the equalizer; in reality, it came off Diego Chara’s head, and I can’t think of a louder way to whisper, “maybe you’re cursed” than that. Unlike many a Timber, Chara had a decent night, i.e., leading a defensive line that had, comedic fuck-ups notwithstanding (see Arriola’s two spurned chances), managed Dallas’ feeble attack well enough. I touched on Dallas’ salad days above – the first 20 minutes of the second half, give or take – but, again, it took Portland’s worst moments to give them their good ones.
Going the other way, at least they had them. If you take the chance flagged in the mess of a run-on sentence that started this post and maybe the chance that teed up Portland’s late, yet not late enough penalty kick, the Timbers didn’t do collectively much all night, 16 shots and five shots on goal be damned. The few things that happened for either team came in individual moments – again, see the above run-on sentence. With only a few exceptions – e.g., Santiago “Wee Wrecking Ball” Moreno on the attacking side, Dario “Hack the Bone” Zuparic on the defensive side, a couple bail-outs from Ivacic and Marvin Loria finding the rare openings – everyone in green and flat yellow fell somewhere between good enough (e.g., Bill Tuiloma, David Ayala), undistinguished (e.g., Yimmi Chara) and invisible (e.g., Jaroslaw Niezgoda, but also look at that passing map).
On a night when they really needed to perform, the Timbers didn’t. And that loops back to the unbeaten run. If you look at their recent results one game at a time, not one of them look so bad – i.e., they’ve played one “peer-level” team after another and haven’t given up much; better yet, they’ve thrown in the odd moment of glory (what else do you call a 3-0 win in Seattle?). The Timbers have gone 4-0-6 in their last 10 games and that’s been enough to lift them over the playoff line...where they’ve proceeded to tread water as if they’re waiting on....I don’t know what. And I guess that’s the best words I can find to wrap up this post: I don’t know what [the hell is going on, but it’s getting hard to watch out of anything but loyalty].
 |
| I mean, have they looked into it? |
In closing, the talking points I have.
1) The Attack, and Other Things I Don’t Fully Understand
I’d say Portland pissed away half the game trying to create from the flanks, and I have no idea how a fucking peasant like me has sorted that out before them, but here we are. Going the other way, all I can say is that I, like them (and the coaching staff), see that wide-open player on the flank and that I couldn’t think of a better pass to make in that moment than that one. But then it goes wide, every player in the box abruptly stands transfixed as if seeing something they’ve seen for the first time instead of something they’ve seen dozens of times in 2022 alone...
...and then things suddenly get better in the second half, virtually all of it after Eryk Williamson came on for Ayala, Sebastian Blanco came on for...wait, who is “Neez-GO-da?” (and Zac McGraw came on for Mabiala, aka the 65th minute). The point is, Portland created very few chances all game and, when they did, they 1) didn’t come from crosses (so maybe fucking stop) and 2) did come from Portland running at Dallas’ back-line as opposed to standing within/amongst it.
It sounds so easy when I type it out, but the Timbers coaching staff would have figured it out by now if it was. I neither why or how this team creates chances. At times, it feels as if some cosmic on/off switch governs the whole thing; worse, I'd argue the on/off ratio has hovered perilously close to 50/50 for 3/4 of the season, and that is insufficient for any team with the right ambitions. In so many words, shit is getting real before the Timbers offense.
2) I Don’t Blame the Formation
With allowance for the fact that Dallas falls short of some form of Platonic attacking genius, the Timbers defensive shape mostly worked tonight. I think they protected the heart of the 18 better than they have at times and, assuming this gets the shape of the formation right, I think that set up clogs the channels, forces other teams into crosses (which I don’t think Dallas likes doing) and puts less pressure on the fullbacks.
2a) I’m Also Not Sure It’s Helping
See Talking Point 1, but also this: maybe the concept isn’t as flawed as the starting set. Dairon Asprilla as wing-back can only work if he’s mostly going forward; it barely works for Claudio Bravo and he is a full/wing-back. In other words, I can see a 3-4-2-1 working (or maybe a 3-5-2, but what’s the difference, really?), but the personnel and how they move will go a couple miles to deciding how well.
All in all, I’m willing to call this formation both a work in progress and an improvement on bitching about either or both fullbacks getting burned week after week.
3) Ayala, But Also
I like where he’s going, His passing has improved game by game, both in quality and urgency, and I’m comfortable enough with his defensive reading/work. And yet...should Gio start him over Eryk? Or over Cristhian Paredes? And I haven’t even blasphemed yet (e.g., benching Diego Chara).
4) Yimmi
I get closer to the thought that it’s time to look elsewhere with each passing game. And, as I think I’ve made fairly clear, it’s less him than how Gio uses him....though, in Gio’s defense, he’s a tricky fucking player to place.
I think that’s it. There’s no getting around it: this one was disappointing. Still, for anyone who hasn’t checked in on the punchline: Portland ended the night over the playoff line. Thank you, Sister Mary, may you continue to say grace over this work in progress.
A couple of times last night watching what our defense had left for Ivacic to deal with, it looked like 1999 and the MLS tie-breaker shootout. Both teams watching as it's one on one, baby! Fortunately that plays to Izzy's strength as a reaction keeper. Normal odds would be for Dallas get one goal out of that repeating situation - we were lucky.
ReplyDeleteWas it the tactical plan or did Asprilla constantly lose the footrace to the corner with his defender-and learned nothing from the results? Over and over he'd get no separation in runs down the wing and then would stop, hold the ball and make an innocuous lateral pass. It created no imbalance in the Dallas defense; his defender had totally figured him out.
Speaking of creating imbalances, Dallas sure got Mabiala in some hopeless last-man-back footraces with their forwards. In contrast our forwards seemed to be trying to get off shots among rush hour standees on a commuter bus.