Vancouver Whitecaps 1-1 Portland Timbers: I Accept This Result, I Love This Result

This can't be anything but disorienting.

The Portland Timbers rolled out of Vancouver with a point after last night’s 1-1 draw at BC Place. Based on a quick little spin around the Timbers subreddit, I liked this result more than others, maybe even more than I should. I’ll defend that choice between now and the end, but first…

The Very Basics
The Vancouver Whitecaps went up 1-0 with the opening whistle still echoing around the stadium (c’mon, roll with it). If the Timbers had hoped to ease their way into the game, the shock of Brian White’s ever-so-early (and unnervingly easy) goal hit them like a bucket of ice water waking them from sleep. The shock of it carried over the opening 15-20 minutes of the game: no Portland player seemed to know where he should be and where he should go from there. The “shock” metaphor seems especially apt because once the Timbers woke all the way up, they took hold of the game and, but for one “this fucking game” moment (Andres Cubas pinging Maxime Crepeau’s left post in second half stoppage), they never let go of it. Portland’s confidence grew side-by-side with the quality of their chance creation – i.e., Antony’s solo-run/desperate flail from the right to Juan David Mosquera firing from a seam up the middle to Santiago Moreno forcing Yohei Takaoka to save off a freekick - until Rodriguez crowned the recovery on his second bite of the apple with a deflected equalizer (his first bite was offside, sadly). The second half was all Timbers (the official stats can go to Hell), with Portland turning 50/50s into 70/30s all over the field and cutting off 90% of the paths out of Vancouver’s half. Had Takaoka’s left post not kept out Felipe Mora’s picture-perfect header, I’d bet my left leg (the bad one, fwiw) that the Timbers would be in 7th this morning.

What’s to Love
To anyone feeling blue about two points (arguably) slipping away, I’d respond with this: which team do you think feels better about not just last night’s result, but last night’s game? Sure, Vancouver punched their ticket to the post-season, but would you rather be the team ruing a slow start and 20 wasted minutes or the team trying to figure out 60+ minutes of getting played off your own pitch – and with three more crucial home games to go? The larger context only makes it worse for the 'Caps: the Timbers have defeated playoff-competitive teams since the Leagues Cup break, while the ‘Caps haven’t beat one since early July (Minnesota, on the road), or even June (Colorado, at home; Minnesota was flailing under the playoff line when the ‘Caps beat them in July). Even if you lean into the argument that Portland can only win at home, last night’s draw with the wild road draw at RSL behind it shows the Timbers getting results that, by the grace of penalty kicks, can become playoff wins. Finally, Portland has the comfort of knowing how they measure up against playoff-bound teams: both Portland and Vancouver have gone 4-3-3 over their past ten games, but the Timbers have played seven playoff-bound teams versus just four for Vancouver. That script will flip over the next two games for Portland and the next three for Vancouver – the Timbers play Austin then Dallas, while Vancouver hosts Seattle, Minnesota and LAFC – and that makes the two points separating them look at little smaller. And yet, neither team had all hands on deck…

Bro hugs need a bro to lead them.

Who Missed Their Main Man More?

Evander missed the game for the Timbers (as did David Ayala) and Ryan Gauld missed the game for Vancouver, Gauld through injury, Evander through some bullshit. Both teams suffered from the absences, but Portland presented as a gently diminished version of the same team without Evander while Vancouver looked closer to headless without Gauld. Moreno filling in had a lot to do with it, all the way down to a wholly-competent freekick, but that substitute performance didn’t ask him to do anything so different than he has since slotting into that inside-right role; the man’s used to playing through clutter, basically. Curiously, that article about Gauld’s injury implies some form of overlap between him and ‘Caps newbie, Stuart Armstrong, but Vanni Sartini didn’t try him and, unless there’s a gem hidden somewhere on the Vancouver’s bench, I don’t see a capable stand-in for what Gauld provides. The Timbers have built in more resilience, basically, and the ‘Caps could really stumble if Gauld’s hamstrings either limit or end his minutes.

That’s the big picture, it’s all stray stuff from here…

The Latest Stealth Technology
Last night marked the second week in a row that saw Miguel Araujo range out of Portland’s defense to go good and productive things in the attacking side. I don’t know what caused the shift, I only know I like it. That has me in the mind to consider other things, such as…

The Best Defense Technology
I have of late, for reasons I know too well, started to fret over how Portland builds its best defensive back-stop for purposes of reaching the playoffs and doing something in them. For instance, I’ve seen Kamal Miller start at left back and recent weeks and can’t say I mind it; why not start the game safe(r) and call in Claudio Bravo as a right-sided super-sub? We all know Mosquera’s going to roam, so that whole question becomes who you trust more to defend a cross-field diagonal played to the right side of Portland’s defense. I appreciate that Portland’s a run-‘n’-gun team, but, with the competition tightening week after week, plus the playoffs almost certainly looming (if the Timbers don’t get two points from three games, why I oughta), starting with a sturdier defense feels like the right move…even if that choice still put Portland in a hole early last night.

Wholly-related, and this take is steaming, does anyone else feel like gambling on Cristhian Paredes starting over Diego Chara? This has less to do with anything Chara has one, right or wrong, than simply committing to the next generation in a season where the Timbers have, at most, a dark horse’s shot at reaching MLS Cup. I’m going to leave the question open and invite people to bite on it – in fact, I plan on getting pilloried in the Timbers subreddit once I arrive on the right phrasing – but that’s just a thought that came to me last night and stuck.

 

How a One Trick-Pony Makes It Work
While I was late to watching the game (hosted some people, made two dinners, went okay!), I saw more than a few people get into the “but for Evander” theory behind why the Timbers dropped two points. On one level, yes, one could read that as arguing the Timbers probably, perhaps even likely, would have won last night’s game but for the bullshit that kept Evander out of the XI. I’d like to turn around that argument by celebrating how close the Timbers came to winning just by having Jonathan Rodriguez alternately lurking and pillaging up Portland’s left. Having him operate on the opposite side of Portland’s best attacking channel -i.e., the right, with Moreno and Mosquera – has given the Timbers a path to goal that’s as close to “money” as any soccer team could want; the man reads crosses to the far post with the clarity of a seer. The fact he can start some offense (see near-game-winning cross to Mora) sweetens the deal, but I trust Rodriguez to give MLS defenses one more inevitable thing to worry about beyond Evander yanking goals and/or rabbits out of his ass.

A second review of the highlights reminded me of some happy little things – e.g., Paredes giving Rodriguez with a solid inside option he could have (should have) hit instead of going straight for goal (it’s good to see Paredes spot the opening), or when Moreno went for a header that would have been better left to Rodriguez, but they both walked away as if convinced they’d get another chance – but I’m still bullish on this result and what it means for Portland’s odds of doing something better than nothing in 2024.

I remember feeling a lot less faith about this team and seeing the word “transition” written all over this roster – and a quick peek at the (bless’d and holy) Form Guide reminded me why I felt that way. And, yeah, Portland dropped a lot of stupid fucking points between the middle of March and the middle of May…but doesn’t that only make what they’ve done since then more impressive? I, like you, don’t see them reaching MLS Cup in 2024, never mind winning it, but a quarterfinal appearance stopped feeling crazy to me a while ago – and to the point of wondering how far a little tinkering can go to making it happen.

That’s it for this one. On the editorial side, I suspect that all I’ll get done between now and Friday will be a preview of the game versus Austin, a very short talking-points only post after that better-be-a-goddamn-win and then a fuller wrap-up after the home game versus Dallas….and why is Decision Day a full fucking thirteen days after that one? If it’s another international break…just, global warming is a good enough reason, guys.

Till the next (short) post…