New York City FC 1-2 Portland Timbers: A Long, Lucky Breather

No, really. We got this coach...

If there is a bigger cliché in soccer than the Tale of Two Halves, I don’t know what it is. New York City FC freshened it up a little, in that it was mostly them to which the cliché applied. It was as if Nick Cushing asked his players at halftime whether they were tired and, upon agreeing they all were, they torched a game-plan that had run over the Portland Timbers over the opening 30 minutes. Portland took the space NYC left open for them to (very) slowly get back in the game (I have the Timbers first shot on goal at the 73rd through Nathan Fogaca) and yet, with time on the edge of running out, a heretofore indifferent Evander floated a late, glorious winner over NYC ‘keeper Matt Freese. With that, Portland picked up a 2-1 road win that no one could have seen coming even by the halftime whistle.

Which was weird, right? I try to avoid counterfactuals – because, lo, the game played out the way it did in all known dimensions – but some part of me has to wonder about all the different ways that game could have ended. Especially given that it started with New York City so deep down Portland’s throat that I’m surprised that didn’t run clear out their ass all the way to New Jersey.

Words to describe how scattered and dizzy Portland started don’t come easy. The only part of any Timber to touch the ball over the opening 10 minutes was Dairon Asprilla’s forehead and even that happened only once or twice (related, please relegate that tactical choice to the rubbish heap, on the grounds it does not work). When NYCFC scored their inevitable break-through goal off a thrice-recycled corner at the 10th minute (think of all the planet we could save with such a program), things looked bad. That outlook downgraded to dire over the ensuing 25 minutes and, here, even the most stubborn Timbers fan should acknowledge that New York should have gone two goals up at a minimum and going up three was deeply in the conversation. The exhibits on offer:

Exhibit A: the (sixth or seventh) run around Portland’s right that had Mounsef Bakrar running free at an actually prone Maxime Crepeau in Portland’s goal; and

Exhibit B: the slip/sideways pass by Crepeau directly to an NYCFC player who had nothing a recovering Zac McGraw between him and an open goal.

New York had more chances besides (the highlights have most of 'em, just not Exhibit B) – in all honesty, they could have been up 4-0 with true finishing – and then, to paraphrase Star Wars, the guns, they stopped.

The question that hung over halftime was whether the Timbers had actually got back into the game versus whether NYCFC had opted to sit back for a breather after spending the opening 30 running their legs off. The way New York started the second half genuinely seems to have answered that question: the hosts did indeed take a breather, just one that never stopped. After an opening 30-35 minutes that saw a Timbers team literally incapable of finding the next pass if it didn’t go sideways or backwards, Portland players stepped into newly-appeared openings to receive forward passes, finally able to turn to find the next one.

Googled "splitting a six pack beer." So happy...

Here, I have to believe NYC’s head coach, Nick Cushing, made the utterly perverse decision to come out conservative to start the second half – or at least that strikes me as a likelier scenario than New York deciding to celebrate a good half by splitting a six-pack between every two field players in the starting XI. Maybe he expected the Timbers to come out roaring and thought riding out the storm made sense, but, as a gambling man, I had literally everything down on New York running straight at the Timbers to start the second half. Maybe Cushing answers that in his post-game presser, maybe he doesn’t. For what it’s worth, I don’t know how that guy still has a job…

To their credit, the Timbers took real advantage of the space that New York’s (presumably? maybe?) tired legs opened up. Better, the team as a whole loosened up once passes started connecting and, somewhere around the 65th minute, you started to see things like Antony clipping a heel-pass to an overlapping Juan David Mosquera, thereby sending NYC’s defense in a two-alarm retreat toward their own goal. Something else they did – and this was something I flagged in my (very, very loosely accurate) preview – was start to hit long diagonals to the weak side, something they need to do given the way NYCFC defends - i.e., by choking off every available short pass. It took quite a while to come good and – a tip of the hat to whoever posts a flees on reddit – “well maybe we flipped the script and we’ll do better after the 80th minute” turned out to be the most prescient thought I read all day.

It took all the way to the (checks The Mothership’s match summary) the 85th minute for Portland's one, true break-through happen. All it took was Mosquera beating his defender with a “there’s-no-place-like-home” click of his heels, which got him around and free to find a completely unmarked Antony at NYC’s penalty spot. Antony slammed his shot into the roof (which beat an earlier, dumber effort when he tried to clip the Freese to his weak side). Giving up that goal seemed to wake up New York a little, but all they did in the end was set the stage for Evander’s late, blessed miracle.

Are they the best? The worst? Do you know, doc?

For what it’s worth, and unlike seasons past, I’m interacting on reddit during the games and, my gods, the in-game threads are an experience. It’s just real-time raging id in there. When I checked in at half time, it was all doubting the Colorado result and projecting that into a failed season as a whole. When I returned to the same thread to find flees quote above, all doubt was erased. It’s fun in its way and it probably comes closer to the spectator sports experience than anything else one can find online. I bring that up as a frame for the talking points below, which I’m going to limit to…let’s go with five.

1) The Timbers Still Need to Show They Can Play Through Pressure

Which they did not do today. For as long as New York pressed, the Timbers could barely get the ball into midfield. Hope-beyond-hope long balls to Asprilla became the solution and went about as well as expected. Things improved later when Evander, in particular, started dropping back to help fetch the ball out of the back – but, again, how much of that followed from NYC’s long breather? The real answer is, we will never know. We will just know what it looks like when the Timbers figure out how to play through pressure.

2) We Need to Talk About (or Plan Around) Juan David

Now, admittedly, some of this could follow from the left being New York’s stronger side, but a fucking freeway ran through the right side of Portland’s defense for the entirety of the opening 30-35 minutes. McGraw repeatedly had to wander wide to corral a loose NYC attacker and, golly, that did not go well. He got turned, beat and out-ran almost every time and it took Crepeau and a couple offside flags to rescue the situation. What I’m getting at: this is not sustainable. A part of me is not bothered by this because…I’m not 100% sure that Mosquera will ever play as a true fullback. The other, much more concerned part of me understands that the Timbers need to figure out some way to defend that space besides sending McGraw out to manage it because he’s not so good at it.

3) One More on the Defense, Related to the Above

When Kamal Miller arrived, I took it as an obvious upgrade – not least because I’ve seen him play quite a bit over seasons past and he always looked pretty solid defensively and with a decent upside when it comes to playing the ball forward. One thing I saw today that has me questioning that – and I saw this at least three times – the man does not do urgent recovery runs. When McGraw gets beat in the situation(s) described above, I want to see Miller sprint toward his own goal. Instead, I saw him trot as if there was nothing to do but watch and hope that Crepeau would make the save. To be clear, these were not hopeless situations and, with one exception, these happened early in the game when he should have had the legs and motivation.

4) My Man of the Match

Antony. The goal was good and all, but I wrote the note “Antony improved as an outlet” well before he scored it. People crapped on his first half - and rightly so, because he looked lost both off the ball and on it – but, once the game settled down, Antony became the best player at both dropping into pockets to keep the ball moving and making leading runs to stretch the field. Just to note it, it’s entirely possible having him come inside became one of the adjustments Phil Neville made after the half.

5) Until the New DP Forward Comes

I want the Timbers to start Nathan Fogaca, at least until Felipe Mora comes back. This is less because I believe he’ll light up the scoreboard (he won’t), than because I believe he understands the position better than Asprilla does. That’s not a knock on Dairon by any means. Just like every Timber on the field, he improved once the space opened up and the balls that reached him weren’t built around more hope than planning and execution. After watching the first three games, I just get the sense that Nathan will have a smarter sense for the kinds of runs and passing that will help the Timbers keep the ball high when they’re struggling to play out the back.

In closing, I’m happy to take the pleasant surprise. At this point, how well the Timbers are playing right now matters less than the haul of points they’ve collected so far. Still, I have concerns, which I’ve noted, so there’s nothing left to do than see where things go from here. If nothing else, I was happy to see that the Timbers can play well when the opposition lets them. Till the next one…