Avaya Stadium, San José, CA: San José Earthquakes host the Portland Timbers; May 4, 2018.
El Maestro is back doing what he likes to do: delivering in the clutch and scoring game-winning goals. With a free kick in the 88 minute, the Timbers Talisman finally broke their win-less curse in San Jose. It also extends the Rose City squads unbeaten run to three consecutive wins. Very well for manager Giovanni Savarese getting that first win on the road with the Portland squad is somehow of an achievement. Despite this win, the Timbers rookie manager will state of the work that there is more work to do in the campaign. As the ideals in this man are to make of the Portland Timbers a winning and more consistent squad.
Not only at home does Gio want to see his squad perform at home but on the road too. Today’s win proves the system Gio is implementing in this squad and seen in several of his player’s performances. Still Rome was not build in a day and there is still plenty of work that is needed to be done to build the system that Gio has envisioned.
One area that is definitely worth praising is in the defensive game. With a new foursome of Alvas Powell, Larry’s Mabiala, Liam Ridgewell and Zarek Valentin, Savarese has possibly struck the ideal foursome. Not only have the Rose City Boys netted back-to-back wins but two consecutive shutouts. Also keeping Hoesen and Wondolwski away in their game they are the most comfortable.
So far, unity and discipline shown in every match has been a positive. Every player in the Timbers initial eleven has some sort of contribution on the field, which in turn is a positive to their game and hence the results.
Still this win did not come easy for the Rose City Boys. Despite having control of the match, these had clear opportunities to score in the first half and Fanendo Adi wasted these. As halftime reached at Avaya Stadium all of those 17, 850 in attendance witnessed a scoreless first half despite both squads efforts to score.
The second half again we saw both squads’ intentions coming short. As the home squad seeing a series of shoots by Danny Hoesen that twice incommoded the likes of Jeff Attinella, but the Timbers goalkeeper opportune saves were responsible for today’s result. In addition, the way the Timbers manager diverted the San Jose game was another notable strategy.
We can state that all the right moves done by Savarese in his moves with Fanendo Adi for Samuel Armenteros in the 79-minute and Cristhian Paredes for Andres Flores in the 80. Became the icing in the cake as Samuel Armenteros play provoked the locals to foul him and to set up the free kick that Diego Valeri converted for the winning goal.
To conclude in Giovanni Savarese words that his player’s unity and all around sacrifice exposed in every game for the better. Still he lauds the growth in his squad’s game which is evident in their form in every game and the results that are produced.
