—by Chris Rifer

Soft. It is the one word every athlete despises. An athlete would rather be called stupid, untalented, or even downright terrible. Last week in L.A. the Portland Timbers were pretty soft.

Ask Real Salt Lake if the Timbers are soft. They will look at a first half where the Timbers dominated the run of play and the quality of the chances. Then they will look at a second half, where they pinned Portland in their own end, controlled possession, and came away with virtually no quality chances. RSL finished with three shots. Read that again, three shots. No, something tells me that Real Salt Lake wouldn’t use the word “soft” to describe the Portland Timbers.

In the first half, the Timbers were the clear aggressors. Aside from some chances coming from set pieces, including one that resulted in a disallowed goal due to a foul drawn by Jack Jewsbury, Real Salt Lake looked to be nursing a mean hangover from their heartbreaking loss to Monterrey in the CONCACAF Champions League final on Wednesday.

The Timbers, on the other hand, looked to have regained their home pitch form from the kickoff, creating a number of early chances. In the 14^th minute, Diego Chara did well to win a ball 30 yards from goal and send a perfectly weighted pass forward into the box for Jorge Perlaza, only for Chris Schuler to make a saving sliding tackle to clear the danger.

In the 22^nd minute, however, Portland’s efforts were rewarded as Kalif Alhassan sent a beautiful ball into the box for Kenny Cooper, who calmly volleyed with his left foot into the net.

The Timbers’ chances weren’t done, though, as RSL keeper Nick Rimando did well to deflect efforts from distance by Jewsbury and Alhassan, and was fortunate to see a Jorge Perlaza header sail just wide.

The second half, though, is where Portland showed its grit. Real Salt Lake looked to get more aggressive to search for the equalizer. RSL brought on Will Johnson and Andy Williams at the beginning of the half, in a clear signal that Real did not want to leave Portland empty-handed.

RSL’s efforts were for naught, however. Despite controlling much of the possession, Real Salt Lake struggled to create any serious chances in front of the Timbers Army. The Timbers defense showed it had more than enough toughness to be up to the task, making a pretty easy time of things for Portland keeper Troy Perkins. In the late going, RSL found its best chance—a Nat Borchers header that Perkins handled flat-footed.

In the last three weeks the Timbers have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are tough at home. This time it was Portland’s defense that held the line, delivering the Timbers three points and an important bounce-back win. Onward, Rose City.

Match Observations

• The tribute to Gisele at the beginning of the match was one of the most touching moments I have witnessed as a sports fan. Although I saw her at plenty of matches, I wasn’t one who was blessed to have known her personally. I thought it was the perfect moment to honor a person who means so much to the Army.
• Kalif Alhassan is tied for third in the league with four assists, and Kenny Cooper is tied for fourth in goals with three.
• In the coming days we’re likely to hear a lot about how this was a Timbers win over RSL’s reserves. While there were certainly some key players missing for RSL, it’s not like they rolled their youth development side out there. Here are the players that played for RSL on Saturday that also got minutes in the CCL Final: Nick Rimando, Chris Wingert, Ned Grabavoy (70’), Nat Borchers, Will Johnson (46’), Andy Williams (46’), Tony Beltran, Javier Morales, Arturo Alvarez, and Alvaro Saborio. That’s 10 men that played in the CCL final that also played Saturday – 7 of which played the whole match, and 9 of which played at least 45 minutes. Throw in Kyle Beckerman, who certainly would have played in the CCL final but for suspension, and you see that 11 of RSL’s contributors on Saturday are players that regularly see first team action. Even the three remaining players – Colleen Warner (3 appearances, 2 starts), Chris Schuler (3 appearances, 3 starts), and Jean Alexandre (3 appearances, 2 starts) aren’t exactly bench warmers. So, when you hear somebody cynically talk about the Timbers win over RSL as a win over a sort of JV team, roll your eyes and kindly point the speaker toward the facts.
• If I were an opposing manager watching this game, I would want to get the Timbers involved in as open a match as possible. The Timbers showed on Saturday that their defensive unit is more than capable of sitting back and absorbing any pressure the opposition can apply. Where the Timbers’ defense has really been punished has been when play has been a bit more open. That said, when play opens up you have to think that Jorge Perlaza and Diego Chara are also going to be more comfortable. So, pick your poison, I guess.

Timbers Grades

Troy Perkins, 5.5 How do you grade this performance? Perkins struggled a little bit in distribution, sending a few balls out of bounds.  He really wasn’t tested much in goal, although when he was called upon, he looked more than up to the task.

Rodney Wallace, 5.5 Didn’t get forward as much as we have seen in the past, and still gave away a couple needless corners, but on the whole had the left wing on lockdown, supplying valuable pressure when RSL tried to send balls into the box.

Futty, 6.5 The center of the defense today was marvelous. RSL was able to send a few balls in, especially on corners, but very few amounted to anything at all. Repeatedly cleared danger by winning headers in the box.

Eric Brunner, 6.5 Much the same as Futty, gets a world of credit for leading an organized backline.

Jeremy Hall, 6 I’ve thought that Steve Purdy has done well in back, but as the match went along I have liked this move more and more. Like Wallace, Hall covered the flanks very well – applying great pressure when RSL got wide to send crosses in. Also adds an extra bit of dynamism when he overlaps.

Kalif Alhassan, 6.5 Didn’t have quite the Super Tecmo Bowl-like dynamism in the attacking third that we saw a couple weeks ago, but was better tracking back in defense and still showed very well in the attack. Great service to Cooper for the goal, and was a nice Nick Rimando save away from notching an MLS Goal of the Week.

Jack Jewsbury, 5.5 Didn’t have his best day on set pieces, but also deserves some credit for the defensive performance. Hardly crossed the center line in the second half, but still made his presence felt.

Diego Chara, 5.5 As expected, we’re still only seeing flashes from Chara, but some of those flashes were pretty spectacular. His pass to Perlaza in the 14^th minute was one of the best we have seen from a Timber this year. Still needs to develop a little bit of chemistry, though, as there were a few miscommunications in the midfield.

Darlington Nagbe, 5 Was pretty adept at working into a little bit of space going forward, but struggled a little with what to do with the ball when he gets into space. For the most part did well in providing a layer of cover for Hall in defense, although had a couple minor breakdowns.

Jorge Perlaza, 5.5 Jorge was very dangerous when the game was open in the early going. It’s not pretty, but he feeds very well off of long balls coming over the top. Was a little bit unlucky not to break through today, as he had a couple nice chances.

Kenny Cooper, 6 Cooper is becoming a bit of a cult hero in Portland, which is sort of hilarious considering his quiet off-field demeanor. Did well to finish the goal, and you can see a little bit of chemistry developing with Perlaza, as the movement of the forwards was good.