First, a confession: I pay a lot more attention to a game when I’m at home. My wife will knock around for the opening 15-25 minutes – depends on the night – but, after that, it’s just me watching the game and spitting rhetorical questions into the void.
On the rare occasions I go to real-life live games – almost always from Section 210 (shout out! REGGAETON HORNS! REGGAETON HORNS!) – distractions abound. For instance, I missed last night’s only goal (Austin’s. fuckers), reminiscing with an old friend about another old friend’s family all had “hobbit feet.” If it wasn’t that, it was the couple straight-up dry-fucking in the row immediately in front of me. Seriously, light grinding started around the 43th minute and that graduated to full-on grinding and his hand up her shirt by the 80th.
Suffice to say, I didn’t pay perfect attention to this game, and yet, these are my notes…
1) The Game Was Better Than the Result
Swear to God, I will put the minimum amount of lipstick on this…I can’t say “pig of a result” because, all three points dropped aside, the Timbers piled on the chances and in numbers that, eight times out of ten secures at least one goal, sometimes two more, and often all three points. In this case, the official stats for this game do the double work of confirming and denying reality: on the one hand, you saw all the chances; on the other, you saw precisely why they didn’t go in. If Austin excelled at anything last night, it was getting dudes in the way of almost everything Portland attempted in their defensive third. How MLS stats-hacks landed on just two blocked shots for Austin, I’ll never know.
Shit. I forgot the big reveal. The final score: Portland Timbers 0, Austin FC 1. And that lucky little shit, Daniel Pereira, only scored by skipping it off Kamal Miller’s knee. What’s coming of this league. They don’t even give out own goals like the did in the old days…
I don’t have a lot beyond that, except to flag some things that I did catch when I was watching…
2) Dario Zuparic Is a Goddamn Firefighter
A couple pressure campaigns kicked off on the Timbers subreddit to lobby for this or that guy as Portland's Supporters' Player of the Year. For what it’s worth, I’m wholly on Team Zuparic (who I don't believe has been nominated as yet). He snuffed out danger live last night every bit as well as he does on my TV when I’m watching at home. To the extent Portland’s defense has improved this season (….eh), I give Zuparic the lion’s share of the credit. If the man isn’t the embodiment of leading by example, he’s the understudy to that man, and that’s at a minimum.
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| Did he ever ask for help? |
I’ve watched this team for a long (long) time and, for as long as I’ve watched them, a couple things drive me fucking crazy. Those are:
a) a persistent unwillingness to play balls into space behind the opposition defense. Whether up the channel or down the wings, I can’t think of a Timbers team that used that as a regular option; and
b) my gods, what does this team have against width? So much field left on either side for so much of last night...
I don’t think either phenomenon is new – fwiw, b) strikes me as far (if not far, far) more likely – and I believe that should prompt some reflection on my local team plays today and, as follows, by how they might have always played. Portland stretches the game in transition with the literal best of them, but they also exhibit a real resistance to playing passes around and behind a high-ish defensive line when they’re in possession and looking to break down a set, organized defense, even when that space is very much there. That’s not to say the ball never goes into that space, but the Timbers often wait too long to accept the invitation to get in there early.
Put it all together and I think you land on something like, the Portland Timbers are a team committed to transition and playing out of a well-organized vertical block in possession.
3a) I Think This Might Be Why Portland Thumped the Ball at Austin Defenders Instead of on Goal Last night, but That’s Just a Theory for Now
The Timbers attacked very narrowly last night, something that didn’t do so hot against an Austin team that was perfectly content to drop six dudes inside the 18, if only when defending.
3) Try Hard Less Hard, You Try-Hards
Another thing Timbers players resist with more ounces of their being than they should, particularly the forward players: making a simple pass to play out of pressure or, gods forbid, just for a quick little reset and circulate. Evander is the worst culprit on this – a choice Timbers fans reasonably forgive due to all the times he forces a moment into something helpful, even wonderful – but Portland’s play was lousy with this last night. I appreciate the risk/reward equation at play, and I’m as big a fan of “trying shit” as the next fan…but, if there’s a defender using you as a jungle gym and a player on your team even five yards behind you waiting in antici...pation for that simple pass, why not pass to him now and then? Y’know, just to mix things up? Again, I get it: bite too hard into this and that’s your local team hitting the ball backwards and sideways for 90 minutes, but I’d love to see a little more emphasis on passing rhythm from the Timbers.
That’s it for this one. I’m going to miss the live broadcast for the next, suddenly rather important game on Sunday, but will have notes for that by Monday. Till then…
Jeff, Point 3a is the clear winner of "Explains it all" about Saturday's match. We made it EASY for Austin to station a picket line of 5-6 guys just inside the top of the 18 yd. box, and wait for Timber attackers to come to them.
ReplyDeleteJust review video to see how many times Jona, Santi, Evander, et al swerved into that morass in the middle when attacking from the outside...
And literally nobody from PTFC even tried shooting a low volley into the ruck - just to try creating a free ball or two, or perhaps using it to screen Stuver.