—by Chris Rifer

The Portland Timbers scratched out a point in Dallas on Saturday night in an ugly game that featured plenty of tackles but few chances.

Monday’s opener made it easy to forget just how painful it was to watch the Timbers on the road at times last year. The first half hour in Frisco made it easy to remember.

Portland came out unable to time a tackle or a pass, as the match started off with some of the least aesthetically pleasing soccer you’ll see all season. Fortunately for Portland, for the first twenty minutes Dallas looked almost as inept.

While the Hoops were lacking much of their creative talent, they weren’t lacking their finisher. In the 22^nd minute, Carlos Rodriguez sent an early cross through the box. After Rodney Wallace failed to clear it for a corner, Bryan Leyva hit hard low shot that forced Troy Perkins to make a difficult diving save. The rebound, however, found the feet of FC Dallas striker Blas Perez, who slotted into the open net.

Two minutes later, the bleach-coifed Andrew Jacobson again found some space toward the top of the box, but sent his shot well wide. From there, though, FC Dallas were completely devoid of ideas.

It took half an hour, but the Timbers finally started to develop some rhythm late in the first half. In the 36th minute, Jack Jewsbury sent one of his signature world class free kicks from the right wing into the box, but Lovel Palmer’s header glanced off the far post and Dallas cleared.

Portland’s next chance came six minutes later, as Kalif Alhassan took a ball from Rodney Wallace on the wing and sent it across, but Eric Alexander’s header went wide.

After a positive last quarter hour, but still down a goal, the Timbers went into halftime facing a hill to climb, but some confidence to climb it with.

Take that confidence, stir in some luck, and glaze it with a clinical finish and you have yourself a fine recipe for an equalizer. That’s the dish Darlington Nagbe cooked up six minutes after halftime.

After Dallas keeper Kevin Hartman popped up a clearance only as far as the top of the box, the ball fell to the feet of the freshly introduced Nagbe. Darlington controlled the ball in the box and calmly rolled it by a helpless Hartman to pull the Timbers level.

Kris Boyd would call on Hartman twice more before the day was out, but both times the veteran keeper had the answer. In the 59^th minute, Alhassan found Boyd on a through ball. The Timbers talisman hit a hard shot first time, but a perfectly positioned Hartman punched the effort away. In the 71st minute, Boyd collected a throw from Palmer, turned a fired right at the near post, but Hartman’s left foot was there to keep the ball out.

From there, neither side seemed to have any more questions to ask of each other. The ball largely played around the midfield, as both teams seemed content to share the points.

In the end, the point is a quality result for Portland. While the potential for a win over the short-handed Hoops was clearly there, the Timbers will be happy to leave Frisco with a point in hand.

Match Observations

• As goes the midfield, so goes the Timbers. The middle of the park was wretched for the first half hour for Portland, as everything was poorly timed. Thereafter, however, the Timbers midfield started asserting itself, and Dallas never truly threatened the rest of the way.
• While the result was fine, the performance was somewhat lacking from the Timbers. At their best, the Timbers were passable. At their worst they were unwatchable. This FC Dallas team was missing a lot of its quality, and a decent Timbers performance—especially in the final third—could have led to the Timbers walking away with maximum points.
• To be fair, though, a lot of the Timbers struggles at the front were due to some good defense by FC Dallas. While Portland exploited Dallas’ defense toward the end of the first half, once Schellas Hyndman brought on George John, the Dallas backline was much better. The Timbers were able to unlock it once, but really never had anything golden after that.

Timbers Grades

Troy Perkins, 6 Believe it or not, his best moment may have been when the Timbers conceded. Perkins did well to block Layva’s strike, and certainly can’t be faulted for Perez’s put back. Otherwise, Troy controlled his box well and was hardly called upon to do any emergency goalkeeping.

Rodney Wallace, 3.5 That’s the Rodney we grew to know and be frustrated by last year. Culpable for the concession and had some absolute forehead slappers on the defensive end. Unlike Monday, he was also mostly ineffective coming forward.

Eric Brunner, 6 Nice outing for Brunner, as he seemed to be defending two positions most of the night; his and Wallace’s.

Hanyer Mosquera, 6.5 Very strong in the air and was overall dependable in back. Good regular season debut. If he keeps this up, Futty will have a hard time winning his spot back upon when his foot heals.

Lovel Palmer, 6 Had a nice night. Combined well with Kalif at times, and wasn’t caused any problems in defense. Lovel was unlucky his header didn’t deflect into goal—from that angle that’s as close as you can come without scoring.

Eric Alexander, 4 Had some nice moments on the left wing where he showed some ability to break defenders down, but had two pretty appetizing looks at goal the he got all wrong. His spot is Songo’o’s to lose.

Jack Jewsbury, 6 The ball that Palmer put off the post was magical. Nothing short of magical. In the first 30 minutes, Jack looked like the only guy that had things together. Jack sat a little bit deeper as the game went along, but he certainly contributed to the Timbers’ dominance of the midfield in the second half.

Diego Chara, 6.5 Looked out of sync at the outset, but by the second half was single handedly dominating the midfield. Earlier I said as goes the midfield, so goes the Timbers. You can refine that a bit to as goes Diego, so go the Timbers. Diego is quietly the most influential member of the team.

Kalif Alhassan, 5.5 Different guy on the road than we saw at home last week, isn’t he? Had a few nice moments on the ball, and his crosses are substantially better than they have been in the past. Kalif, though, disappeared for extended periods on Saturday.

Jorge Perlaza, 3.5 Absolutely anonymous. When he did get on the ball, his touch was either heavy or too numerous.

Kris Boyd, 6 Hardly got a touch on the ball, but he nearly scored both times he did. Both of his opportunities were half-chances that he turned into something potentially deadly.

Darlington Nagbe, 7 Great work on the goal. He was the guy who put the pressure on Hartman that caused the poor clearance, and then had the presence of mind to know what to do when the ball took a surprising bounce off a Dallas defender. Otherwise looked like the Timbers most dangerous threat, too.

James Marcelin, 6 Like I said, I love Marcelin in that closer role.

Preseason Prediction: Dallas 2-1 Dallas, Shea, Boyd, Perez.[1]

Actual Result: Draw 1-1, Perez, Nagbe.

Onward, Rose City!