It was this kind of game. (photo: Graham Green)
By Niall McCusker
Another scoreless draw, another point pragmatically secured. Some people may miss crazy games like the 3-2 victory the last time Portland visited Kansas two seasons ago – some people should be careful what they wish for.
After the final Timbers preseason game against Stabaek I wrote:
“In the absence of Valeri 1-0 score lines may indeed be his (Porter’s) best hope for wins and his defense will need to hold down the fort and help grind out some results that perhaps appeal more to the pragmatist than the purist.”
The narrow victories haven’t quite arrived but the defensive grinding is certainly there. Last season the defensive midfielders would often maraud up the field, leaving holes for opponents to exploit. In this game Jewsbury and Chara stayed so close to their back four that for the first thirty minutes of the game Kansas had a large part of the pitch to themselves.
They never threatened overly much from open play, though Dwyer did force Ridgewell into an excellent sliding block early on. But Opara should have done better from an early set-piece as should Anibaba toward the end. After being second to most balls for the first thirty minutes Portland turned the momentum and finally did some attacking of their own. Their best chance fell to Wallace, who got on the end of a miscued shot from Jewsbury, the keeper saved his effort when it look like he should have scored. An errant offside flag made that a moot point.
Borchers got a header on target from a well placed Jewsbury free kick shortly afterward. Adi also had the ball in the net in the first half, but the referee did well to spot a handball from the big man in the build up.
The defenses stayed on top in the second half. Adi had a great run down the left on the hour, it looked like he might have slid the ball inside to Nagbe, but he worked the keeper, so can’t be faulted for that. Portland were competing more in the middle, de Jong had sought to impose himself physically on the game, but came out on the wrong side of a couple of hard challenges with Asprilla and Jewsbury.
Powell vs Dwyer: Defenders on both sides kept the attackers on a tight reign. (photo: Graham Green)
Nagbe, Wallace and Asprilla will all have wanted to get into the game more, but on the other side it was a quiet performance from Zusi, Dwyer and the other Kansas attackers. Fernandez and Urruti replaced Asprilla and Adi with fifteen minutes left, Fernandez did well, seeking to add some order and direction to Portland’s attack, but he could not create any clear cut chances.
Late headers from Opara and Anibaba should have been on target for Kansas and would have robbed the Timbers of a point they just about deserved. If they learned anything from last week’s late goal when Villafana was matched up against Alan Gordon it was not apparent at the end when Chara looked to be tasked with defending the much taller Anibaba at a corner.
This could have been a late winner but Opara could not keep it on target (photo: Graham Green)
In previous seasons under Porter the Timbers had started on the idealistic, attacking end of the scale and gradually dialed back, typically becoming a little more defensive as the season went on. This time it may be the opposite as a defense first approach has been apparent in the first three games.
Also for the third game in a row the Timbers had less than 50% of possession, in his first two seasons it seemed that Porter was aspiring to be the Guardiola of MLS, valuing possession above all else. There are a lot of games to be played before we can claim he has morphed into more of a George Graham type manager. The fans may not need to learn the ironic chant of ‘boring, boring Portland’, as they try to get 1-0 wins like Arsenal in the early 90’s, quite yet, but the tactical shift has certainly been interesting. Whether it is a temporary measure that will evolve or a true Damascene conversion to a direct game will become apparent as starters like Valeri return to the line-up.
