To start with a personal note, I watched the Portland Timbers loin-stirring win over Columbus Crew SC from an angle I’d call “a coach’s view.” Seats for the game fell into my lap and planted me six rows up from the field around the top of one of the 18s, not great for a full-field view, but it did get me up close and rather intimate with everything that went up the Timbers’ right in the first half and everything that came down their left in the second. Just different, basically, and oddly refreshing.
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To stick with the theme, what a way to commemorate the celebration of a Timbers legend. I’m guessing someone made the “let’s sign Diego Valeri to a one-day contract every week” joke for the first time around the 30th minute. It had legs up to the 65th minute – i.e., when Columbus’ Lucas Zelarayan scored a second rather beautiful goal – but Timbers fans couldn't burn more than 15 minutes trying to repurpose the original joke as gallows humor before Sebastian Blanco answered the tense and expectant calls raining down from the stands to just shoot the fucking ball...
...and, to close out the opening section, I was close enough to feel Yimmi Chara’s crippling indecision in the eternal seconds before Blanco slammed home the game-winner - which, like the first, punched into the side netting of Columbus' goal. The game ended 3-2, the Timbers hit the Leagues Cup break with a fresh reminder that they can, in fact, play this game and a stadium-sized crowd went home grinning and stoned on a massive hit of Member Berries. Once were kings, etc.
I didn’t commit the thought to any public place, but I went into yesterday’s game convinced the Timbers had to score the first goal to get even one point. That came partly from instinct and partly from a belief that they couldn’t afford to fall behind in a drag race against this Crew team, but I didn’t appreciate how right that was until I checked into it this morning. Portland scored first in five of their six wins in 2023 (the outlier? the win over Seattle) and, fun fact, have a 5-2-2 record across those games. It’s as if they need that blessed margin of error to keep the game and their shit together, a 100-yard head-start on the metaphorical quarter mile.
Portland scored the opener, of course, and on a bit of a bumble from Crew SC (rookie) ‘keeper, Patrick Schulte (who has been good, fwiw) and, golly, how good did it feel to see the bug bite another defense? I didn’t see it coming, not watching live and just now as I’m reviewing chunks of the tape (if you watch Schulte after that goal, you’ll see him get started on his time with the same), but the one thing I absolutely, positively did not see coming was Columbus letting the game slip away. Portland’s second came from even deeper within nowhere – in this case, Franck Boli raising his boot to poke the ball past an over-committed Columbus defender right around the center-stripe – but Dairon Asprilla finished the resultant breakaway as coolly as he finished his first a mere two minutes later. That could have been that, but it was also always destined not to be.
The game settled into the same pattern on either side of those two boners (and I hereby pledge to use the word “boner” at every opportunity going forward), with Columbus pressing and probing the Timbers’...let’s go with serviceable defense. They’d been doing it over the ten minutes before Portland’s opener and they went right back to it from the depths of that two-goal hole (band name?). And yet things still felt fairly controlled from Portland's side. Columbus had a lot of the ball, per the box score, but I’m going to direct reader’s attention to a second number on the same page, one that speaks to a larger truth about the game and what we all witnessed – i.e., David Bingham’s two lonely saves. It wasn’t all aimless possession for Crew SC, but it still didn’t translate into many clean looks, never mind a shooting gallery.
That broad, shallow sensation probably speaks to why Columbus’ first goal – and, for me, the Goal of the Week – read as nothing more than a Herculean work of beauty by Zelarayan, aka, the next chapter on the ever-expanding classic book I Don’t Understand How xG Works, Not Really (seriously, the little xG graph pops up about 0.8, but there was nothing inevitable about the goal from start to finish). If that’s what it would take for Columbus to score a goal tonight, I thought, I like Portland’s chances...
...so what could they do but equalize?
The Timbers had reloaded just moments before that, pulling first-half heroes Asprilla and Boli....and Marvin Loria and replacing them with Blanco, Felipe Mora and Yimmi Chara. That read as Gio Savarese looking to pad Portland’s lead, even if the mission changed almost immediately to regaining it.
I just re-watched the 10-minute stretch before Blanco’s winner, I see that some of the above needs a rewrite – specifically, the impression that Columbus paced the game. Like more than a few fans, I watch most games in a state of mild agitation, a persistent low-simmer expectation that the other shoe will drop at any and every moment. That very much applied to yesterday’s second half, when I spent as much time watching the clock count upward (and trying to make it speed up with the power of my mind) as I spent watching what happened on the field. And, when I got up this morning, wiped the sleep and stray detritus from my eyes and opened up the box score, it largely confirmed both that impression and what I wrote above about Columbus pressing and probing. Throw in details like the total number of shots, the final tally on the xG chart and the path of its rise, and that felt like the story for this one...
...and, to close out the opening section, I was close enough to feel Yimmi Chara’s crippling indecision in the eternal seconds before Blanco slammed home the game-winner - which, like the first, punched into the side netting of Columbus' goal. The game ended 3-2, the Timbers hit the Leagues Cup break with a fresh reminder that they can, in fact, play this game and a stadium-sized crowd went home grinning and stoned on a massive hit of Member Berries. Once were kings, etc.
I didn’t commit the thought to any public place, but I went into yesterday’s game convinced the Timbers had to score the first goal to get even one point. That came partly from instinct and partly from a belief that they couldn’t afford to fall behind in a drag race against this Crew team, but I didn’t appreciate how right that was until I checked into it this morning. Portland scored first in five of their six wins in 2023 (the outlier? the win over Seattle) and, fun fact, have a 5-2-2 record across those games. It’s as if they need that blessed margin of error to keep the game and their shit together, a 100-yard head-start on the metaphorical quarter mile.
Portland scored the opener, of course, and on a bit of a bumble from Crew SC (rookie) ‘keeper, Patrick Schulte (who has been good, fwiw) and, golly, how good did it feel to see the bug bite another defense? I didn’t see it coming, not watching live and just now as I’m reviewing chunks of the tape (if you watch Schulte after that goal, you’ll see him get started on his time with the same), but the one thing I absolutely, positively did not see coming was Columbus letting the game slip away. Portland’s second came from even deeper within nowhere – in this case, Franck Boli raising his boot to poke the ball past an over-committed Columbus defender right around the center-stripe – but Dairon Asprilla finished the resultant breakaway as coolly as he finished his first a mere two minutes later. That could have been that, but it was also always destined not to be.
The game settled into the same pattern on either side of those two boners (and I hereby pledge to use the word “boner” at every opportunity going forward), with Columbus pressing and probing the Timbers’...let’s go with serviceable defense. They’d been doing it over the ten minutes before Portland’s opener and they went right back to it from the depths of that two-goal hole (band name?). And yet things still felt fairly controlled from Portland's side. Columbus had a lot of the ball, per the box score, but I’m going to direct reader’s attention to a second number on the same page, one that speaks to a larger truth about the game and what we all witnessed – i.e., David Bingham’s two lonely saves. It wasn’t all aimless possession for Crew SC, but it still didn’t translate into many clean looks, never mind a shooting gallery.
That broad, shallow sensation probably speaks to why Columbus’ first goal – and, for me, the Goal of the Week – read as nothing more than a Herculean work of beauty by Zelarayan, aka, the next chapter on the ever-expanding classic book I Don’t Understand How xG Works, Not Really (seriously, the little xG graph pops up about 0.8, but there was nothing inevitable about the goal from start to finish). If that’s what it would take for Columbus to score a goal tonight, I thought, I like Portland’s chances...
...so what could they do but equalize?
The Timbers had reloaded just moments before that, pulling first-half heroes Asprilla and Boli....and Marvin Loria and replacing them with Blanco, Felipe Mora and Yimmi Chara. That read as Gio Savarese looking to pad Portland’s lead, even if the mission changed almost immediately to regaining it.
I just re-watched the 10-minute stretch before Blanco’s winner, I see that some of the above needs a rewrite – specifically, the impression that Columbus paced the game. Like more than a few fans, I watch most games in a state of mild agitation, a persistent low-simmer expectation that the other shoe will drop at any and every moment. That very much applied to yesterday’s second half, when I spent as much time watching the clock count upward (and trying to make it speed up with the power of my mind) as I spent watching what happened on the field. And, when I got up this morning, wiped the sleep and stray detritus from my eyes and opened up the box score, it largely confirmed both that impression and what I wrote above about Columbus pressing and probing. Throw in details like the total number of shots, the final tally on the xG chart and the path of its rise, and that felt like the story for this one...
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...only it wasn’t. I can only explain Zelarayan goosing Columbus’ xG by 0.8 by going beast-mode while Yimmi Chara gets maybe 0.005 boost for his wide-open header at the back post, which pinged off the crossbar by saying, “yeah, okay, it’s Yimmi.” And yet all the frenetic activity of those 10 minutes had slipped from my memory between last night and this morning – e.g., I totally forgot Yimmi hit the damn crossbar. I might have been talking, true, and I was definitely drinking, and I left the stadium with the overall impression and gentle post-game glow of a Timbers game gone well...but they did better than I remembered. That begs the obvious question: how do the Timbers pick up where they left off when they come back from the Leagues Cup break? Or, hell, why not start doing...that during the Leagues Cup? Why wait?
No Timbers fan needs me to remind them how frustrating, how...just plain bad things have been with this team all season. All it takes to piece that together is a glance at the present standings and some quick, dispiriting math. And yet it’s still there for the taking, and not hanging all that high up. Only three points and as many teams stand between the Timbers and the playoff line; moreover, not one of those three teams – e.g., Sporting Kansas City, Minnesota United FC and Houston Dynamo FC - won yesterday and all three either have been, or (in Houston’s case) has become as erratic and ineffectual as Portland. Hell, even Dallas has started to sputter loud enough for the scavengers’ ears to prick up, but even that begs a question.
Even after a season that just about every fan would prefer to forget, the Timbers could very well galumph their way into the 2023 post-season...but would that feel like success? What it even feel good? Good enough? Beats a kick in the head, I suppose, but I hope to see the Timbers aim a little higher. They’ve managed the odd good performance this season – e.g., wins over St. Louis, the Vancouver Whitecaps and, of course, last night. In the context of a 2023 Western Conference that no one’s really running away with, a little momentum could very well travel longer than in seasons past. If they can get those good performances a little closer together....who knows?
Right. That’s it. Just two more things to pass on.
I haven’t given much thought (read: any thought) to how I want to follow the Leagues Cup. My best guess is it’ll be more of the same, but I’ve got a week think it over, plus an All-Star Game to ignore, so I’ll see what I can come up with.
Second, no, I didn’t really get into the whole Diego Valeri celebration in the above and, don’t get me wrong, it was a nice evening – and, yes, there was a little mist in my eyes. I didn’t realize that El Maestro dropped into the broadcast booth last night and hearing him talk about how he had no idea what to say when he gave his speech at halftime might be my favorite thing about the whole night (about the 70th minute of the replay if you wanna listen). But all that stuff...it’s just not my bag. Valeri was an amazing player, easily and by the numbers one of the best in MLS history, and it was an honor to watch, wonder and cheer through all his years with Portland, but all that’s in my rearview. The “happy fan” thing isn’t natural to me. I’m more of the eternally disappointed asshole father type of fan.
Okay, that’s really it. Till the next one..
No Timbers fan needs me to remind them how frustrating, how...just plain bad things have been with this team all season. All it takes to piece that together is a glance at the present standings and some quick, dispiriting math. And yet it’s still there for the taking, and not hanging all that high up. Only three points and as many teams stand between the Timbers and the playoff line; moreover, not one of those three teams – e.g., Sporting Kansas City, Minnesota United FC and Houston Dynamo FC - won yesterday and all three either have been, or (in Houston’s case) has become as erratic and ineffectual as Portland. Hell, even Dallas has started to sputter loud enough for the scavengers’ ears to prick up, but even that begs a question.
Even after a season that just about every fan would prefer to forget, the Timbers could very well galumph their way into the 2023 post-season...but would that feel like success? What it even feel good? Good enough? Beats a kick in the head, I suppose, but I hope to see the Timbers aim a little higher. They’ve managed the odd good performance this season – e.g., wins over St. Louis, the Vancouver Whitecaps and, of course, last night. In the context of a 2023 Western Conference that no one’s really running away with, a little momentum could very well travel longer than in seasons past. If they can get those good performances a little closer together....who knows?
Right. That’s it. Just two more things to pass on.
I haven’t given much thought (read: any thought) to how I want to follow the Leagues Cup. My best guess is it’ll be more of the same, but I’ve got a week think it over, plus an All-Star Game to ignore, so I’ll see what I can come up with.
Second, no, I didn’t really get into the whole Diego Valeri celebration in the above and, don’t get me wrong, it was a nice evening – and, yes, there was a little mist in my eyes. I didn’t realize that El Maestro dropped into the broadcast booth last night and hearing him talk about how he had no idea what to say when he gave his speech at halftime might be my favorite thing about the whole night (about the 70th minute of the replay if you wanna listen). But all that stuff...it’s just not my bag. Valeri was an amazing player, easily and by the numbers one of the best in MLS history, and it was an honor to watch, wonder and cheer through all his years with Portland, but all that’s in my rearview. The “happy fan” thing isn’t natural to me. I’m more of the eternally disappointed asshole father type of fan.
Okay, that’s really it. Till the next one..
I'm not a regular traveler, so my absence from town and the Timbers showing up for a home match may not be duplicated. But for Diego's sake, the team didn't sour his special night.
ReplyDeleteReflecting on Valeri's time in Portland, how lucky were we to get such a good player with the skills the team needed and used for years? Maybe no one else has been a player with great potential who came in; was as good as we hoped; came back from a serious ACL tear, and was crucial to our one Championship.
There have been (and are) other crowd-pleaser players on the roster over the years, but almost all had an on, or off-field drawback where part of our fan base could have legitimate reservations about their worth. From Nagbe to Tuiloma, all have had sharp critics as well as fan boys. Much less so with Diego V.