Missed opportunities and some sloppiness for sure however, honestly outside of an absolute, defensive gaff, once again, from Mosquera, this game ends 0-0. I do think things seem to improve with the addition of Williamson. But all in all, I do really wonder about our situation at right back. While there’s definitely some benefit to having an aggressive offensive winger, I don’t know how we can continue with a four back back line and use Mosquera. He has to learn defense, or he has to directly contribute to a lot of goals to offset his significant defensive liability.
And at the very least we need a backup right fullback. Eric Miller is not enough to back up both sides, even when he's not starting at the left for the injured Bravo.
Yeah, that got me too. I took a break from watching a replay of the game at like 1am... and the score, via Stumptown Footy, came up on my email subject headings. Maybe wait at least a few days before posting the score.
Sloppy, decided to wholesale concede possession and hope to get a counter attacking goal, and then complete and utter clown car defending loses the game.
I had high hopes after that game 1 Colorado first half that we might have changed philosophies and be more possession oriented, quicker passing team and simply be a more exciting team this year. The 7 halves of soccer played since then show that this was a mirage and we are still a defend and counter team.
'Possession' is a word that gets thrown around so much. Problem is, we're just not built as a team that is going to win games via possession. Our starting lineup is almost entirely comprised of direct attacking players (that's a nice way of saying 'not good at collectively holding the ball'). Situational possession (ie, icing a game or simply slowing down the tempo when needed) would be fantastic, and reachable. But we're years away from restructuring this roster to be one that will win games by dominating possession.
I don't need to dominate possession, just something close to 50% regularly would be nice. And, of course, possession that looks dangerous and purposeful.
Defend and counter is possession with purpose, just not much of it and frequently you look aimless / sloppy because that purpose is "shove the ball back down their throat before they can recover". It just isn't very sexy. I don't need the ball 60+% of the time every game, but being on the 40% of that most games also is boring.
It's an interesting way to put it. I think it's more they don't have it in them to win the ball and grind down the other team rather than making a choice. Houston was so ripe for a loss, or at least the Timbers getting a point. Houston had no desire to move the ball forward after the goal, and maybe they couldn't. But the Timbers didn't appear to have any desire to win the ball and take over the game. The New York game they definitely took that game over.
"sloppy"
I couldn't agree more. It's hideous how easily they give the ball away. Unprofessional.
I do think a 9 helps a ton. We are semi-threatening. It would be nice to challenge a defense with a fully loaded front three.
It is sort of a choice. Part of it definitely is because of the DNA of this team, many long time players who this is the way they have played since really the beginning of the Gio era - they have been a defend and counter team (though the ones who have been here the longest - Diego C and Asprilla are not really the sloppiest in possession players). It is really difficult to change styles when that is what you did for years and years.
I would also like to think this is a process. We have multiple players in their prime years right now and change is difficult when they have been in a defend and counter system for 7 years - where the defend part of that fell apart for the last 2.
As I look at this, I think part of the lack of desire to go hard after the 50:50 ball (or the 40:60 / 30:70 as many seem to be) is that it has been drilled into them for years to focus on defensive shape / recovery, I think Phil is initially doing the same thing, and then try to find your chance to turn something over that is better than 50:50.
But then our counter is sloppy, naive appearing, and predictable most of the time. That was why that first half against Colorado was so exciting. Sure, part of it was a terrible defensive display by the Rapids, but we were moving the ball around quickly, accurately, decisively, getting out of mismatches/negative numbers situations with incisive ball movement and moving to space off the ball to achieve this. Was it really luck? Colorado really that inept that they were in all the wrong spaces for 45 minutes? I don't think so.
I see a team deciding to not take chances and attempt to grind it out. I see a team that lacks confidence that they can do what they did against Colorado in the opening 45 on opening night, so they let the other team have the ball and pick their spots. That makes for some boring soccer to watch, but it is who we are at this point, what Phil inherited, and is going to take some time to change.
I think this is a great point. With the exceptions of K Miller and Crepau, this is the same team that ended last year. To expect habits to change in the 3(?) months since we hired a new coach isn't reasonable. If we are talking about the same style of play in July/August, holding the coaching staff accountable should start to take place.
The concern I have right now is that in two road games, the team didn't seem to be prepared to play at the beginning of the game. Both NYCFC and Houston owned the first half, and it took the team 35+ minutes to work themselves into the game. I will excuse the NY game due to the fact in started at 10am, which is quite early for a west coast team. No excuse for Houston. The coaches better look at these two games and work on getting the team ready to play from the opening whistle. Better teams will bury us early if this keeps up.
I will give the Timbers credit for working themselves back into the game. This could have been a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 win, if Evander simply puts the ball on frame early in the second half. Hopefully the DP signing is completed soon, because we really need a true 9.
I disagree that the team looked unprepared for Houston, in fact I’d say the opposite. Houston is a high possession team playing at home, so we sat back and made ourselves defensively sound — which we did successfully for the most part. Houston had very little progressive possession, they had to keep passing the ball back and forth to try and find gaps. I’m sure Phil didn’t want us to concede quite as much possession as we actually did, but game plans can have their flaws in execution. We had dangerous opportunities on the counter, our guys just weren’t clicking. We started getting a little undisciplined in the 30-35th minute and Houston started finding more gaps, and eventually the goal came from a defensive mistake. But outside of that? We were solid in the first half. We looked organized and played with energy, something we never do when we play in Texas
Yeah, I too thought we looked ready in Houston -- we most definitely did not in NYC and were lucky not to be down multiple goals at half. Houston wasn't taking it to us like NYC was though - definitely opponents with different styles. NYC was trying to win 7-2. Houston was always going for 1-0 or maybe 2-1.
"To expect habits to change in the 3(?) months since we hired a new coach isn't reasonable."
I guess my question, then, is: when is it reasonable to expect things to change? I agree that it's a process, but at what point is it fair to criticize? I'm not expecting wholesale, 180 degree change in four games, or even in the time since Phil started. I am, however, disappointed that I'm not really seeing too many signs of actual change even beginning to happen yet.
Offensively, the Timbers look a little livelier; defensively, even with the addition of two much better defenders (well, one and a keeper), the Timbers still look about 75% lost most of the time. As a unit, they're still a mess, and that's down to coaching - whether that's a coaching staff issue or a head coaching issue, I don't know, but as with Gio, it's a coach's literal job to get the most out of the players he has to work with.
At what point is it OK to go "when do we start to see things get better?" Because the whole point of a new coach is to help make things better, and so far, Phil's basically got the Timbers treading water.
Signing a 9 will be good, but lack of a 9 is nowhere near the end of the Timbers' problems at this point. Phil still has a lot of work to do, and so far I'm not seeing much fruit of much labor. I hope that starts to change soon.
Good questions. Mostly it depends on the eye of the beholder. The caveat for me is that is the same team as last year. When Gio took over he brought Andres Flores, who acted as a player/coach for the first year or two. When Caleb Porter came on board, we drafted Nagbe who played for him at Akron (I think). Moves like that accelerate the process, because you have someone who knows what the coach wants to do. Neville brought K Miller, who may know what Neville wants to do but isn't in a great position to communicate it on the field. This is going to be a bit of a process the way I see it. Assuming we get Cabecita on board soon that could help move the process forward more quickly.
As for timing, if I don't see real progress by the beginning of June I'm going to lose some patience. That is three full months of games along with pre-season. It should also allow for players to get healthy, which can change the dynamic of the team. The players who will be integral in this change (IMO) are Antony and Evander/Moreno. If Antony can get more consistent when the ball comes to him, that will be a great sign. If one of Evander or Moreno take charge when things aren't going well that will be another great sign. Antony has shown he can unlock the offense, and shows great promise. But too often he doesn't make anything happen. And we have talked a lot about how someone needs to get on the ball when things aren't going well with possession. To me that person is Evander, but Moreno seems capable as well. Just my take.
"Assuming we get Cabecita on board soon that could help move the process forward more quickly."
That's putting a whole lot of pressure on a guy who, like Evander last year, would be changing country, home, language, culture, and play style all at once, is it not? It took Evander most of last season to settle in, and I'm not sure Rodriguez' arrival alone will dramatically level up the Timbers overall.
Don't get me wrong, I think his arrival will definitely help things in the attack; I just think a lot of folks see him as a cheat code that will somehow magically turn the Timbers into a much better team than they are (I'm not saying you're saying that, that's just what much of the buzz around him seems to be), which ignores that he's not a defender, nor is he a coach that can turn a bunch of aimless defenders into a solid unit.
As this season has started, I'm starting to evolve my preseason opinion of this team a bit. I'm starting to worry less about the attack, for a lot of the reasons you mention, and starting to worry much more about the defending, which isn't much better now than it has been in a while, despite a couple solid additions. And that worries me.
It's no good having a guy who can score goals by the handful if the defense is still giving them up just as often. Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic, but I am just not seeing any meaningful evolution on the defensive side of the ball, despite bringing in a pretty good defender in K Miller and a very good GK in Crepeau, and I guess I was hoping to see at least some improvement over last season.
(Although, looking at the numbers, after four games last year the Timbers had won one, lost three, and conceded 10 goals, so this season's start is an improvement in that regard, I suppose)
It's interesting watching both NYCFC last week and Houston this week, how much quicker both teams are to the ball when they're not in possession than Portland ever is. As soon as a Timber got the ball, a Houston player (or two) was right on top of the Timber, hounding them and pressing them and trying to force a turnover or a mistake of some sort.
The Timbers NEVER do that - they didn't do it under Gio, they don't do it under Phil. And I have no idea why. They're content to let other teams just have the ball and pass it around all day, and never press, and never force the issue, and it's super frustrating.
We haven't high pressed regularly since Porter. Mentally we have been a "recover shape" first, then pressure the ball second team for 6 seasons. It just hasn't been in the DNA of the team to do what many MLS teams do which is press turnovers immediately and see if you can get it back. Urruti was good at this, Adi less so, Valeri in his prime, younger Chara, Johnson, Nagbe, Wallace, younger Asprilla - all of those guys would do that.
Chara is now too old, Asprilla probably too (and out of position), Mora isn't going to be any better (in fact probably worse at this) and the midfield we have with Evander, Moreno, Paredes, Williamson just don't have the "horses" to do this. Antony is an exception, but one guy among 5 mids/forwards doesn't help, it has to be a concerted 5 man effort.
Well said! I agree, it's in the DNA. Maybe more upsetting for me, though, is the lack of taking care of the ball when they do get it. In the Houston game in general and not necessarily after they won a ball, they got swarmed, and would lose it, but only because they didn't play it quick enough. And that is something that has been happening for a long time, and I agree, it may take a little time or different players.
"I had high hopes after that game 1 Colorado first half that we might have changed philosophies and be more possession oriented, quicker passing team and simply be a more exciting team this year."
Having watched Phil's Miami teams a bit, I'm not sure that's in his DNA. I was hoping for something different than we've seen so far this year, that Phil might be able to mold this group into something better than we've been seeing for the last few seasons, but - particularly on the defensive side of things, which is really disappointing given the individual talent the Timbers have back there - so far, at least, he hasn't.
The most frustrating thing to me is that I haven't seen any significant improvement in overall team play, particularly defensively. I had hoped a new coach would bring that sort of improvement, but the back line is still making a lot of the same dumb mistakes and being the same disorganized mess it has been for the last couple years, for the most part. Is that Ridgewell's fault? Phil's? Who really knows, but it's getting to be (remaining, really) a huge problem that is holding the Timbers back.
All I know is that I'm not seeing the improvement I'd hoped to see from this team, and the schedule isn't getting any easier. Philly next, Vancouver, then LAFC; this team's about to be tested a lot more than it has so far this season, and I am starting to get very nervous about test results in a way that I haven't been since I was in high school several decades ago.
Yeah, I have to admit I never watched Miami. Have a couple times since he left, but never paid much attention to them before.
As I said above, I think he is limited by what these players have been molded to do for so long - breaking those habits among the younger guys isn't an easy thing. Add to that Evander probably got mixed signals about his role all of last year, Santi isn't exactly here for defense but still should be able to participate in better offense than he frequently does.
I think they are focusing on organized defense to start with, building on that. Saturday's goal against aside (which needed a Yakety Sax dub accompaniment), we have been defensively better in the first 4 games, though not exactly playing offensive juggernauts.
Putting it all together is a problem and I have said for some time, I am not sure we are going to be anything but an average MLS team when our players are average MLS players with a defend and counter mentality.
This was last week all over again. Defenders out of position a lot, tons of loose touches in transition and in the attacking third, and just generally not good enough anywhere. Phil's got as much work to do now as he did before the season started, and "but there's no recognized 9" isn't really the biggest problem this team is having right now. It is a problem, for sure, but there's a lot else going on that needs fixing as well, and Phil is, so far, not making a whole lot of difference.
Again, I'm not giving up on him, but it's frustrating to see very little progress even this short amount of time into the season when the issues are both clear and repeated.
Definitely more issues than the "9" for sure. Just want to see this team put a full game together, but they're reverting back to a lot of back-footed play we saw in 2023.
Because this almost certainly won't get a post of its own: Aljaz Ivacic was put on waivers today. Another MLS team has 48 hours to claim him (SPOILER ALERT: no team will) or the Timbers are on the hook for his 2024 salary, but they will get the roster spot back.
His availability has been advertised since September of last year. Teams have basically been invited to take him off our hands since then, and nobody's even called to say "what would it take" when he was under contract. They ain't calling his agent now either. Dude burned every available bridge last year, pretty much.
His reputation in this league is shot because of all his baggage and because of the shit he pulled while he was here. He'll play overseas at this point or he won't play at all.
No way anyone touches him. He was a decent GK, but his antics are going to keep teams away from him. I expect him to be somewhere back in Europe where he tries to rebuild his reputation. That was a mess, and regardless of what he thought the coaching staff did you don't do what he did.
Overall I’m not concerned about this game. We didn’t play good but didn’t play bad either. It’s frustrating because we had the better chances on the day and our shooting boots just weren’t there. Evander hits that goal 49/50 times (he isn’t Blanco who would sky shots from that spot for sport). Houston had little attacking threat despite their high possession in the first half, our defense limited them to mostly long crosses and low percentage long shots. That’s totally fine.
Paredes has been a disappointment for me so far… maybe that’s too harsh of a word. He isn’t impacting the game as much as I’d like him to. He makes a few good tackles here and there but disappears in the game both on offense and on defense. It was late in the game but Ayala brought a spark when he came on. What I liked most is that he moved the ball QUICKLY. This team has had stretches of play in each game where we move the ball quickly and all the sudden we look so much better. I think Phil has improved this team in possession a decent bit, but we only see it in short spurts, and it’s when we move the ball quickly and have fast movement off the ball. Too often this game we could not transition our possession from our back line to our midfield and forwards, and we’d settle for a long ball up to Asprilla, who I love, but at this point has the first touch of a brick wall. We had no possession through midfield. We played in a 4-3-3 this game with Evander deeper, and it didn’t help. I think Ayala could help a lot with that problem, and feel free to call me crazy here, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him play over Paredes in certain game states (Williamson plays over both either way). I just think he’s such a talent.
I’ve been happy with Antony overall this season but I’m still not sold quite yet. I love his defensive ability and obviously he’s our top goal contributor right now, but he’s still pretty green. His offense is predictable and he doesn’t use his speed enough to take players on. I would not mind seeing Cabecita on the wing and Mora up top in some games later down the line, though I look forward to Antony improving with more game time.
I thought Moreno was really good this game, he was putting in tons of effort and it seemed like most of our good play came from when he tucked inside to dribble or receive a pass. He opened the game up on several occasions, and he was fun to watch. Chara was also very good, he just keeps doing it. Those guys were my Men of the Match
I think Antony will do better with a better nine option than Asprilla. When Mora was playing in the preseason, Antony seemed to thrive with him. Agree about Paredes. I think he gives everything he has, but I'd like to see what Ayala can bring. We may see it this weekend. Phil alluded to giving Ayala a shot soon, based on his good trainings. It may depend on Williamson's fitness. Is he fit to start, or maybe they start Ayala and then bring in Williamson.
Health has been an issue this year for sure. I'm curious to see how Evander and Williamson play together, because it wasn't a good pairing last year. The potential is there, with the improved attack and possible possession. But the negative in defense is really worrisome.
Antony is definitely a work in progress. Fortunately he is contributing enough to offset his errors, because there are times the ball gets to him and he simply loses it. The potential is there, lets hope the coaching staff can unlock it.
I don’t know where the narrative that Evander and Williamson weren’t good last year, because we saw them start together for only two games, then Evander got injured and then Eryk got injured. We won one of those games and lost the other. So the jury is still out as to whether they will work together. I think Eryk has looked better this year than he has between his two ACL tears, so I’m hopeful
Well the good news is we can advance the ball through Antony, who has good speed and makes good runs.
The bad news is that no one seems to have figured out that you shoot into the goal, not around it. There were some ugly shots, including one absolute gimme that Evander hooked wide for no particular reason.
Speaking of Evander: what was that BS scraping Dorsey with his studs out of bounds? Not good.
I like the new artwork! And the writing. Thanks for the coverage.
Missed opportunities and some sloppiness for sure however, honestly outside of an absolute, defensive gaff, once again, from Mosquera, this game ends 0-0. I do think things seem to improve with the addition of Williamson. But all in all, I do really wonder about our situation at right back. While there’s definitely some benefit to having an aggressive offensive winger, I don’t know how we can continue with a four back back line and use Mosquera. He has to learn defense, or he has to directly contribute to a lot of goals to offset his significant defensive liability.
And at the very least we need a backup right fullback. Eric Miller is not enough to back up both sides, even when he's not starting at the left for the injured Bravo.
Please do not put score in subject line. Many of us watch the games delayed, when back home or a more convenient time.
Yeah, that got me too. I took a break from watching a replay of the game at like 1am... and the score, via Stumptown Footy, came up on my email subject headings. Maybe wait at least a few days before posting the score.
at least they got the score right this time
Looked a lot like classic early season Timbers.
Sloppy, decided to wholesale concede possession and hope to get a counter attacking goal, and then complete and utter clown car defending loses the game.
I had high hopes after that game 1 Colorado first half that we might have changed philosophies and be more possession oriented, quicker passing team and simply be a more exciting team this year. The 7 halves of soccer played since then show that this was a mirage and we are still a defend and counter team.
'Possession' is a word that gets thrown around so much. Problem is, we're just not built as a team that is going to win games via possession. Our starting lineup is almost entirely comprised of direct attacking players (that's a nice way of saying 'not good at collectively holding the ball'). Situational possession (ie, icing a game or simply slowing down the tempo when needed) would be fantastic, and reachable. But we're years away from restructuring this roster to be one that will win games by dominating possession.
I don't need to dominate possession, just something close to 50% regularly would be nice. And, of course, possession that looks dangerous and purposeful.
Defend and counter is possession with purpose, just not much of it and frequently you look aimless / sloppy because that purpose is "shove the ball back down their throat before they can recover". It just isn't very sexy. I don't need the ball 60+% of the time every game, but being on the 40% of that most games also is boring.
"decide to concede possession"
It's an interesting way to put it. I think it's more they don't have it in them to win the ball and grind down the other team rather than making a choice. Houston was so ripe for a loss, or at least the Timbers getting a point. Houston had no desire to move the ball forward after the goal, and maybe they couldn't. But the Timbers didn't appear to have any desire to win the ball and take over the game. The New York game they definitely took that game over.
"sloppy"
I couldn't agree more. It's hideous how easily they give the ball away. Unprofessional.
I do think a 9 helps a ton. We are semi-threatening. It would be nice to challenge a defense with a fully loaded front three.
Re: "Decide".
It is sort of a choice. Part of it definitely is because of the DNA of this team, many long time players who this is the way they have played since really the beginning of the Gio era - they have been a defend and counter team (though the ones who have been here the longest - Diego C and Asprilla are not really the sloppiest in possession players). It is really difficult to change styles when that is what you did for years and years.
I would also like to think this is a process. We have multiple players in their prime years right now and change is difficult when they have been in a defend and counter system for 7 years - where the defend part of that fell apart for the last 2.
As I look at this, I think part of the lack of desire to go hard after the 50:50 ball (or the 40:60 / 30:70 as many seem to be) is that it has been drilled into them for years to focus on defensive shape / recovery, I think Phil is initially doing the same thing, and then try to find your chance to turn something over that is better than 50:50.
But then our counter is sloppy, naive appearing, and predictable most of the time. That was why that first half against Colorado was so exciting. Sure, part of it was a terrible defensive display by the Rapids, but we were moving the ball around quickly, accurately, decisively, getting out of mismatches/negative numbers situations with incisive ball movement and moving to space off the ball to achieve this. Was it really luck? Colorado really that inept that they were in all the wrong spaces for 45 minutes? I don't think so.
I see a team deciding to not take chances and attempt to grind it out. I see a team that lacks confidence that they can do what they did against Colorado in the opening 45 on opening night, so they let the other team have the ball and pick their spots. That makes for some boring soccer to watch, but it is who we are at this point, what Phil inherited, and is going to take some time to change.
I think this is a great point. With the exceptions of K Miller and Crepau, this is the same team that ended last year. To expect habits to change in the 3(?) months since we hired a new coach isn't reasonable. If we are talking about the same style of play in July/August, holding the coaching staff accountable should start to take place.
The concern I have right now is that in two road games, the team didn't seem to be prepared to play at the beginning of the game. Both NYCFC and Houston owned the first half, and it took the team 35+ minutes to work themselves into the game. I will excuse the NY game due to the fact in started at 10am, which is quite early for a west coast team. No excuse for Houston. The coaches better look at these two games and work on getting the team ready to play from the opening whistle. Better teams will bury us early if this keeps up.
I will give the Timbers credit for working themselves back into the game. This could have been a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 win, if Evander simply puts the ball on frame early in the second half. Hopefully the DP signing is completed soon, because we really need a true 9.
I disagree that the team looked unprepared for Houston, in fact I’d say the opposite. Houston is a high possession team playing at home, so we sat back and made ourselves defensively sound — which we did successfully for the most part. Houston had very little progressive possession, they had to keep passing the ball back and forth to try and find gaps. I’m sure Phil didn’t want us to concede quite as much possession as we actually did, but game plans can have their flaws in execution. We had dangerous opportunities on the counter, our guys just weren’t clicking. We started getting a little undisciplined in the 30-35th minute and Houston started finding more gaps, and eventually the goal came from a defensive mistake. But outside of that? We were solid in the first half. We looked organized and played with energy, something we never do when we play in Texas
Yeah, I too thought we looked ready in Houston -- we most definitely did not in NYC and were lucky not to be down multiple goals at half. Houston wasn't taking it to us like NYC was though - definitely opponents with different styles. NYC was trying to win 7-2. Houston was always going for 1-0 or maybe 2-1.
"To expect habits to change in the 3(?) months since we hired a new coach isn't reasonable."
I guess my question, then, is: when is it reasonable to expect things to change? I agree that it's a process, but at what point is it fair to criticize? I'm not expecting wholesale, 180 degree change in four games, or even in the time since Phil started. I am, however, disappointed that I'm not really seeing too many signs of actual change even beginning to happen yet.
Offensively, the Timbers look a little livelier; defensively, even with the addition of two much better defenders (well, one and a keeper), the Timbers still look about 75% lost most of the time. As a unit, they're still a mess, and that's down to coaching - whether that's a coaching staff issue or a head coaching issue, I don't know, but as with Gio, it's a coach's literal job to get the most out of the players he has to work with.
At what point is it OK to go "when do we start to see things get better?" Because the whole point of a new coach is to help make things better, and so far, Phil's basically got the Timbers treading water.
Signing a 9 will be good, but lack of a 9 is nowhere near the end of the Timbers' problems at this point. Phil still has a lot of work to do, and so far I'm not seeing much fruit of much labor. I hope that starts to change soon.
Good questions. Mostly it depends on the eye of the beholder. The caveat for me is that is the same team as last year. When Gio took over he brought Andres Flores, who acted as a player/coach for the first year or two. When Caleb Porter came on board, we drafted Nagbe who played for him at Akron (I think). Moves like that accelerate the process, because you have someone who knows what the coach wants to do. Neville brought K Miller, who may know what Neville wants to do but isn't in a great position to communicate it on the field. This is going to be a bit of a process the way I see it. Assuming we get Cabecita on board soon that could help move the process forward more quickly.
As for timing, if I don't see real progress by the beginning of June I'm going to lose some patience. That is three full months of games along with pre-season. It should also allow for players to get healthy, which can change the dynamic of the team. The players who will be integral in this change (IMO) are Antony and Evander/Moreno. If Antony can get more consistent when the ball comes to him, that will be a great sign. If one of Evander or Moreno take charge when things aren't going well that will be another great sign. Antony has shown he can unlock the offense, and shows great promise. But too often he doesn't make anything happen. And we have talked a lot about how someone needs to get on the ball when things aren't going well with possession. To me that person is Evander, but Moreno seems capable as well. Just my take.
"Assuming we get Cabecita on board soon that could help move the process forward more quickly."
That's putting a whole lot of pressure on a guy who, like Evander last year, would be changing country, home, language, culture, and play style all at once, is it not? It took Evander most of last season to settle in, and I'm not sure Rodriguez' arrival alone will dramatically level up the Timbers overall.
Don't get me wrong, I think his arrival will definitely help things in the attack; I just think a lot of folks see him as a cheat code that will somehow magically turn the Timbers into a much better team than they are (I'm not saying you're saying that, that's just what much of the buzz around him seems to be), which ignores that he's not a defender, nor is he a coach that can turn a bunch of aimless defenders into a solid unit.
As this season has started, I'm starting to evolve my preseason opinion of this team a bit. I'm starting to worry less about the attack, for a lot of the reasons you mention, and starting to worry much more about the defending, which isn't much better now than it has been in a while, despite a couple solid additions. And that worries me.
It's no good having a guy who can score goals by the handful if the defense is still giving them up just as often. Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic, but I am just not seeing any meaningful evolution on the defensive side of the ball, despite bringing in a pretty good defender in K Miller and a very good GK in Crepeau, and I guess I was hoping to see at least some improvement over last season.
(Although, looking at the numbers, after four games last year the Timbers had won one, lost three, and conceded 10 goals, so this season's start is an improvement in that regard, I suppose)
It's interesting watching both NYCFC last week and Houston this week, how much quicker both teams are to the ball when they're not in possession than Portland ever is. As soon as a Timber got the ball, a Houston player (or two) was right on top of the Timber, hounding them and pressing them and trying to force a turnover or a mistake of some sort.
The Timbers NEVER do that - they didn't do it under Gio, they don't do it under Phil. And I have no idea why. They're content to let other teams just have the ball and pass it around all day, and never press, and never force the issue, and it's super frustrating.
We haven't high pressed regularly since Porter. Mentally we have been a "recover shape" first, then pressure the ball second team for 6 seasons. It just hasn't been in the DNA of the team to do what many MLS teams do which is press turnovers immediately and see if you can get it back. Urruti was good at this, Adi less so, Valeri in his prime, younger Chara, Johnson, Nagbe, Wallace, younger Asprilla - all of those guys would do that.
Chara is now too old, Asprilla probably too (and out of position), Mora isn't going to be any better (in fact probably worse at this) and the midfield we have with Evander, Moreno, Paredes, Williamson just don't have the "horses" to do this. Antony is an exception, but one guy among 5 mids/forwards doesn't help, it has to be a concerted 5 man effort.
Well said! I agree, it's in the DNA. Maybe more upsetting for me, though, is the lack of taking care of the ball when they do get it. In the Houston game in general and not necessarily after they won a ball, they got swarmed, and would lose it, but only because they didn't play it quick enough. And that is something that has been happening for a long time, and I agree, it may take a little time or different players.
We did it a decent bit under Miles Joseph last year and it was a joy to watch
"I had high hopes after that game 1 Colorado first half that we might have changed philosophies and be more possession oriented, quicker passing team and simply be a more exciting team this year."
Having watched Phil's Miami teams a bit, I'm not sure that's in his DNA. I was hoping for something different than we've seen so far this year, that Phil might be able to mold this group into something better than we've been seeing for the last few seasons, but - particularly on the defensive side of things, which is really disappointing given the individual talent the Timbers have back there - so far, at least, he hasn't.
The most frustrating thing to me is that I haven't seen any significant improvement in overall team play, particularly defensively. I had hoped a new coach would bring that sort of improvement, but the back line is still making a lot of the same dumb mistakes and being the same disorganized mess it has been for the last couple years, for the most part. Is that Ridgewell's fault? Phil's? Who really knows, but it's getting to be (remaining, really) a huge problem that is holding the Timbers back.
All I know is that I'm not seeing the improvement I'd hoped to see from this team, and the schedule isn't getting any easier. Philly next, Vancouver, then LAFC; this team's about to be tested a lot more than it has so far this season, and I am starting to get very nervous about test results in a way that I haven't been since I was in high school several decades ago.
Yeah, I have to admit I never watched Miami. Have a couple times since he left, but never paid much attention to them before.
As I said above, I think he is limited by what these players have been molded to do for so long - breaking those habits among the younger guys isn't an easy thing. Add to that Evander probably got mixed signals about his role all of last year, Santi isn't exactly here for defense but still should be able to participate in better offense than he frequently does.
I think they are focusing on organized defense to start with, building on that. Saturday's goal against aside (which needed a Yakety Sax dub accompaniment), we have been defensively better in the first 4 games, though not exactly playing offensive juggernauts.
Putting it all together is a problem and I have said for some time, I am not sure we are going to be anything but an average MLS team when our players are average MLS players with a defend and counter mentality.
This was last week all over again. Defenders out of position a lot, tons of loose touches in transition and in the attacking third, and just generally not good enough anywhere. Phil's got as much work to do now as he did before the season started, and "but there's no recognized 9" isn't really the biggest problem this team is having right now. It is a problem, for sure, but there's a lot else going on that needs fixing as well, and Phil is, so far, not making a whole lot of difference.
Again, I'm not giving up on him, but it's frustrating to see very little progress even this short amount of time into the season when the issues are both clear and repeated.
Definitely more issues than the "9" for sure. Just want to see this team put a full game together, but they're reverting back to a lot of back-footed play we saw in 2023.
very poor all around but a nine is needed.
Because this almost certainly won't get a post of its own: Aljaz Ivacic was put on waivers today. Another MLS team has 48 hours to claim him (SPOILER ALERT: no team will) or the Timbers are on the hook for his 2024 salary, but they will get the roster spot back.
https://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/2024/03/portland-timbers-waive-goalkeeper-aljaz-ivacic.html
Not a huge loss. He was fine, but the two keepers in house now are far better.
I don't know. Teams aren't that required to pick up the full cap hit, so I could see somebody signing him off their cap space is tight.
His availability has been advertised since September of last year. Teams have basically been invited to take him off our hands since then, and nobody's even called to say "what would it take" when he was under contract. They ain't calling his agent now either. Dude burned every available bridge last year, pretty much.
His reputation in this league is shot because of all his baggage and because of the shit he pulled while he was here. He'll play overseas at this point or he won't play at all.
No way anyone touches him. He was a decent GK, but his antics are going to keep teams away from him. I expect him to be somewhere back in Europe where he tries to rebuild his reputation. That was a mess, and regardless of what he thought the coaching staff did you don't do what he did.
Overall I’m not concerned about this game. We didn’t play good but didn’t play bad either. It’s frustrating because we had the better chances on the day and our shooting boots just weren’t there. Evander hits that goal 49/50 times (he isn’t Blanco who would sky shots from that spot for sport). Houston had little attacking threat despite their high possession in the first half, our defense limited them to mostly long crosses and low percentage long shots. That’s totally fine.
Paredes has been a disappointment for me so far… maybe that’s too harsh of a word. He isn’t impacting the game as much as I’d like him to. He makes a few good tackles here and there but disappears in the game both on offense and on defense. It was late in the game but Ayala brought a spark when he came on. What I liked most is that he moved the ball QUICKLY. This team has had stretches of play in each game where we move the ball quickly and all the sudden we look so much better. I think Phil has improved this team in possession a decent bit, but we only see it in short spurts, and it’s when we move the ball quickly and have fast movement off the ball. Too often this game we could not transition our possession from our back line to our midfield and forwards, and we’d settle for a long ball up to Asprilla, who I love, but at this point has the first touch of a brick wall. We had no possession through midfield. We played in a 4-3-3 this game with Evander deeper, and it didn’t help. I think Ayala could help a lot with that problem, and feel free to call me crazy here, but I wouldn’t mind seeing him play over Paredes in certain game states (Williamson plays over both either way). I just think he’s such a talent.
I’ve been happy with Antony overall this season but I’m still not sold quite yet. I love his defensive ability and obviously he’s our top goal contributor right now, but he’s still pretty green. His offense is predictable and he doesn’t use his speed enough to take players on. I would not mind seeing Cabecita on the wing and Mora up top in some games later down the line, though I look forward to Antony improving with more game time.
I thought Moreno was really good this game, he was putting in tons of effort and it seemed like most of our good play came from when he tucked inside to dribble or receive a pass. He opened the game up on several occasions, and he was fun to watch. Chara was also very good, he just keeps doing it. Those guys were my Men of the Match
I think Antony will do better with a better nine option than Asprilla. When Mora was playing in the preseason, Antony seemed to thrive with him. Agree about Paredes. I think he gives everything he has, but I'd like to see what Ayala can bring. We may see it this weekend. Phil alluded to giving Ayala a shot soon, based on his good trainings. It may depend on Williamson's fitness. Is he fit to start, or maybe they start Ayala and then bring in Williamson.
Health has been an issue this year for sure. I'm curious to see how Evander and Williamson play together, because it wasn't a good pairing last year. The potential is there, with the improved attack and possible possession. But the negative in defense is really worrisome.
Antony is definitely a work in progress. Fortunately he is contributing enough to offset his errors, because there are times the ball gets to him and he simply loses it. The potential is there, lets hope the coaching staff can unlock it.
I don’t know where the narrative that Evander and Williamson weren’t good last year, because we saw them start together for only two games, then Evander got injured and then Eryk got injured. We won one of those games and lost the other. So the jury is still out as to whether they will work together. I think Eryk has looked better this year than he has between his two ACL tears, so I’m hopeful
Well the good news is we can advance the ball through Antony, who has good speed and makes good runs.
The bad news is that no one seems to have figured out that you shoot into the goal, not around it. There were some ugly shots, including one absolute gimme that Evander hooked wide for no particular reason.
Speaking of Evander: what was that BS scraping Dorsey with his studs out of bounds? Not good.