Portland Timbers 5-2 Club Peng...Puebla: (Hot) Summertime Rolls

It's okay, man. The view's groovy up here!

This will be short. I mean it this time. Stop it. Don’t look at me like that.

Watching the Portland Timbers lately has had the feeling of Wile E. Coyote looking down after running off the cliff and seeing nothing to hold him up. And yet he does not fall.

Getting into it…

Portland Timbers 5-2 Club Puebla
The Game, Very Briefly
I’d argue Puebla ran the opening 30 minutes, maybe even dominated the opening 20, even with Ariel Lassiter scoring a rare early one by finishing off Kristoffer Velde's punishment of Puebla's loose defense. Puebla didn't take long to equalize on a tap-in by Eduardo Mustre when the sum of Portland’s left lost equilibrium and Alex Bonetig sat out the play. They shelled the Timbers’ area from the same side around the 28th minute, pressing a sustained attack better than Portland would manage until…I’d say the 38th minute. Once David Da Costa’s tap-dance poke flicked the ball past Ricardo Gutierrez for the Timbers’ third goal, the game ended both in fact and spirit.

Per the dictates of math, Portland scored one goal in between all that – on Cole Bassett glancing home the go-ahead goal after getting ahead of Puebla's entire defense – but Da Costa’s goal put a stamp on the game the other two merely suggested. Puebla spent the opening 25 minutes (at least) coursing through and around Portland’s defensive shape, only for the Timbers to break out – through Velde most often, at least early – and score goals. Da Costa’s goal stood up the argument that anything Puebla could do in Portland’s end ultimately wouldn’t matter. Once Puebla’s players had the space behind them in their minds every time they passed the ball, the wheels came off.

Anyway, Bassett scored his second goal, Portland’s fourth, before the halftime whistle – smart, unselfish play by Da Costa on that one and Velde playing him in(?) - and what did that look like but what every General Manager sees in his head when he puts the team together?

Lassiter scored his second eleven minutes later*, by the ticking of the official clock, Puebla pulled one back through (hold on…) Emiliano Gomez, but, who gives a shit when the game ended per the above? Moving on…

A Quick Aside on Club Puebla/Leagues Cup
They played liked a team at the beginning of the season, a pretty consistent vibe we get from all but the best Liga MX teams in every Leagues Cup played so far in the Grand Expansion Era (AI's phrase, can't find it elsewhere). Also, who knows? Maybe Puebla carries that glass jaw wherever they go? So, again, this goes down as another game where I’m delighted by the result, encouraged by multiple individual performances, and still unwilling to accept it as actual reality, see the Wile E. Coyote note above.

Velde's potential, according to Science.

Talking Points
1) Velde’s Pass to Ian Smith for Portland’s Third
Circling back (again) to the note on Velde in the post on Portland’s win draw versus FC Dallas and win over Real Salt Lake, that’s what I’m talking about when I type, “don’t you dream of what could be if Velde had the ability to unbalance a defender then dish off a pass that wrecked the entire defense?” Smith had a ton of work to do (hold that thought for a tick), but I’d love to see Velde use the gravity he’s established to make more out of the distortions he forces into the defense’s shape. Work better, work easier.

1a) My Only Real Takeaway from the Rotated Lineup
To stipulate an argument, this counts as a rotated lineup in my mind. I don’t think any player made a strong case to replace the fella in front of him – no, not even Jose Caicedo or Joao Ortiz for Diego Chara – but I would give Ian Smith a run over Jimer Fory for a while. I didn’t think much about Velde trusting Smith more until the broadcast booth brought it up – I’m not even sure I trust it now – but I don’t see the harm on the grounds of “what if?”

2) Growing into Games: The Secret Sauce? If So, What Is the Key Ingredient?
The Timbers have either come from behind, or (tonight) recovered after coughing up an early equalizer over their last four games. I can’t say for sure what’s causing it. I thought tonight made a good case for getting the open-field defense organized, thereby keeping the ball in front of the shape and pushing the point where they force turnovers high, but the main thing I’m wondering about is how much of that comes from in-game adjustments by Jack Cassidy. If so, I hope Marti Cifuentes has a long productive conversation with Cassidy before he goes back to T2.

3) DDC, Baby
* What Da Costa did to (probably) Oscar Villa to set up Portland’s fourth goal should be investigated by theoretical physicists (Da Costa passed through him as if they lived on separate planes of existence) and he was lights out Portland’s best attacking player tonight. Earned the DP label, the whole nine yards…

…I don’t do this to be tedious, honest, and my mind yawns as wide open as the Montana sky, but, yes, I’m still reserving judgment. He doesn’t even have to stand out much for the rest of Leagues Cup Round One to keep me on the bandwagon, but I’m more curious to see what he does at Chicago and versus San Diego when regular season play picks up again. It’s nothing more complicated than having a better feel for what I’m looking at, but, like everything else post-Phil (POUR ONE OUT, #RIP*), Da Costa looks better of late.

(* I was at peace with Phil’s departure before it happened, it’s possibly I’m still sad about Giovanni Savarese’s.)

Till the next one…