—by Chris Rifer
The Timbers play jazz. Most of MLS plays classical.
In the Portland Timbers’ system, the distinction between the various midfield positions and forward is largely one of degree, perspective, and circumstance. Will Johnson is the perfect example. In any given game, he can sit in front of the backline, step up centrally to join the attack, dovetail a wide run to create space like a winger, or even make a run off a player holding the ball up like a deep-lying second striker. While Johnson primarily spends his time as a box-to-box midfielder whose defensive responsibilities are paramount, this role is better viewed as a starting spot than an inflexible positional assignment.
Understanding, embracing, and loving this distinction is necessary to understating, embracing, and loving the Timbers attack. Because while Johnson is extraordinary vis-à-vis the rest of MLS in this respect, the flexibility in his positional duties is thoroughly ordinary in Caleb Porter’s system.
In one respect, the team sheet it easy to fill out. Darlington Nagbe starts on the right wing. Gaston Fernandez starts on the left wing. Like Johnson, Diego Chara starts in defensive central midfield. Diego Valeri starts at attacking central midfield. Maxi Urruti starts at striker. Each player in the Timbers’ first choice starting eleven has a natural role that fits nicely with the others; giving great satisfaction to napkin lineup sketchers and Twitter semicolon connoisseurs alike.
But if you look down at the Timbers’ shape at any given moment, you’ll likely notice the Timbers attacking shape looks little like your napkin. Maybe one of the wingers has floated central or even to the other side to unbalance the formation. Maybe Valeri has dovetailed with a winger—or even fullback—and effectively made an overlapping run. Or maybe Urruti has come back into the midfield and Fernandez assumed a position up top. Or maybe Caleb Porter made a substitution and shaken the proverbial etch-a-sketch that is the Timbers attack.
The point is Caleb Porter has effectively built a modular attack with a base of Johnson and Chara—who just as easily could have been discussed in the defensive preview—a pinnacle of Urruti, and a trio of interchangeable attackers who can float between spots by design and at will to bend defenses out of shape and create space to take the decisive touch.
Defenders like predictability. They like to know who is going to pop up where and what they’re going to do when they get there. Put another way, they like to read the opponents’ sheet music to know where in the song they are and what’s coming next.
The Timbers attack is intentionally built to be unpredictable, force defenders to react rather than predict, pull them out of their spots, and capitalize on the mistake. To their opposing Timbers’ dismay, Caleb Porter doesn’t give his players sheet music.
The challenge with such a modular offense is it is difficult to assemble and execute. It’s relatively easy to teach a unit discrete roles to be executed together to create a larger system. Reading sheet music, while a nice skill, isn’t rocket science. It’s much more difficult to teach a unit the system and set the individuals free to execute the proper role the situation calls for in that moment.
Put another way, most MLS attacks are a string quartet; they have distinct instruments precisely playing pre-written parts with little room for variation. The Timbers’ attack is a jazz combo; a collection of players playing a variety of instruments with general starting points, but only bound by a general chord chart and the expectation that they will improvise and trade functions throughout the tune.
Once healthy, if Caleb Porter wants to add another instrument to Chara and Johnson’s bass,[1] Valeri’s piano, Nagbe’s drums, and Fernandez and Urruti’s guitars,[2] Porter can look to Steve Zakuani on saxophone or Rodney Wallace on trumpet. Smooth and soaring, Zakuani can take on solos as well as anybody in green and gold, even if he perhaps isn’t the player you’d look to support the combo. Similarly, Wallace isn’t going to slip into playing gentle combinations, but can more than effectively—if perhaps awkwardly—deliver the headlining punch that transforms gentle chordal combinations into direct attacks that turn defenders kind of blue.
There’s a special place in any combo for jazz flute, or in the Timbers’ case, Kalif Alhassan. Jokes aside, Alhassan is the ultimate studio player; capable of coming on and competently laying down tracks at multiple positions and even providing a flare of his own once in a while. And in reserve, the Timbers can look to backup bassist Ben Zemanski or secondary saxophone from the horn of Schillo Tshuma.
But regardless of which pieces Caleb Porter[3] puts into his combo, the general chart and expectation of improvisation remains the same. The instruments and roles may change, but the combo’s expectation of continuity, fluidity, and improvisation are constant.
And that’s what makes the difference between the Timbers attack and most of the league Night and Day.
Defensive Central Midfield Depth Chart
1. Will Johnson
1a. Diego Chara
3. Ben Zemanski
4. Steven Evans
5. George Fochive
Left Midfield Depth Chart
1. Gaston Fernandez
2. Steve Zakuani
2a. Rodney Wallace
2b. Kalif Alhassan
5. Jorge Villafana
6. Michael Nanchoff
Attacking Central Midfield Depth Chart
1. Diego Valeri
2. Kalif Alhassan
3. Michael Nanchoff
Right Midfield Depth Chart
1. Darlington Nagbe
2. Kalif Alhassan
3. Schillo Tshuma
4. Aaron Long
Forward Depth Chart
1. Maximiliano Urruti
2. Frederic Piquionne
Onward, Rose City!
[1] While the undeniable captain and metronome of the combo, anybody who thinks bassists can’t take outstanding solo runs hasn’t listened to enough Ray Brown.
[2] Come on, they’re Argentine.
[3] Um, Cole Porter.
