Portland Timbers 2-2 Austin FC: A Test of Character (& Budgeting)

The Portland Timbers’ 2-2 home draw versus Austin FC gored at least one theory, but otherwise felt like weights falling on both sides of the scale. To be clear, I hated seeing the damn thing balance as much as any Timbers fan...like I said at the top of last night’s game thread, this was an occasion where the Timbers didn’t want to do anything they wouldn’t later regret. And then they went ahead and started Larrys Mabiala....I kid, I kid.

I’ll get to something like a match report in the next – sorry, no, one two three paragraphs after - paragraph, but I want to linger on Larrys for a bit (note: that’s a good adult film title, right?). For all their faults – and this is literally one of them – the Portland Timbers have brought me to an understanding of the true nature of defending. Those “[___] Days Since our Last Accident/Accidental Decapitation” signs at your local light-industry warehouse offers the perfect metaphor: the whole thing is about avoiding the next mistake for as long as possible, only all while knowing the mistake will come. Typing as someone who got dumped into the defense far more often than made sense (I sucked at defending), I wholly, fully and unashamedly embrace the argument that defenses get faulted for their failure to never fail in a way that the attacking side of any team rarely does...good Lord, these things are getting confessional.

Anyhoo, and to finally get back to Larrys, his game last night had a familiar pattern: he was fine for large stretches of the game – he even cleaned up a mess than Juan David Mosquera handed to him on a steaming, stinking platter – and then, nothing like out of the blue, Austin’s Owen “Coach’s Son” Wolff finds a bunch of space on Portland’s left late in the game (but not for the first time) and curls a cross into the heart of the defense. Now, I want to ask everyone reading this post to stop here and look at the Austin equalizer that yanked two points from the Timbers’ grasping hands. The video geeks did well with it, for what it’s worth, giving you plenty of time to see that Mabiala kept pretty fair track of Austin’s Will Bruin, he knew where he was and all that, only to somehow get separated in the decisive moment. Bruin almost certainly bumped him, but Larrys just played that whole thing wrong – if in a way I visible in 20/20 hindsight. Still, one lapse equals one goal allowed too often to count and the Timbers still lost two points on one brain fart...or two, if you want to count the fact that either Wolff and Ethan Finlay had time to whip in that cross.

Hold on, sorry, a see a couple more organs in the frog to poke at: is it just me or did Diego Chara direct Claudio Bravo inside to cover a player on which Evander already have loose tabs, thereby isolating himself into the Wolff/Finlay double-team? I’m making a couple points here: one, if you spend enough time dissecting a defensive breakdown, you’ll find enough fault to go around; two, I’m tapping the “[___] Days Since our Last Accident/Accidental Decapitation” as I type this, but I’m guessing I put more faith than most in the Timbers defense through the 2023 season and that’s the theory that got gored last night. The attack finally did its thing and paid off the loan on the first goal the Timbers allowed....only to see them do it a second time. Now, to that match report...

The first half opened with both Austin and Portland essentially trading blows, though most of the skirmishing came between the tops of the penalty areas. The Timbers started landing more blows as the half went on – and this was the period that saw Franck Boli at his best (though he faded until Gio Savarese pulled him out of it – but Dario Zuparic’s go-ahead goal didn’t feel like it finished any sentence floated at the game. Congrats to all involved for pulling it together and making it look as obvious as it did, but I was finding my personal hope for better things in Portland’s generally elevated defensive energy. Still, quality goal, what a finish by Zuparic – moreover, what a game by Zuparic, a player I’d write into every starting XI he has the legs to walk onto at this point. Things looked all right for the Timbers when they walked off at the half, even as I heard Emiliano Rigoni’s warning shot whistle past my ear at the 41st minute.

The dream, basically...

The second half opened with some version of the same thing – i.e., a lot of scrapping through the middle and not much in the way of clean looks/chances – and my notes attest to that, as I started writing down thoughts on the players in the Timbers’ starting XI instead of noting this action or that and almost certainly tweeting far, far too much...and then Austin equalized. Again, I’d encourage or otherwise cajole Timbers fans to watch the full highlight of Jon Gallagher’s goal as penance because that game provides video evidence of the way Austin scrambled Portland’s defense in the second half: they pushed players into the gap between a Timbers midfield had opened by pushing too high and what became a back-pedaling defense. Did the Timbers play all that worse than they could have? Based on the way the left side of Portland’s defense became the center and gods know what else all the players in front of them were thinking, sure, it could have gone better.

And yet, again, mistakes happen. The question is always whether your team’s attack can pay off that debt and otherwise keep ahead of the next payment. It’s a test of character, in other words. And, for those reading at home, the disappointment takes its final shape here.

To their very real credit, Portland responded with a goal that punished Austin for a team error no less collectively egregious: in his call from the broadcast booth, Brian Dunseth flagged Alex Ring turning away from the shot, but, had I called the game, I’d spend way more time on the purpose served by the two-three dudes strung out in a pretty pointless line at the back post. Good for Bravo on scoring his first-ever Timbers goal (right?) and all, but Austin’s defense deserves its share of the credit for defending space instead of players. This could have ended 2-1 to the Timbers so very easily. I mean, it’s not like either team really racked up the chances.

I know I let my guard down, and maybe Portland did too. Austin’s equalizer didn’t come until stoppage time, but his subs repaid Josh Wolff’s decision to gamble for the win. Test of character failed, in other words.

All in all, one gets the feeling both teams are exactly where they deserve to be: uncomfortably close to either side of the playoff line and losing touch with the top of the conference table. Austin got the better result, no question, but neither team made an argument for anything better than bare survival, never mind fired a warning shot at the teams above the. Both Portland and Austin have good pieces – and I’ll get into Portland’s one player at a time below – but both also have a certain something holding them back, incomplete rosters very much among them – and that’s not counting the wounded ones. And yet those pieces – i.e., Wolff has impressed every time I’ve watched him, and Rigoni may have finally tied his shoes on right - can keep them competitive, if at a certain level, through the end of the regular season. And, if you can get there, it’s only a question of how close you can get to being your best possible selves from there...

...which feels like a good segue to pulling threads that start as I stare at the Timbers starting XI and think about the game.

The Problem of Portland's Left
Whether by leaving the back door open on one goal and not knowing where the hell to be on the other, neither Bravo nor Marvin Loria covered himself in glory last night, at least not defensively. But, again, and much like Mabiala, they had their moments – specifically, right-place/right-time interventions in the first half, Bravo first, then Loria later, that cut out clear chances. Again, I’d rather see the Timbers play a back three – and hold that thought* – and choose the lesser of two evils between these players when penciling in the Starting XI. Playing both of them, on the other hand, feels like trying to duct tape something together that needs more than polythene, some fabric, rubber-based glue and hope to stay sound. Loria, in particular, seems like he’s played a lot of games (98, in fact) without showing tangible signs of improving. I know Bravo has his critics – and I can’t fault them on the merits of their arguments – but I don’t mind Bravo. So, yeah, that’s my answer: go to a back three, play Bravo as a real-life wingback.

* Where was/is Zac McGraw? He’s kind of the anchor of the whole “back three” theory.

Meanwhile, on the Right...
Unless I missed more than the few forays, Mosquera largely stayed back last night. On the plus side, he helped keep a lid on the stronger side of the Timbers’ defense. On the downside, does anyone else get the feeling that both the coaching staff and Santiago Moreno’s have lost the plot on his most effective role and placement in the team? It’s less that he’s useless out there than he’s noticeably less useful than he used to be.

Cristhian Paredes
I’m just happy to see him out there again – and, for the record, I often spoke of Paredes in the past the same way I speak about Loria now – and either he or the team have given him license to make more plays/runs from deep and I’m all over that. I’m pretty bullish here...

Diego Chara
He was fine, honestly. I fault him for giving the wrong signal on the ultimate equalizer, but he has looked like himself over the past two games, something that means more in my mind.

Update on the $10 Million (Right?) Question
Evander had two moments last night that hiccurped a “holy shit” out of me. The first came in the first half, when he crept up the sideline with his back to the centerfield stripe, felt pressure coming, bodied the challenge and cut the ball inside to the second possible player – and with precision, I might add. Around the 89th minute, and better, he played a pass that could have undone Austin had the Timbers hive-mind seen it coming, one he played out of with two defenders literally nipping at his heels and simpler, safer options directly in his line of sight. Instead, Evander turns and cuts a ball up the sideline to a wide open and fresh Yimmi Chara. Throw in the cross on Portland’s opening goal and an overall solid and generally clean performance on the night, Evander felt closer to finding his place on the field as he has since arrival – i.e., the space between the defense and the thin tissue that constitutes Portland’s forward line, which brings me to...

Franck Boli
I’m going to raise my hand and admit I’m holding onto every promising moment and every flash of invention I see in Boli. He looks like he wants to be here – he slips into frame during both of Portland’s goal celebrations – but...look, if they can just get him to 10-12 goals this season, I think the team will be all right...which, here, means able to make the post-season and maybe the second round.

That’s everything. Till the next one...