Strange Night At The Park Rights Ship for Timbers in 3 to 2 Win Over the Crew

Andy Polo had a very good night against the Crew

Sometimes, the match doesn't make any sense yet it works out in the end. There were a lot of odd story lines and factoids coming into the match between the Portland Timbers and Columbus Crew, but nobody could have fully prepared for the oddities that would occur in this match. Between a delayed start time, a rocky starting 15 minutes, redemption in the first half, a furious start to the second half, a frenetic finish with odd officiating and interesting substitutions, the intrigue was very high for this midweek match. We've seen Portland struggle under conditions and situations like this before, but on this night, the Timbers pulled together and held on for a dramatic 3 to 2 win over the Crew. The result did alleviate some of the concerns put on display after the Houston Dynamo outran the Timbers over the previous weekend by a 4 to 1 score, but Portland now needs to regroup quickly for their last lengthy road trip of the 2018 regular season when they face Minnesota United FC on September 22nd in the Twin Cities. The soccer wasn't pretty at points and was one of the most emotionally draining matches I've witnessed in some time, but this club gutted through it and got an important result at home to restore some confidence.

Timbers Coach Gio Savarese was less than pleased with the Timbers' effort in Houston despite the team taking an early lead off an own goal caused from a shot by Alvas Powell. Portland thought they had tied the match at 2 just before the half, but upon VAR review, the leveling effort from Diego Chara off a Diego Valeri assist was ruled no goal as Valeri was offside. Replays show if this truly was the case, it was off by mere millimeters, but the negated goal doesn't explain the struggles in the second half when Portland failed to generate any consistent offense as Houston employed their counter to tack on 2 more goals to win going away. To that end, Savarese made several updates within the starting eleven against a Crew side that has some of the same qualities as Houston in terms of playing the counter to hopefully stabilize the side. Steve Clark was again in goal for the Timbers with Kendall McIntosh listed as his substitute, while Savarese brought back Liam Ridgewell to pair with Larrys Mabiala as the center back duo with Julio Cascante listed on the bench. Powell, who was one of the few bright spots early in Houston, was also sent to the bench for Jorge Villafana as Zarek Valentin was flanked out right. Lawrence Olum, who had started in the last 2 matches for the Timbers, was given the night off in the midfield and replaced directly with David Guzman alongside Chara and Andy Polo, who started in place of Cristhian Paredes. Even the offensive trio got an adjustment as Samuel Armenteros was selected to start in lieu of Jeremy Ebobisse at striker with Valeri and Sebastian Blanco employed as the attacking midfield. Savarese did have Lucas Melano, Andres Flores and Bill Tuiloma also available as needed, but the real keys here were if the changes to add Guzman, Ridgewell, Polo, Villafana and Armenteros were enough to stabilize the offense.

Sebastian Blanco was everywhere on this night. Literally.

Columbus was dealing with their own match compression after playing at FC Dallas on September 15 then traveling to the Rose City before heading home to host Colorado on September 22, so Crew Coach Gregg Berhalter was dealing with his own squad rotation. Berhalter left several regulars out of the rotation or on bench duty for the Timbers, as Ricardo Clark, Jonathan Mensah, Frederico Higuain and Harrison Afful were left off the game day 18. Leading scorer Gyasi Zardes, a noted Timbers thorn from his days with the Los Angeles Galaxy, was relegated to the bench, leaving Berhalter to use veteran striker Patrick Mullins up top with Eduardo Sosa and Pedro Santos in support. Of the Crew's top scorers, Santos, Milton Valenzuela and Niko Hansen at fourth, fifth and sixth respectively were the leading scorers listed. In the middle of the formation, however, the Crew had solid vets in Will Trapp and Artur patrolling the middle and young goalkeeper Zack Steffen in the net. While the Timbers in the middle of a pileup in the West table, Columbus has settled into fourth place in the east behind Atlanta, the Red Bulls and NYCFC with Philly and Montreal just behind. While getting points here would be huge in keeping them entrenched in the East, the Crew had a bit more flexibility here in their lineup choices while still doing all they could to keep their spot in the table.

With all the intriguing story lines coming into the match with squad rotation, another piece that would end up being discussed at length was the officiating. Ted Unkel is one of the most senior officials within MLS in terms of game experience, however, Unkel's style of officiating can be best described as a mix between heavy handed calls and complete laissez-faire monitoring. That was probably made extremely apparent in the 7th minute when the Crew were breaking down the middle with a pass for Mullins and the Crew striker caught Guzman with an elbow to the face. With Guzman down, Unkel didn't make any call as the Timbers protested and the Crew pressed when Sosa fed Santos with a pass on the left that was dropped to Valenzuela on the flank. A low cross back to the box nearly caught up to Mullins, but he dummied the ball to keep the Timbers flat footed and Hanson broke in behind to shoot the ball into the goal. Villafana might have helped the ball in with some contact, but with the Timbers extremely frustrated, the Crew had taken the early 1 to 0 lead. Two minutes later, Sosa went down easily on a run to the left that earned Polo a caution, and Guzman was yelling at Unkel for the missed call earlier in the match.

Ted Unkel either called everything or nothing. Was that kind of match.

The situation could have gotten much worse if not for the defense of Clark in the 12th minute when Santos fed Mullins in the left channel and the Timbers defense was caught completely off their marks. Mullins was onside with the back line and tried to pull the ball inside the right post with his shot, but only a finger tip push from Clark kept the ball from hitting the intended target. At this point, Portland was lucky enough to not be down by 2 goals and the team was visibly frustrated at the situation presented to them. The Crew were having their way in the midfield early, and with Unkel's approach to foul calls, Portland would have to come up with a strategy to recover from the early match doldrums or run the risk of being run out of their own building. Blanco indeed registered the first shot on goal in the 14th minute and Polo added a close miss 2 minutes later off a big give and go, but the Timbers would finally break out of the funk courtesy of their defensive midfielder.

In the 18th minute, Chara played a ball to Blanco, who was equally sharing distribution duties with Valeri, and Seba put a diagonal ball out to Polo on the right. The young winger put a cross to the top of the box where Guzman was waiting in space as Crew defenders Gaston Sauro and Hector Jimenez were slow to pick him up. David put an expertly placed header inside the left post off the cross, and the sense of relief felt by the Timbers and the crowd seemed to energize everybody. Guzman was still upset about the earlier play, and he earned a caution off a hard foul in the 34th minute that appeared to be somewhat retaliatory, but you also got the sense that the Timbers were ready to fight. They had to deal with immediate threats from consecutive free kicks by the Crew with Santos going at goal near the box, and Clark made an especially tricky save in the 26th minute off the best effort. Valenzuela, Santos and Artur also challenged the Timbers defense within the next few minutes, but the Timbers would end up taking the lead in the 37th minute off one of the best individual plays I've seen from a Timbers player in some time.

Andy Polo celebrates his goal. One of the best individual efforts I've seen.

In the 37th minute, Polo started in the North End by heading a ball away from Hanson and Jimenez lurking in the Timbers box, but he then picked up the ball and made a box to box sprint that left Jimenez in the dust with Blanco and Valeri running in support. Polo put the ball in the middle past Valeri for Blanco, and Seba put the cross back to Polo on the right for a headed shot on frame with Steffen fully charging off his line. The shot hit Valenzuela and started to head away from goal but stayed in play as Polo kept his run going to then jump up and poke the ball towards goal with his left foot. Valenzuela could do nothing and while Trapp did get to the ball to punch it skyward with his boot, it had passed the goal line to score Polo's first ever MLS goal for the Timbers' first team. While Polo was ahead of the shot when it hit Valenzuela, the offside flag would not be applied because the ball struck a Crew player first and so Polo could attack the ball without fear of being flagged. The celebration was epic as the young winger was surrounded by his teammates, and within 30 minutes, Polo had racked up an unusual hat trick of a goal, an assist and a caution card. The half ended minutes later without anything else happening, but admittedly, the home side was still buzzing about Polo's huge individual effort.

The second half saw no changes to either side, but the Timbers kept up the pressure and added to their lead before most fans had settled back into their seats. Valeri led a break in the 48th minute up the middle and fed a streaking Chara on the left side with a pass, but his shot was blocked by Sauro over to the right where Armenteros ran down the loose ball. The striker took a simple move, shot the ball and it banked off Crew defender Lalas Abubakar past Steffen to push the lead to 3 to 1. Unlike the Villafana/Hanson situation where it appeared that Hanson got the shot and it hit off Villafana in the action, this one was originally given to Armenteros but later changed to an own goal as Abubakar's action pushed the ball into the net. The Timbers spent the next 10 minutes or so circling about with a myriad of shots and chances, but they couldn't add anything to their tally before the Crew executed the soccer equivalent of a hockey line change - Berhalter used all 3 of his subs at the same time in the 61st minute when he brought on Josh Williams, Conor Maloney and Luis Argudo for Santos, Valenzuela and Artur. With this move, Berhalter left his big offensive guns on the bench with Meram and Zardes getting the night off, but would it be the right move?

Everyone put your hands up. Everyone!

Meanwhile, the tempers were still simmering at Unkel, who by this point had carded Sauro for a slide tackle right after the 2nd half whistle on Armenteros when he had already leveled Valeri and Blanco previously with worse actions, and Trapp had a hard foul in the 49th minute and argued the call, but Unkel wasn't having any of it. The Timbers, who had been initially frustrated by the calls, seemed to be adjusting better now that the scrutiny of the officiating had turned on the visitors. But outside of a pulled shot from Mullins in the 65th minute and a rushed effort from Hansen in the 77th minute, it looked like the Crew might have run out of ideas until they put a late rush on goal in stoppage time. One of the more curious moves in the match was the fact that Savarese chose to leave the starters on the pitch until Ebobisse replaced Armenteros in the 84th minute and Valeri was subbed by Melano right as the stoppage time started. The Crew were pressing a lot to see if they could make things interesting, but the Timbers defense had been reasonably solid in denying the chances until the late stages.

After Mullins pulled a shot wide of the left post and Williams pulled a shot over the bar right afterwards on the next run. the Crew added a goal in the very late stages past the allocated 2 minutes of stoppage time. Sosa played a ball out wide right for Maloney who whipped a cross to the left post where Hansen had found space and no mark, and he confidently put the header past Clark as the Timbers Army were celebrating the win by Tetrising. The final whistle blew right after the restart, but it was some very nervy late moments as the Crew pulled out an extra goal to make things interesting. The biggest questions now surround the trip to Minnesota this weekend with really most of the key offensive threats for the Timbers having played big minutes in Houston and versus Columbus. Does Ebobisse get the start against the Loons since Armenteros played most of the match? Does Savarese avoid the rotation on defense and play Ridgewell and Villafana again for long minutes after the midweek match or does he go back to Cascante and Powell instead? Usually a big win like this adds some confidence for the victors, but with the Timbers staring at a wickedly hard schedule down the stretch, player health and fitness will be paramount. This point is huge considering that after Minnesota, the Timbers play 4 matches against teams in the playoff chase around them (host FC Dallas on 9/29 currently in 2nd place; RSL in Utah on 10/7 currently in 5th place behind Portland, RSL in Portland on 10/21, Vancouver in Canada on 10/28 with the Caps currently in 7th place 4 points below the line).

Timbers' Losing Streak Reaches Four As They Can't Overcome Own Goal In Loss to Sounders

It was the only goal of the match & a very unfortunate error for Julio Cascante

It was more fun watching the Portland Timbers run circles about the best in Major League Soccer, and for 15 matches in 2018, the Timbers were in a class all by themselves due to their lengthy unbeaten streak. Good things do come to an end as just 2 weeks ago, the Vancouver Whitecaps put an end to the run with a dramatic 2 to 1 win in Portland where the Caps pushed Portland about with a physical strategy and superior organization. My wife, Jennifer, said after that result, she thought there might be an extended string of defeats until the Timbers could figure it out again; I had hoped against anything that the effort against Vancouver was more of a one off that the new standard as the team embarked on a long road trip to Washington D.C. and Kanas City. Unfortunately, the Timbers woes followed them on consecutive losses to D.C. United by a 4 to 1 tally and to Sporting Kansas City by a 3 to 0 result, but hope sprung eternal that Portland might get it figured out against one of their most heated rivals. With the Seattle Sounders FC visiting and enjoying a long unbeaten streak of their own of 9 unbeaten with 6 consecutive wins, the Timbers were hoping home cooking and a revived approach would be the elixir to cure their ails. While the defense was much improved after conceding 7 goals in two matches, the offense couldn't find anything to get past Sounders FC goalkeeper Stefan Frei. In the end, the only goal of the night was an odd deflection off Timbers center back Julio Cascante that slid past a startled Attinella, and that was enough for the Sounders FC to achieve a 1 to 0 victory in Portland in front of another sellout crowd.

The result not only extended the Sounders' unbeaten run, but it vaulted them to fifth place in the West and into the playoffs. For the Timbers, it was their third home loss of 2018 and second consecutive defeat at Providence Park, which pushed them below the drop line into seventh place. After a considerable flurry of points following the tough start to 2018, Timbers Coach Gio Savarese and his team could do little wrong in vaulting into the discussion of championship contenders for MLS Cup 2018. However, the fourth consecutive defeat has opened up serious questions about the side, especially considering that while Portland posted several impressive offensive statistics against the Sounders such as total shots (22 vs 6), open play crosses (25 to 11) and possession time (55 percent to 45 percent), they failed to generate a single goal much less a dangerous shot that Frei had to deal with. Since Samuel Armenteros' goal versus D.C. United in the first half, the Timbers have conceded 8 goals since then leading to the three losses, but in this match, the defense wasn't the issue despite conceding the own goal. As much as the Timbers' playmakers of Diego Valeri, Armenteros, Sebastian Blanco, Andy Polo and Diego Chara could put crosses and diagonal passes in dangerous spaces for their teammates, the ball movement failed to generate any threats to the Seattle defense that they couldn't handle. For the Timbers, this crisis couldn't come at a worse time considering the team hosts Toronto FC midweek on August 29 before making a cross country venture to Boston on September 1st to play the New England Revolution.

Sebastian Blanco & Ozzie Alonso battled a lot on this afternoon.

Savarese unveiled a 3 defender, 5 midfielder, 2 forward hybrid formation that produced a good half of soccer against Houston and had mostly good moments in the Timbers' last win against Philadelphia back on August 4, but the plan failed to produce much pressure against the Whitecaps until a furious second half rally that the Caps outlasted. Changing up the plan again in D.C. and SKC failed to produce any dividends, and Gio decided to go back to the drawing board against the Sounders in resurrecting the team's most successful formation - the tree, also known as 4 defenders, 3 defensive midfielders, 2 attacking midfielders and a lone striker. This grouping was used during the Timbers' unbeaten streak, and it seemed to produce the best balance between stout, viable, organized defense and free flowing, creative offense. Due to player availability, Savarese again had to tweak the overall choices in the starting 11 and overall game day roster, which has perhaps led to some of the uncertain play that has plagued the team in the past few weeks.

With Jake Gleeson out after tibia surgery and Kendall McIntosh off with Timbers 2, Portland again turned to Jeff Attinella as the starting goalkeeper with newly signed Steve Clark listed as his backup. With Larrys Mabiala having played every available minute in 2018 until he was pulled in the loss to SKC, Savarese again changed up the backline giving Liam Ridgewell the start alongside Julio Cascante with Alvas Powell and Zarek Valentin flanking them on the right and left side respectively. Ridgewell hadn't appeared for the Timbers since leaving the May 2 home match versus LAFC with an injury, and there have been plenty of rumors circling about his status with the team long term and current fate with playing time. In the defensive midfield trio. Savarese started stalwart Diego Chara alongside Lawrence Olum and Andy Polo, with Olum more tasked with staying home in the middle and allowing Polo and Chara to circle about and attack. With Diego Valeri and Sebastian Blanco set as the attacking mids and Samuel Armenteros as the lone striker, Savarese had his best trio of creative players set up for the attack. Savarese had several options off the bench with Bill Tuiloma, Andres Flores, David Guzman, Cristhian Paredes, Marco Farfan and Dairon Asprilla to augment the side, but there were question of where would goals come from the subs if needed with just Asprilla being a true attacking option.

Kim Kee-Hee and Chad Marshall have been a very good center back pair.

The Sounders have spent most of 2018 seriously adrift due to various injuries and personnel issues, but just as the calendar switches to the later months of summer before back to school, the Sounders have started to find their form with an improved defense and some intriguing additions to their side. Coach Brian Schmetzer had been under fire earlier this year for the troubles, but since the team has reeled off their own unbeaten streak, the pressure has suddenly lifted away in all the fuss. Frei has arguably been one of the best goalkeepers in MLS all year, but center backs Chad Marshall and Kim Kee-Hee have formed a solid partnership along the backline and newly signed fullback Brad Smith has provided depth for them in a troubled area. With supreme annoyance Ozzie Alonso holding down the middle, Seattle uses a varied attack with Nicolas Lodiero, Harry Shipp, Will Bruin, Cristian Roldan, Will Bruin and recently added Raul Ruidiaz to generate offense due to the loss of Jordan Morris for injury. When the plan works, the Sounders can play attractive, albeit annoying soccer with Alonso and Gustav Svensson wreaking havoc in the middle, especially knowing the defense will remain organized and the offense will provide chances while relieving pressure on the counter.

The Timbers generated a huge advantage in the first half with 14 registered shots and several crosses and passes that created space, but upon reviewing the list of efforts, the only one that registered of any significance was a Cascante header in the 9th minute off a corner kick from Valeri. Several shots were blocked - 7 of the 14 were fully blocked - but on several chances, the pass or effort was either rushed, just off target or intercepted. The Timbers were repeatedly trying to spring Valeri, Blanco or Armenteros up the middle, but Seattle had the middle packed full of bodies. While Polo and Powell provided some interesting width options that did work, the Sounders allowed the use of space and marked up their defense for the crosses, and they were usually able to deflect the shot away. While Seattle didn't generate anything dangerous against the Timbers defense, the tenor of their press did result in one issue for Portland in the 22nd minute when Chara received a caution for a retaliatory foul on Shipp. Chara was the target of several early bumps and jostles, and in this play, Center Official Chris Penso caught Chara coming in late from behind with a slide tackle. Neither side could find the elusive first goal, which I give credit to two very organized defenses for providing good resistance. However, for me, the Timbers' problems were also being compounded by some impatience in the passing and movement on offense trying to be too precise instead of taking the first good chance to shoot or attack the goal.

Samuel Armenteros battles Cristian Roldan for the ball

Both teams chose to stay with their starters into the second half, and Portland again ramped up the pressure as Valeri chose to challenge Frei with a distance shot from the right flank that Frei was late to react to. Instead of catching it, Frei spilled the ball into play, but Seattle was able to clear it and concede a corner kick that was eventually cleared. The back and forth battling continued until the Timbers had perhaps their best run of sequence in the 70th minute off consecutive corner kicks. Under sustained duress. Cascante, Ridgewell and Valentin all had good looks at the goal off the pass, but it was Armenteros with the best of them all with a header off a Valentin cross that just flew over the cross bar. Valentin pulled off one of the best shake and bake moves to leave a Sounders defender flat footed, but Armenteros' header was just off the target. Roldan had challenged Attinella with a shot in the 47th minute off a shot in traffic after a Polo turnover, but the Sounders nearly broke the scoring open when Shipp pulled a shot wide left off a bang bang sequence that left the Sounders midfielder in space in the box with no marking. As the match wore on, it began to appear that perhaps one goal was going to be enough to separate the teams, especially with both defenses providing such stellar cover.

That moment came in the 76th minute with Roldan holding the ball on the right with Polo, Olum and Valentin all nearby with Kee-Hee making a run along the touchline without a mark. The pass was made into space with Ridgewell now the only defender nearby and Liam chose to stay in the box and not attack the player, thus giving Kee-Hee the space he needed to run into the box. Kee-Hee tried to make a cross to the left post where Ruidiaz was waiting, but the ball instead struck Cascante in the plant foot as Julio made an awkward attempt to clear the ball. Instead of a clearance, the ball trickled just inside the left post as an own goal setting off a wild celebration for the visitors and reducing Cascante to near tears at the error. Cascante was called upon in the ensuing sequence to make a few more tough clearances and tackles, but with the Timbers needing a goal, Savarese brought on Flores and Asprilla for Polo and Blanco. The updates produced a couple of blocked shots and a late miss from Powell, while Ruidiaz nearly added another goal for the visitors off a late cross with a bicycle kick. But all the rushed shots and passes proved to be in vain as the final whistle blew and the Sounders could celebrate the victory gained on rival soil.

Everywhere Diego Valeri went, so did a white shirt. Or three. 

Seattle now finds themselves above the playoff line in front of a home date with Sporting Kansas City this weekend, then a long break until their next match in mid September. Portland, meanwhile, gets the re-surging Toronto FC midweek before making the cross country flight to New England to then return home to play Colorado on September 8. Portland then gets another three match week to bring their games played more even with road dates in Houston on September 15 and Minnesota on September 22 surrounding a home match with the Columbus Crew on September 19. It's a difficult stretch of matches for the Timbers, who now find themselves trying to answer more questions after another difficult loss at home. After being nearly invincible over a long stretch where the team was able to address most every challenge with a response, the Timbers now find themselves looking for anything to help them find some confidence.

As much as I'm an advocate for midseason trades and moves, especially under the excitement of bringing in quality talent like Jorge Villafana and Lucas Melano, it's obvious that the team chemistry has been off since Fanendo Adi and Vytas were traded in separate moves. Cohesiveness is such an important part of any team, and losing a contributing element and a very liked role player appears to have caused some static. I also feel that as good as Blanco, Valeri and Armenteros have been on separate occasions this year, they are all pressing under the weight of the losing streak. When the results are coming and everything is synced up, soccer is a very easy sport to play, but when it's off-kilter for any reason, the answers to fix it aren't always easy. I trust that Savarese knows the true health mentally and physically of his charges, and has some good ideas to try and right the ship, but as I've stated, sometimes that's not easy to execute. He's tried a few different ideas that haven't worked, but I do truly believe the Timbers have the talent and heart to fix this. I just hope they can get it sorted out before they lose too much ground in a suddenly tightening Western Conference playoff race.