—by Chris Rifer

No Porterball, no problem.  The misunderstood, misbranded style of play that the Timbers were typecast into played absolutely no role in the Portland Timbers biggest win of the 2013 season to date, as the Timbers used their high pressure to funnel the Sounders offense into the teeth of their defense, and furiously counterattacked when Seattle inevitably turned the ball over.

The result was a 2-1 win in Seattle that puts the Timbers in pole position to advance to the Western Conference Finals.

Consistent with the Timbers tactics, Seattle had their chances.  Because of the Timbers tactics, until late, they were largely half chances.

One of Seattle’s best came in the 8^th minute, when a rare Jack Jewsbury mistake freed Adam Moffat on the left side.  The former Timber drove a cross into the box that took a deflection and fell for Brad Evans on the volley, but his bouncing effort was straight at Donovan Ricketts.

Now, to understand what happened next, a brief review is necessary.  Specifically, please look back at Kelly McLain’s piece from June, and the quote he elicited from Caleb Porter at the end.  “It’s not always getting into an area to create goals.  Sometimes it’s pulling out of an area to create goals.  Maybe we’re creating more goals because we’re actually not putting someone in there and we’re actually overloading the middle and creating more through the middle and left versus always just jamming it down the right.”

Perhaps if Sigi Schmid had read that, what happened next could have been avoided by the Sounders.  But clearly he didn’t.  And when Diegos Chara and Valeri, along with Darlington Nagbe played a triangular combination just outside the left hashmarks, Jack Jewsbury was all by his lonesome on the right.  A quick switch, some good work down to the byline, a nice cross, and a great nearpost run from Ryan Johnson, and it’s 1-0 Portland in the 15^th minute.

Over the course of the next half hour, Seattle saw plenty of the ball, earned mounds of free kicks in a tightly—but fairly—called game by referee Baldomero Toledo, and really only had a direct Clint Dempsey free that Donovan Ricketts saves every time to show for it.

Seattle came back out after the half on their front foot again, but to similar result.  In the 49^th minute, Dempsey found fishermate Eddie Johnson all alone in the center of the box, but the third-best Johnson on the night sent his header well wide.

Portland, however, was more than capable of weathering the storm, and as the game progressed past the hour mark, the Timbers made some thunder of their own.  In the 64^th minute, after Chara worked the ball to Jewsbury on the byline,[1] Jack sent a dangerous low, diagonal cross into the area, but recent entrant Kalif Alhassan scuffed his finish and Marcus Hahnemann easily gathered.

Three minutes later, the Sounders caught on, and cut off the pass to Jewsbury out wide.  But the joke was on them.  After Nagbe and Will Johnson switched the play from the left to Alhassan on the right, Jewsbury again overlapped, creating a two-on-one with Leo Gonzalez.  Gonzalez floated to Jewsbury, and Moffat meandered out to pressure the wide-open Alhassan.  Before he could get there, however, Nagbe ran into the passing channel vacated by Moffat.  Rather than play wide to Jewsbury—as they had done to great success twice before—Alhassan played the ball to Nagbe in the box, whose magnificent first touch allowed him to fire past an overwhelmed Hahnemann.

The goal, however, put the Timbers in a position they haven’t handled well in 2013.  Holding an advantage over a desperate opponent throwing numbers forward, the Timbers have struggled to clear their lines and relieve pressure.

So it was again on Saturday.  In the 75^th minute, the Timbers failed to clear another Sounders set piece.  The ball pinged around the box, and eventually fell to Dempsey at the far post.  The ball teed up enticingly, Dempsey mercifully manufactured another $8 million miss, striking his volley just wide.

Portland nearly ended the series in the 82^nd minute, when Alhassan—who had far and away his best road performance as a Timber—found Ryan Johnson on a perfectly weighted through ball, but Johnson couldn’t quite navigate two defenders and had his shot deflected just wide.

For the most part, however, Portland was pinned in their own end by the sea of Sounders coming forward.  Just before stoppage time, it turned into a series-narrowing goal for Seattle.  After Shalrie Joseph headed a long throw into the center of the box, Alonso struck a low volley between Ricketts’ wickets to pull one back and give Seattle a prayer of advancing.

Despite a late Dempsey header straight at Ricketts, however, the Sounders couldn’t find an equalizer, and the 2-1 result for Portland is more than acceptable coming back to the Rose City.

Those looking to see the possession-oriented style of play that Porterball may have been in May, Saturday was an example of what playoff Porterball has become—deliberate, flexible, and pragmatic.  Also, successful.

Match Observations

• The Timbers rope-a-doped Seattle in two ways.  First, they let Seattle hold the majority of the ball and looked to get out on the counterattack.  More important, however, was the left-to-right rope-a-dope.  Portland’s overloading of the left made Seattle feel comfortable in shutting down the portion of the attack that usually featured the Timbers’ attacking stars, only to have Jewsbury facilitate the unsuspected haymaker from the right.
• Saturday also dispelled the played-out notion that the Timbers’ playoff inexperience would be a hindrance for Portland against the Sounders.  “Everybody talks about the playoffs being different, but it’s still a game.  It’s a soccer game.  You got one ball, and twenty-two guys, and two goals, and three referees,” Porter said postgame.  “There’s nothing different about it.  It’s only different if you talk about it.”
• Porter’s “business as usual” observation is especially true for the Timbers, who have been rounding into playoff form for the better part of two months.  After getting over a rash of injuries and international calls-up, and facing a finishing stretch littered with playoff opponents, the Timbers have shown a more pragmatic and patient approach to games in which they’ve looked to manage the game by limiting opponents’ offense to crosses from deep wide areas and set pieces, while discerningly picking just a handful of scoring chances per game.  As a result, the Timbers have racked up one-goal wins that lacked wow-factor, but catapulted Portland to the top of the Western Conference table.
• Now, for the killjoy observations.  The Timbers were uncharacteristically giddy after the game, with Porter defiantly saying he has reason to be confident and singing ringing into the halls from the players’ showers.  The overconfidence has continued in the postgame Twitter onslaught.  Nothing has been won, yet, however, and this job is far from done.  As they did on Saturday night, the Timbers have struggled mightily when facing with a desperate opponent throwing numbers forward.  Late concessions in Chicago, Vancouver, and Saturday in Seattle are indicative of perhaps Portland’s greatest weakness at the moment, and with the Sounders’ proverbial backs against the wall, that’s what the Timbers can expect for 90 minutes on Thursday.  If they’re not prepared for that, this series is readily losable.

Timbers Grades

Donovan Ricketts, 6 His positioning was tremendous all day, as on the rare occasion Seattle put a shot on frame, the shot was more often than not right at Ricketts.  This included Alonso’s late goal, which was put right in the most difficult spot for a big goalkeeper – directly beneath him.

Michael Harrington, 6 In a little bit of a shift, the Timbers were a little more aggressive with Jewsbury while leaving Harrington back a little bit.  Mikey was his typical solid self.

Pa Modou Kah, 7 One of Kah’s best games.  He was matched up with Eddie Johnson for much of the night, and rendered him largely irrelevant.

Futty, 4 Futty, on the other hand, wasn’t fantastic.  Whereas Kah was dominant, Futty struggled a little bit, including poorly allowing Lamar Neagle to turn in the 17^th minute; a play that only went awry for Seattle because Neagle’s finish was even worse that Futty’s defending.

Jack Jewsbury, 8.5 What a game.  This was a tough task for Jewsbury, as his footspeed deficits make it difficult to cover as much ground as he did.  He made up for it Saturday with intelligence, lethally picking spots to get forward to allow the Timbers to work into the space they’d created by overloading the left and—with one hiccup—still fulfilling his defensive duties.

Will Johnson, 5.5 A little bit loose with some of his set pieces, and the quieter of the Timbers’ two central midfielders, Johnson still popped up at crucial times to switch the field and spring the attack.

Diego Chara, 7.5 Just tremendous.  Along with his deserved secondary assist on the first goal, Chara earned a video game-like 14 recoveries, cleaning up Sounders attacks all night.  The way was shut for Seattle trying to buildup through the middle, and that was largely because of Diego.

Rodney Wallace, 7 Perhaps a bit counterintuitive, but the Timbers’ leftern skew meant Wallace wasn’t in the most promising scoring positions.  What the Timbers needed from him, he did extremely well, however, which was essentially some wing holdup play to let the overload really take hold with Valeri, Chara, and even Nagbe, and set up the deadly switch.  Didn’t get anywhere near the scoresheet, but this was one of Rodney’s better games.

Diego Valeri, 5 This was always going to be a quieter night for Valeri for much the same reason as Wallace, he was really just a cog in the misdirectional machine that was the Timbers’ overload of the left-center.  He was perfectly fine in that role, but it meant Valeri wasn’t a headliner on Saturday.

Darlington Nagbe, 7 All over the field on Saturday, as he popped up on the right, the left, and everywhere in between.  His run on the second goal was perfect, and the first touch was something special.

Ryan Johnson, 6.5 Brilliant run and finish on the first goal, but, boy would the Timbers be in a different position right now if he’d finished his late breakaway.

Kalif Alhassan, 8 The man renowned for shrinking on the road was huge on Saturday.  Had the one assist, and probably deserved a second to Ryan Johnson.

Ben Zemanski, 5 There really wasn’t much that he added, and I thought bringing him on for Nagbe came too early.

Jose Valencia, 5 This was an aggressive substitution from Porter, as Piquionne’s set piece defending could have come in handy in dead ball situations.  It didn’t work out for the Timbers, as Valencia never really got an opportunity to get out on the break.

Onward, Rose City!