Diego Valeri is back and not a moment too soon.
Cascadia Corner: Off-color Caps survive weak Timbers onslaught
by Steve Clare
Vancouver may have played worse this season but it wasn’t in any of the games I saw. Countless passes went astray from players who normally pass with accuracy. Too many clearances were aimless. Both these resulted in the ball coming straight back towards them. I look forward to reading though what our regular Whitecaps writers, Graham Tooke and Aaron Campbell have to say however.
At half time Portland had around 68% of the possession but unless you had a dark green scarf on, you would be hard pressed to credit that to Portland’s excellence. It’s relatively easy to dominate possession statistically when your opponent keeps giving you the ball back.
For all that, Portland managed no shots on goal in that first half, and missed their biggest chance when they were (rightly) awarded a penalty for a Kah handball. Kah’s racially insensitive comment at half time will probably not be a matter MLS wants to investigate, as he only seemed to accuse the linesman of not being able to distinguish his arms with his legs, when plainly the official had been able to. Still, don’t expect to see Kah offered as half time interview fodder to TNS again any time soon.
Max Urruti headed the next best Portland chance over the bar but was clearly offside when the pass was hit. Referee Alan Chapman had another good game and although he seemed to be giving the Timbers most close calls, he was also right with the majority.
Vancouver were astonishingly timid and there is one of two reasons for this and none of them is fear of the Timbers line-up. Without Valeri and Will Johnson, the starting XI is no more than MLS average and perhaps weaker than the majority of the Western Conference.
Firstly, the 19th minute yellow card for young right back Ethan Sampson left that flank horribly exposed. In front of him was Mauro Rosales, a splendid individual, but not a right midfielder who sees defensive digging-in as one of his strengths.
Portland failed to focus on that weakness. Faced with a young inexperienced terrified full back playing away from home, they should have been firing all missiles at that corner forcing Carl Robinson into some kind of on-the-hoof tactical re-organisation. That Sampson lasted another 70 minutes and barely had to make a last ditch tackle is testament to how well Robinson won that key battle.
Instead it was Caleb Porter who was forced to change his game plan.
He had told the local media that Diego Valeri was good for 20 minutes off the bench, but he had to ask 40 of the returning Argentinian, so little headway was being made offensively at the time. Ishmael Yartey made way. It was the right call to try and win the game and we have no way of knowing how much harm the extra minutes may have done to Valeri’s pace of recuperation.
Kah protested the linesman’s correct decision very adamantly but the referee saw no need to show a card.
The first thing to say before progressing is how wonderful it is, not just for Portland but for the league, to have Valeri back. He is one of the bright stars that shine in this league and the Timbers have sorely missed his presence. Let us all hope his recovery continues and we see him make an impact on the rest of the season.
His introduction shook up the Timbers and the game, although clearly he was not fully fit. He was fully eager though.
One thing less certain is Porter’s choice to continually start Max Urruti before Fanendo Adi. Portland’s forward history is littered with men who looked good enough for a while and then could not keep up that level on a more consistent basis; Kris Boyd, Ryan Johnson, Frederic Piquionne, Adolfo Valencia, Danny Mwanga, Kenny Cooper, and the daddy of all the unfulfilled potential star forwards Jorge Perlaza.
Whether the club employs an out and out target forward, as Bright Dike was destined to be, or a nippy goalscorer who also offers skill during the build-up in the Urruti mould, nothing seems to have worked for long stretches. One can only guess how maddening this has been for Timbers fans who believe they have welcomed a goalscoring messiah only to see their form return to the ordinary.
The other reason why the Caps may have been so timid lay in Robinson’s game plan. He told media before the game and repeated it to TSN’s Perry Solkowski at half time that he though his bench would win the game. Certainly he had an above average looking bench with Nicolás Mezquida, Deybi Flores, Kekuta Manneh and Robbie Earnshaw among the subs.
Manneh’s arrival in the 58th minute did invigorate Vancouver a little after a poor hour of effort from Darren Mattocks. Still they continued to clear poorly, pass worse and give the ball back to the home side for fun.
That does not explain totally their caution but added to Rosales’ need to guard Sampson a little more probably does. That Robinson was relieved to walk away with a draw became clear with his 88th minute change when he finally removed Sampson for young Tim Parker in a very defensive swap.
That the Welsh coach was able to keep Sampson on the field for so long was a tribute to both the youngster and the way Vancouver guarded him, but also an indictment of the way Portland failed to pressurise the young full back at home. Parker incidentally earned his money being in the right place to relieve his tired colleagues with a number of clearances.
Robinson’s prediction that his bench would ‘win the game’ did not come to fruition mainly because two many of his players played below their ability, and frankly there is not a great deal a coach can do about that mid-game. He however remains one of the best interviews among the MLS coaching core and his lack of care about PR makes him one of the most honest.
Finally a shout out to TSN’s Jason DeVos and Luke Wileman. Technically they do not work for the Whitecaps, but you may be allowed to think they might descend into ‘homerism’ when calling Vancouver’s games against US opponents.
They did not and remained informative and unbiased throughout. They were a pleasure to listen to, and however MLS Live chooses which announce team to use, I would hope to hear these two again over announcers in the employ of one of the clubs.
