 |
| That really feels more "on." |
God have mercy on my soul, but I went back to see if I could find The One Wrong Thing that led to the Portland Timbers' crushing and potentially fatal 1-4 loss in Canada France to Club de Foot Montreal. I blame Reddit. Reddit is to blame…
Because Bryan Acosta caught so much flaming shit, I made the decision to watch where he was throughout the periods around the four goals Montreal scored last night – which, as careful readers already know, doesn't make a lick of sense because Acosta came off before L’Impact scored goals three and four. Those flies in the ointment aside, I had a theory I wanted to test, specifically, the potentiality that the Timbers defense/midfield failed due to the fact that they manned it with three players – Evander, Santiago Moreno and, yes, lumping Acosta into that bunch – who are, at a minimum, more inclined to think about what’s ahead of them than the flailing, half-panicked defenders behind them.
Before digging into what I saw, I had a lot of arguments from other people in my head before I sat down for the replay – e.g., theories about Montreal overloading the space either Juan David Mosquera or Claudio Bravo left open by pushing both too high and naked (i.e., without cover), gripes about Portland’s failings on transition defense, or something as simple as Larrys Mabiala being to old/slow for the game-plan – and that was on top of the narc-ish craving to blame it all on trying to fit Acosta into a No. 6 shirt that simply doesn’t fit him…
...wouldn’t you know, it was simpler than all that.
To be clear, Acosta does not appear to wear the No. 6 shirt comfortably or well – and do file that away for the future – but he really was in or around the places he should be in the crucial moments. That’s to say, he may not have managed the job well, but his positioning wasn’t the problem. Moreover, 1) that wasn’t the Timbers’ biggest problem, and 2) I’d put good money on Kwadwo Opoku burning 70% of MLS’s d-mids with the turn that created the chaos that led to Montreal’s second goal. And, to circle back to problems, the way Portland’s back three got stranded on that play was their biggest defensive problems yesterday afternoon.
Based on an original that grew more distracted with each goal, plus a second look at the 20th minute to the 35th, then the 60th to the 76th, the (apparent?) misguided attempt to play the game inside Montreal’s half was Portland’s biggest problem. Montreal was able to tee up…shit, maybe as many as a dozen foot-races, starting at the midfield line, between their forward-facing, generally fast attacking players and the Timbers’ retreating and…less-fast back four or, more often, three thanks to one fullback or another being out-of-pocket. Acosta’s defensive failings aside – and he does have them, e.g., a propensity to absent-mindedly cover space instead of smothering a player/outlet – he was nothing more or less than one of four to five dudes trying to patch-up a(nother) Montreal breakthrough. But even that problem had an enabler to supercharge it.
I saw a lot of commentary about the Timbers’ defensive failures. What I have yet to see? Some righteous bitching about how they couldn’t stitch three passes together.
Because Bryan Acosta caught so much flaming shit, I made the decision to watch where he was throughout the periods around the four goals Montreal scored last night – which, as careful readers already know, doesn't make a lick of sense because Acosta came off before L’Impact scored goals three and four. Those flies in the ointment aside, I had a theory I wanted to test, specifically, the potentiality that the Timbers defense/midfield failed due to the fact that they manned it with three players – Evander, Santiago Moreno and, yes, lumping Acosta into that bunch – who are, at a minimum, more inclined to think about what’s ahead of them than the flailing, half-panicked defenders behind them.
Before digging into what I saw, I had a lot of arguments from other people in my head before I sat down for the replay – e.g., theories about Montreal overloading the space either Juan David Mosquera or Claudio Bravo left open by pushing both too high and naked (i.e., without cover), gripes about Portland’s failings on transition defense, or something as simple as Larrys Mabiala being to old/slow for the game-plan – and that was on top of the narc-ish craving to blame it all on trying to fit Acosta into a No. 6 shirt that simply doesn’t fit him…
...wouldn’t you know, it was simpler than all that.
To be clear, Acosta does not appear to wear the No. 6 shirt comfortably or well – and do file that away for the future – but he really was in or around the places he should be in the crucial moments. That’s to say, he may not have managed the job well, but his positioning wasn’t the problem. Moreover, 1) that wasn’t the Timbers’ biggest problem, and 2) I’d put good money on Kwadwo Opoku burning 70% of MLS’s d-mids with the turn that created the chaos that led to Montreal’s second goal. And, to circle back to problems, the way Portland’s back three got stranded on that play was their biggest defensive problems yesterday afternoon.
Based on an original that grew more distracted with each goal, plus a second look at the 20th minute to the 35th, then the 60th to the 76th, the (apparent?) misguided attempt to play the game inside Montreal’s half was Portland’s biggest problem. Montreal was able to tee up…shit, maybe as many as a dozen foot-races, starting at the midfield line, between their forward-facing, generally fast attacking players and the Timbers’ retreating and…less-fast back four or, more often, three thanks to one fullback or another being out-of-pocket. Acosta’s defensive failings aside – and he does have them, e.g., a propensity to absent-mindedly cover space instead of smothering a player/outlet – he was nothing more or less than one of four to five dudes trying to patch-up a(nother) Montreal breakthrough. But even that problem had an enabler to supercharge it.
I saw a lot of commentary about the Timbers’ defensive failures. What I have yet to see? Some righteous bitching about how they couldn’t stitch three passes together.
 |
| Those millions are already in your account! |
To be clear, gambling on this Timbers back-line to manage a high defensive line is on par with banking on future lottery proceeds to anchor your retirement portfolio, but it was their failure playing in the other direction that turned that rainy Montreal evening into a succession of fire drills. Again, and I fully appreciate how this specific phrasing smacks of conspiracism, there is no fucking factual way Portland completed 82.5% of their passes, not with all the mis-hit, over-hit, even misconceived passes they made inside Montreal’s half. A handful of those led to edge-of-everyone’s-seat breaks for the hosts between their first goal and their second, and you’ll hear something about Mosquera giving away the ball to kick off the counter on their third goal. But that’s not the thing that made that one so unnerving: To get to that, count the time that elapses between the time when the ball hits Montreal’s left (so, that’s Portland’s right) to where Mathieu Choniere tees up that goal, and then ask yourself where is Portland’s midfield by the end of that time? Montreal ended that sequence – again, this is in Portland’s half – with six players to five in their favor. That’s something that should never happen….right?
I saw a handful of complaints about Miles Joseph’s tactics and, based on all the above, calling that wrong takes a full tablespoon of chutzpah, at a minimum. That simple, fundamental idea gets to why it both did not and still does not make sense of writing this post – i.e., Portland can minimize all the risks that Montreal exploited by simply not taking them. For instance, maybe don’t commit as many players forward – e.g., maybe cheat Evander and Santiago Moreno one at a time before jumping in two-footed – or direct every single player on the team to sprint backwards as fast as they can once the ball turns over.
None of the suggestions immediately above need to operate as absolutes. Having a couple players stay high to harass the passers as (absolutely) everyone else drops back (as if runnning from a fire and your living mother's ghost!) will make sense in certain games/moments, and I have a headful of happy, aspirational dreams where committing Moreno and Evander to the attack with positively pornographic abandon makes all the sense in the world…
…and yet, games will come where all that makes zero sense. Moreover, who wouldn’t rather see Portland’s future coach make in-game adjustments that reflect the game in front of him or her?
After sitting through more video than any self-respecting human should, I’ve come to see this game less as an anomaly than as a cautionary tale. In the biggest of pictures, I’d call the Portland Timbers an incomplete, unfinished team. To borrow a word I’ve never really liked (mostly because I can’t readily define it), they’ve lost their old identity and have yet to establish a new one.
For what it’s worth, I believe that the primary job of the next head coach – whoever that may be and however they arrive – will come in two parts. The prime directive will involve establishing a functioning, ideally winning identity - also, duh - but that hypothetical head coach will (or should) never land the job until he (or she) proves them capable of making the kinds of adjustments Miles Jospeh should have made last night. And, to lay my cards on the table, I would have set up Portland’s defense to drop deeper, invite Montreal to come forward instead of the other way around (seriously, how often do the Timbers end a game with 57% possession – and why would they do it against Montreal, of all teams?).
That’s all I have for this post, but I do expect to get something up between today and Decision Day 2023, Electric Bugaloo, the Sequel. To voice an(other) opinion, yes, I would prefer the Portland Timbers make the 2023 season, but I say that with a spitting-tacks-mouthful of disdain for MLS’s (eternally) bloated playoff structure and mostly so they can keep in practice, until that glorious day when they’re once again able to make something out of it….because I don’t think this year is it. And I don’t think anyone else does either. Till the next one..
I saw a handful of complaints about Miles Joseph’s tactics and, based on all the above, calling that wrong takes a full tablespoon of chutzpah, at a minimum. That simple, fundamental idea gets to why it both did not and still does not make sense of writing this post – i.e., Portland can minimize all the risks that Montreal exploited by simply not taking them. For instance, maybe don’t commit as many players forward – e.g., maybe cheat Evander and Santiago Moreno one at a time before jumping in two-footed – or direct every single player on the team to sprint backwards as fast as they can once the ball turns over.
None of the suggestions immediately above need to operate as absolutes. Having a couple players stay high to harass the passers as (absolutely) everyone else drops back (as if runnning from a fire and your living mother's ghost!) will make sense in certain games/moments, and I have a headful of happy, aspirational dreams where committing Moreno and Evander to the attack with positively pornographic abandon makes all the sense in the world…
…and yet, games will come where all that makes zero sense. Moreover, who wouldn’t rather see Portland’s future coach make in-game adjustments that reflect the game in front of him or her?
After sitting through more video than any self-respecting human should, I’ve come to see this game less as an anomaly than as a cautionary tale. In the biggest of pictures, I’d call the Portland Timbers an incomplete, unfinished team. To borrow a word I’ve never really liked (mostly because I can’t readily define it), they’ve lost their old identity and have yet to establish a new one.
For what it’s worth, I believe that the primary job of the next head coach – whoever that may be and however they arrive – will come in two parts. The prime directive will involve establishing a functioning, ideally winning identity - also, duh - but that hypothetical head coach will (or should) never land the job until he (or she) proves them capable of making the kinds of adjustments Miles Jospeh should have made last night. And, to lay my cards on the table, I would have set up Portland’s defense to drop deeper, invite Montreal to come forward instead of the other way around (seriously, how often do the Timbers end a game with 57% possession – and why would they do it against Montreal, of all teams?).
That’s all I have for this post, but I do expect to get something up between today and Decision Day 2023, Electric Bugaloo, the Sequel. To voice an(other) opinion, yes, I would prefer the Portland Timbers make the 2023 season, but I say that with a spitting-tacks-mouthful of disdain for MLS’s (eternally) bloated playoff structure and mostly so they can keep in practice, until that glorious day when they’re once again able to make something out of it….because I don’t think this year is it. And I don’t think anyone else does either. Till the next one..
No comments:
Post a Comment