It’s always fun to see if the kid is taller than Chara.

By Niall  McCusker

For a Cascadian derby this encounter at times had all the attacking urgency of a tepid World Cup group game in which both sides are happy to tie. Even the physicality in the tackles was absent.

Seattle started the game well and after ten minutes had a period were Martins and Dempsey started to combine and look dangerous.

Then with the clock at 20:39 Portland got the ball, they passed it 38 times, holding it for 110 seconds. RIP.

Rest In Possession – they got their breath and a foothold in the game and Seattle let them do it. The home side in a derby shouldn’t sit deep and allow the opposing center backs to stroke the ball around. Was this a ruse to lure Portland out of a defensive posture? As the game wore on the answer became clear, it wasn’t, Seattle weren’t forcing the game and both sides looked OK with a draw.

But when Portland are giving up cheap goals Seattle aren’t going to turn them down. Last week in New York the Timbers were lucky to get all three points, this week a little unlucky to come away with nothing as Porter’s game plan was good.

Here are the individual ratings:

Adam Larsen Kwarasey 5.5: Some will blame the defense more for the goal and they might have a decent argument, there was plenty of blame to go around. But Rose didn’t get very clean contact, Kwarasey saw the shot in good time and got down to it, so he should have completed the save.

As ever this season, not busy, only called into action in first half injury time with a decent stop from Neagle. Nice to see he now knows his defenders well enough to punch them in the head. Once he decides to come out the keeper must go through opponents, team-mates and in this case large, ginger wildlings without any shred of mercy in order to get to the ball – he did.

Had some fun coming up into attack for Portland’s late corner, but will only get a couple of those type of errors per season before serious questions are asked.

Alvas Powell 7.5: Portland’s best player on the night, he handled Neagle well in the first half and even though Pappa managed to get a couple of crosses in the second, a solid defensive effort. Got forward when he could, particularly in the second half and played a great give and go with Nagbe to put a cross on Adi’s head that he should have finished. A mature performance.

Nat Borchers 6: stepped up on Martins a couple of times in the first half, as a collective effort from the central defenders and defensive mids kept the best player in MLS reasonably quiet. Out-jumped by the much smaller Martins with twenty minutes left, allowing Neagle in for a shot over the bar. Also part of the large group of players culpable on Seattle’s goal. He stepped late to Dempsey and didn’t win the header – in that situation you go one in front and one behind the intended target of the throw, you get there early and box him in.

Nice tackle on a Martin’s breakaway late on as Portland pressed.

Liam Ridgewell 6.5: tracked Martins out as far as the halfway line on occasion, but let the responsibility transfer to Jewsbury and Chara were needed to keep shape. Interplay between Dempsey and Martins was quite limited in this game and that was key to Portland looking solid. They can be defended individually, but if allowed to combine and move off each other it’s over for the defense.

Portland gave up 10 goals in 3 games to Seattle last season, so while the goal conceded was very poor they do deserve some credit overall.

Despite the yellow Ridgewell’s defense did quite well.

Jorge Villafana 6: got in a couple of decent early crosses and was solid defensively against Marco Pappa. When Neagle switched to his side in the second half Villafana had a little more trouble, but still looked to be heading for a very solid game. Until the goal.

As mentioned above, there was plenty of  blame to around here, in Villafana’s case he had not looked around his box before the throw was taken. It wasn’t that hard to count the potential Seattle attackers, Portland had 7 defenders in the box, plus their keeper. Seattle had just Dempsey and Rose and still managed to score. A lot of players could have picked up Rose’s run, but Villafana had line of sight (had he been looking) and the angle to close him down as he ran to space.

Like a few other goals this year, redundancy (extra numbers) in Portland’s defense  led to no one taking responsibility.

An early opponent of statistical models in soccer was Sam Allardyce at Bolton who used data from Prozone to create something called POMO (Position Of Maximum Opportunity) – this outlines the ideal positions for all his attacking players to take at a set-piece (most certainly including throw ins). Portland need to buy this research, invert it and create POMD (Position Of Maximum Defense) – or they could start with the basics and just not let two attackers score against seven defenders.

Jack Jewsbury 6.5: Portland played a solid, low-risk game and that is exactly the kind that suits Jewsbury in midfield. He was disciplined, harassed opponents, set the tempo with simple passes and even started to sneak forward when it became obvious that Seattle were not sitting back to lure Portland into some elaborate trap – they were just,for some reason, equally unambitious.

Diego Chara 6.5: I was looking forward to Chara and Alonso kicking the living stuffing out each other for ninety minutes but they let me down as the game was entirely too civilized an affair. Portland’s new compact shape doesn’t let Chara show off his last ditch tackling to the same extent as previous seasons, but he had a solid game, slipping a couple of nice passes forward to release Nagbe.

Dairon Asprilla (off in 62′) 5: did some solid work defensively – that’s a sad game highlight for an attacker – but probably a reason why he is getting starts.

Imagine you are a 22-year old winger (if only!) blessed with size, pace and decent ball skills. You are released on the wing in the 34th minute and are looking at elderly USL veteran Zach Scott in your path.

Do you (a) run right at him and beat him like a rented mule being ridden by a red-haired step-child (b) just chill for a bit on the wing, slow down and fire off a terrible cross.

Asprilla chose option B – as renowned pundit George Bernard Shaw would put it ‘youth is wasted on young’.

Asprilla: don’t listen to your coaches. Less patience, more youthful exuberance please.

Darlington Nagbe 7: again the lone highlight in Portland’s attack. After half-heartedly waving an imaginary yellow card at the referee in New York it was encouraging to see him continue to move away from his Gandhi-esque martyrdom in the face of fouls and have a strong word with Alan Kelly for not booking Alonso for dragging him back on a potential first half breakaway. It should be said Kelly had a fairly decent game other than that.

Nagbe stayed very deep in the first half but as Seattle retreated he pushed forward and started to link with Urruti. Had a very nice shot in the second half and finally had a midfielder he could work with when Fernandez came on. A fine but largely unsupported outing.

Nagbe: plowing a lonely furrow in Portland’s attack.

Ishmael Yartey 4.5: it seems poor form to pick on the new guy, but when he loses the ball too easily 4 times between the 10th and 25th minutes it is hard not to notice. Add in a number of errant passes and a failure to link with his new team-mates and you wonder how he didn’t get the call to the bench in this game.

‘Tracked back well’ is again all the praise I can muster for the winger. He and Asprilla really offered no threat and allowed Seattle to focus on Nagbe.

Maxi Urruti (off in 74′)  5.5: didn’t get much service in the first half and did create one decent chance for himself with a nice turn and shot.

Normally I am reluctant to jump on strikers for being offside (add an ‘s’ to this word and Liam Neeson will find you and oh yes, he will kill you), often they make good runs and the pass comes late. But his first half run was almost comical in it’s offsideness, he kept waving at Nagbe and then Asprilla for the ball without once casting a glance along the line to see that he was constantly 3-5 yards off. He did make an effort to come back onside before scoring his disallowed second half goal, but he has to be sharper in working that line.

He came into the game toward halftime and started the second half very strongly, but may not have done enough to keep Adi on the bench in the next game.

Subtitutes

Gaston Fernandez (on in 62′) 6: a midfielder with the best first touch in the squad and the ability to understand Nagbe’s game and actually link with him in passing movements. Alas kept on the bench in favor of a youngster whose best moments so far have been as a substitute and another player fresh off the plane from Europe. Sure you’ll also get a few careless giveaways like the one at the end of the game allowing Martins to counter, but this man deserves a chance to start as Portland’s attack is presently anemic.

And there goes the game, just wide from Adi.

Fanendo Adi (on in 74′) 5.5: “Heavy lies the crown” – or in MLS terms “heavy lies the DP tag”. Fanendo Adi is not paid like a Clinton Dempsey or even an Obafemi Martins, but he is Portland’s best paid attacker, so when an opportunity to score a glancing header with his first touch presents itself he simply needs to deliver.

A very decent effort with his second header onto the bar. With Marshall out of Seattle’s line-up Adi not starting this one was a little puzzling as he has the physique to dominate Scott or Evans.