Portland Timbers 3-1 San Diego FC: The Timbers Go Over the Top

The real caption: "Great Moments in Action History."

No clever preamble for this one. Just started writing and let it go where it went.

Portland Timbers 3-1 San Diego FC
A Match Report
Any fans of arm-wrestling tuning in? Even non-fans are familiar with the way one wrestler (“Wrestler One”) will push the opponent’s (aka, “Wrestler Two’s”) arm closer and closer to the Pad of Defeat, only for Wrestler Two to push out of it and flip Wrestler One’s arm closer to the opposite Pad of Defeat. Portland thrived tonight in the Wrestler Two role. San Diego methodically pushed the ball forward, compacting the Timbers in their defensive third and, time and again, Portland kicked out from under the weight of San Diego’s pressure and turned the tables. The trick worked well enough that San Diego forgot how to effectively apply the pressure little by little as the game wore on.

Know what I like best about the chronology? 23 minutes separated Portland’s second goal from its first and 17 more minutes separated the third goal from the second. This wasn’t a case of San Diego losing its shit over a 5-10 minute stretch; it was Portland finding different ways to wrest the game out of San Diego’s poised control (in the early bits, at least) and, yeah, pretty much wreck them at the other end.

Also, what goals! Kristoffer Velde had the honor of laying the first blow to San Diego’s carefully-constructed game-plan. Portland slipped behind San Diego’s midfield and, with the field open ahead of them, Cole Bassett (looking fresher! or more grounded?) received a pass from Velde that slipped it back to him with a reverse pass that left him running free and nekkid toward goal. All Velde had to do was belt it home from 25 yards (or tharabouts) out. Velde also keyed up Portland’s second goal when, taking advantage of a scrambled and dizzy San Diego defense, he played Jimer Fory around their last (real narrow) fullback to the top of the wee penalty area; Fory’s cross teed up Ariel Lassiter for the soccer-dunk (aka, tap-in). Last but not least, as well as Velde (again) did to push San Diego’s left to their end-line, David Da Costa still had plenty to do, up to and including, pulling back for a little more space, inspiring the lone defender near him to sit down, and curling the ball around the goalkeeper, an invisible pony only he could see and who was cheering for him this whole time. Portland scored three beautiful goals, basically, where two would have been ample. Feeling a little spoiled and loving it....

San Diego scored, of course (and I’ll get to it), but the overall performance built on a really promising trend for Portland that started…look, I am not looking to dance on anyone’s grave, but…it started after the conscious uncoupling with Phil Neville: the Timbers have grown into nearly every game they’ve played from the brief (glorious!) regency of Jack Cassidy to the Marti Cifuentes Era now a-birthin’. They’ve started slow, yes (and hold this thought), but they have consistently found ways to stifle what the opposition’s trying to do and to make them sweat on the other end. This has gone on long enough to constitute a pattern and, personally, I find that encouraging. Really encouraging even. It’s not unlike the wee flush I’m getting as I see Portland one point behind a sinking Real Salt Lake team and a Colorado Rapids team that doesn’t like the road so good.

Or this weird-ass mom doing it.

A Quick Aside on San Diego FC
If I hated this team, I would have taken a lot more pleasure from watching Portland giddily undo their meticulous and, honestly, pretty tidy attacking movements like a kid crashing onto another kid’s sandcastle. A little evil meets the class clown yanking down the honor student’s pants, etc. Andres Dreyer makes them better, sure, but this is a good team, if so long as they can keep the game in front of them – and, per tonight’s experience, managed. Composed and comfortable in their game plan, San Diego moves the ball really well and, per the final stats, they forced Portland’s defense to do plenty of chasing. On the personnel side, I rate Manu Duah really highly as a final backstop and they have a couple elite-ish deep-lying No. 8s in Jeppe Tverskov and Onni Valakari. I think they wasted Marcus Ingvartsen a little tonight (based on what I know of him, plus they ignored his runs behind), though he still got his chances (definitely in here), and Timbers’ fans got a good taste of what Alex Mighten can do to a fullback. I think they game slipped away from San Diego with its pace measured in moments when Tverskov and Valakari lost their handle on midfield. Still, all those pretty mechanics forced at least four great saves out of James Pantemis and San Diego scored a smart enough goal through newcomer Gabriel Pirani. (If you recognize that dude from DC United, where he was brought in to run the show? I don’t think that’s him; what he did tonight feels closer). They managed to get around Portland’s backline a fair amount, and Elias Achouri added some late scrambling, and those delivered a healthy number of but-for crosses (i.e., someone, anyone just had to be there to meet it), but the balance of San Diego’s attack looked more like Lewis Morgan lofting in hopeful crosses before any thought to share his dream.

Overall, I’m really happy with this win. Maybe even really happy. Portland survived an early onslaught, got bodies in the way of anything that broke through, and they took their chances on the other end, and found two or three really good looks besides. This was a confident win, they continued an bracing tradition of not getting rattled when things slip a little (and Pirani’s goal 100% qualifies), and the Timbers would make the playoffs if they started today, if one step removed. Not a bad turnaround for a dead season.

That’s the meat of the post, but I’m going to wrap it up with…

10 [Still-Unbranded] Thoughts
1) Velde gets my honors for Man of the Match tonight. He did so, so well, and on both sides of the ball, that I found the occasional manifestations of his old self charming, even endearing.

2) After seeing it in a couple of games, I’m convinced that Cifuentes prefers playing Velde closer to the channel (though not all the time), positioning that allows him to send Fory around the outside. I know that’s working, I think Velde’s growing more comfortable with it, he looks committed as ever, and I’m here for that.

The author. Right now. Literally, right now.

3) This one’s personal: I have watched multiple iterations of the Timbers teams and, hand to God, I’ve spent entire seasons quietly seething over how little they work to send players around the fullbacks. If you combined the amount of space I’ve seen them pass on playing into since the USL days, it would be bigger than three Earths. Honest. Anyway, VERY GLAD to see the Timbers sending Fory around. SEEMS GOOD.

4) Anyone else see Ariel Lassiter sliding drifting from to left, sometimes to very left? Lassiter didn’t score his goal from there (great run too), but I liked the movement and think it fucked with San Diego’s defense.

5) Kevin Kelsy had a quiet game on the goal contribution side, but that omission afforded him an opportunity to showcase what a good player he can be. Kelsy made good decisions and helped the team in all kinds of ways. And without even a whiff of brattiness about it. Hell yeah, Kevin.

6) Pour one out for Brandon Bye. Hated seeing him limp off, good player, seems like a good dude. Losing him for any length of time (may it be brief) seems likely to change something about the way the Timbers play. Don’t love how thin Portland is back there…

7) I put some effort into watching Jose Caicedo tonight and…I don’t know, man. Every time I caught sight of him, I saw him wondering around in a space, and with what looked like a goal of making himself vaguely available. He could just be suffering from the contrast – Diego Chara, famously, ran shit down – but he didn’t look particularly useful out there.

8) Anyone else think that Portland’s recent slow starts might follow from a deliberate choice to feel out the opponent before trying to take the game to them? Not a risk-free plan, but hardly crazy.

9) Almost forgot this one, but it's big: Portland did a great job of holding its shape and discipline tonight, even in the moments when San Diego got going. There was always one more guy to catch the dribble or slip pass, there was generally someone close to any player receiving the ball, the rotations looked good and timely. Defense won this game as much as offense. And it was beautiful.

10) I want to see more Victor Janssen. He looks savvy in that Felipe Mora way. About as fast too…

That’s the post. I’ll be back on my bullshit for the game at LAFC this Saturday.