Apple, may I have a word? Your commentators suck, except for Ziven. This is the second game I’ve noticed that your commentators didn’t have a script for Portland being the better team. In response they either kept to the irrelevant script, in the case of Twellman gushing over Seattle, or literally went silent for several minutes (after originally being so effusive about St. Louis) during todays game between Portland’s first and second goals.
Your commentators mispronounce names, identify players incorrectly during plays, and espouse stale Timbers info. And they just talk and talk and talk, nearly as much as NFL broadcasters. End the experiment and go back to regional commentators.
I'll second this together with the remarks of the first two replies. I'm really tired of the mispronounced names, misidentified players, and other signs of announcers who seemingly didn't take even a half hour to cram before the match they were set to announce. This happens week after week.
Because I'm always looking for points in opposition to my own position, I will mention that these announcers correctly praised the Timbers' successful playbook and execution, even using the word "magnificent"--twice. Thanks for that! I also like that the Apple announcers spend more time calling the play-by-play (however poorly) than nattering on in mindless banter and halfwit analysis like the Fox (and sometimes ESPN) announcers when the Timbers played an away game.
But yes, I miss Jake and the rest of the Timbers broadcast team and agree that they are far better than most. Apple historically never publicly addresses criticism, but I hope they're hearing this and implement a fix, as they did for the problem of scores always displaying for completed game (spoiling the outcome for those who watch later). I wouldn't expect this to be fixed this season, but I do expect next season to be better.
I also admit that I like Zivin and Strong because I listened to both of them for so long doing Timbers games, so I have my own bias there. But I also know that both of those guys were/are objectively GOOD at what they do and put a ton of effort into pre-game homework (watching film, reading up on the team, talking with the coaching staffs and media that knows the team, learning pronunciations, etc., etc., etc.,).
I realize StLC is an expansion team this year so they don't have a historical team of commentators in the mix, but it sure felt like those guys last night were the StL team.
Unfortunately, I think the Apple experiment is showing us all how absolutely TERRIBLE the regional commentators were for 90% of MLS teams, and now we all have to suffer through it 90% of the time. I honestly don't mind the concept of what they are trying to do but the gulf between good and bad is so wide and so many are in the bad bucket that it will take years before they can hone a pool of national level commentators who can do any MLS game and do it well.
Jake does his homework. I still remember several years ago when we still had the opportunity to occasionally watch preseason games, there was a PORvSEA game that had one person representing each team on the call since it wasn't a real match. The guy from Seattle had no idea who the trialists from his own damn team were, but Jake did!
The play by play guy was the NYRB guy, and the color was someone else from another team. They weren’t on the St. Louis team, they probably just praised them more because they’re one of the best teams in the league playing at home in an awesome environment. And the story of our season has just been “injuries.” I thought they did a fine job last night, even though I don’t like the play by play guys voice
Agreed (again St. Louis didn't have a MLS team before this year, so they couldn't have had an MLS broadcast team).
I suspect we will see many of these neutral broadcasters seeming to "side" with the home team, especially teams with winning records, because most of the time those teams win and they look like they know what they are talking about.
We have been so used to 90% regional broadcasts and the 10% that are national games done by fairly competent teams on ESPN and Fox (albeit sometimes miss the mark and some who get a little grating when they always bang the same drums - such as Twellman for me, some hate Lalas with the same passion as Twellman, but I don't mind Lalas because he is much more often right even if he isn't saying what people want to hear).
Actually, you don't even need to bother doing it with Apple.
Just turn on our local broadcast and turn off the Apple audio... Radio is on a 30 second delay so pump the left arrow 3 times that shows on the beginning of Apple's game shot to sync our radio team with the video. Relax and enjoy!
BTW, just like Jake and John Strong, out local guys are top-notch...
Really awesome game. Remember when we were all doom and gloom at the start of this run? Boy oh boy how things have changed. As I've said before, the past few seasons this team has surprised us when they are at their lowest and rallied when no one thought they would (a sign of a good locker room). We crushed Seattle and then largely outplayed two of the top teams in the league away from home, beating one of them. Besides the stretch from the Ayala injury until halftime, I think we really controlled the game. Now speaking of Ayala...
I am absolutely gutted and heartbroken. He was playing so well, and I really believe in him as the future of our midfield for as long as he stays with us. I don't see playing again for the rest of the season, and that really, really sucks. Caliskan is now next man up off the bench, so we better hope Paredes stays healthy, which he isn't great at. I was very critical of Paredes in the first half but he shook off those jitters and came out flying in the second. He was awesome. He's a player that really thrives on the transition, and he's been playing much higher this season than usual. Is that by design? He was playing higher than Evander mostly. We will really need him to step up because Ayala as set a really high bar for the midfield. Chara was also fantastic. Remember when he seemed a step slow the first few games? Yeah, not anymore. What a player.
Miller and McGraw were my two men of the match, outrageously solid. I'm so much more comfortable with Miller on the left than Rasmussen. McGraw continues to be a fantastic center back, he didn't put a foot wrong this game, and only got a yellow for a completely clean (and excellent) challenge. McGraw should be getting more league wide recognition for his contributions, he's really amazing and I'm so happy that he turned out the way he did. And when Bravo comes back, it will make everything even better. We limited them to seven shots with only one on goal. Remember when we would only have a few shots a game? Well we had 15 and should've had more because sometimes our players seem to be allergic to shooting around the box.
Yimmi coming back showed his quality, he's one of the best all around players we got on the team. DP level? No. But very, very good, and he slots right into the team. He's a great player and he might fit in really well with the attack. At while not as consistently goal dangerous as we all would like, he got an awesome goal, serviced by Moreno who really came to life in the last 30 minutes. Even Niezgoda looked a bit better when he came on, though he really should've scored when Paredes set him up perfectly (what was Paredes doing not shooting there though?). Loria seemed to be the only week link, though even he started the game really well, I was really happy with him for the first 15 or so minutes, and then he went back to normal Loria things.
Boli is still adjusting to the speed of the league. When he has time you can see he has a good bit of quality, but he finds himself swarmed by players as soon as he gets the ball, and keeps trying to hold the ball up against two defenders, which usually isn't advisable. I'm not worried about him, I still think he can be good. He got into dangerous positions, just didn't make the most of them. I'll take a guy that gets into dangerous positions consistently and whiffs than a guy who rarely gets into any dangerous positions
So in the league upcoming we got a struggling Austin and a mediocre Vancouver, both at home. Two teams we are directly fighting with around the playoff line. Then RSL away who are also in that area, then Minnesota at home who have been struggling since the start of the season. Then we go to SKC, the worst team in the league. These are all games we really should win, and need to if we want our season to truly turn around. This is where our schedule finally gets easier, and if we start hitting our stride now, we could pick up some serious momentum
Yes I'm drinking a lot of hopium in that last paragraph. I will take my positives and run with them, don't try and stop me
Spot on re Paredes. He was very good in the second half, but from the moment he came on for Ayala to the end of the 1st half we took a step back. Ayala is a better defender and better on the ball, Paredes is better at creating chances. Paredes MOTM? No way.
Moreno is great in the open field, but tries to dribble the ball into the net, usually through 3 defenders. Shoot the damn ball and before the defender is on you to deflect it.
Evander needed to come out at the 75 minute. STL goal was on him. Yes he is trying to be to cute, but was better this game.
Don’t know who my MOTM is, maybe a combo award to all the players whose name starts w “M”.
When were the Timbers looking good? LAFC second half. Seattle second half. It's when Paredes comes in. I don't think you can say Ayala has a higher bar. He is NOT a better defender and he is not better on the ball. And yes, Paredes is better at creating chances. He has the skill, he reads the game is super athletic and he has the will to put in the work - that's a sign of a winner. He destroyed last night. It reminded me of Timbers championship runs when he was a part of that. We went to the championship due to his presence, and then he didn't start in the championship against NYCFC and that was a dagger. I am truly sorry to Ayala get hurt, but the team is better with Paredes starting.
I agree that Paredes is a better player than Ayala right now, but as others have said the situation isn't Paredes vs Ayala, but the opportunity to play with 3 solid players in Chara/Paredes/Ayala with Williamson out. Sadly we are now dealing with only Chara/Paredes with absolutely no reasonable depth. It was a problem starting the season with all four players, but now we are in a position where plan C becomes the reality. Perhaps Evander moves back and Moreno becomes the 10? Puts a lot of pressure on Moreno (but perhaps takes some off Evander), but this could be a reasonable option at times this year.
Paredes creates more chances because he plays higher up than Ayala. Ayala makes runs forward but drops back more and helps build out. This can be seen in their stats, Paredes does better in offensive and chance creation stats, whereas Ayala does better in passing and dribbling, and just overall involvement (Paredes doesn’t have great stats when it comes to # of touches per 90). They’re about the same in their defensive stats. Ayala has a better passing range and combines very well in the first two thirds of the field, then Paredes is more active in the final third
And if we wanna play the game of when Timbers were looking good, the past three games are the perfect example with Ayala playing a massive role in each, with a noticeable initial drop off when he came off the field last night because Paredes wasn’t helping in possession. I hope Paredes can continue to perform as he did in the second half because he was great and added a different dimension to the attack
I just see it differently. I didn't see any drop off initially when Paredes came in the first half.
Not that Ayala was playing bad but he wasn't playing great either. Not many passes forward. He had a terrible touch in the back third that led to a shot by St. Louis.
I think folks like to see someone come in like Ayala, a young guy who might represent the future of the midfield. And I'm not saying he can't. But it rankles me when a guy like Paredes - who has proved to be a valuable piece of the midfield - gets overlooked.
It's very simple. The Timbers are successful with Paredes and Chara in the midfield. Paredes had a massive game. Defensively, offensively. He's just superior athletically to Ayala.
There is no reason not to think Paredes will do what he did moving forward. He's done it in the past. As far as touches, he had a ton last night, all positive.
So Ayala's (likely) injury is a disaster for us and obviously awful for him. If you asked me should Ayala start or Paredes, I'd shrug my shoulders. They're both good. But all of the sudden, with Williamson's injury and Ayala's, we've gone from the midfield being a place where we had excellent depth to the midfield resting on two players whose ability to hold the load all season is suspect. Obviously, Diego Chara is made of adamantium like Wolverine but at 37 he's going to need some rest. And Paredes has basically never negotiated an entire season without several weeks on the DL. It just really sucks. Anyways, the loss of depth is the problem, not Paredes vs. Ayala. Does anyone know if George Fochive is still hanging around town by any chance?
What about David Guzman? He put on a lot of weight last time I saw him but maybe he could hit the stairmaster and give us a couple minutes now and then.
Paredes has also shown to be very inconsistent in the past and be invisible/ineffective. From recent games it seems that won’t be the case, but the question is there, largely due to the fact that he gets injured a lot and than sometimes seems to reset him
If we’re choosing to start Ayala or Paredes I’m picking Paredes, don’t get me wrong here, all I’m saying is Ayala has been playing very well and I hope Paredes can continue that because we desperately need him too. And watching the game back (working on a Paredes video), Ayala had a great start to the game
It is almost like most of our midfielders weren't ready for the start of the season and injury added to the insult.
Moreno had a pretty awful first 8 games, but now seems to be finding it.
The injury bug between Evander, Y. Chara, Parades, Asprilla added to the inconsistency, Blanco hasn't seen the pitch in MLS play (I am thinking he might be the perfect 10-20 min sub when you are up a goal if he can get back to playing - energy, can possess, dangerous and annoying to no end to the other team when he gets spicy) -- plus Williamson, now probably Ayala lost for the season with major injuries. We had to push Mosquera up to play midfield, sign a T2 guy, play with a short bench, etc.
They looked cohesive all match for the first time in ages. There were shakey moments but they held it together.
Miller is the answer over Rasmussen all day. That shouldn’t even be a discussion moving forward.
Paredes looked great. What a shift.
But the guy who looked THE BEST coming off the bench, by a long shot, was Yimmi! I’m been very critical of him over his stint with the Timbers so far but I’ve gotta say—he looked the part last night. His first touches we some of the best I’ve seen I. The league. Over and and over, one touch passes that were cheeky, creative, and on target, several of which directly opened up opportunities to attack. What a piece to have in transition. It seems like the ability to interplay with the likes of other creative midfielders in transition is just what he needed. The way he connected with Evander and the blossoming Moreno really showed his quality compared to what we had seen of him before—an individual trying to move the ball forward in transition on his own or someone trying to finish off chances and create for themselves in the final third.if this chemistry continues to develop, it’s going to be fun to watch and dangerous for opponents defenses. They picked SLCs midfield apart in transition.
We definitely owned the midfield. Yimmi was a great surprise, and I think he will gel and fit right in both on attack and defense. Basically, nobody is scoring down the right side with Yimmi and Mosquera.
Absolutely on Miller over Rasmussen. When Bravo isn't available I would much rather see Miller go 70 and Rasmussen finish out the game. Limit the issues with the kid but provide fresh legs to see out the game.
I'm also looking forward to seeing Yimmi, Moreno and Evander on the field at the same time. There is a lot of potential in that group that I really like.
Spot on about Yimmi... it was so good to see him again ALL over the field and working defensively in a pack with Diego... delighted to see the "Chara Bros. Spin Cycle" applied to SLC from sideline to sideline!
On a side note, they are wearing the shit out of those pink atrocities of a kit. Our nice new green kits would have been very easy to tell apart from STL's bright red. At least the pink vomit kit will be gone at the end of this season.
Stat oddity. We were the only Western Conference team to win this week! Galaxy and SKC lost to Eastern teams while all matches between West teams were draws (HOU & LAFC on bye).
I can't really say I feel bad for him/them, but he's in a really tricky position there, as an ex-fan-favorite player turned long-term coach. Any other coach would and should have been fired by now after a winless-in-10 start, but he gets a little more grace. Which is probably right, morally, but how much deeper will the hole they're in get by the time they do something to right the ship?
From the outside, I would argue that that stasis of sticking with a coach just because he's a long-time servant of the club is in fact most of the problem, but I also don't know their situation in any detail so I'm not sure what other extenuating factors exist there. All I know is that it's delightful as a non-SKC fan to watch a powerful team struggle so hard.
Highlight video for the man of the hour, Paredes! Dude was fantastic. I have a few thoughts that I'll just copy/paste --
A few notes on the video: I put in a replay of Paredes’ tackle inside the box. It’s a very close call imo, it’s shoulder to shoulder enough to where it’s fine with not being a pk, but man, if that’s called I don’t know if I can complain. Second, the shot by Boli at 4:56 was during the part of the stream that went out for a few seconds. That wasn’t just me, right? Anyways, since I figured a lot of people didn’t see that, I put in a replay of just that shot (which Paredes was lightly involved in). Very good shot and shows Boli’s quality. The guy can score goals, he just needs to figure the league out. If we can get him in good areas I have a good feeling about him. In fact, Paredes was instrumental in getting Boli into good spaces, he did it countless times.
At 5:30, do you guys think he should’ve passed to Evander there? I think I do, but I don’t blame him for laying it off for Moreno, though I think he needed to angle that pass back more because with how slow it was it gave Burki enough time to close down the angle to where Moreno had a slim chance of getting it past him. I don’t know, it’s hard to judge really. I also want to point out how great of a sequence we had at 6:56, all one touch to Paredes who gets taken down. If he’s not fouled there, he squares that across to Evander, who scores. What a goal that would’ve been. Now, the play at 9:11. Why isn’t he shooting there? He plays a fantastic ball to Jaro (who needs to score that, come on) don’t get me wrong, but part of me wants him to be more selfish and just hit it. He’s got a fantastic shot and he’s six yards from goal, he does so well to put the defender on ice skates, just hit it! But who am I to talk, he should’ve gotten an assist anyways and if Niezgoda puts that in, we forget all about this and it’s a great play from Paredes, which it still is.
A monster game from him, if he can keep this up then we are sitting pretty
I tend to be a Paredes critic, but I would venture to say this was his best game as a Timber, especially the 2nd half (combine that with a resurgent Moreno and it was good). Maybe others can think of better outings, but that 2nd half last night was magnificent. Credit where credit is due.
Would have been a terrible penalty call. Not sure it was even shoulder to shoulder as much as he stepped in front of a long touch and the defender ran into him and went down. Have I seen that called as a foul (poorly)? Sure, but would have been an awful PK call.
I went to the Thorns game so missed the 2nd half (watched when I got home on replay but knew the score as it had been announced at Prov Park). Talked to several people who said the match blacked out for a minute or two today, but as I was watching replay there was none. Boli's quality off of Evander's defensive action (ahem, for those elsewhere complaining about his lack of defense ... which was definitely lacking after about minute 80).
Yes, in retrospect either Evander or Loria were better options because he had pulled the keeper out and they had much more wide open angles centrally and back post, but in the moment I can see why he went short pass rather than the 2 longer options as he assumed the defense would be turning around and surging forward back to their men (longer pass = slower, another half to full second for defense to recover).
On that late "pass" to Niezgoda, in real time I thought he mishit the shot, lol.
Oh yeah I thought he mishit that last pass too 100%. I was thinking that of course he was gonna shoot from here! Then when it didn’t go in or over I was thoroughly confused. I thought it must’ve been deflected or something. But on replay you could see that it was absolutely intentional and honestly probably took more skill than just shooting it
You know, the Timbers looked like they could have scored 7 goals. Keep doing what they were doing. That was an incredible stretch in the second half. I'll give Evander some more credit, and maybe he'll get more fit and be more effective, but he did have some moments during the game that looked good. I'm pretty stoked for the team right now. Loved the video!
Highlights of Evander for this game. There’s a lot of clips here if Evander not touching the ball, I wanted to highlight as much defensive actions as I could. Whether that be covering space, tracking back, or lightly pressing. He did a lot of defensive work this game, which is probably why he got tired at minute ~80 and had a dip in quality and effort. I’m not a big fan of him playing as deep as he did when Paredes came on, but thought he did ok. There’s also clips of him making good runs that weren’t seen by teammates. The offense just didn’t quite click as well as it did in Cincinnati
I think I judged him too harshly after this game. After watching the extended highlight reel he very much had a positive impact on the game in the first half. I just noticed him more during the second half when I may have mistook exhaustion for laziness. It may have been Gios plan to pull him after 70 minutes but he had to use a sub after Ayala suffered the injury. He does need to keep those shots on goal a teensy bit lower so they're on frame.
Me, too, but I think you're right in that he should have been subbed, especially at 80. He couldn't transition and he couldn't get to balls, and he wasn't going hard on tackles. I'm with JJ on keeping Evander a 10- just to see how it works - with Paredes playing under with Chara, like Ayala. Curious why Gio flips that when Paredes comes on. I'm pretty excited by the midfield. It was an all around team win, but the midfield was key. I'm hoping for Evander to get fit and do even more.
Yeah I’m really not sure why it switched when Paredes came on. Obviously it worked for Paredes, but didn’t for Evander as much. He did well but could’ve been better, and I think being in the position he was really gassed him out, which led to numerous opportunities for St. Louis. I’m hoping this isn’t how Gio plans to lineup the midfield regularly and instead was a tactical switch for that particular game -- a switch that we’re criticizing, got us the win
When are we going to really talk about Evander? This dude plays like he doesn't respect the league but is comfortable not playing hard cause he's collecting a paycheck. All I see from him is lackadaisical play, and poor decisions trying to be cute. He's had a few exceptional passes to the point I know he is good. I don't think this is a case of not having talent around him, he just looks lazy. We have got way more out of Mosquera and we didn't pay 10 mil to get him here.
I would disagree about Evander. He doesn’t look lazy. He plays the game at a different speed. Where you see someone trying to be cute I see someone that is 2 passes ahead. In the first half Evander and Ayala I think had a great combo that just needed Mosquera to make a run and he would have had a great shot. First half he saved a goal. They had a breakaway on the outside and he shut down the cross. He plays good defense. Not sure the goal was on him or McGraw or Zup being out of position. McGraw seemed to be in no man’s land a bit.
If you look comparatively at Evander's stats in passing, defending and attacking he is generally average to far below average to the team. The bottom line is we've paid 5 million a goal for this guy and he's only played in 70% of the games and only 4 games were a full 90. We're nearly a third of the way into the season and there has been little to no impact. He is supposed to be our playmaker and a goal scorer. Excuses are fine for a bit but the price tag doesn't afford them too much longer.
"he's only played in 70% of the games and only 4 games were a full 90."
Funny how that's what happens when you're injured, isn't it? Evander will be much more productive going forward. It's a bit harsh to declare him "below average" when he's only been at full fitness for maybe three of the Timbers' 10 games so far.
The point of bringing up the stats was a reply to the other guy that said he was good defensively. I was just talking about the stats not backing it up. Thanks for letting me know how injuries work though. Can't believe I overlooked that.
I mean, you literally say “we paid 5 million a goal for a guy…”
He’s just getting started. The season is young and he’s been injured. Valuing him “per goal” when he just barely joined the team in what will hopefully be a successful multi-year stint, AND judging him based on limited availability due to injury before he’s had a chance to adjust to the league and really gel with the squad (due to extensive injury across the squad) is short sighted. Relax.
Hany Mukhtar came from the same league. In his first season, he played 15 games, started 13, and had 4 goals and 4 assists in 1092 minutes with 32 shots. He’s gone on to be one of the most successful midfielders in the league.
In 7 games, with 5 starts, 528 minutes, Evander has 2 goals and 19 shots. With a squad of mostly injured starters and some injury/recovery time himself. I’d say he’s doing alright.
Let’s also consider that Mukhtar is currently 28, in his prime, and transferred to the league when he was 24. Evander is currently 24 and has his best years ahead of him. Let’s not judge him on his first handful of games when those are on pace to outscore Hany Mukhtar in his first season in the league. With a healthy roster, he’s going to do good things for us. We saw that last night.
I see a guy trying to settle into a team after a start marred by injury. He is also being asked to play a role that wasn't his role on his last team (he was in the Paredes, Ayala, Williamson role - deeper lying central midfielder with license to go forward). He is now being asked to be a 10.
It has been a revolving door of teammates around him plus his own injury (that I'm honestly not sure he is 100% confident that the injury is behind him, that he is a full 90 player but just working into that. This was his 2nd game since 3/4 that he played 90 min.
I think his fitness shows late in the game on defense (I was a little frustrated with some of his lazy challenges, but those were a tired player coming off injury who, if not for the Ayala injury, might have been subbed off for a more defensive posture after Yimmi put us up one).
So, new league, new role, significant injury in his 2nd game that kept him out or with limited time appearances until game 9 (which is always going to hamper a new starter's integration into the team).
For a guy like that you have to give them a full season, or at least 75% of one to work their way in.
$10m for MLS is a chunk of change (though it is happening with increasing frequency), in the scheme of world soccer it is nothing (for 23-30 year olds his transfer was the 206th most expensive in the world for 2022-23.
We got a great deal on Mosquera -- honestly the kind of player we have been trying to find for 12 years now, cheap, young, athletic and mentally mature game. He is a once in a decade kind of signing for PTFC, so you can't compare others to him because this just doesn't happen. Diego Chara in 2011 was the last time we got a similar deal, but at that time a $2m transfer would have made him a DP ... we paid just slightly higher for DC in 2011, about $2.2m ... yes inflation adjusted was a bit more).
I tend to agree with this and I think Gio was pretty on point in his post game comments about Evander. Described a guy finding his way into the league-- a way of praising his improvement while alluding that he's got a ways to grow. I was down on Evander a game or two ago because I didn't see him putting in enough hard runs to receive the ball in dangerous positions, wasn't making himself available to receive in traffic and demanding the ball. This week he showed more confidence and wanted to be involved. I'm ok with him blowing some shots, trying some stuff that doesn't come off, even showing some frustration with teammates. We need a 10 with a healthy ego and we want him taking a high volume of shots and even having a lower pass completion rate if the passes he's trying are more dangerous. Valeri never led the team in completion percentage or passing volume, you want your playmaker looking for those options that aren't safe. The trade off is when they pull off a play other guys just can't make, you break through.
For me I'm seeing a week over week improvement. I expect that trend will continue. The quality is there. If Evander starts to make some shit happen from the run of play, fans will come around on him really quickly. Right now it's easy to fault the effort but I agree he's not fully fit. We also haven't had a chance to see much of Evander's personality. He hasn't had that chance to express himself in an emotional moment, he hasn't changed a result, he hasn't gotten to make a statement about who he is and put a stamp on it yet. I expect that to come.
I think it's ok to want our big new DP to give us more, but it's not rare for MLS to provide a unique challenge to incoming players. I'm a little surprised some people are feeling so harsh toward him after a win like this in which he was demonstrably better than what we've seen so far this year.
Adi - pretty good (9 goals) his first year but was twice as productive years 2-3 before we decided to go a different direction and his career / life went into the abyss after we sent him away.
Ridgy - immediate dividends, but actually got better the following year.
Melano - LOL
Blanco - First season was good, but took a while to adjust (first goal at end of April, 2nd goal was match 18 of the season in late June). Better years 2-3.
Fernandez - Lol, lol, lol, sigh.
Y. Chara - First season not very productive until the end, but injury and COVID screwed up that season so it is difficult to judge him fairly on stats alone (2020).
Niezgoda - showed up with a heart problem. OK to good in the weird COVID year until he blew his ACL. Super inconsistent ever since.
Evander - too early to tell 10 games in, 7 GP, 5 starts.
First, not surprised. Timbers have a lot of weapons.
MOTM Paredes. I've been saying that guy needs to start. Created at least five good chances, five more than Evander. He's freaking good. We win when that guy plays. Box to box. Was so good.
Speaking of which, not impressed with Evander. Not only does he not play defense, he's very lackadaisacal on the ball. Kind of like Williamson all over again. I said it two weeks ago: We're better with Moreno playing a 10. I think we whiffed on Evander.
Nice job Miller.
Niezgoda worked well with Paredes.
Moreno was great but he's not a wing. Been saying this for awhile.
Lastly, surprised Fogaca didn't get a run. The guy is in form. I'd start him at wing if you must start Boli, but I wasn't too impressed with him either.
Again, not surprised at the win tonight.
Hate to see Ayala get stretchered, but Paredes is miles better than him. Wake up Gio.
Evander will (rightfully) catch a lot of crap from people for the last 15 minutes regarding his lack of effort, but he was playing defense for most of the rest of the game. There was a breakaway in the first half from a set piece or corner we had at their end, and their keeper played a great punt to spring a 2v1 on goal. Their player had a wide open guy in the middle of the box and the ball would’ve gotten to him, but Evander was the one sprinting back to intercept the pass and prevent the goal. Something happened during the last 20 or so minutes, he got tired or frustrated with teammates after not getting the ball a few times when he should have, I’m not too concerned about it. His talent shows. He also started playing deeper when Paredes came on, I don’t understand why Paredes didn’t seem to be playing next to Chara, looked more like a 4-3-3 than a 4-3-2-1
Definitely agree he should have come off. I think Gio just wants to play him into fitness or show everybody this guy isn't a 10 mill signing. I mean, you take off Moreno? Paredes is box to box. But also, when they do the 4-4-2 defense, it's Paredes up there up top. I can't remember how many times he forced bad passes - the guy was amazing. I know they tried Evander in that role on defense, and it doesn't work, because he doesn't have the will.
I've already made up my mind that this is a terrible signing for 10 mil. Not that the Timbers can't use him, but we would be better off with him on the bench and Moreno running the 10 and start Fogaca at left wing and Niezgoda at forward and Yimmi at the other wing. Start Niezgoda you say? Yes, because he does the things that nobody notices, like excellent positioning. For example, Yimmi isn't open unless Niezgoda draws two defenders to him with his movement. He's not super sharp right now, but I think that would change with more playing time.
I think it’s very ill advised to have completely made up your mind about a player after just five starts in a new league coming off an injury. And he’s only 24. And he did quite a bit of defense yesterday and had a pretty good game up until the 70th minute. He forced several turnovers
Boli and Nathan have both out performed Niezgoda so far this season, and it’s up to Jaro to improve on that, and it looks like he is because he’s been playing a little better. Boli was a big part of getting the penalty
And maybe he would have, if not for Ayala's injury. But Miller was also gassed and in a spot where we needed even more D sharpness and mindedness. Flip a coin between Evander and Moreno when it got to the 88th minute and subs, but I think Gio was trying to hold off as long as possible to not interrupt continuity. I probably would have chosen Evander and told Moreno to look to be the outlet to possess / go to the corner, but this may have also been Gio attempting to give Evander confidence that he is a full 90 guy which is going to be needed in months to come.
OK, first time I've ever heard being right you're still wrong. What is this world coming to?
FWIW: I've softened my stance on Evander a bit as some of youse have argued in favor of him, using the wait and see argument mostly. And in light of the midfield depth he'll be needed.
The world is coming to this: You can make bad decisions and have them turn out ok (Bet on a coinflip, you win 10000 if it's heads, but lose 20000 if it's tails. You do it twice and get two heads and make 20k. You're so smart!!!)
Making your mind up NOW with everything that's been wrong with the Timbers season so far AND Evander's injury, is dumb. Even if he ends up a bust.
Interesting comments. For me it brings up some interesting points about roles.
I'm going to give Evander more time before calling him a miss. But the comparison to Williamson is interesting. I do see some similarities, but i see them more as an endorsement of Williamson than a criticism of Evander. I'd like to see them together for significant minutes, so maybe next year. I think Williamson has been in a weird spot for a lot of his time in Portland--sometimes asked to be a primary creator , sometimes asked to sit further back and shuttle more, but almost always without a great set of runners supporting him in attack. I think it's led him to catch flack for trying to do too much or too little on one side of the ball or other. It would be great to see a healthy Williamson in a clearly defined role as more of an 8 in a new era with Evander as a clearly defined 10, and a mature Moreno, DP striker, and another talented wide midfielder all actually seeing the field at once. That could feel like a changing of the guard for this team that didn't really miss a beat or have a lot of painful rebuilding years.
Speaking of Moreno-- I'm not sure what's "not a wing" about him or if that's meant to be critical? He's growing into that modern "playmaking winger" role pretty well, comfortable cutting inside or switching sides. It's good to see. I wouldn't want him parked in the center of the field but he's getting better at picking his moments. My favorite parts from last night were: seeing his improvement at setting up defenders with a hesitation before beating them the other way with his first touch; seeing him have the vision to look for key passes and connect on that perfectly weighted final ball for yimmi; and most of all seeing him muscle up a bit and get stuck in. He had a couple really nice shoulder charges and went into some duels that he would have been easily pushed out of last year. Good progress IMO
For Williamson and Evander the game just seems to unfold more slowly.
I thought Evander looked quite good except he didn’t seem to have his touch. I don’t know if that sounds oxymoronic, but it’s how I saw it.
I still think he’ll be great. I also thought he got back quite well until late.
I wish the ace striker was here now. But I think Yimmi, Evander, and Moreno are going to be like a children’s recorder orchestra: a headache. Especially if Paredes can stay on the field and play as he has.
Good stuff. I think Moreno's got 10 tendencies in that he can play a free role and really thrive all over the field. He's a really great dribbler in tight spaces, great passer and seems to do his best work operating in the middle. IMO he's not a winger in the sense of beat a guy one v one and then cut in and shoot or take it end line etc. If he can be playmaker on the wing, great, but I see better production out of him as a free role 10 because of his natural tendencies. I thought Evander was supposed to be that guy, but we've seen a few games here where he seems to be playing more of an eight. I hope I am wrong about Evander, but I think he is miscast here.
It has become clear to me that I need to stop watching away games. I didn't watch the FCD game and they played pretty well and snatched a draw, and I wasn't able to watch this game and it sounds like they really put one together for a change. I'll have to go back and watch it tonight.
Ayala - what a blow. Heal up young man! I hope the injury isn't what it appears to be.
After he went down we were a bit of a mess in midfield, back to typical Timbers strategic vision of "push forward as fast as you can, then get back on D". Whatever was adjusted at halftime was amazing because we came out and were the better team for nearly the entire 45. The difference was a much more active and smarter midfield. It was good to see Yimmi return and even though he had the game winner, he wasn't the only secret sauce. D. Chara, Parades, Moreno (especially), Evander, even Loria before he was subbed off were all so much better. More of this please!
I'm wondering if Gio would consider using Evander as a midfielder with Chara/Paredes due to the depth issue. With the return of Y Chara and the potential return of Blanco, the Timbers could roll with Moreno at the 10 and allow Y Chara and Asprilla to play the wing positions. If I remember correctly Evandar played more the MF in his prior stop, so we wouldn't lose much if anything in the MF.
The problem I see with this move is that it forces two of the Evander/Paredes/D Chara to play 90 minutes. It does allow us to use the depth we have up front, but at this time neither Evander or Paredes appear to be able to go 90 minutes on a regular basis. That isn't a criticism, but a statement due to both of them sustaining early injuries. Any thoughts on this?
It seems like Evander playing midfield is happening already. When Paredes came on, for defense Paredes played up top in a 4-4-2 with Evander dropping down in the midfield. This seemed to work pretty well, especially with Paredes hounding the back line into numerous bad passes, etc, and Evander able to help out with possession when winning the ball back. It probably morphs into a 4-3-3 when winning the ball back. It all seemed fairly fluid. The point being that in this case Evander was being used as a midfielder more than a 10 IMO. It kind of seemed like Gio mostly said let's forget trying to build out of the back too much and bomb it up, and if we don't bring it down, pressure them to win the ball back higher up the field.
I don't think that is a good, sustainable strategy for every game, especially for Paredes, who ran his butt off. Maybe he did it just to counter St. Louis' strategy of pressing.
But, you bring up a good point. We do have a lot of depth in attacking pieces, so you could use that depth and conserve your midfield for the long haul. Most folks would say ok, sit Paredes and start Chara and Evander in the midfield. Ol lefthanded says we win with Paredes on the field. Gio wants Evander to get 90 minutes fit, and he's a DP, so in this scenario, Gio would go with Chara and Evander in the midfield. This would be semi-ok with me, but it might grant my hope of moving Moreno to the 10 and bringing in another winger, preferably Fogaca.
But, even though it might be smart to be conservative with your midfield, the best scenario is to start Paredes and Chara and Evander (10) and sub off Paredes if he needs a blow.
At some point the Timbers are going to have to rest one of Chara and Paredes. This is where I see starting Evander next to Chara/Paredes becomes a real possibility. Then we can see Moreno moving back to the 10 position, where I think he can do well. Also, with Y Chara coming back he can drop back to the 10 and let Moreno run forward as well.
I'm on the side of Paredes needing to start, because I think he does the little things that make the team play better. I even thought that with Williamson was healthy. I just worry that he won't be able to play all the games coming up without some real rest. He isn't the Iron Man that D Chara is (but there are very few of them out there).
If Paredes is out, I’d rather play Yimmi as an 8 next to Chara instead of Evander, I think Evander works much better higher up the field with less defensive responsibilities and more freedom. However I imagine if Paredes goes down, either Caliskan will start or we will play a 4-3-3, as we did in the second half vs St. Louis
You are probably right about Caliskan playing. I think Evander makes more sense as I recall he played more midfield in Europe. Yimmi can do it, but I like the ability for Yimmi and Moreno to float up top. To be honest my thoughts on this were for the handful of games Paredes/Chara need to miss a game.
I know he played as an 8 in Denmark, but just because that’s where he played there doesn’t mean that’s where he’s best in MLS. I think he’s best parked further up the field with the speed of play here
I think it was Doyle who wrote up the game talking about how the Timbers followed Minnesota blue print to beating St Louis. Gio for all the flack he gets actually is a good tactician. I saw a well done game plan that really neutralized one of the best teams in the league to date. A solid win and a nice dish of payback.
Maybe so, but really, Gio does that 4-4-2 defensive set up for every game. This one, though, he had hound dog Paredes up top with the other forward, and it worked.
That game felt like Chaos Ball. There was little controlled possession, balls were spraying everywhere, players looked chaotic even when they were just dribbling (Santi always does, and Mosquera often does, but last night lots of players did).... It looked to me like this is St Louis's usual style of play, and the Timbers were perfectly happy to go along with it. Guess it worked!
I thought the first and second halves were really two very different games because of the weather.
The storm hit very fast just before half. It rained and blew hard and dumped LOTS of rain on the field until around minute 60. That completely changed the field conditions from slick to treacherous...
The Timbers handled it very well... But STL didn't do well at all. The slick pitch took a bite out of their press, allowing PTFC to get the counter going - and it really put those slow back defenders on skates against Yimmi, Santi, Evander and Paredes. The strong following wind blew every STL ball in the air way past its target or exposed a lack of touch in every City offensive player except Loewen...
Best game the team has played this season so far. It's another gut punch to lose Ayala. He has really shown a ton of improvement. I sure hope Paredes stays healthy. Concerning Evander, he is valuable and creates on the attack, but he looked tired at the end when we needed possession and not giving the ball away like he did in the later stages when holding on for the win. I hope he was just gassed and not being lazy on defense because he looked lazy defending towards the end. He didn't look urgent on trying to defend on STL's goal. Great win though. Now to keep this good play going and hoping we have reached the bottom of the barrel on acquiring injuries.
Apple, may I have a word? Your commentators suck, except for Ziven. This is the second game I’ve noticed that your commentators didn’t have a script for Portland being the better team. In response they either kept to the irrelevant script, in the case of Twellman gushing over Seattle, or literally went silent for several minutes (after originally being so effusive about St. Louis) during todays game between Portland’s first and second goals.
Your commentators mispronounce names, identify players incorrectly during plays, and espouse stale Timbers info. And they just talk and talk and talk, nearly as much as NFL broadcasters. End the experiment and go back to regional commentators.
I'll second this together with the remarks of the first two replies. I'm really tired of the mispronounced names, misidentified players, and other signs of announcers who seemingly didn't take even a half hour to cram before the match they were set to announce. This happens week after week.
Because I'm always looking for points in opposition to my own position, I will mention that these announcers correctly praised the Timbers' successful playbook and execution, even using the word "magnificent"--twice. Thanks for that! I also like that the Apple announcers spend more time calling the play-by-play (however poorly) than nattering on in mindless banter and halfwit analysis like the Fox (and sometimes ESPN) announcers when the Timbers played an away game.
But yes, I miss Jake and the rest of the Timbers broadcast team and agree that they are far better than most. Apple historically never publicly addresses criticism, but I hope they're hearing this and implement a fix, as they did for the problem of scores always displaying for completed game (spoiling the outcome for those who watch later). I wouldn't expect this to be fixed this season, but I do expect next season to be better.
You just don't understand industrial design, pleb
Agree.
I also admit that I like Zivin and Strong because I listened to both of them for so long doing Timbers games, so I have my own bias there. But I also know that both of those guys were/are objectively GOOD at what they do and put a ton of effort into pre-game homework (watching film, reading up on the team, talking with the coaching staffs and media that knows the team, learning pronunciations, etc., etc., etc.,).
I realize StLC is an expansion team this year so they don't have a historical team of commentators in the mix, but it sure felt like those guys last night were the StL team.
Unfortunately, I think the Apple experiment is showing us all how absolutely TERRIBLE the regional commentators were for 90% of MLS teams, and now we all have to suffer through it 90% of the time. I honestly don't mind the concept of what they are trying to do but the gulf between good and bad is so wide and so many are in the bad bucket that it will take years before they can hone a pool of national level commentators who can do any MLS game and do it well.
Jake does his homework. I still remember several years ago when we still had the opportunity to occasionally watch preseason games, there was a PORvSEA game that had one person representing each team on the call since it wasn't a real match. The guy from Seattle had no idea who the trialists from his own damn team were, but Jake did!
The play by play guy was the NYRB guy, and the color was someone else from another team. They weren’t on the St. Louis team, they probably just praised them more because they’re one of the best teams in the league playing at home in an awesome environment. And the story of our season has just been “injuries.” I thought they did a fine job last night, even though I don’t like the play by play guys voice
Agreed (again St. Louis didn't have a MLS team before this year, so they couldn't have had an MLS broadcast team).
I suspect we will see many of these neutral broadcasters seeming to "side" with the home team, especially teams with winning records, because most of the time those teams win and they look like they know what they are talking about.
We have been so used to 90% regional broadcasts and the 10% that are national games done by fairly competent teams on ESPN and Fox (albeit sometimes miss the mark and some who get a little grating when they always bang the same drums - such as Twellman for me, some hate Lalas with the same passion as Twellman, but I don't mind Lalas because he is much more often right even if he isn't saying what people want to hear).
That being said I could listen to Danny Higginbotham (color guy for the match) talk tactics just about anytime.
It really felt like they hadn’t done their homework. Honestly, I’d rather watch an opposing team’s broadcast than this week by week thing.
I think I heard something about being able to substitute the local radio commentary for the Apple one? Anyone else heard of this?
Actually, you don't even need to bother doing it with Apple.
Just turn on our local broadcast and turn off the Apple audio... Radio is on a 30 second delay so pump the left arrow 3 times that shows on the beginning of Apple's game shot to sync our radio team with the video. Relax and enjoy!
BTW, just like Jake and John Strong, out local guys are top-notch...
Yes. It should be next to the Closed Captioning icon during "live" broadcasts. I do not think it is an option for replaying the game at a later time.
Really awesome game. Remember when we were all doom and gloom at the start of this run? Boy oh boy how things have changed. As I've said before, the past few seasons this team has surprised us when they are at their lowest and rallied when no one thought they would (a sign of a good locker room). We crushed Seattle and then largely outplayed two of the top teams in the league away from home, beating one of them. Besides the stretch from the Ayala injury until halftime, I think we really controlled the game. Now speaking of Ayala...
I am absolutely gutted and heartbroken. He was playing so well, and I really believe in him as the future of our midfield for as long as he stays with us. I don't see playing again for the rest of the season, and that really, really sucks. Caliskan is now next man up off the bench, so we better hope Paredes stays healthy, which he isn't great at. I was very critical of Paredes in the first half but he shook off those jitters and came out flying in the second. He was awesome. He's a player that really thrives on the transition, and he's been playing much higher this season than usual. Is that by design? He was playing higher than Evander mostly. We will really need him to step up because Ayala as set a really high bar for the midfield. Chara was also fantastic. Remember when he seemed a step slow the first few games? Yeah, not anymore. What a player.
Miller and McGraw were my two men of the match, outrageously solid. I'm so much more comfortable with Miller on the left than Rasmussen. McGraw continues to be a fantastic center back, he didn't put a foot wrong this game, and only got a yellow for a completely clean (and excellent) challenge. McGraw should be getting more league wide recognition for his contributions, he's really amazing and I'm so happy that he turned out the way he did. And when Bravo comes back, it will make everything even better. We limited them to seven shots with only one on goal. Remember when we would only have a few shots a game? Well we had 15 and should've had more because sometimes our players seem to be allergic to shooting around the box.
Yimmi coming back showed his quality, he's one of the best all around players we got on the team. DP level? No. But very, very good, and he slots right into the team. He's a great player and he might fit in really well with the attack. At while not as consistently goal dangerous as we all would like, he got an awesome goal, serviced by Moreno who really came to life in the last 30 minutes. Even Niezgoda looked a bit better when he came on, though he really should've scored when Paredes set him up perfectly (what was Paredes doing not shooting there though?). Loria seemed to be the only week link, though even he started the game really well, I was really happy with him for the first 15 or so minutes, and then he went back to normal Loria things.
Boli is still adjusting to the speed of the league. When he has time you can see he has a good bit of quality, but he finds himself swarmed by players as soon as he gets the ball, and keeps trying to hold the ball up against two defenders, which usually isn't advisable. I'm not worried about him, I still think he can be good. He got into dangerous positions, just didn't make the most of them. I'll take a guy that gets into dangerous positions consistently and whiffs than a guy who rarely gets into any dangerous positions
So in the league upcoming we got a struggling Austin and a mediocre Vancouver, both at home. Two teams we are directly fighting with around the playoff line. Then RSL away who are also in that area, then Minnesota at home who have been struggling since the start of the season. Then we go to SKC, the worst team in the league. These are all games we really should win, and need to if we want our season to truly turn around. This is where our schedule finally gets easier, and if we start hitting our stride now, we could pick up some serious momentum
Yes I'm drinking a lot of hopium in that last paragraph. I will take my positives and run with them, don't try and stop me
Spot on re Paredes. He was very good in the second half, but from the moment he came on for Ayala to the end of the 1st half we took a step back. Ayala is a better defender and better on the ball, Paredes is better at creating chances. Paredes MOTM? No way.
Moreno is great in the open field, but tries to dribble the ball into the net, usually through 3 defenders. Shoot the damn ball and before the defender is on you to deflect it.
Evander needed to come out at the 75 minute. STL goal was on him. Yes he is trying to be to cute, but was better this game.
Don’t know who my MOTM is, maybe a combo award to all the players whose name starts w “M”.
When were the Timbers looking good? LAFC second half. Seattle second half. It's when Paredes comes in. I don't think you can say Ayala has a higher bar. He is NOT a better defender and he is not better on the ball. And yes, Paredes is better at creating chances. He has the skill, he reads the game is super athletic and he has the will to put in the work - that's a sign of a winner. He destroyed last night. It reminded me of Timbers championship runs when he was a part of that. We went to the championship due to his presence, and then he didn't start in the championship against NYCFC and that was a dagger. I am truly sorry to Ayala get hurt, but the team is better with Paredes starting.
I agree that Paredes is a better player than Ayala right now, but as others have said the situation isn't Paredes vs Ayala, but the opportunity to play with 3 solid players in Chara/Paredes/Ayala with Williamson out. Sadly we are now dealing with only Chara/Paredes with absolutely no reasonable depth. It was a problem starting the season with all four players, but now we are in a position where plan C becomes the reality. Perhaps Evander moves back and Moreno becomes the 10? Puts a lot of pressure on Moreno (but perhaps takes some off Evander), but this could be a reasonable option at times this year.
Paredes creates more chances because he plays higher up than Ayala. Ayala makes runs forward but drops back more and helps build out. This can be seen in their stats, Paredes does better in offensive and chance creation stats, whereas Ayala does better in passing and dribbling, and just overall involvement (Paredes doesn’t have great stats when it comes to # of touches per 90). They’re about the same in their defensive stats. Ayala has a better passing range and combines very well in the first two thirds of the field, then Paredes is more active in the final third
And if we wanna play the game of when Timbers were looking good, the past three games are the perfect example with Ayala playing a massive role in each, with a noticeable initial drop off when he came off the field last night because Paredes wasn’t helping in possession. I hope Paredes can continue to perform as he did in the second half because he was great and added a different dimension to the attack
I just see it differently. I didn't see any drop off initially when Paredes came in the first half.
Not that Ayala was playing bad but he wasn't playing great either. Not many passes forward. He had a terrible touch in the back third that led to a shot by St. Louis.
I think folks like to see someone come in like Ayala, a young guy who might represent the future of the midfield. And I'm not saying he can't. But it rankles me when a guy like Paredes - who has proved to be a valuable piece of the midfield - gets overlooked.
It's very simple. The Timbers are successful with Paredes and Chara in the midfield. Paredes had a massive game. Defensively, offensively. He's just superior athletically to Ayala.
There is no reason not to think Paredes will do what he did moving forward. He's done it in the past. As far as touches, he had a ton last night, all positive.
So Ayala's (likely) injury is a disaster for us and obviously awful for him. If you asked me should Ayala start or Paredes, I'd shrug my shoulders. They're both good. But all of the sudden, with Williamson's injury and Ayala's, we've gone from the midfield being a place where we had excellent depth to the midfield resting on two players whose ability to hold the load all season is suspect. Obviously, Diego Chara is made of adamantium like Wolverine but at 37 he's going to need some rest. And Paredes has basically never negotiated an entire season without several weeks on the DL. It just really sucks. Anyways, the loss of depth is the problem, not Paredes vs. Ayala. Does anyone know if George Fochive is still hanging around town by any chance?
What about David Guzman? He put on a lot of weight last time I saw him but maybe he could hit the stairmaster and give us a couple minutes now and then.
Paredes has also shown to be very inconsistent in the past and be invisible/ineffective. From recent games it seems that won’t be the case, but the question is there, largely due to the fact that he gets injured a lot and than sometimes seems to reset him
If we’re choosing to start Ayala or Paredes I’m picking Paredes, don’t get me wrong here, all I’m saying is Ayala has been playing very well and I hope Paredes can continue that because we desperately need him too. And watching the game back (working on a Paredes video), Ayala had a great start to the game
It is almost like most of our midfielders weren't ready for the start of the season and injury added to the insult.
Moreno had a pretty awful first 8 games, but now seems to be finding it.
The injury bug between Evander, Y. Chara, Parades, Asprilla added to the inconsistency, Blanco hasn't seen the pitch in MLS play (I am thinking he might be the perfect 10-20 min sub when you are up a goal if he can get back to playing - energy, can possess, dangerous and annoying to no end to the other team when he gets spicy) -- plus Williamson, now probably Ayala lost for the season with major injuries. We had to push Mosquera up to play midfield, sign a T2 guy, play with a short bench, etc.
They looked cohesive all match for the first time in ages. There were shakey moments but they held it together.
Miller is the answer over Rasmussen all day. That shouldn’t even be a discussion moving forward.
Paredes looked great. What a shift.
But the guy who looked THE BEST coming off the bench, by a long shot, was Yimmi! I’m been very critical of him over his stint with the Timbers so far but I’ve gotta say—he looked the part last night. His first touches we some of the best I’ve seen I. The league. Over and and over, one touch passes that were cheeky, creative, and on target, several of which directly opened up opportunities to attack. What a piece to have in transition. It seems like the ability to interplay with the likes of other creative midfielders in transition is just what he needed. The way he connected with Evander and the blossoming Moreno really showed his quality compared to what we had seen of him before—an individual trying to move the ball forward in transition on his own or someone trying to finish off chances and create for themselves in the final third.if this chemistry continues to develop, it’s going to be fun to watch and dangerous for opponents defenses. They picked SLCs midfield apart in transition.
We definitely owned the midfield. Yimmi was a great surprise, and I think he will gel and fit right in both on attack and defense. Basically, nobody is scoring down the right side with Yimmi and Mosquera.
Absolutely on Miller over Rasmussen. When Bravo isn't available I would much rather see Miller go 70 and Rasmussen finish out the game. Limit the issues with the kid but provide fresh legs to see out the game.
I'm also looking forward to seeing Yimmi, Moreno and Evander on the field at the same time. There is a lot of potential in that group that I really like.
For sure! If Yimmi, Evander, and Moreno stay healthy and continue to gel our transition game is going to be insane.
Spot on about Yimmi... it was so good to see him again ALL over the field and working defensively in a pack with Diego... delighted to see the "Chara Bros. Spin Cycle" applied to SLC from sideline to sideline!
On a side note, they are wearing the shit out of those pink atrocities of a kit. Our nice new green kits would have been very easy to tell apart from STL's bright red. At least the pink vomit kit will be gone at the end of this season.
That was one of my first thoughts as I watched the pre-game. Pink/red/white vs Red? Really?
I sincerely hope we can come up with a white / green 2nd for next year. Or even white with subtle "rose" would be fine.
Stat oddity. We were the only Western Conference team to win this week! Galaxy and SKC lost to Eastern teams while all matches between West teams were draws (HOU & LAFC on bye).
Man, SKC...what a mess. The Timbers may be struggling, but SKC have completely fallen apart and it's tough to see them winning a game any time soon.
Johnny Russell said something about not knowing how they would turn it around. He sounded as discouraged as can be.
You'd think with all of Vermes's experience he'd have some tricks up his sleeve for this situation, but we sure haven't seen it yet.
Watched the highlights of the SKC match. They look every bit as bad as we did at our worst in VAN.
But way, WAY worse was their body language the moment MONT scored... heads just dropped and stayed there.
I can't really say I feel bad for him/them, but he's in a really tricky position there, as an ex-fan-favorite player turned long-term coach. Any other coach would and should have been fired by now after a winless-in-10 start, but he gets a little more grace. Which is probably right, morally, but how much deeper will the hole they're in get by the time they do something to right the ship?
From the outside, I would argue that that stasis of sticking with a coach just because he's a long-time servant of the club is in fact most of the problem, but I also don't know their situation in any detail so I'm not sure what other extenuating factors exist there. All I know is that it's delightful as a non-SKC fan to watch a powerful team struggle so hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J39VrINhIO0
Highlight video for the man of the hour, Paredes! Dude was fantastic. I have a few thoughts that I'll just copy/paste --
A few notes on the video: I put in a replay of Paredes’ tackle inside the box. It’s a very close call imo, it’s shoulder to shoulder enough to where it’s fine with not being a pk, but man, if that’s called I don’t know if I can complain. Second, the shot by Boli at 4:56 was during the part of the stream that went out for a few seconds. That wasn’t just me, right? Anyways, since I figured a lot of people didn’t see that, I put in a replay of just that shot (which Paredes was lightly involved in). Very good shot and shows Boli’s quality. The guy can score goals, he just needs to figure the league out. If we can get him in good areas I have a good feeling about him. In fact, Paredes was instrumental in getting Boli into good spaces, he did it countless times.
At 5:30, do you guys think he should’ve passed to Evander there? I think I do, but I don’t blame him for laying it off for Moreno, though I think he needed to angle that pass back more because with how slow it was it gave Burki enough time to close down the angle to where Moreno had a slim chance of getting it past him. I don’t know, it’s hard to judge really. I also want to point out how great of a sequence we had at 6:56, all one touch to Paredes who gets taken down. If he’s not fouled there, he squares that across to Evander, who scores. What a goal that would’ve been. Now, the play at 9:11. Why isn’t he shooting there? He plays a fantastic ball to Jaro (who needs to score that, come on) don’t get me wrong, but part of me wants him to be more selfish and just hit it. He’s got a fantastic shot and he’s six yards from goal, he does so well to put the defender on ice skates, just hit it! But who am I to talk, he should’ve gotten an assist anyways and if Niezgoda puts that in, we forget all about this and it’s a great play from Paredes, which it still is.
A monster game from him, if he can keep this up then we are sitting pretty
I tend to be a Paredes critic, but I would venture to say this was his best game as a Timber, especially the 2nd half (combine that with a resurgent Moreno and it was good). Maybe others can think of better outings, but that 2nd half last night was magnificent. Credit where credit is due.
Would have been a terrible penalty call. Not sure it was even shoulder to shoulder as much as he stepped in front of a long touch and the defender ran into him and went down. Have I seen that called as a foul (poorly)? Sure, but would have been an awful PK call.
I went to the Thorns game so missed the 2nd half (watched when I got home on replay but knew the score as it had been announced at Prov Park). Talked to several people who said the match blacked out for a minute or two today, but as I was watching replay there was none. Boli's quality off of Evander's defensive action (ahem, for those elsewhere complaining about his lack of defense ... which was definitely lacking after about minute 80).
Yes, in retrospect either Evander or Loria were better options because he had pulled the keeper out and they had much more wide open angles centrally and back post, but in the moment I can see why he went short pass rather than the 2 longer options as he assumed the defense would be turning around and surging forward back to their men (longer pass = slower, another half to full second for defense to recover).
On that late "pass" to Niezgoda, in real time I thought he mishit the shot, lol.
Great game.
Oh yeah I thought he mishit that last pass too 100%. I was thinking that of course he was gonna shoot from here! Then when it didn’t go in or over I was thoroughly confused. I thought it must’ve been deflected or something. But on replay you could see that it was absolutely intentional and honestly probably took more skill than just shooting it
You know, the Timbers looked like they could have scored 7 goals. Keep doing what they were doing. That was an incredible stretch in the second half. I'll give Evander some more credit, and maybe he'll get more fit and be more effective, but he did have some moments during the game that looked good. I'm pretty stoked for the team right now. Loved the video!
We should’ve and could’ve scored so much more. The fun offense we predicted in preseason is starting to click
https://youtu.be/SJgwrS-3g-8
Highlights of Evander for this game. There’s a lot of clips here if Evander not touching the ball, I wanted to highlight as much defensive actions as I could. Whether that be covering space, tracking back, or lightly pressing. He did a lot of defensive work this game, which is probably why he got tired at minute ~80 and had a dip in quality and effort. I’m not a big fan of him playing as deep as he did when Paredes came on, but thought he did ok. There’s also clips of him making good runs that weren’t seen by teammates. The offense just didn’t quite click as well as it did in Cincinnati
I think I judged him too harshly after this game. After watching the extended highlight reel he very much had a positive impact on the game in the first half. I just noticed him more during the second half when I may have mistook exhaustion for laziness. It may have been Gios plan to pull him after 70 minutes but he had to use a sub after Ayala suffered the injury. He does need to keep those shots on goal a teensy bit lower so they're on frame.
Me, too, but I think you're right in that he should have been subbed, especially at 80. He couldn't transition and he couldn't get to balls, and he wasn't going hard on tackles. I'm with JJ on keeping Evander a 10- just to see how it works - with Paredes playing under with Chara, like Ayala. Curious why Gio flips that when Paredes comes on. I'm pretty excited by the midfield. It was an all around team win, but the midfield was key. I'm hoping for Evander to get fit and do even more.
Yeah I’m really not sure why it switched when Paredes came on. Obviously it worked for Paredes, but didn’t for Evander as much. He did well but could’ve been better, and I think being in the position he was really gassed him out, which led to numerous opportunities for St. Louis. I’m hoping this isn’t how Gio plans to lineup the midfield regularly and instead was a tactical switch for that particular game -- a switch that we’re criticizing, got us the win
When are we going to really talk about Evander? This dude plays like he doesn't respect the league but is comfortable not playing hard cause he's collecting a paycheck. All I see from him is lackadaisical play, and poor decisions trying to be cute. He's had a few exceptional passes to the point I know he is good. I don't think this is a case of not having talent around him, he just looks lazy. We have got way more out of Mosquera and we didn't pay 10 mil to get him here.
I would disagree about Evander. He doesn’t look lazy. He plays the game at a different speed. Where you see someone trying to be cute I see someone that is 2 passes ahead. In the first half Evander and Ayala I think had a great combo that just needed Mosquera to make a run and he would have had a great shot. First half he saved a goal. They had a breakaway on the outside and he shut down the cross. He plays good defense. Not sure the goal was on him or McGraw or Zup being out of position. McGraw seemed to be in no man’s land a bit.
If you look comparatively at Evander's stats in passing, defending and attacking he is generally average to far below average to the team. The bottom line is we've paid 5 million a goal for this guy and he's only played in 70% of the games and only 4 games were a full 90. We're nearly a third of the way into the season and there has been little to no impact. He is supposed to be our playmaker and a goal scorer. Excuses are fine for a bit but the price tag doesn't afford them too much longer.
"he's only played in 70% of the games and only 4 games were a full 90."
Funny how that's what happens when you're injured, isn't it? Evander will be much more productive going forward. It's a bit harsh to declare him "below average" when he's only been at full fitness for maybe three of the Timbers' 10 games so far.
The point of bringing up the stats was a reply to the other guy that said he was good defensively. I was just talking about the stats not backing it up. Thanks for letting me know how injuries work though. Can't believe I overlooked that.
I mean, you literally say “we paid 5 million a goal for a guy…”
He’s just getting started. The season is young and he’s been injured. Valuing him “per goal” when he just barely joined the team in what will hopefully be a successful multi-year stint, AND judging him based on limited availability due to injury before he’s had a chance to adjust to the league and really gel with the squad (due to extensive injury across the squad) is short sighted. Relax.
Hany Mukhtar came from the same league. In his first season, he played 15 games, started 13, and had 4 goals and 4 assists in 1092 minutes with 32 shots. He’s gone on to be one of the most successful midfielders in the league.
In 7 games, with 5 starts, 528 minutes, Evander has 2 goals and 19 shots. With a squad of mostly injured starters and some injury/recovery time himself. I’d say he’s doing alright.
Let’s also consider that Mukhtar is currently 28, in his prime, and transferred to the league when he was 24. Evander is currently 24 and has his best years ahead of him. Let’s not judge him on his first handful of games when those are on pace to outscore Hany Mukhtar in his first season in the league. With a healthy roster, he’s going to do good things for us. We saw that last night.
I remember that pass to Mosquera - it was just poor execution on Evander's part, something you would expect a guy to do.
I see a guy trying to settle into a team after a start marred by injury. He is also being asked to play a role that wasn't his role on his last team (he was in the Paredes, Ayala, Williamson role - deeper lying central midfielder with license to go forward). He is now being asked to be a 10.
It has been a revolving door of teammates around him plus his own injury (that I'm honestly not sure he is 100% confident that the injury is behind him, that he is a full 90 player but just working into that. This was his 2nd game since 3/4 that he played 90 min.
I think his fitness shows late in the game on defense (I was a little frustrated with some of his lazy challenges, but those were a tired player coming off injury who, if not for the Ayala injury, might have been subbed off for a more defensive posture after Yimmi put us up one).
So, new league, new role, significant injury in his 2nd game that kept him out or with limited time appearances until game 9 (which is always going to hamper a new starter's integration into the team).
For a guy like that you have to give them a full season, or at least 75% of one to work their way in.
$10m for MLS is a chunk of change (though it is happening with increasing frequency), in the scheme of world soccer it is nothing (for 23-30 year olds his transfer was the 206th most expensive in the world for 2022-23.
We got a great deal on Mosquera -- honestly the kind of player we have been trying to find for 12 years now, cheap, young, athletic and mentally mature game. He is a once in a decade kind of signing for PTFC, so you can't compare others to him because this just doesn't happen. Diego Chara in 2011 was the last time we got a similar deal, but at that time a $2m transfer would have made him a DP ... we paid just slightly higher for DC in 2011, about $2.2m ... yes inflation adjusted was a bit more).
I tend to agree with this and I think Gio was pretty on point in his post game comments about Evander. Described a guy finding his way into the league-- a way of praising his improvement while alluding that he's got a ways to grow. I was down on Evander a game or two ago because I didn't see him putting in enough hard runs to receive the ball in dangerous positions, wasn't making himself available to receive in traffic and demanding the ball. This week he showed more confidence and wanted to be involved. I'm ok with him blowing some shots, trying some stuff that doesn't come off, even showing some frustration with teammates. We need a 10 with a healthy ego and we want him taking a high volume of shots and even having a lower pass completion rate if the passes he's trying are more dangerous. Valeri never led the team in completion percentage or passing volume, you want your playmaker looking for those options that aren't safe. The trade off is when they pull off a play other guys just can't make, you break through.
For me I'm seeing a week over week improvement. I expect that trend will continue. The quality is there. If Evander starts to make some shit happen from the run of play, fans will come around on him really quickly. Right now it's easy to fault the effort but I agree he's not fully fit. We also haven't had a chance to see much of Evander's personality. He hasn't had that chance to express himself in an emotional moment, he hasn't changed a result, he hasn't gotten to make a statement about who he is and put a stamp on it yet. I expect that to come.
I think it's ok to want our big new DP to give us more, but it's not rare for MLS to provide a unique challenge to incoming players. I'm a little surprised some people are feeling so harsh toward him after a win like this in which he was demonstrably better than what we've seen so far this year.
Lots of players take a year to adjust to MLS, and very few do it under half a year. Let's give him some time.
Even those who just follow PTFC should know this.
Chara - immediate dividends.
Boyd - LOL.
Valeri - immediate dividends.
Adi - pretty good (9 goals) his first year but was twice as productive years 2-3 before we decided to go a different direction and his career / life went into the abyss after we sent him away.
Ridgy - immediate dividends, but actually got better the following year.
Melano - LOL
Blanco - First season was good, but took a while to adjust (first goal at end of April, 2nd goal was match 18 of the season in late June). Better years 2-3.
Fernandez - Lol, lol, lol, sigh.
Y. Chara - First season not very productive until the end, but injury and COVID screwed up that season so it is difficult to judge him fairly on stats alone (2020).
Niezgoda - showed up with a heart problem. OK to good in the weird COVID year until he blew his ACL. Super inconsistent ever since.
Evander - too early to tell 10 games in, 7 GP, 5 starts.
In other news Voyager 1 just caught up to Boyd's missed PK
First, not surprised. Timbers have a lot of weapons.
MOTM Paredes. I've been saying that guy needs to start. Created at least five good chances, five more than Evander. He's freaking good. We win when that guy plays. Box to box. Was so good.
Speaking of which, not impressed with Evander. Not only does he not play defense, he's very lackadaisacal on the ball. Kind of like Williamson all over again. I said it two weeks ago: We're better with Moreno playing a 10. I think we whiffed on Evander.
Nice job Miller.
Niezgoda worked well with Paredes.
Moreno was great but he's not a wing. Been saying this for awhile.
Lastly, surprised Fogaca didn't get a run. The guy is in form. I'd start him at wing if you must start Boli, but I wasn't too impressed with him either.
Again, not surprised at the win tonight.
Hate to see Ayala get stretchered, but Paredes is miles better than him. Wake up Gio.
The immortal Diego Valeri played very little defense, especially late in games.
Not an excuse (I think most of Evander's fall off was in the final 10 minutes and the guy was gassed, coming off an injury), but just sayin'.
Evander will (rightfully) catch a lot of crap from people for the last 15 minutes regarding his lack of effort, but he was playing defense for most of the rest of the game. There was a breakaway in the first half from a set piece or corner we had at their end, and their keeper played a great punt to spring a 2v1 on goal. Their player had a wide open guy in the middle of the box and the ball would’ve gotten to him, but Evander was the one sprinting back to intercept the pass and prevent the goal. Something happened during the last 20 or so minutes, he got tired or frustrated with teammates after not getting the ball a few times when he should have, I’m not too concerned about it. His talent shows. He also started playing deeper when Paredes came on, I don’t understand why Paredes didn’t seem to be playing next to Chara, looked more like a 4-3-3 than a 4-3-2-1
Definitely agree he should have come off. I think Gio just wants to play him into fitness or show everybody this guy isn't a 10 mill signing. I mean, you take off Moreno? Paredes is box to box. But also, when they do the 4-4-2 defense, it's Paredes up there up top. I can't remember how many times he forced bad passes - the guy was amazing. I know they tried Evander in that role on defense, and it doesn't work, because he doesn't have the will.
I've already made up my mind that this is a terrible signing for 10 mil. Not that the Timbers can't use him, but we would be better off with him on the bench and Moreno running the 10 and start Fogaca at left wing and Niezgoda at forward and Yimmi at the other wing. Start Niezgoda you say? Yes, because he does the things that nobody notices, like excellent positioning. For example, Yimmi isn't open unless Niezgoda draws two defenders to him with his movement. He's not super sharp right now, but I think that would change with more playing time.
I think it’s very ill advised to have completely made up your mind about a player after just five starts in a new league coming off an injury. And he’s only 24. And he did quite a bit of defense yesterday and had a pretty good game up until the 70th minute. He forced several turnovers
Boli and Nathan have both out performed Niezgoda so far this season, and it’s up to Jaro to improve on that, and it looks like he is because he’s been playing a little better. Boli was a big part of getting the penalty
Like I said, I'd like to see more of Nathan. He's in form. Scored against Seattle, his touch looks golden right now.
Gio has basically two squads of attackers he's willing to throw at teams.
And maybe he would have, if not for Ayala's injury. But Miller was also gassed and in a spot where we needed even more D sharpness and mindedness. Flip a coin between Evander and Moreno when it got to the 88th minute and subs, but I think Gio was trying to hold off as long as possible to not interrupt continuity. I probably would have chosen Evander and told Moreno to look to be the outlet to possess / go to the corner, but this may have also been Gio attempting to give Evander confidence that he is a full 90 guy which is going to be needed in months to come.
"I've already made up my mind that this is a terrible signing for 10 mil."
Well, that's dumb. Even if you end up right, it's still complete nonsense.
OK, first time I've ever heard being right you're still wrong. What is this world coming to?
FWIW: I've softened my stance on Evander a bit as some of youse have argued in favor of him, using the wait and see argument mostly. And in light of the midfield depth he'll be needed.
The world is coming to this: You can make bad decisions and have them turn out ok (Bet on a coinflip, you win 10000 if it's heads, but lose 20000 if it's tails. You do it twice and get two heads and make 20k. You're so smart!!!)
Making your mind up NOW with everything that's been wrong with the Timbers season so far AND Evander's injury, is dumb. Even if he ends up a bust.
Interesting comments. For me it brings up some interesting points about roles.
I'm going to give Evander more time before calling him a miss. But the comparison to Williamson is interesting. I do see some similarities, but i see them more as an endorsement of Williamson than a criticism of Evander. I'd like to see them together for significant minutes, so maybe next year. I think Williamson has been in a weird spot for a lot of his time in Portland--sometimes asked to be a primary creator , sometimes asked to sit further back and shuttle more, but almost always without a great set of runners supporting him in attack. I think it's led him to catch flack for trying to do too much or too little on one side of the ball or other. It would be great to see a healthy Williamson in a clearly defined role as more of an 8 in a new era with Evander as a clearly defined 10, and a mature Moreno, DP striker, and another talented wide midfielder all actually seeing the field at once. That could feel like a changing of the guard for this team that didn't really miss a beat or have a lot of painful rebuilding years.
Speaking of Moreno-- I'm not sure what's "not a wing" about him or if that's meant to be critical? He's growing into that modern "playmaking winger" role pretty well, comfortable cutting inside or switching sides. It's good to see. I wouldn't want him parked in the center of the field but he's getting better at picking his moments. My favorite parts from last night were: seeing his improvement at setting up defenders with a hesitation before beating them the other way with his first touch; seeing him have the vision to look for key passes and connect on that perfectly weighted final ball for yimmi; and most of all seeing him muscle up a bit and get stuck in. He had a couple really nice shoulder charges and went into some duels that he would have been easily pushed out of last year. Good progress IMO
For Williamson and Evander the game just seems to unfold more slowly.
I thought Evander looked quite good except he didn’t seem to have his touch. I don’t know if that sounds oxymoronic, but it’s how I saw it.
I still think he’ll be great. I also thought he got back quite well until late.
I wish the ace striker was here now. But I think Yimmi, Evander, and Moreno are going to be like a children’s recorder orchestra: a headache. Especially if Paredes can stay on the field and play as he has.
I hope we can possess more too.
Good stuff. I think Moreno's got 10 tendencies in that he can play a free role and really thrive all over the field. He's a really great dribbler in tight spaces, great passer and seems to do his best work operating in the middle. IMO he's not a winger in the sense of beat a guy one v one and then cut in and shoot or take it end line etc. If he can be playmaker on the wing, great, but I see better production out of him as a free role 10 because of his natural tendencies. I thought Evander was supposed to be that guy, but we've seen a few games here where he seems to be playing more of an eight. I hope I am wrong about Evander, but I think he is miscast here.
It has become clear to me that I need to stop watching away games. I didn't watch the FCD game and they played pretty well and snatched a draw, and I wasn't able to watch this game and it sounds like they really put one together for a change. I'll have to go back and watch it tonight.
Your sacrifice will not be forgotten, soldier. Carry on!
Ayala - what a blow. Heal up young man! I hope the injury isn't what it appears to be.
After he went down we were a bit of a mess in midfield, back to typical Timbers strategic vision of "push forward as fast as you can, then get back on D". Whatever was adjusted at halftime was amazing because we came out and were the better team for nearly the entire 45. The difference was a much more active and smarter midfield. It was good to see Yimmi return and even though he had the game winner, he wasn't the only secret sauce. D. Chara, Parades, Moreno (especially), Evander, even Loria before he was subbed off were all so much better. More of this please!
I'm wondering if Gio would consider using Evander as a midfielder with Chara/Paredes due to the depth issue. With the return of Y Chara and the potential return of Blanco, the Timbers could roll with Moreno at the 10 and allow Y Chara and Asprilla to play the wing positions. If I remember correctly Evandar played more the MF in his prior stop, so we wouldn't lose much if anything in the MF.
The problem I see with this move is that it forces two of the Evander/Paredes/D Chara to play 90 minutes. It does allow us to use the depth we have up front, but at this time neither Evander or Paredes appear to be able to go 90 minutes on a regular basis. That isn't a criticism, but a statement due to both of them sustaining early injuries. Any thoughts on this?
It seems like Evander playing midfield is happening already. When Paredes came on, for defense Paredes played up top in a 4-4-2 with Evander dropping down in the midfield. This seemed to work pretty well, especially with Paredes hounding the back line into numerous bad passes, etc, and Evander able to help out with possession when winning the ball back. It probably morphs into a 4-3-3 when winning the ball back. It all seemed fairly fluid. The point being that in this case Evander was being used as a midfielder more than a 10 IMO. It kind of seemed like Gio mostly said let's forget trying to build out of the back too much and bomb it up, and if we don't bring it down, pressure them to win the ball back higher up the field.
I don't think that is a good, sustainable strategy for every game, especially for Paredes, who ran his butt off. Maybe he did it just to counter St. Louis' strategy of pressing.
But, you bring up a good point. We do have a lot of depth in attacking pieces, so you could use that depth and conserve your midfield for the long haul. Most folks would say ok, sit Paredes and start Chara and Evander in the midfield. Ol lefthanded says we win with Paredes on the field. Gio wants Evander to get 90 minutes fit, and he's a DP, so in this scenario, Gio would go with Chara and Evander in the midfield. This would be semi-ok with me, but it might grant my hope of moving Moreno to the 10 and bringing in another winger, preferably Fogaca.
But, even though it might be smart to be conservative with your midfield, the best scenario is to start Paredes and Chara and Evander (10) and sub off Paredes if he needs a blow.
At some point the Timbers are going to have to rest one of Chara and Paredes. This is where I see starting Evander next to Chara/Paredes becomes a real possibility. Then we can see Moreno moving back to the 10 position, where I think he can do well. Also, with Y Chara coming back he can drop back to the 10 and let Moreno run forward as well.
I'm on the side of Paredes needing to start, because I think he does the little things that make the team play better. I even thought that with Williamson was healthy. I just worry that he won't be able to play all the games coming up without some real rest. He isn't the Iron Man that D Chara is (but there are very few of them out there).
If Paredes is out, I’d rather play Yimmi as an 8 next to Chara instead of Evander, I think Evander works much better higher up the field with less defensive responsibilities and more freedom. However I imagine if Paredes goes down, either Caliskan will start or we will play a 4-3-3, as we did in the second half vs St. Louis
You are probably right about Caliskan playing. I think Evander makes more sense as I recall he played more midfield in Europe. Yimmi can do it, but I like the ability for Yimmi and Moreno to float up top. To be honest my thoughts on this were for the handful of games Paredes/Chara need to miss a game.
I know he played as an 8 in Denmark, but just because that’s where he played there doesn’t mean that’s where he’s best in MLS. I think he’s best parked further up the field with the speed of play here
I think it was Doyle who wrote up the game talking about how the Timbers followed Minnesota blue print to beating St Louis. Gio for all the flack he gets actually is a good tactician. I saw a well done game plan that really neutralized one of the best teams in the league to date. A solid win and a nice dish of payback.
And - after all the adversity, still a VERY solid locker room....
Maybe so, but really, Gio does that 4-4-2 defensive set up for every game. This one, though, he had hound dog Paredes up top with the other forward, and it worked.
That game felt like Chaos Ball. There was little controlled possession, balls were spraying everywhere, players looked chaotic even when they were just dribbling (Santi always does, and Mosquera often does, but last night lots of players did).... It looked to me like this is St Louis's usual style of play, and the Timbers were perfectly happy to go along with it. Guess it worked!
I thought the first and second halves were really two very different games because of the weather.
The storm hit very fast just before half. It rained and blew hard and dumped LOTS of rain on the field until around minute 60. That completely changed the field conditions from slick to treacherous...
The Timbers handled it very well... But STL didn't do well at all. The slick pitch took a bite out of their press, allowing PTFC to get the counter going - and it really put those slow back defenders on skates against Yimmi, Santi, Evander and Paredes. The strong following wind blew every STL ball in the air way past its target or exposed a lack of touch in every City offensive player except Loewen...
Best game the team has played this season so far. It's another gut punch to lose Ayala. He has really shown a ton of improvement. I sure hope Paredes stays healthy. Concerning Evander, he is valuable and creates on the attack, but he looked tired at the end when we needed possession and not giving the ball away like he did in the later stages when holding on for the win. I hope he was just gassed and not being lazy on defense because he looked lazy defending towards the end. He didn't look urgent on trying to defend on STL's goal. Great win though. Now to keep this good play going and hoping we have reached the bottom of the barrel on acquiring injuries.