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| Seriously, you can put these anywhere.... |
When I was a knock-kneed whisp of a lad, I knocked in an own-goal off some part of my body or the other. I don’t remember which one, honestly, but what I do remember is how hard I strived to make up for that mistake. Played like the future in professional soccer I never even sort of had depended on it, and it went about as well...
It takes work for me to summon sympathy for the Seattle Sounders – and, honestly, I’m not even trying to tonight – but I do think some form of the professional version of the same thing happened to them tonight. To walk through the two crucial moments...
The Portland Timbers attack had stalled somewhere around the top Seattle defensive third somewhere around the 70th minute and the wholly familiar lack of ideas seemed to have reasserted itself in the collective psyche; a promising play that started wide pinched inside and looked doomed for finding a path forward. The Timbers had six or so players clustered between the channels, so I didn’t think anything of it when the ball drifted wide to Santiago Moreno [corrected, ty @ShellWitty!]. When he clipped in a ball that looked like a Hail Mary wrapped inside an Our Father, I thought even less of it....only to see Dairon Asprilla bellow “fuck it!” to the heavens and lash in a collapsible bike for a Timbers equalizer for the literal ages. My God, the legend Asprilla has written into the history books. Maybe he doesn’t get a statue, but maybe build a grotto in his honor with a little fountain that splashes into a reflective pond...
Hold on, I’m not done with this bit yet. That put the game at 1-1 – wait, have I mentioned the game ended 4-1 to the Timbers yet? – but there was more delight and pain to come. Five minutes later, Santiago Moreno got the ball on the right inside Portland’s half and played a looping diagonal into the heart of Seattle’s defensive third. I’d direct any sadists watching that clip to drink in the spread between Seattle two center backs (not usually an issue for them) and the way Moreno’s cross fell into the gap behind the two defensive players further up-field. To be totally fucking clear, that whole goddamn thing does not come off without Fogaca taking a perfect touch; moreover, how many times have you seen him finish that clinically literally ever? Sometimes things happend that are beyond your control...and I've finally forgiven that little whisp of a lad...hold on...off for a good cry...
Once the Sounders went down, everything between rivalry, their elevated place in the standings and professional pride forced them to chase the game. For all that, I didn’t see the Sounders get well and truly ahead of themselves until they got caught with nothing but a retreating back three with more Timbers attackers running at it. When they backed off and backed off and Juan David Mosquera slammed the ball home between their quaking knees for the final insult. Like a roll of quarters inside a velvet glove, that one. Ah. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a win as much as this one.
As the broadcast booth pointed out (Jake Zivin trying to keep a lid on Taylor Twellman tonight, for what it’s worth), Seattle paced and generally controlled most of the close to nothing that came before Portland’s deluge of goals (here’s the third; in case you missed it). They went up 1-0 on a goal that bore an uncomfortable resemblance to one of the three goals they’d scored against St. Louis CITY FC in MLS Week 8 – i.e., the whole rope-a-dope, where they get a team to start chasing, thinking they’ve got a crack at picking an opportunity out of a stalled attack, only to create a transition from a deep pass – and that appeared to be that. Again, no sentient, wholly nonpartisan person had any reason to expect the team that the Portland Timbers have been through all of 2023 to come back from that, never mind rip Seattle four new assholes. And yet that’s what happened.
I’m rarely this kind of guy, but this win will carry me for a long time. Rivalries don’t set me off all that much – i.e., when it comes to Seattle, I resent how little they’ve suffered more than anything else – but this win...my GOD, what are the words for this?
The rest of the league can look at this and think, as national figures like Twellman and Matt Doyle do, “those wacky rivalries.” Personally, I look at this more in the terms of grand narrative and storytelling. Portland has ranked among the worst teams in MLS over the first seven games of the season. I can’t count the number of tweets that spoke to some version of “this feels different” – and, here, “different” meant not just bad but something closer to hopeless. And with all that going on, who comes into town but one of the best teams in the league and their biggest rival to boot?
It takes work for me to summon sympathy for the Seattle Sounders – and, honestly, I’m not even trying to tonight – but I do think some form of the professional version of the same thing happened to them tonight. To walk through the two crucial moments...
The Portland Timbers attack had stalled somewhere around the top Seattle defensive third somewhere around the 70th minute and the wholly familiar lack of ideas seemed to have reasserted itself in the collective psyche; a promising play that started wide pinched inside and looked doomed for finding a path forward. The Timbers had six or so players clustered between the channels, so I didn’t think anything of it when the ball drifted wide to Santiago Moreno [corrected, ty @ShellWitty!]. When he clipped in a ball that looked like a Hail Mary wrapped inside an Our Father, I thought even less of it....only to see Dairon Asprilla bellow “fuck it!” to the heavens and lash in a collapsible bike for a Timbers equalizer for the literal ages. My God, the legend Asprilla has written into the history books. Maybe he doesn’t get a statue, but maybe build a grotto in his honor with a little fountain that splashes into a reflective pond...
Hold on, I’m not done with this bit yet. That put the game at 1-1 – wait, have I mentioned the game ended 4-1 to the Timbers yet? – but there was more delight and pain to come. Five minutes later, Santiago Moreno got the ball on the right inside Portland’s half and played a looping diagonal into the heart of Seattle’s defensive third. I’d direct any sadists watching that clip to drink in the spread between Seattle two center backs (not usually an issue for them) and the way Moreno’s cross fell into the gap behind the two defensive players further up-field. To be totally fucking clear, that whole goddamn thing does not come off without Fogaca taking a perfect touch; moreover, how many times have you seen him finish that clinically literally ever? Sometimes things happend that are beyond your control...and I've finally forgiven that little whisp of a lad...hold on...off for a good cry...
Once the Sounders went down, everything between rivalry, their elevated place in the standings and professional pride forced them to chase the game. For all that, I didn’t see the Sounders get well and truly ahead of themselves until they got caught with nothing but a retreating back three with more Timbers attackers running at it. When they backed off and backed off and Juan David Mosquera slammed the ball home between their quaking knees for the final insult. Like a roll of quarters inside a velvet glove, that one. Ah. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a win as much as this one.
As the broadcast booth pointed out (Jake Zivin trying to keep a lid on Taylor Twellman tonight, for what it’s worth), Seattle paced and generally controlled most of the close to nothing that came before Portland’s deluge of goals (here’s the third; in case you missed it). They went up 1-0 on a goal that bore an uncomfortable resemblance to one of the three goals they’d scored against St. Louis CITY FC in MLS Week 8 – i.e., the whole rope-a-dope, where they get a team to start chasing, thinking they’ve got a crack at picking an opportunity out of a stalled attack, only to create a transition from a deep pass – and that appeared to be that. Again, no sentient, wholly nonpartisan person had any reason to expect the team that the Portland Timbers have been through all of 2023 to come back from that, never mind rip Seattle four new assholes. And yet that’s what happened.
I’m rarely this kind of guy, but this win will carry me for a long time. Rivalries don’t set me off all that much – i.e., when it comes to Seattle, I resent how little they’ve suffered more than anything else – but this win...my GOD, what are the words for this?
The rest of the league can look at this and think, as national figures like Twellman and Matt Doyle do, “those wacky rivalries.” Personally, I look at this more in the terms of grand narrative and storytelling. Portland has ranked among the worst teams in MLS over the first seven games of the season. I can’t count the number of tweets that spoke to some version of “this feels different” – and, here, “different” meant not just bad but something closer to hopeless. And with all that going on, who comes into town but one of the best teams in the league and their biggest rival to boot?
To see every word of that narrative unravel over 20 pants-shitting minutes was like watching a Bond villain come down. It was one of those, this is why people watch sports moments. And the team you watch and cheer on every week pulled it off. Seriously, that could be the last great time my couch gets to see before it gets mulched.
All that said, the Timbers defense made all the above possible – something I can’t stress enough. Highlights and sparkling key moments aside – e.g., Aljaz Ivacic’s save on a deflected shot at the start of the second half, or Claudio Bravo nipping the most dangerous lunge by the Leo Chu/Jordan Morris partnership in the first – that’s the Timbers defense keeping out two highly likely goals over the 70 minutes it took for the Timbers offense to get the choke right on their restart. Fault the Timbers for any collective failing you like, but the fact is they stifled the team that ranked among the best in MLS in 2023. Chu got around and behind Mosquera and Moreno three or four times, but both Zac McGraw or Dario Zuparic made the runs to cover it. Hell, they marked Morris out of the game entirely – a player who has as many goals as the league has had games.
In closing, holy shit, that was a riot. To carry forward a thought I started above, I don’t know whether the Timbers turned over some lucky/magical leaf and, for now, I don’t care, not least because I got a whole goddamn Golden Corral’s worth of satisfaction out of everything. That said, and this goes against all the despair I voiced in the preview...just things generally are better for Portland than they were a month ago. Was it perfect? Jesus, no, see the tweet in my game thread that highlighted Bravo’s paralysis on the ball in the first half. I literally can’t say the Timbers have turned a corner unless I breeze past the half dozen mini-miracles that led to Portland’s first two goals. Love those goals, straight-up embrace them, all while still appreciating that the Timbers have struggled to make four openings that looked that good over the first seven games of 2023. Soak in the moment, daydream even, about feeling like you just stepped onto a bandwagon; I’m just saying don’t expect it last. Not until it makes sense.
That’s it for the top line stuff. To wrap this up with some stray notes on players – the new guys mostly...
Credit to the Broadcast Booth
They share the same thought I have on Evander: he hasn’t found his place on the field yet. It only takes looking at the 4-4-2 in the official lineup to conceptualize that ongoing search...
...so what do the Timbers do with David Ayala? He played some of the best soccer on the field in the opening 20 minutes – e.g., spreading the field with diagonals, plus some nice line-breakers he followed into the attack – and that just makes you wonder more about where Evander fits. Or Ayala for that matter.
Yes, This Is a Real Question
Diego Chara will be gone at some point, even if he wasn’t tonight. In all seriousness, the Timbers’ team defense deserves a log slab for this win as much as any attacking player, but, I still don’t know how, who or with what the Timbers replace him when that happens.
The Shiny New Toy
I like what I see from Evander on the ball. The man clearly has skillz, etc. The broadcast booth created this narrative (and, by all means, agree with it as the spirit moves you) whereby the Timbers improved after Evander came off...and, with the way Moreno tucked inside, maybe that’s not totally off-base. For all that, I do think a fair chunk of this follows from figuring out who/what/where the Timbers have to put in front of Evander for him to be effective. And, pursuant to the above, behind him.
Follow the Bouncing Boli
I like Franck Boli. He’s making sense so far. He has qualities his colleagues do not -and I mean that both globally, and here and there – and that makes me feel like the Timbers may have something if his window keeps widening.
That’s everything. And, good golly, if all my Saturdays were that fun...
All that said, the Timbers defense made all the above possible – something I can’t stress enough. Highlights and sparkling key moments aside – e.g., Aljaz Ivacic’s save on a deflected shot at the start of the second half, or Claudio Bravo nipping the most dangerous lunge by the Leo Chu/Jordan Morris partnership in the first – that’s the Timbers defense keeping out two highly likely goals over the 70 minutes it took for the Timbers offense to get the choke right on their restart. Fault the Timbers for any collective failing you like, but the fact is they stifled the team that ranked among the best in MLS in 2023. Chu got around and behind Mosquera and Moreno three or four times, but both Zac McGraw or Dario Zuparic made the runs to cover it. Hell, they marked Morris out of the game entirely – a player who has as many goals as the league has had games.
In closing, holy shit, that was a riot. To carry forward a thought I started above, I don’t know whether the Timbers turned over some lucky/magical leaf and, for now, I don’t care, not least because I got a whole goddamn Golden Corral’s worth of satisfaction out of everything. That said, and this goes against all the despair I voiced in the preview...just things generally are better for Portland than they were a month ago. Was it perfect? Jesus, no, see the tweet in my game thread that highlighted Bravo’s paralysis on the ball in the first half. I literally can’t say the Timbers have turned a corner unless I breeze past the half dozen mini-miracles that led to Portland’s first two goals. Love those goals, straight-up embrace them, all while still appreciating that the Timbers have struggled to make four openings that looked that good over the first seven games of 2023. Soak in the moment, daydream even, about feeling like you just stepped onto a bandwagon; I’m just saying don’t expect it last. Not until it makes sense.
That’s it for the top line stuff. To wrap this up with some stray notes on players – the new guys mostly...
Credit to the Broadcast Booth
They share the same thought I have on Evander: he hasn’t found his place on the field yet. It only takes looking at the 4-4-2 in the official lineup to conceptualize that ongoing search...
...so what do the Timbers do with David Ayala? He played some of the best soccer on the field in the opening 20 minutes – e.g., spreading the field with diagonals, plus some nice line-breakers he followed into the attack – and that just makes you wonder more about where Evander fits. Or Ayala for that matter.
Yes, This Is a Real Question
Diego Chara will be gone at some point, even if he wasn’t tonight. In all seriousness, the Timbers’ team defense deserves a log slab for this win as much as any attacking player, but, I still don’t know how, who or with what the Timbers replace him when that happens.
The Shiny New Toy
I like what I see from Evander on the ball. The man clearly has skillz, etc. The broadcast booth created this narrative (and, by all means, agree with it as the spirit moves you) whereby the Timbers improved after Evander came off...and, with the way Moreno tucked inside, maybe that’s not totally off-base. For all that, I do think a fair chunk of this follows from figuring out who/what/where the Timbers have to put in front of Evander for him to be effective. And, pursuant to the above, behind him.
Follow the Bouncing Boli
I like Franck Boli. He’s making sense so far. He has qualities his colleagues do not -and I mean that both globally, and here and there – and that makes me feel like the Timbers may have something if his window keeps widening.
That’s everything. And, good golly, if all my Saturdays were that fun...
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