—by Chris Rifer

With the playoff chase heating up, the Portland Timbers scratched out a tough point in a scoreless draw on the road against Philadelphia Union.  The draw puts Portland at 33 points, one behind D.C. United for the final playoff spot.

At the outset, Philadelphia established themselves as the dominant side, but failed to truly take advantage. Union were able to send a few crosses into the box—most dangerously a 22^nd minute Michael Farfan ball to the near post—but were unable to create any bona fide chances.  Philadelphia’s best opportunity came in the 28^th minute, as Seb Le Toux chested down a ball coming over the top, but sent it wide of the far post.

While Philadelphia had a few more chances than Portland in the first half, the Timbers showed a little bit of intent going forward. At times the combination of Lovel Palmer and Sal Zizzo moved down the right side with impunity, but the Timbers’ last ball repeatedly failed them.  Portland nearly closed the first half with a shocker, however, but Philly Rookie Zach MacMath blocked a Jorge Perlaza effort at close range, and Perlaza couldn’t turn the rebound toward the open net.

The second half wouldn’t see any dramatic changes in the run of play. Portland controlled a little more of the midfield, although still primarily relied on the counterattack, and Philadelphia continued to struggle to find any serious attempts on goal.

Kenny Cooper found a bit of space 30 yards out in the 59^th minute and took a go, but MacMath easily covered his post to keep things level. A brilliant strike by Danny Mwanga in the 69^th minute was parried over the bar by Troy Perkins. Until the late stages, however, there wasn’t a whole lot doing for either side.

Finally, in the 85^th minute, Portland would make its bid to steal three points. Diego Chara caught Union committing too many numbers forward and made a blistering run up the gut of the midfield. The diminutive Colombian found Kenny Cooper alone on the right wing, but MacMath cut down Cooper’s angle, and forced KFC to drag the ball wide of the far post.

Three minutes later, Philadelphia would make its case for the victory. After Justin Mapp knocked Mike Chabala off balance, he crossed the ball to Kyle Nakazawa at the top of the box. Nakazawa’s sent his shot off the woodwork, however, and the Timbers cleared the danger.

In the end, neither team could break the stalemate, leaving Philadelphia frustrated and desperate for a win, and Portland satisfied with the point. Coming down the stretch, any road point is a good road point, and with the result the Timbers firmly embedded themselves in the thick of the playoff race.

Observations

• I was pretty surprised at the amount of disappointment from Timbers supporters on the internet after this match. True, Philadelphia hasn’t been on the best run of form recently, but they certainly haven’t been horrible at home. In the past month they have tallied home draws against F.C. Dallas, Houston, and a resurgent Revs side in what may be the craziest game of the MLS season thus far. The reality is that this draw, on the road, against a fellow playoff contender, is a good result by any objective measure. Could Kenny Cooper have slotted his 85^th minute effort home? Yeah, sure. But Nakazawa also could have put his 88^th minute effort in the net. In the end, the draw was a just, solid result for the Timbers that gets them through a tough road test while keeping their playoff hopes alive and well.
• Speaking of playoff hopes, let’s reset the picture. At this point, there are effectively six teams battling it out for three spots. One of those spots will go to a top-3 Eastern Conference side, but that doesn’t fundamentally change the picture because of the six teams in contention, four are from the East. Of those teams, Chivas seem to be in the most trouble, as they are in the midst of a terrible run of form and are at least a game down on most of the other teams. Here is how things are playing out, with my extremely unscientific playoff odds and random guesses on the far right.

Team	Points	GP	Remaining Schedule	Playoff Odds[1]	Predicted Points[2]
Union	36	27	Crew, @ K.C., D.C., @ Chivas, @ Sounders, Toronto, @ NYRB	85%	45
Dynamo	35	28	@ Crew, San Jose, @ Dallas, Chicago, @ Timbers, Galaxy	38%	42
D.C. United	34	25	@ Seattle, Chivas, RSL, @ Union, @ Crew, Chicago, Timbers, K.C.	75%	45
NYRB	33	27	@ Dallas, RSL, Timbers, @ TFC, Galaxy, @ K.C., Union	30%	41
Timbers	33	27	Revs, S.J., @ N.Y, @ 'Caps, Dynamo, @ D.C., @ RSL	42%	43
Chivas	31	28	Fire, @ DC, Toronto, Union, @ Galaxy, Sounders	10%	38

• I didn’t take the injury to Chris Pontius into account, mostly because we have no idea how it will affect D.C. Obviously it looks like a huge loss on paper, as Pontius has arguably been their best player this year, but without seeing it on the field it is hard to say how bad the damage will be. We will likely learn a lot on Saturday when they travel to Seattle.
• I didn’t explicitly predict any Timbers games. Superstition. If you do the math, you can probably figure it out. But, the point is that with the seven points from the last three matches, the Timbers are right in the thick of the playoff hunt. The other thing I would like to point out it how huge that point in Philly looks on this chart. So, those of you who are upset about Saturday, stop whining.
• Finally, looking at the season from a larger perspective, at this point it is hard not to be ecstatic with how the campaign has gone. Yes, the Timbers have given away a lot of points. Yes, if they hadn’t given away quite so many, they would be in excellent shape for the playoffs. But let’s be reasonable, here. At the beginning of the season, if you had told me that in the second week of September the Timbers would be a serious contender to make the playoffs, I would have declared the season a smashing success. So, next time you get the urge to bellyache—an urge that I get multiple times per week—remind yourself of that.

Timbers Grades

Troy Perkins, 5.5 Handled Philly’s crosses and corners especially well. All told, though, didn’t have that much to do. The defense in front of him primarily held the Union to half-chances.

Mike Chabala, 4 One of his poorer games as a Timber. Seemed a bit out of sorts throughout, and conceded one of Philly’s few legitimate chances by letting Justin Mapp send him to the turf and cross the ball to Nakazawa.

David Horst, 5.5 A bit quieter than the Chivas game, but was still very effective in the middle. Le Toux seemed to be loitering in Horst’s area quite a bit, but with only one real exception David kept him quiet.

Eric Brunner, 6.5 The last two matches have seen Brunner come out of the mini-slump he was in. On Saturday the Timbers got exactly what they want out of a center back—great positioning, solid tackling, and good leadership in keeping his back line organized.

Lovel Palmer, 6 Linked up with Zizzo very well, especially in the first half. Also had a nice game in back, keeping the right side pretty quiet. Probably safe to say this was one of Lovel’s best outings since coming over from Houston.

Kalif Alhassan, 4.5 Had a pretty anonymous game on the left wing. Only found himself in position to break down the defense once or twice, and failed to create anything especially promising from it.

Jack Jewsbury, 5 Held most of the game as Chara looked to get forward. The result was that nothing from Jack really jumped off the screen, although he did show nicely in defense on more than one occasion.

Diego Chara, 6 Perhaps his best road effort of the season. Was electric at times moving the ball up the center of the midfield and distributing out to the wings. Created several turnovers by using his signature sidling defense. And yes, I do believe that was a legitimate cramp.

Sal Zizzo, 6 Would go higher if his last ball hadn’t betrayed him a couple times. In the first half and early on in the second, Sal constituted the vast majority of the attack.

Kenny Cooper, 5 The big fella has to put that 85^th minute shot on frame, good play by MacMath or not. Still, between that and his other shot from distance, even the most cynical Cooper detractors would have to admit that he posed a danger to the Union defense.

Jorge Perlaza, 5.5 Really nice run to create his opportunity at the end of the half. The pickings were meager for him, as the left side behind him wasn’t functioning all that well. I do question his early exit. The Timbers best opportunities were coming on the counterattack, and Perlaza brings much more in that facet of the game than Dike.

Bright Dike, 4 Let’s be honest here; he didn’t do anything other than commit fouls and end Timbers possession in the attacking third. I love his work rate and I love his mentality, but he was out of control on Saturday.

Rodney Wallace, 5 Had a decent, if unspectacular, brief outing at left midfield.

Darlington Nagbe, 5 Filled in for Zizzo anonymously.

Onward, Rose City!