Saves from Kwarasey and misses from RSL kept Portland’s clean sheet.
By Niall McCusker
The first 30 minutes of this game looked a lot like some of the Portland vs. Salt Lake encounters from 2013. – they were the only team that year to consistently expose Portland with good movement and penetration. That happened again last Saturday as Salt Lake played around the Timbers defensive midfielders and full-backs at will creating space for 6 attempts on goal.
They were mainly half chances, but on most days one or two would have been converted. Real’s good approach play, aided by Portland’s inability to pass the ball, was let down by poor finishing, with Sebastian Jaime being the main culprit in the profligacy.
The visitors improved in the second half, a nice 21-pass sequence starting at the 49th minute at last demonstrating an ability to hold onto the ball for meaningful periods. As the game wore on Salt Lake, who needed full points, showed increasing desperation and the Timbers began to sniff the possibility of stealing a win. Their late chances were stopped by a characteristic point-blank Rimando save on Valeri and Saucedo clearing Borchers’ header off the line – the sides looked to be heading for yet another 0-0 tie, until Borchers’ perfect header in injury time.
Porter has spent time in the past explaining why dominant performances did not translate into wins and so will likely much prefer to be in the position of explaining why wins are not being recorded in a dominating and entertaining fashion. Seven points from nine and three clean sheets in a row are all the answer he needs.
But what exactly were the ‘fundamental philosophical differences’ cited by Merritt Paulson when John Spencer was dismissed in 2012? Most assumed it referred to playing entertaining football with plenty of goals. For most of this season the evidence on the field suggests that the only philosophy is to put points on the board by whatever means necessary.
Here are the individual ratings:
Adam Larsen Kwarasey 8: The keeper retained his coolness in the face of Salt Lake’s early barrage, watching shots streak high and wide of his goal with disturbing regularity did not faze him and he was ready after half an hour when the home team finally managed to keep a shot on target. He tipped Mulholland’s rasping drive away from the top corner and made another good save with twenty minutes to go from Garcia.
That attempt came after Salt Lake were allowed to illegally block a Portland free kick from point blank range. MLS referees make no effort to prevent teams from stopping quick restarts (Valeri is routinely assigned this task by Portland), addressing this issue would make the game more aesthetically pleasing and serve to benefit the fouled team.
Other than the saves, Kwarasey commanded his box well and was the only player to exude authority on the defensive end.
Alvas Powell 5: The full-back was beaten early and often by Garcia and fellow Jamaican full-back Phillips was allowed to advance along the wing unmolested and get in a number of dangerous crosses. Not his best game but he could have used more help from Nagbe and was but one cog in a dysfunctional defensive machine.
Nat Borchers 7.5: Portland’s problems came from the midfield and wings, Salt Lake simply played around the central defenders. He could maybe have been tighter on Jaime on a few occasions, but perhaps was content to let him shoot! Defenders invariably take full credit for all missed efforts by forwards – ‘minimized his angle, pressured the shot etc.’, they are never going to admit that they were lucky the attackers couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo.
Borchers shows his old team mates how to finish.
Late in the game Borchers’ nicely cut-off some angled through-balls and given Jaime’s total inability to live with him at set-pieces found the time to get some efforts on target. His goal was as good a technical header as will be seen all year.
Liam Ridgewell 6: He should have spotted Mulholland’s run behind him for one of the early chances, or at least told Wallace to ‘mark that geezer with the dodgy haircut from Boardwalk Empire’. While not directly at fault for any of Salt Lake’s chances he should have been more proactive in sorting out the defensive structure and calling out those not doing their job.
Jorge Villafana 5.5: His wing was not exposed with quite the regularity of Powell’s but several dangerous chances still came from that side and he and Wallace offered very little going forward. He did stay tenacious to the end though, winning the ball from Beltran to set up the counter for the corner that gave Portland their winner.
Will Johnson (off in 86′) 5: A fine early tackle on Mulholland should have set the tone, but it only seemed to inspire his opposite number to a man-of-the-match performance. Dodgy barnet or not, Mulholland enjoyed the freedom of the park for most of the game and outshone both Johnson and Chara with a complete box-to-box performance. Add some errant passes to the lack of bite in Portland’s midfield and you have one of the Canadians poorest performances since returning from injury. A number of very solid performances might have disguised the fact that he may still be feeling the effects and will invariably have a few off games.
Johnson got away with this tackle from behind, but other than that not his night.
Diego Chara 5: It is not often that the Colombian destroyer seems to be chasing shadows for most of the game, even in the second half he failed to get on top of Garcia and struggled to settle the ball at times. When one of the usually reliable Johnson/Chara axis has an off night the other may hold the fort, but when both are poor it will invariably hurt the team’s performance.
Darlington Nagbe (off in 82′) 5.5: He had a few good runs in the first half, one of which was interrupted with a foul from Phillips that earned him a twelfth minute red card. That should have led to the full back being attacked at every opportunity but, as with the same situation in San Jose 2 weeks ago Portland seem very merciful to opponents who pick up early bookings.
Nagbe did a few good things defensively but it was patchy, after 27 minutes he allowed Phillips to run right past him to get in a dangerous cross. He seems to be confused about his role again since Valeri’s return to the side.
Diego Valeri 6: An anonymous first half in which he rarely saw the ball, he could perhaps have chased Mulholland down a few times when he ran from deep. For many flair players when the flair is not quite happening there is not much left. In Valeri’s case what is left is a battler, he upped his game in the second half and his recovery and quick pass sent Melano and Nagbe on a 2 vs. 1 breakaway that they conspired to miss. He took advantage of a Salt Lake mistake to release Urruti on the right and (take note Nagbe) continued his run into the box for the return only being denied by the brilliance of Rimando.
After a few early miscues his set-piece delivery came to play an important role, he found Borchers head with two nice out-swinging corners the latter of which was the game winning assist.
Looks very focused in this shot, but not Wallace’s best game. Mulholland on the other hand, was excellent.
Rodney Wallace 4: His attacking game has been off for several weeks, but normally he at least adds considerable effort on the defensive side. In this game that aspect was absent as well, he will be lucky to get a start against Houston.
Lucas Melano (off in 65′) 5: The poor performance from his team meant he had very limited chances to show what he can bring to the mix for the rest of the season. He had a couple of heavy touches and miscued passes early on that didn’t seem to tally with a purported 7 figure transfer fee, but it is early days. On their breakaway he may have passed to Nagbe a little early but patiently waited for the return pass from Nagbe’s left foot, that’s about as likely as Godot taking the field.
As in the San Jose game when a defender is on a yellow it would be an idea to let the pace merchant try to get at him.
Substitutes:
Maxi Urruti (on in 65′) 6: An excellent contribution from the bench, adding an immediate spark to Portland’s attack with a great cross for Valeri and several decent shots on goal.
Dairon Asprilla (on in 82′) 5.5: Another substitute who put in a good cameo. At last Portland had someone driving at Phillips on the wing, he won the decisive corner at the end.
Jack Jewsbury (on in 86′): Not on long enough for a rating but good hings seem to happen at the end of games for Portland when he is around.
