Three thoughts on Timber’s 4-2 loss in Costa Rica

Photo courtesy of CONCACAF

by Matt Hoffman (@mhoff)

Saprissa is the favorite to win in a group that includes the Portland Timbers and CD Dragon in Sociabank CONCACAF Champions League (SCCL) play. Timber’s coach Caleb Porter himself has said that the Costa Rican giant is the favorite to advance to the knockout round. Saprissa showed why on Wednesday despite allowing the Timbers an early goal, Saprissa came away with an impressive, and perhaps insurmountable, lead in the tournament.

With two SCCL matches remaining, the Timbers can still advance to the knockout round. Portland will simply need to win both games, or draw at Dragon and beat Saprissa at home by two. The Timbers won’t have too long to wait: Portland will be in El Salvador on September 27th.

Photo courtesy of CONCACAF

Opportunities Lost?

Porter put out a line-up of mostly first choice players in a mid-week fixture book ended by two important home games against MLS clubs. The only regulars not to start were either returning from national team call-ups (Darlington Nagbe and Alvas Powell , who took a knock at the end of the RSL match to boot) and Liam Ridgewell. The point is, Porter did not field a lineup to suggest that he was not looking to win.

Like any decision, that could end up biting Portland. While Seattle and San Jose have both lost momentum in the chase for the sixth and final playoff spot, Vancouver (who advanced themselves in SCCL play on Wednesday), may have turned a corner.

#	Club	Points	PPG	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD
5	Sporting Kansas City	39	1.34	29	11	12	6	35	35	0
6	Portland Timbers	38	1.31	29	10	11	8	43	44	-1
7	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	34	1.17	29	9	13	7	37	45	-8
8	San Jose Earthquakes	33	1.22	27	7	8	12	27	30	-3
9	Seattle Sounders FC	32	1.19	27	9	13	5	33	37	-4

CONCACAFFED

I’m not sure when the term “Concacaffed” entered the modern lexicon so I’ll just refer to Paul Kennedy’s July 2015 piece on the Gold Cup:

There’s even a term for when something goes wrong at the Gold Cup: “Concacafed.”

Costa Rica lost to Mexico in the dying seconds of overtime in Sunday’s quarterfinals — the Ticos were “Concacafed” if you will — when Guatemalan referee Walter Lopez awarded El Tri a controversial penalty kick for an alleged push byRoy Miller on striker Oribe Peralta. The theory was that Concacaf needed Mexico and its fan support in the tournament so El Tri was given a break when American assistant Eric Boria flagged Miller for pushing Peralta.

CONCACAF matches are notorious for situations like this. Referring soccer is a challenge, yet this tournament is renown for it’s ability to miss would-be unmistakable fouls while awarding penalty kicks for marginal contact. No, it doesn’t help their image that CONCACAF is pretty much the most corrupt part of FIFA, which is actually very impressive.

“We scored the first goal and they got two goals that weren’t goals. The first goal they scored was a foul. The guy rode off our center half, then went in, and so that shouldn’t have been a goal and the second one is a phantom PK, so now we’re down 2-1. We come out in the second half, we score a fair goal, 3-2, and then the next one is a PK that’s not a goal. Our guy blocked it. There was no way he could block it intentionally with his hand with the speed that the shot came off and as close a distance as it was. His arm is in a natural body position, so I don’t know how that’s a PK.”

You don’t have to read too far into Porter’s post-match comments to know his frustration. Like any good coach, Porter will defend his players to the ends of the Earth but you don’t need to his point is not far off.

Refereeing decisions such as these do little to dispel that this corner of the footy universe is past it’s shady and corrupt past.

Photo courtesy of CONCACAF

Outplayed on the scoreline and the stat sheet

Porter said no less than three times following Wednesday’s match that Portland will win next time the clubs play (Wednesday, October 19, 2016 in Portland, between the Timbers final two MLS games), but also adding, “We’re going to win the game fair and square. We’re not going to rely on an official to give us the game.”

Porter’s remarks were made during the emotional period directly after addressing the team following the match but they remind of the give-and-take between Porter and his counter-part Bruce Arena following the Galaxy’s 2-1 win over Portland in July when the coaches espoused pointedly different philosophies about soccer statistics:

Porter saying a cursory look at the match statistics showed Portland dominated the game but were unlucky while Arena suggested that there is only one true statistics which is goals.

Portland lost both arguments on Wednesday night. Because of Major League Soccer’s contract with Opta including SCCL play, the Timbers quality was not present on the field in terms of possession, passing accuracy, or shots.

Club	Total Shots	Shots on Goal	Shots off Target	Crosses	Total Passes	Pass %	Clearances
Saprissa	25	7	13	33	427	82%	7
Timbers	9	3	6	10	357	74%	33

Then there are the goals. Fair or not, the Timbers have a whole to climb out of. Criticizing officials is part-and-parcel of The American Soccer Experience but the foul counts were fairly equal (Saprissa 14 to Portland’s 12) but the four yellow cards awarded were for not for reckless challenges or late tackles but: Argument, Unsporting Behavior (2), and Dissent.

Going back to the opening of camp in January, Caleb Porter said he wanted the Timbers to “attack” rather than defend the MLS crown. The club has also spoken on numerous occasions about their desire to make it out of their SCCL group. Both dreams have been duly bloodied but, like Eddie Vedder, are still alive.