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| Spinderella vibes. |
What in the sweet, sweaty balls of Chubby Checker was that? A 1-2 loss at Providence Park to a team that is both historically and currently bad, obviously, but...well, how the fuck does that happen? Yes, even in a fucking “transition” season.
To recap, the Portland Timbers failed to capitalize on a glorious opening - one carried to potentiality by the divine wind of the gods (or gremlins in the turf tripping the Chicago Fire’s last defender), I might add – due its latest (literal?) record fucking signing losing the ball in his feet at the critical and yet somehow eternal moment (I yelled “Boli! Boli!” to no one in particular for felt like a full minute; in here somewhere, or least it should be), and then the Fire score a soul-stealer of a winner – what? – ten minutes later. To paraphrase a prescient, and now-curs’d man on twitter, “now watch [Kei Kamara] rise like a salmon to score.” And so he did.
Short version, the Chicago Fire (the Fire!) beat the Timbers 2-1 tonight and, to paraphrase a great Dan Savage bit, this is not the match review I wanted to type tonight. Like I say to the dentist every time, let’s get this bullshit over with.
I didn’t see any clear reason why Chicago won tonight. Sure, they started the first half well, and the second, but, as suggested by The Mothership’s xG graph (which is to say I agree with it, and scroll down), no flashing red lights announced either team’s intention to score. Will Robinson was not in danger. My anxiety about the Timbers generally and damnable lolly-gagging bubbled over into the game thread about five minutes after I felt it; the time had come to push the game, push it real good...
...and that’s the story, isn’t it? This current – a word I mean in the hyper-present tense* - simply doesn’t have it in them to push the game, never mind real good (Don’t talk about the win over Seattle...not now). The grasping at straws continues – and full credit to Marvin Loria, a player I pick at every time I mention his name, for finally showing some kind of urgency with his stoppage time shot and forcing a corner kick, but that showed up 20 minutes past too fucking late. Just four, five minutes prior, I watched and wondered when I’d see any Timbers player show for the ball in a way that felt like a demand. I can’t name one player who showed a clear, unflinching willingness to take charge of this game.
To recap, the Portland Timbers failed to capitalize on a glorious opening - one carried to potentiality by the divine wind of the gods (or gremlins in the turf tripping the Chicago Fire’s last defender), I might add – due its latest (literal?) record fucking signing losing the ball in his feet at the critical and yet somehow eternal moment (I yelled “Boli! Boli!” to no one in particular for felt like a full minute; in here somewhere, or least it should be), and then the Fire score a soul-stealer of a winner – what? – ten minutes later. To paraphrase a prescient, and now-curs’d man on twitter, “now watch [Kei Kamara] rise like a salmon to score.” And so he did.
Short version, the Chicago Fire (the Fire!) beat the Timbers 2-1 tonight and, to paraphrase a great Dan Savage bit, this is not the match review I wanted to type tonight. Like I say to the dentist every time, let’s get this bullshit over with.
I didn’t see any clear reason why Chicago won tonight. Sure, they started the first half well, and the second, but, as suggested by The Mothership’s xG graph (which is to say I agree with it, and scroll down), no flashing red lights announced either team’s intention to score. Will Robinson was not in danger. My anxiety about the Timbers generally and damnable lolly-gagging bubbled over into the game thread about five minutes after I felt it; the time had come to push the game, push it real good...
...and that’s the story, isn’t it? This current – a word I mean in the hyper-present tense* - simply doesn’t have it in them to push the game, never mind real good (Don’t talk about the win over Seattle...not now). The grasping at straws continues – and full credit to Marvin Loria, a player I pick at every time I mention his name, for finally showing some kind of urgency with his stoppage time shot and forcing a corner kick, but that showed up 20 minutes past too fucking late. Just four, five minutes prior, I watched and wondered when I’d see any Timbers player show for the ball in a way that felt like a demand. I can’t name one player who showed a clear, unflinching willingness to take charge of this game.
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| Tied up, man. Have you seen this sunset? |
As much as Chicago had a solid period of going up Portland’s left in the minutes before Kamara scored his winner, I can’t say they had one either. The Fire have good pieces – no, seriously – and, one of them, Brian Gutierrez (i.e., one of the many young players sprinkled around MLS that make me jealous), made the most out of the four or five moments he got all night. Santiago Moreno did that for the Timbers, in the first half anyway, but, much like Chicago, Portland rarely created sustained pressure, the kind that makes a defense unravel, the juice that bumps an attack to a higher, more effective plane. Teams like these can only make moments; it’s in the players’ hands from there. And maybe God’s....but, c’mon, on a Wednesday? And for this Portland team?
The night didn’t start well for the Timbers, of course; worse, the brain farts that led to Chicago’s first goal popped up over and over, kind of like the hiccups. Jairo Torres (a player I do not know) got two squeaky clean looks at David Bingham’s goal – one of them essentially a one-v-one and both fullbacks left game-breaking spaces open behind them. Diego Chara and Cristhian Paredes never got hold of the midfield, Evander couldn’t translate his forever languid style into (many? enough?) useful moments, and Dairon Asprilla...the man’s got enough funk to form a side project right now. Moreno had his best night in a while and Franck Boli continues to make me want to see more (also, nicely taken goal, sir!), but even they seemed to give up after too much too little from everyone behind them – with the exception of Bingham and, arguably (for me), the center backs....no, I’ll get to it (see Talking Point No. 2).
I have nothing to add to the narrative that I didn’t already cover between the above and the game thread. Plus, it’s a fucking Wednesday. So, let’s move on to...
Talking Points
1) This Says More About Portland
I’ll be officially stunned if the Fire make the playoffs. Like stunned, stunned. Very much related, Portland played to where they ended up tonight- below the playoff line. Worse, they look set to stay there. Shit...hold on...
* To pick up the asterisk above, I do believe...despite all the evidence, that this – yes, this – Timbers team can improve. Failing that, it can’t get worse. No, that one I really mean.
2) No, I Don’t Blame the CBs
The Timbers basically had no shape on Chicago’s first goal – i.e., no, I have no damn idea what Dario Zuparic was doing/thinking, but I also don’t think he should have been over there, the midfield played too high, Paredes lost Gutierrez over his shoulder, i.e., it took a fucking village – and Zac McGraw cut out all kinds of shit all game long to make up for his failure to step back to cover Kamara on the winner. The game-wide problem was Chicago finding the kinds of spots a good defense doesn’t give up – and most of those had their origin stories higher up the field.
3) Stepping on a Dream
After watching him visibly struggle over the past 10 games, it was great to see Moreno play an influential game. He didn’t carry in wire-to-wire, but a sharper, more confident Moreno will help open up Portland’s soccer sinuses. Which makes it more of a shame that he didn’t get mo/better support from, among other players....
4) Evander, Dammit.
He, like the better players on the field tonight, had his moments. I’m done kicking him for that boner of a counter (I miss that word, “boner”), but I’m starting to think he’ll burn some time before he fully unlocks. I can’t say I’ve gotten a crystal-clear view of his upside, as yet, but, based on what I’ve seen from his solo skills, it will involve a team effort – i.e., other players reading and benefitting from his cues. Bluntly, the man has no in-space, 1-v-1 skillz to speak of.
5) No Bravo for Bravo
I give Bravo the benefit of the doubt for a lot of reasons, not least of them the fact he’s a known quantity. The didn’t bring his upsides tonight. Bad decisions, stupid tackles; overall, the night you hope he makes us forgiving types forget.
6) Closing Happy
Bingham has played really, really well while Ivacic has been out. There is no downside to this detail.
That’s it for this one. Can’t say I’m hopeful that Portland will do better against a New York City FC team that, historically, has been stubborn. It’s possible history has taken a hiatus, thankfully...
The night didn’t start well for the Timbers, of course; worse, the brain farts that led to Chicago’s first goal popped up over and over, kind of like the hiccups. Jairo Torres (a player I do not know) got two squeaky clean looks at David Bingham’s goal – one of them essentially a one-v-one and both fullbacks left game-breaking spaces open behind them. Diego Chara and Cristhian Paredes never got hold of the midfield, Evander couldn’t translate his forever languid style into (many? enough?) useful moments, and Dairon Asprilla...the man’s got enough funk to form a side project right now. Moreno had his best night in a while and Franck Boli continues to make me want to see more (also, nicely taken goal, sir!), but even they seemed to give up after too much too little from everyone behind them – with the exception of Bingham and, arguably (for me), the center backs....no, I’ll get to it (see Talking Point No. 2).
I have nothing to add to the narrative that I didn’t already cover between the above and the game thread. Plus, it’s a fucking Wednesday. So, let’s move on to...
Talking Points
1) This Says More About Portland
I’ll be officially stunned if the Fire make the playoffs. Like stunned, stunned. Very much related, Portland played to where they ended up tonight- below the playoff line. Worse, they look set to stay there. Shit...hold on...
* To pick up the asterisk above, I do believe...despite all the evidence, that this – yes, this – Timbers team can improve. Failing that, it can’t get worse. No, that one I really mean.
2) No, I Don’t Blame the CBs
The Timbers basically had no shape on Chicago’s first goal – i.e., no, I have no damn idea what Dario Zuparic was doing/thinking, but I also don’t think he should have been over there, the midfield played too high, Paredes lost Gutierrez over his shoulder, i.e., it took a fucking village – and Zac McGraw cut out all kinds of shit all game long to make up for his failure to step back to cover Kamara on the winner. The game-wide problem was Chicago finding the kinds of spots a good defense doesn’t give up – and most of those had their origin stories higher up the field.
3) Stepping on a Dream
After watching him visibly struggle over the past 10 games, it was great to see Moreno play an influential game. He didn’t carry in wire-to-wire, but a sharper, more confident Moreno will help open up Portland’s soccer sinuses. Which makes it more of a shame that he didn’t get mo/better support from, among other players....
4) Evander, Dammit.
He, like the better players on the field tonight, had his moments. I’m done kicking him for that boner of a counter (I miss that word, “boner”), but I’m starting to think he’ll burn some time before he fully unlocks. I can’t say I’ve gotten a crystal-clear view of his upside, as yet, but, based on what I’ve seen from his solo skills, it will involve a team effort – i.e., other players reading and benefitting from his cues. Bluntly, the man has no in-space, 1-v-1 skillz to speak of.
5) No Bravo for Bravo
I give Bravo the benefit of the doubt for a lot of reasons, not least of them the fact he’s a known quantity. The didn’t bring his upsides tonight. Bad decisions, stupid tackles; overall, the night you hope he makes us forgiving types forget.
6) Closing Happy
Bingham has played really, really well while Ivacic has been out. There is no downside to this detail.
That’s it for this one. Can’t say I’m hopeful that Portland will do better against a New York City FC team that, historically, has been stubborn. It’s possible history has taken a hiatus, thankfully...
Better's superstitution: I feared we'd struggle when I saw that we'd be attacking the south goal for the second half. My feeling-based theory is that the Timbers win a lot more when the game's second half has the Army willing the shots into the net below them. Some stat dude needs to look into this and debunk me.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether Gio allowing Evander to roam wherever his heart takes him is a net negative. His teammates see that he always wants the ball, so they defer to whatever he has in mind. And that usually is taking a shot at goal, invariably off-target. If he were a high-percentage finisher, that would be one thing. That said, this isn't the secret key to a winning season - unfortunately.
The first paragraph's funny because I thought the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAs for the second, a growing part of me wonders (and worries) that Gio's attacking third tactics may start and end with something like Klinsmann's vague encouragement to players to "express themselves." And if he applies that to Evander and all over the field...
My thoughts about Evander were prompted by watching some postgame footage and, at one point, seeing Evander playing behind Miller as the last man back(!) on our right flank. While I do believe in 'total football' and interchangeability wherever needed, I don't believe that anyone imagines Miller muscling his way up to the striker position. So it's really 'total Evander' on this team.
ReplyDeleteYour take on Gio's philosophy is accurate. And the problem is that we have a team of mostly very average players who are best at doing one narrow task, not 'expressing themselves'.