Timbers Qualify For 2018 Postseason With Resounding Win Over Real Salt Lake

Diego Chara gives the Timbers some breathing room with his second half goal.

Since our last posting, there has been a lot of things that have transpired for the Portland Timbers that hasn't been covered here. Vacation with time off and a lengthy break in the MLS schedule will do that around here, but since Portland's scrappy win over the Columbus Crew at home back on September 20, Portland traveled to Minnesota United and lost, then drew at home in a scoreless deadlock with FC Dallas a week later where starting goalkeeper Jeff Attinella dislocated his shoulder during the affair. Similar situations have derailed previous Timbers seasons especially with the team having a trip to Real Salt Lake on October 7, a venue and club that has proven difficult to deal with in Utah over the years. However, Portland ended up posting their most impressive road victory of 2018 in dismantling RSL by a 4 to 1 score (yes, I know the victory in Flounder land was impressive but this one was bigger in my opinion) behind a brace from Sebastian Blanco and goals from Jeremy Ebobisse and Lucas Melano. The result was far more impressive considering that the Timbers took the lead, RSL drew level after getting some well generated chances, and then the Timbers poured it on late for the final tally. The same two sides would meet in Portland 2 weeks later where Portland has made it their goal to dominate, and keeping with their theme, the Timbers turned in another dominant effort by posting a 3 to 0 victory to finish their home regular season matches for 2018.

The victory ensured that Portland will be playing in the 2018 MLS Post Season being the fifth side to secure qualification behind current number 1 seed in the West Sporting Kansas City, second seeded LAFC, third seeded FC Dallas and fourth seeded Seattle. The final berth will be determined during the final week between RSL, who finished their 2018 season in the loss at Portland, and the Los Angeles Galaxy, who must beat Houston at home to jump RSL for the sixth spot. Considering that the last weekend features a battle between Sporting Kansas City and LAFC, there could be movement among the top spots in the West right up until the final whistles. SKC has the most points and a win secured the top berth, while LAFC and FCD are tied at 57 points with LAFC getting the tiebreaker for now. Portland has the chance to jump up in the table with a win in Vancouver, but they would need to depend upon Colorado to defeat FC Dallas and San Jose to upend the Sounders in Seattle. Granted, anything is possible right now, but at the time of this posting, Portland is currently in fifth, meaning they would travel to Seattle for the opening round play-in match on October 31 or November 1 with the winner hosting LAFC on November 4 in leg 1 of the 2 leg conference semi-finals with leg 2 occuring on November 11. Considering the Timbers up and down season up to this point, having a playoff berth is quite an achievement but I don't think anybody on Coach Gio Savarese's side is content with just qualification.

Jeremy Ebobisse got the start and drove the RSL defense crazy.

Savarese has been pulling the various strings down the stretch to maximize points and results, and has stuck with the 4 defender - 2 defensive midfielder - 3 attacking midfielders - 1 forward formation during the past few weeks with some minor squad rotation. With Attinella still recovering from the shoulder dislocation, it was Steve Clark in goal for the Timbers with Attinella available as the bench sub. Defensively, Savarese gave Jorge Villafana, Zarek Valentin and Larrys Mabiala the starts on the backline, but he brought on veteran Liam Ridgewell as the second center back with Bill Tuiloma and Alvas Powell sitting on the bench. Tuiloma was a big reason behind the defensive success versus RSL in Utah, but Savarese chose the experience of Ridgewell to provide some stabiilty and experience versus an RSL side that has shown recent bouts of offensive explosions. In the midfield, Savarese put in his most experienced defensive midfielders in David Guzman and Diego Chara with Lawrence Olum available as the sub, while putting the trio of Andy Polo, Diego Valeri and Blanco forth as the attacking midfielders. Ebobisse has been the current choice of strikers and Jeremy got the start here again, but Samuel Armenteros and Lucas Melano were available as subs if needed. With Andres Flores filling the last sub spot on the bench, this was likely the strongest group available for Portland, and Savarese wanted to make sure his team didn't digress. Portland also had some suspension concerns with both Guzman and Chara one match away from a suspension if they received a caution in this match.

RSL's playoff hopes took a huge hit with the loss to Portland, but they could put pressure on the Galaxy in their home finale on October 18 by defeating New England. Midfielders Kyle Beckerman and Sunny were unavailable in that match for disciplinary reasons and other regulars were just returning from international matches, but RSL used a copped together lineup and thrashed the Revolution by a 4 to 1 tally. With Beckerman and Sunny avaialble again and key players Joao Plata, Jefferson Savarino, Albert Rusnak and Justin Glad all back and rested from the break, RSL Coach Mike Petke had his full compliment of players at the ready. Damir Kreilich, Rusnak and forward Corey Baird were held in check by the Timbers in leg 1 although usual Timbers killer Plata figured into the 1 goal that RSL put up, but with all the players fully fit and another Timbers hurdle in Rimando in the starting eleven, Petke had to like his side's chances going into the weekend. RSL's offense has alternated between stagnant and fluid depending whether Beckerman and Sunny were able to go, and considering both defensive midfielders were ready to go, this would be an interesting chess battle in the middle. The battles between Beckerman and Guzman/Chara have become quite testy over the years, and there was still some bad blood after Beckerman pulled Guzman down during the match in a headlock and escaped the scrutiny of the officials for his actions.

Lucas Melano entered the match late and earned an assist in his short stint.

If there were any questions about the intensity of the match, they were answered in the opening minutes when Portland earned a free kick just outside the box. While Valeri struck the ball well heading towards the box, Guzman was absolutely flattened in the melee and remained on the ground until center official Ismail Elfath stopped play as the Timbers regained possession and continued to attack the goal. Beckerman and Valeri traded close misses to goal in the 9th and 10th minute, the Timbers broke open the scoring in the 15th minute off another free kick. Taking the ball from left to right, Valeri put a diagonal ball towards the right post on the south side where Mabiala and Ridgewell were lurking, and Mabiala was able to outflank RSL centerback Marcelo Silva for the ball and put a shot on target. The ball slid just past Rimando into the goal as the RSL keeper was slow to react to the play, and the Timbers were celebrating the early 1 to 0 lead. Blanco continued to hound the goal with a close range miss in the 17th minute while Ebobisse was very busy creating space and passes in the offense when Portland could find room to move. RSL was content to pressure Chara and Guzman and flood the middle with Sunny and Beckerman clogging the channels by any mean's possible. Beckerman's tactics earned him a caution in the 27th minute when he flattened Guzman at mid pitch, and the Timbers crowd were keying on number 5 for RSL every where he went on the pitch.

Number 5 nearly put his name on the scoring sheet in the 44th minute off a corner kick from Plata where he outleapt Guzman for the ball and put a header on target with some pace. Clark was able to palm the ball away and Mabiala cleared it out with a header for a second corner kick that generated a close miss for Savarino, but RSL wasn't able to get their goal before the break. RSL came out after the break and generated two huge chances - a 49th minute play where Sunny intercepted a pass from Chara to Valeri on the break and the Timbers lost track of Plata as Sunny punched the ball to RSL fullback Brooks Lennon. As Lennon put a cross over to him on the left hand flank. Plata punched the ball into the south deck and completely out of play for a bad miss. RSL got a point blank shot in the 52nd minute off another corner when Plata's restart found Beckerman, who bumped the ball over to Glad, who was standing near the right post open as Ebobisse moved forward to try and deflect the ball. As Ridgewell tried to move in to deflect the ball, Glad punched a shot on frame that Clark pushed over the bar for a huge reaction save. RSL couldn't believe they missed the shot, while Clark celebrated the deflection with his teammates.

Steve Clark made several huge saves to earn the shutout & get a slab

Rusnak put another missile shot at Clark in the 60th minute off another corner kick that the Timbers keeper was able to block it away, and it was appearing that the RSL pressure might eventually pay off with a goal. Portland, however, was finally able to counter in the 62nd minute when Polo was able to shake off a defender and streak down the left channel with Villafana in support. Once Andy got to the box, he dropped a back heel pass to Jorge, who kept his run going and put a cross in the goal area for Blanco for an easy tap in. Sebastian, however, chipped the ball over the bar, but it was enough to relieve some of the offensive pressure that RSL had been exerting since the halftime break. The 69th minute saw Portland finally get some breathing room as the ball spun out to midpitch with Ebobisse settling as Valeri ran by. Jeremy decided to hold the ball and punch it out wide right for Blanco for a run in space, but unbeknown to everyone on the RSL side, Chara broke down the middle untouched for a clean run on goal. Blanco put the pass to Diego with Rimando forced to leave his line, and while Nick did force Chara to move slightly right, Diego was able to collect the ball and punch it into the open net to extend the lead to 2 to 0. You could feel the sense of relief by the Timbers as they were finally able to breathe a bit after the extended RSL pressure.

The final 20 minutes saw Portland push to add more to their total. Polo tried his luck from a tight angle in the 82nd minute as he was able to get to the touch line with just Rimando to beat, and the ball caromed off the keeper towards the goalline but RSL was able to push it away. Blanco and Valentin broke down the right in the 84th minute off a superb run, and when RSL couldn't clear the threat, Valentin fed Blanco with a nice pass and Seba forced Rimando into a huge reaction save to block the ball away. Rimando wasn't lucky enough minutes later when Blanco would get his goal off a lovely pass from substitute Melano, who replaced Ebobisse, when Valeri fed Lucas in the middle of the pitch with RSL scrambling. Lucas held the ball and waited to space or players to open up, and he was able to find Blanco wide open. Sebastian did have to outflank Glad and Rimando for the shot, but Seba was able to calmly slot the ball in to extend the lead to 3 to 0. The result meant that Portland had qualified for the postseason breaking the long standing even year curse that has been plaguing the team for years.

Savarese was able to celebrate the big win in the regular season home finale.

The Timbers were not able to secure any information about their fate though upon reviewing the other scores going on as Sporting had defeated FC Dallas, Seattle had beated Houston, the Galaxy beat Minnesota United to keep their playoffs alive, and LAFC drew with Vancouver. The results left Portland in fifth where they started the day, but with Sporting and LAFC playing in the final week and the teams currently sitting at 1 and 2 in the West, there will likely be movement there. All matches in the final week kick off at 1:30 PM Portland time, so while Portland will be playing Vancouver to finish their year, they will be paying attention to FC Dallas - Colorado, Seattle - San Jose and Galaxy - Dynamo. Portland can achieve 57 points by winning and have the goal differential tiebreaker with FC Dallas, but LAFC has a big goals scored advantage over both sides. MLS tiebreaker rules are points, then total wins followed by goal differential, followed by goals for, so the final playoff seedings could come down to the wire.  Portland had done their part to secure the berth, and as we have seen in playoff runs, anything can truly happen once the post season begins. The Timbers have to feel very good about their chances considering their offense has been improving from week to week, the defense has found their form, and despite injuries, the team has seen several players step in and play well when called upon to.

It is rather unsettling, however, that the finale against RSL could indeed be the last match in Providence Park for the 2018 Timbers season though. If Portland is unable to overtake anybody, they would be traveling for the play in match and would only earn a home match if they were able to advance. And it's that fact that seemed to resonate with several players during the proceedings. Ridgewell seemed very focused and emotional as rumors persist whether he will remain in Portland, and he brought out his recently born daughter during the anthem to celebrate her arrival with the home fans. With the Timbers Army doing their usual end of season tifo individualized for each player and Blanco winning the Supporter's Player of the Year award after a vote of the supporters, there seemed to be much emotion in the air that this could be the final gathering for 2018 at Providence Park. I, however, don't think so and feel we will get another chance to chant and sing for victory, but as with everyone, we won't know much until the matches complete next Sunday. But for one sunny afternoon in front of another sell out crowd, the Timbers and their fans could celebrate and bask in the accomplishments of the 2018 season and look forward to the next round of fun.

After RSL, Where Do The Portland Timbers Go For Answers (Part 2)

Happier times before the wheels came crashing down.

Post match discussions with my wife, who not only has a wonderfully successful career as a celebrated sports photographer but is a very knowledgeable sports fan in her own right, can get rather entertaining. While I appreciate the vantage point supplied to cover home Timbers matches up in press row with working outlets, reams of stats and information supplied, and conversation subjects abound, Jennifer gets a unique vantage point to shoot and observe the action up close right along the touchline. We often spend our walks from the stadium back to the car talking about the match highlights or frustrations, and the exercise does usually provide further evidence for some of my observations. It can also trigger me to go back and review match notes, my Twitter feed, video highlights or the match itself to see if I missed something within a split second while I'm trying to think of something clever to tweet about in my match commentary. Obviously, the result against Real Salt Lake led to the conversation being more animated than usual, but there was a large disconnect between our perspectives.

I try to be critical when I'm in soccer mode because that is part of the necessary analysis, which can prove to be difficult when you know the players and coaches directly. At times, the absurdity of me trying to critique professional athletes on what they do from moment to moment seems as productive as having one of them come in and do an evaluation of me while I work in my normal IT job. It's taken a while for me to transition into the full analyst role and gain necessary insight and aptitude to see individual and team successes and failures and be able to describe it in a meaningful manner. I wasn't fully immersed in the world of soccer growing up, so you could say much like my career with Old Growth FC, everything I've done is purely self taught. It involves watching a tremendous amount of sports, reading different outlets for their opinions, having conversations with other people to learn their perspectives, and then having the confidence and writing skill to put it down and back it up. While we both reached the conclusion that the Timbers had a terrible night, I was struggling with the fact that this wasn't just a one night situation.

Dairon Asprilla has been a difference maker this year

It is at these junctures that the two facets of my soccer personality - the fan and the analyst - wage war to try and find answers that make sense to explain the malady. It starts with pouring over numbers, previous posts and notes to satisfy the data side - March and April were very good for the 2017 Timbers, May was exceedingly average, while June and July have watched things come unraveled, especially on the defensive side. Much of the problem can be tracked to absences from certain key personnel for whatever reason, but in my opinion, the two biggest losses in that equation have been Diego Chara and Liam Ridgewell. Chara's ability to create turnovers and distribute quickly in transition have been sorely missed, but adding David Guzman gave Chara more leeway to move about and cover more ground. With Guzman splitting time between the Timbers and Costa Rica, the loss of Chara after his injury during the draw with the Sounders FC back on June 25 has been more evident. Since then, Timbers Coach Caleb Porter employed Ben Zemanski and Darlington Nagbe in the draws with Sporting KC and Chicago in the central midfield, but with Nagbe called up to the USMNT for the Gold Cup knockout round, Porter went with Lawrence Olum and Zemanski versus RSL. Olum was originally signed as a back up defensive midfielder to help with depth there, but with Ridgewell's continuing injury issues, he's spent more time at center back than anywhere.

It's easy to look at the above information and combine it with the other player losses for RSL - Vytas, Amobi Okugo and Marco Farfan to injury alongside Ridgy and Chara, plus Nagbe, Guzman, Darren Mattocks and Alvas Powell to the Gold Cup - and excuse the result due to the personnel. This doesn't explain two other factors, however, which is where the fan part chimes in - this team was supposedly set up to deal with these situations with extended depth, and every MLS team has to deal with these realities during the league's lengthy schedule. MLS training camp starts in mid January, and due to the league's postseason, the champion isn't often crowned until mid December. I do have some issues with the league in how they run things, and if I was ever put in charge of things, I would get rid of the playoffs all together. It's not that I dislike playoffs - they make sense in the NFL with an unbalanced schedule, while MLB has a relatively truncated month or so of playoff baseball - but it makes less sense in soccer. 2016 emphasizes that point in one respect - while the Sounders hoisted MLS Cup as champions, arguably the best team last season was FC Dallas. All FCD did was win the Open Cup outright, the MLS Supporters' Shield for most points in the regular season, and advance to the Conference semifinals. Their only glitch was a big loss to the Sounders in leg 1 of their 2 match series, and FCD nearly overcame that. But in the minds of many MLS fans, it would be the bule and green that were the best club in 2016, despite the fact that they struggled for much of the year until adding Nicolas Lodiero in the summer transfer window.

Contemplative Jake is contemplative

For me, being the best team for the entire season is a bigger accomplishment, which is why the Supporters' Shield is a more important honor in my mind because it's over a longer time period. Going back to if I was in charge of soccer, I would change up CONCACAF Champions League berths to Supporters' Shield winner and USOC winner only. The other two berths could be given to winners of division 2 and 3 soccer leagues to provide some incentive there, but for me right now, the current system essentially plays into the mentality of "just make it to the playoffs". I realize that in 2015, that is exactly what happened to the Timbers, being the hottest team at that point and they used a lot of variables to hoist MLS Cup, and the Sounders repeated the recipe last year. But it is a true honor to be champion of a league for what essentially boils down to being really good and lucky at just the right time? In some instances, that is the reality, but does that make it right? Thus this back and forth goes on and on, but it takes on a new direction in talking with my wife, who possesses an innate ability to be critical to a fault. Some people are blessed with that gift, and I'm not one of them - there is always an excuse or circumstance that could explain it away, and I'm always looking for the benefit of the doubt, even if the facts are staring me right in the face.

The reality here is that despite the depth and change in personnel, the Portland Timbers collectively are not a good soccer team. In terms of soccer talent, Portland is blessed with several creative offensive players - Valeri, Nagbe, Blanco and Adi immediately come to mind - solid defensive stoppers - Chara and Guzman - and above average defenders - Vytas and Miller currently fit the bill here. But with all this talent, my basic question is who are the leaders on this side? When the Timbers accomplished their MLS Cup win 2015, there were several leaders that emerged from that group that filled various roles: Borchers, Jorge Villafana and Ridgewell were the focal points of the defense in organization and strength, Chara held together the middle, and Adi, Valeri, Nagbe and former striker Maxi Urruti were the offensive catalysts. You also had Jack Jewsbury, the undisputed club captain and emotional focal point, and Will Johnson, the fiery personality that would scrap with anybody. After winning the title, the organization had to make several difficult choices in the roster, which changed the make-up of the roster, but the Timbers continued to have question marks throughout their season.

The Timbers depth has been tested all year

Portland made marked updates for 2017 designed to fill various roles, but I still have question marks about who the team leaders are. Many on social media have been wanting the team to add a feisty personality to give the team some bite, like Johnson did during his tenure, and I believe there is some merit to either adding this or finding someone in the current group to do that. Even when Johnson was suffering with injury in 2015, I thought Borchers and Jewsbury filled that role albeit differently - more subtle, but still the same "in your face" mentality that sometimes in needed. There is no dispute that Valeri is the team's emotional leader right now as well as being the offensive catalyst, but for me, he needs help in reducing that burden. But you also need a counter balance - when emotions got high versus RSL, there was nobody that was helping reign in the group emotionally and we witnessed 2 Timbers players receive ejections for various plays. There needs to be another player who can bring the group back to a more grounded thought process when needed, and for me, Jewsbury was very good at being a calming influence when needed.

Do I think there are players within this group that could fill these capacities? I've always thought Blanco could be that firebomb because of his demeanor at times, but he's still acclimating to the personalities. I think Miller is starting to find his voice as well for the defense, but this wasn't his original purpose when he was signed, as it really was Ridgewell that was supposed to be the leader. With his collective of injuries, the Timbers have had to improvise and it's been trial and error, but for me, this is a very important juncture for the defense to find that leader and rally around him. When a group has confidence and an emotional leader, good things can obviously happen and maybe in a way, the RSL result could be a catalyst for some much needed change. As much as Portland has lived by the "next man up" philosophy out of necessity, there reaches any point where the constant flow of "chaos" becomes unsustainable. At some point, there needs to be some stability and foundation established.

At least he was smiling after the match. Welcome to PDX, Larrys!

And this needs to come from the players directly. While Porter and his coaches can install attack plans and strategies and the organization can try to find reinforcements, leadership within the team needs to be established by the team and backed up by the coaches when those leaders emerge. I don't want to single out the players in all of this, because it's also been apparent that some game day decisions or indecisions haven't worked well (the substitution pattern has been random all year) and there is questions about the overall roster mix relating to depth, which falls into the technical and scouting side. But sometimes when a side has their backs against the wall, they can rally to do something truly amazing on the pitch. As I'm finishing up this post, I'm watching the Timbers vs Vancouver, and I have never seen such a gutty, gritty, composed effort by a club in quite a while as they hold on for an impressive 2 to 1 victory. Maybe this is a one off, maybe it's the start of something huge, I have no idea, but I got stuck in back in 2004 watching Welton Melo and the Sounders end the Timbers' year in dramatic fashion, and with that result, I became RCTID. There is no other way to be regardless of the situation. 

Timbers vs. Real Salt Lake - My Attempt at Catharsis (Part 1)

Dairon Asprilla hits and misses in the 1st half versus RSL

This isn't going to be a typical match recap or report regarding the Portland Timbers, but then again, there was nothing very remarkable about the end result of the match, a 4 to 1 dismantling that wasn't even as close as the final scoreline would indicate. Timbers Coach Caleb Porter was already dealing with an extremely thin bench due to lingering injuries and international call-ups in trying to field a game day roster, and while he was able to field a starting eleven with 5 available subs, it was apparent from the opening whistle that something was off. While various factors also contributed somewhat to the disjointed effort, the simple fact that became crystal clear when this one finished up was that this was a collective team implosion. Portland was outclassed and outplayed in their own grounds, and while there might be talent on this roster, there is a big gaping hole within the fabric of this roster that isn't going away anytime soon. Unfortunately for Timbers fans, I fear the resolution of this problem isn't going to be very quick, either.

The Timbers were already dealing with a litany of injuries with Amobi Okugo, Liam Ridgewell and Diego Chara out for an extended period, but Vytas joined the list with a lingering calf injury. Portland was also dealing with several players out for Gold Cup duty with Darlington Nagbe (USA), David Guzman (Costa Rica), Alvas Powell (Jamaica) and Darren Mattocks (Jamaica) all with their national sides. On a 27 man roster, that put the Timbers at 19 available for game day with 16 field players and 3 goalkeepers. While Larrys Mabiala did give some breathing room being finally eligible to play as his contract became eligible, Marco Farfan was also held out of the match so Portland fielded just 5 substitutes along with their 11 named starters - Jake Gleeson in goal, Roy Miller and Mabiala at center back, Zarek Valentin and Chance Myers as full backs, Lawrence Olum and Ben Zemanski as defensive mids, Sebastian Blanco, Diego Valeri and Dairon Asprilla as the attacking mids and Fanendo Adi as the striker. The available reinforcements were Rennico Clarke for defense, Jack Barmby, Victor Arboleda and Jeremy Ebobisse for attack and Jeff Attinella in goal.

Chance Myers started due to other injuries before he was broken

Portland has talked greatly about their improved depth in 2017 and how they have worked to find strength when their first choice options aren't available for whatever reason. However, the team has been severely challenged since pre-season when Gbenga Arokoyo suffered a ruptured ligament. The team didn't expect Ridgewell to miss as many matches as he has either, but the defensive line has been an absolute carousel of players, which hasn't exactly led to the best chemistry at certain points. During the first half, it was obvious that Myers was having difficulty finding his position on the pitch, whether on the attack or defending. When his night was ended in the 43rd minutes by an absolutely cynical tackle from RSL midfielder Joao Plata (don't worry - we'll talk officiating later) and he couldn't continue, Porter had to bring on Arboleda as the wing, move Olum to center back, put Blanco at central mid, Valentin moved to right back and push Miller out to left back. An already fragile balance in positioning with many players filling unfamiliar roles suddenly got pushed to new heights with the injury, but it's been a theme of the Timbers all season - next man up. On this night, however, next man up didn't necessarily provide much aid.

RSL put the Timbers on the back foot in the 10th minute when Portland inexplicably left RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman unmarked on the right flank just outside the Timbers box. The space allowed the unfortunately coiffed one to uncork a shot that beat Gleeson into the upper left hand corner of goal, and left everyone wondering what broke down there. While Gleeson needed to cover his goal better, this one came down to leaving a dangerous shooter completely free with time to plot and the ball at his feet. The line got worse in the 49th minute when Asprilla stepped on the foot of RSL midfielder Jefferson Saravino trying to defend in the box, and while the Timbers recovered the ball, Center Official Baldomero Toledo pointed to the spot for a penalty based on the contact. Plata converted the penalty in the 50th minute, but his night wasn't done as he tallied a second in the 80th minute playing the offside trap. Substitute RSL defender Danilo Acosta hit Plata in stride with just Miller and Gleeson to beat, and the diminutive midfielder did the rest as he now takes the mantle of Timbers killer on the RSL roster. RSL midfielder Albert Rusnak got into the act in the 68th minute off a breakaway when RSL caught the Timbers shorthanded, and he slammed a pass from Savarino past Gleeson for his fifth goal of 2017.

Adi and Beckerman battled all night. Literally.

The complexion of the match had changed dramatically before Rusnak's goal as both sides saw their lineups dramatically change. Arboleda's night was finished in the 54th minute as he challenged Plata for a loose ball at midpitch and got his arm slightly up, and when Plata collapsed to the turf in agony, Toledo wasted no time in pulling out the red card for Victor. Toledo's red card got more work 2 minutes later when Adi and Beckerman tangled midpitch after a loose ball, and Adi took exception to having his foot stepped on by Beckerman. During a stop in play, Fanendo shoved Beckerman to the turf, and within moments, there was a scrum on the pitch with Adi on top of him. Toledo sent both players away, leaving Portland with just 9 players to RSL's 10, but the Timbers were still fuming about other various missed calls under Toledo's watch. Olum and Valentin earned 2 of Toledo's 10 issued cards on the night for hard fouls, but Portland was upset at several serious tackles and fouls that Toledo chose not to caution - the most serious being the Plata takedown of Myers. Valeri joined the collective at the halftime break getting a caution for dissent in talking with Toledo about some issues, yet RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando lingered with Toledo for several minutes in a lively discussion that didn't yield any discipline.

In watching MLS games for many years, Toledo has a reputation for being a loose cannon, so it's expected that calls could go in any direction at a moment's notice. I'm actually surprised Valentin didn't pick up a second caution after his reaction to Asprilla's penalty considering the reaction, and consider the Timbers lucky to only have 2 players sent off. Both ejections were entirely valid in my opinion - shoving another player and then trying to tackle him will always draw an ejection, while I admit that I missed seeing Arboleda's arm move up when battling Plata - but Baldomero missed a lot of other calls that left the home side frustrated. I also give credit to RSL Coach Mike Petke and his side as they came in with a plan to control the tempo and be physical with the Timbers, and they jostled at nearly every juncture. The RSL players also sold light contact to draw fouls, and when your side is the aggressor, that usually means getting some benefit from the officiating. The scoreline only got some relief when Barmby, subbed on for Asprilla in the 72nd minute, blasted a distance shot that spun past Rimando into the right corner of goal in second half stoppage to give the Timbers a small something positive for the night.

Toledo called this a penalty. Looks like incidental contact.

Portland is now winless in their last six matches since knocking off FC Dallas at home on June 10, an affair notated by the Timbers using 3 different center back duos within the same match due to injury in what I called one of their most impressive results. Since then, Portland has lost 3 and drawn 3, including having two matches decided in the dying minutes and that has caused some concern among the faithful. After starting the 2017 like gangbusters with 5 wins and 2 draws in their first 9 matches, including breaking their winless streak on the road from the 2016 season, Portland has come crashing to earth with just 2 wins and 3 draws in the 12 matches since yet they still sit in 5th place in the West. They now face a near impossible scenario for their match happening on July 23 versus the Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada, playing in a venue that Portland has had solid success in during the MLS era until most recently.

Porter indicated in comments to the media today that the Timbers' injury list grew longer as Myers is now out for 6 to 7 weeks with a torn ankle ligament and other foot damage while Farfan is dealing with a sprained ankle that will keep him out for a bit. With Vytas and Chara still trying to recover from their knocks, Portland will likely have just 11 First Team players available to play (considering Adi and Arboleda are suspended). The unusual circumstances will require the Timbers to call up several Timbers 2 players - at least 3 to have the game day minimum of 11 starters and 3 available subs for a total of 14 - to just fill their game day selection. With the bad taste of the RSL loss still in the air and a difficult assignment for this weekend, many fans have been pining about options to get this team jump started. I've gone around and around and I finally think I have answers - well, my thoughts based on observation and analysis - to hopefully right the ship coming in my next entry.