Club America 1-1 Portland Timbers, Then a "Loss": Penalties & Positivity

Make that pass again, Felipe. I'm waiting...

Take it. Take your meaningless, non-regulation, asterisk-weighted win, Club America. It means nothing, not even to you.

Oh, and stopping the game to put a lid on “discriminatory chants”? Sign me up for an all-day pass on that shit…and if I could come up with a functional way to punish a team for one of their shithead fans pointing a laser into a goalkeeper’s eyes during a penalty shootout, I’d do it tomorrow. Too easy to game, sadly. At any rate…

Club America 1-1 Portland Timbers; 5-(maybe)4 in penalties
About the Game
I can’t remember the last time I saw the Timbers counter-punch so cleanly. David Da Costa clipped a ripe peach of an assist off the outside of his right to send Ariel Lassiter clean through for Portland’s opening goal, but Felipe Mora’s chest-trap, reverse through-ball to Juan David Mosquera set my nether to fluttering and they still haven’t calmed down (might be in here). Sure, Mosquera pissed it away with a touch long enough for the record books, but the sweet, sweet memory still titillates.

America took over the rest of the first half and, factually, had more to show for it than I recalled (e.g., 7 shots, 2 on goal, with healthy side of corner kicks), but the Timbers defended stoutly and well (hold that thought) – up to and including Jimer Fory retreating behind an extended Maxime Crepeau to clip a(n offside) shot clear (also, remember him foundly, for…)

I didn’t see Fory’s first yellow card – heard it was something about dissent, and there’s this whole chicken-egg thesis waiting to be written about refs and their thin skin – but no decent ref gives a second yellow for the foul he committed, and yet…the Aristocrats! When the theretofore largely hapless America scored an equalizer off their 19th nervous corner (reference/gotta step there, Mr. Felipe Mora), all signs pointed to the wheels spinning off into outer orbit for the Timbers. Without dipping too far to over-determining, I credit Phil Neville for making a couple smart subs for breaking from depth – Kevin Kelsy for a reasonably overwhelmed Mora and Antony for a drifting Da Costa – and it just took a combination of holding on defensively and scaring America off throwing every player, plus a couple asshole fans, to carry the Timbers to one-third of a loss, instead of a full one.

Portland Timbers 1-1 Club America: Cold Truths & Something I Can’t Readily Identify

Can I interest you in life insurance?

I saw something tonight in the Portland Timbers 1-1 draw against Club America that I can’t help, but bring up - and mostly because it’s the first thought that came to me when I stepped away (taking the dog out for a shit makes room for thoughts). I’ve rarely seen Diego Chara a step beyond like he was over the first 20 minutes of tonight’s game. Club America hardly put on a clinic, but seeing Chara visibly chase the play like that looks like something broadcast from another universe.

It’s also the future that every Timbers fan knows is coming. The same thing goes for watching Diego Valeri watch the other end of a give-and-go roll by; because he can’t cover the ground in a way that really pulls apart the defense, his teammates have to play that ball differently. That or figure out something else to do with the ball entirely.

Valeri had his moments out there, but, because CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) semifinals, this game played at a high speed - i.e., exactly the kind of game that I expect to lose Valeri more and more. He’s not past it or anything…shit’s just changed. As for Chara, he started hip-checking motherfuckers all over from the 20th minute on; I last recorded next-level activity out of him around the 72nd minute, but there were times throughout the game he straight up cheetah-gazelle-d a guy on America (that is, ambushed a player from beyond who thought he had one more second of quiet). One Timbers legend can still play the same game, the other guy…I’m watching. Seasons change, the sun sets lower, it’s life, people.

Back to business, what to make of that 1-1 home draw?

Personally, I count two ways to read it. First, Club America is visibly a better team - and I mean that globally. The speed of thought is better, the movement sharper, the defense reorganizes like one of those goddamn liquid terminators (Terminators? Is it capitalized?), and, as I tweeted somewhere during the game, they shrank space fast enough sometimes that looked like they had 12 players out there. Hell, I’d even call the way they manage the game - e.g., the way they pause it to slow down the game, the flops…just everything - a little bit smoother. It’s one of those, you notice, but it’s never quite enough for you, never mind the ref, to make anything of it. Call it one a pervasive intangible.

Add the first half of the game: given the balance of everything - e.g., the (ballpark) 67-33 split in America’s favor in possession (as of the 33rd minute; it ended closer), and not the dicking around in the back kind by any means, more like bats flying out of a fucking cave - Portland did pretty damn well to give them as little they did. Timbers fans know the end-result, of course, Claudio Bravo gives Richard Sanchez a leg to fall over, etc. Penalty to America…which Roger Martinez buries. While I think every Portland fan would call the penalty stupid and unfortunate, I doubt many would argue it wasn’t earned: America was the clearly the better team over the first half…which raises the obvious problem.