 |
| Feelin' it. (With due and necessary innocence.) |
The Portland Timbers started yesterday’s Leagues Cup Round of 32 game in a defensive posture so deep and passive that I worried Gio Savarese had them out with specific and deliberate orders to defend first, second, and third, so long as the situation demanded it. When Monterrey commenced to camp in Portland’s half over the first five minutes of the game...well, I’ll speak for myself here, but I was already writing the first couple sentences of this post, nearly all of which centered on how I made peace with an 0-3 loss.
When the final whistle blew, Portland had conceded just one goal – one that, to continue the record from the alternative universe of doom and sadness, followed from a cascade of errors, many from the unlikeliest of suspects (e.g., and in order, Zac McGraw, Diego Chara and Claudio Bravo) – and they came within one late, great chance by Dario Zuparic of sending the game to penalty kicks (see the official highlights, surely). That wasn’t to be, sadly and dammit, because the Portland Timbers lost the game 0-1 to (from what I gather) Mexican titans, Monterrey.
That’s not what the post is about. It’s about how the game we all actually watched started about 14 minutes in.
After surviving those opening five minutes, the Timbers played straight to Monterrey’s end the first time they got on the ball. Franck Boli, in particular, became a channel-running pest: on two occasions between the 10th and 15th minutes, he received the ball and, after flummoxing a defender or two with as many cuts and feints, he fired shots that sailed just wide of Monterrey’s goal. His second shot rolled close enough to the right post for them to decide they couldn’t risk him firing a third, so a couple Monterrey defenders chopped him down before he could fire it. The entire stadium wailed for a foul (rightly so), but none was given (Leagues Cup, man; different set of rules) and Monterrey, now on the ball, launched a counter up their right.
Monterrey’s man – was it Maximiliano Meza or Stefan Medina? – almost reached the halfway line before Diego Chara 1) reclaimed the ball and clattered him clean to Providence Park’s (possibly cancerous) turf, and 2) signaled with the volume of a siren and the brightness of 100 flares fired simultaneously that Portland came to play yesterday, and with a very real amount of belief.
Some goals come against the run of play; what the Timbers have done over the past month – and in the Leagues Cup, specifically – has come against the weight of the season that came before it. Anyone who consumes independent media has either heard or seen Timbers fans talk about 2023 as an expendable season, a dead year before a wholly necessary rebuild. Those same fans have endured entire months where it looked like Portland wouldn’t score a goal for a whole goddamn year, games where the defense would smash a pie in its own face right before its pants fell down, the ball went into the net and hilarity ensued. I have personally seen games where I would call any man who dared to say the Timbers had completed 70% of their attempted passes a damned liar or a piteous fool and, in the event the Leagues Cup has ret-conned your sensibilities, Portland remains three points and as many places below the playoff line and in a Western Conference seemingly and irrevocably committed to global self-sabotage. So, no, things have not been good....
...and yet they really do feel different lately.
Between performance and actual results, the run that started with the 3-2 home win over Columbus Crew SC carried through a confident win over the San Jose Earthquakes in the Leagues Cup opener and into two consecutive, yet close losses to Liga MX powers Tigres UANL and Monterrey. Portland either was or became the better team in the wins over the two MLS teams and they played both Mexican teams to different versions of a stand-still before...well, admittedly, giving up the back-breaking goal. In their defense, the Timbers had...let’s call it a personnel issue in the two losses – i.e., the absence of Evander, first by a red card and the physical subtraction of their (alleged? theoretical?) star player, then by his absence through suspension. Measure that specific obstacle in whatever way your spirit animal moves you, but the Timbers were only out of the Tigres game after the second goal and, whether they lost by one goal or two (Meza was so fucking close off the post; again, see the highlights presumably; one never knows what they don't get in), Portland had Monterrey – again, that’s Monterrey – defending for their lives down the stretch. I already flagged Zuparic forcing a great, late save out of Monterrey ‘keeper Estaban Andrada, but Jaroslaw Niezgoda not only had a decent active game, he also forced another save off Andrada, Felipe Mora almost pulled off a point-blank bike off a Dairon Asprilla header from the back-post, and the Sebastian Blanco I know and love would never have skied the late, gilded chance the team fought to create for him over the crossbar....which brings me back to the other side of this game and why Blanco feels like the right mnemonic for today’s loss.
As I’ve said many times this season, I’m at peace with Portland’s defense. Take that less to mean that I’m not excited to see what they can get out of Miguel Araujo than to say that Zuparic and Zac McGraw continue to justify the faith I put in them. Moreover, even if it wasn’t always easy or pretty, the Timbers defense, as a whole, got a body in the way of most of what Monterrey wanted to do. It’s not perfect – personally, I faulted Claudio Bravo for leaving the weak side catastrophically open on both Meza’s game-winning goal and his near-goal (again, see highlights) – but the mentality in the defense is golden – i.e., you can feel their desire to keep clean sheets through the screen...
When the final whistle blew, Portland had conceded just one goal – one that, to continue the record from the alternative universe of doom and sadness, followed from a cascade of errors, many from the unlikeliest of suspects (e.g., and in order, Zac McGraw, Diego Chara and Claudio Bravo) – and they came within one late, great chance by Dario Zuparic of sending the game to penalty kicks (see the official highlights, surely). That wasn’t to be, sadly and dammit, because the Portland Timbers lost the game 0-1 to (from what I gather) Mexican titans, Monterrey.
That’s not what the post is about. It’s about how the game we all actually watched started about 14 minutes in.
After surviving those opening five minutes, the Timbers played straight to Monterrey’s end the first time they got on the ball. Franck Boli, in particular, became a channel-running pest: on two occasions between the 10th and 15th minutes, he received the ball and, after flummoxing a defender or two with as many cuts and feints, he fired shots that sailed just wide of Monterrey’s goal. His second shot rolled close enough to the right post for them to decide they couldn’t risk him firing a third, so a couple Monterrey defenders chopped him down before he could fire it. The entire stadium wailed for a foul (rightly so), but none was given (Leagues Cup, man; different set of rules) and Monterrey, now on the ball, launched a counter up their right.
Monterrey’s man – was it Maximiliano Meza or Stefan Medina? – almost reached the halfway line before Diego Chara 1) reclaimed the ball and clattered him clean to Providence Park’s (possibly cancerous) turf, and 2) signaled with the volume of a siren and the brightness of 100 flares fired simultaneously that Portland came to play yesterday, and with a very real amount of belief.
Some goals come against the run of play; what the Timbers have done over the past month – and in the Leagues Cup, specifically – has come against the weight of the season that came before it. Anyone who consumes independent media has either heard or seen Timbers fans talk about 2023 as an expendable season, a dead year before a wholly necessary rebuild. Those same fans have endured entire months where it looked like Portland wouldn’t score a goal for a whole goddamn year, games where the defense would smash a pie in its own face right before its pants fell down, the ball went into the net and hilarity ensued. I have personally seen games where I would call any man who dared to say the Timbers had completed 70% of their attempted passes a damned liar or a piteous fool and, in the event the Leagues Cup has ret-conned your sensibilities, Portland remains three points and as many places below the playoff line and in a Western Conference seemingly and irrevocably committed to global self-sabotage. So, no, things have not been good....
...and yet they really do feel different lately.
Between performance and actual results, the run that started with the 3-2 home win over Columbus Crew SC carried through a confident win over the San Jose Earthquakes in the Leagues Cup opener and into two consecutive, yet close losses to Liga MX powers Tigres UANL and Monterrey. Portland either was or became the better team in the wins over the two MLS teams and they played both Mexican teams to different versions of a stand-still before...well, admittedly, giving up the back-breaking goal. In their defense, the Timbers had...let’s call it a personnel issue in the two losses – i.e., the absence of Evander, first by a red card and the physical subtraction of their (alleged? theoretical?) star player, then by his absence through suspension. Measure that specific obstacle in whatever way your spirit animal moves you, but the Timbers were only out of the Tigres game after the second goal and, whether they lost by one goal or two (Meza was so fucking close off the post; again, see the highlights presumably; one never knows what they don't get in), Portland had Monterrey – again, that’s Monterrey – defending for their lives down the stretch. I already flagged Zuparic forcing a great, late save out of Monterrey ‘keeper Estaban Andrada, but Jaroslaw Niezgoda not only had a decent active game, he also forced another save off Andrada, Felipe Mora almost pulled off a point-blank bike off a Dairon Asprilla header from the back-post, and the Sebastian Blanco I know and love would never have skied the late, gilded chance the team fought to create for him over the crossbar....which brings me back to the other side of this game and why Blanco feels like the right mnemonic for today’s loss.
As I’ve said many times this season, I’m at peace with Portland’s defense. Take that less to mean that I’m not excited to see what they can get out of Miguel Araujo than to say that Zuparic and Zac McGraw continue to justify the faith I put in them. Moreover, even if it wasn’t always easy or pretty, the Timbers defense, as a whole, got a body in the way of most of what Monterrey wanted to do. It’s not perfect – personally, I faulted Claudio Bravo for leaving the weak side catastrophically open on both Meza’s game-winning goal and his near-goal (again, see highlights) – but the mentality in the defense is golden – i.e., you can feel their desire to keep clean sheets through the screen...
 |
| "The Man," from nightmares...so maybe not? |
...by way of contrast, you’ve got the grab-bag of half-chances noted above. Blanco’s miss stands out a particularly egregious failure to execute, but it also underscored the defining issue of Portland’s 2023 season, i.e., the absence of “the guy” who does the winning thing to win. And that’s despite the fact that, for the first time since I can’t remember when, I thought (nearly) every attacking player in the Timbers lineup, whether starter or sub, offered an adequate impression of good tonight. Every player had his moments – Boli creating his own near-misses, Asprilla working the back-post on late set pieces, Juan Davis Mosquera...just all over – and the sum of those moments have steadily created a more effective attack. And yet the Timbers still do not score freely, never mind a lot. If I have a grand question about not just this game, but the recent performances generally...is that about to change?
That’s it for the top-line notes. If you came looking for tactical breakdowns (or, indeed, tactical pants), my apologies, but, because this was a game played against a random team in a brand new tournament, I’m mostly mining it for long-trending positives. And, big picture, I see quite a few: tangible, effective commitment in defense, a midfield that’s really coming together, and on both sides of the ball, and...I think that’s what we’re waiting on Timbers fans. In typical Timbers fashion, it took Gio, et al, a while to get the team playing to a professional level. That’s second gear. The main question now is whether Gio, et al, can find third.
I have two final, semi-stray thoughts. In very particular order:
1) Santiago Moreno
His performance tracked with the trajectory of the game: the Timbers got better when he did (maybe vice versa?). Still, I’m a little fascinated by his apparent role – i.e., he lined up as a shuttler and largely played like one. Related, a word on the guy who played in front of him per the official lineup....
2) Marvin Loria
I crap on Loria more often than I should – for one, you can’t call a guy a bit player and then bloody him as a scapegoat in the next breath – which only makes it more important to acknowledge his better moments. Loria had two virtually back-to-back, stellar/crucial defensive interventions tonight – one mopping up a Monterrey breakaway, the other turning a tackle into a counter from the deep right side – and the fact Loria’s best moments were defensive ones puts a nice bow on the post. Or at least I think so.
The online forums I frequent have been lively with shouts for Portland to sign a new winger. They did that this past week with the signing of Antony (Santos). And that sounds great...until you remember that they also signed Moreno and Loria as wingers and look what they’re actually doing during games.
Well, guess that’s it for 15 days. Talk to y’all on the socials till then, or at least until the rich weirdos burn ‘em down.
That’s it for the top-line notes. If you came looking for tactical breakdowns (or, indeed, tactical pants), my apologies, but, because this was a game played against a random team in a brand new tournament, I’m mostly mining it for long-trending positives. And, big picture, I see quite a few: tangible, effective commitment in defense, a midfield that’s really coming together, and on both sides of the ball, and...I think that’s what we’re waiting on Timbers fans. In typical Timbers fashion, it took Gio, et al, a while to get the team playing to a professional level. That’s second gear. The main question now is whether Gio, et al, can find third.
I have two final, semi-stray thoughts. In very particular order:
1) Santiago Moreno
His performance tracked with the trajectory of the game: the Timbers got better when he did (maybe vice versa?). Still, I’m a little fascinated by his apparent role – i.e., he lined up as a shuttler and largely played like one. Related, a word on the guy who played in front of him per the official lineup....
2) Marvin Loria
I crap on Loria more often than I should – for one, you can’t call a guy a bit player and then bloody him as a scapegoat in the next breath – which only makes it more important to acknowledge his better moments. Loria had two virtually back-to-back, stellar/crucial defensive interventions tonight – one mopping up a Monterrey breakaway, the other turning a tackle into a counter from the deep right side – and the fact Loria’s best moments were defensive ones puts a nice bow on the post. Or at least I think so.
The online forums I frequent have been lively with shouts for Portland to sign a new winger. They did that this past week with the signing of Antony (Santos). And that sounds great...until you remember that they also signed Moreno and Loria as wingers and look what they’re actually doing during games.
Well, guess that’s it for 15 days. Talk to y’all on the socials till then, or at least until the rich weirdos burn ‘em down.
I'm at a place with Moreno where I think of him playing each current Timbers match with his airline carry-on bag in the trunk of his car. Has he made nice with Gio to ease his transfer outa here, or are we not aware of his new commitment to the team?
ReplyDeleteTo be fair to you, Gio often treats Loria as starter material, so we judge him on that basis. And it's pretty obvious that a good match for Loria is where we damn him with faint praise.
With Moreno, Loria, Mosquera and some others, there's no blossoming as a player. An early period with flashes of promise; a sophomore period with puzzling drop-offs and then the final phase of- what you see is what you get. Maybe the raw material was incorrectly chosen, but the nurture part of coaching seems lackng.