—by Chris Rifer
Throughout the Timbers’ frustrating start to 2014 a common refrain around Portland has been that the Timbers’ woes were, in large part, caused by a lost offseason. The signings, the conventional wisdom dictated, hadn’t worked, and the Timbers, let down by those who remained, were missing some lost pieces from 2013.
And in one significant respect, this has been true to date. The signing of Norberto Paparatto has been a disappointment, with mistakes and injuries constituting the highlights of his 2014 season thus far.
But this conventional wisdom ignores one increasingly apparent home run the Timbers front office hit in the offseason: Gaston Fernandez.
For starters, there’s this: 10 goals in all-competition appearances.
But Fernandez’s value extends well beyond his top-line statistics. Over the course of 2014, Fernandez has molded himself into a utility man off the Timbers bench that gives the team the tactical and personnel flexibility to succeed both in MLS and tournament competitions. As Caleb Porter said of Fernandez at training on June 26th, “I think you guys are seeing that he’s a really good player and he can play a lot of different roles, and I like that because I like different pieces to play with, and toy with, and figure out . . . the right fit.” And all of this is facilitated not only by Fernandez’s quality, but also by his selflessness.
It’s no surprise that La Gata’s impact is best summed up with a team statistic. Over the course of their last five home games, the Timbers have scored an impressive ten goals. Eight of those goals have come after Fernandez entered as a second half substitute.
In Porter’s toy box, Fernandez is a Transformer. With the ability to play every position in the attack – he’s made appearances on both wings, as an attacking central midfielder, as an underneath forward, and as a lone striker – Fernandez essentially allows Porter to set up multiple changes in one substitution.
That was never more apparent than against Vancouver. Before Fernandez came on, the Timbers were in a 4-1-3-2 with Diego Chara sitting deep, Nagbe on the left wing, Will Johnson in an advanced central role, Diego Valeri on the right, and Maxi Urruti and Fanendo Adi paired up top. The Timbers attackers, however, became a little bit disconnected with Vancouver doing a nice job of exploiting a good amount of space between the Timbers’ attackers, and within ten minutes Porter looked to Fernandez.
With La Gata on for Urruti, Porter shifted the Timbers back into their usual 4-2-3-1, but with Will Johnson roaming forward liberally from the deep midfield role and both fullbacks starting to press up. By sitting in the ten-spot, Fernandez was able to play back with the midfield line during the buildup, but – unlike the way Diego Valeri plays this spot – Fernandez also looked to press forward in the box without the ball, looking at times more like a second forward than a number ten. The result was excellent, as the Timbers took command of a game that looked moments earlier to be slipping away and Fernandez logged a goal to pull Portland within two.
Fernandez was again involved in the next move, when Kalif Alhassan replaced Jorge Villafana. There, Porter shifted to a 3-5-2 (you could probably call it a 3-3-4 if it weren’t impolite to write down a formation with more forwards than defenders), with Chara and Johnson holding, Valeri central, Alhassan an inverted left, Nagbe on the right, and Fernandez up top with Adi. If the first shift stretched Vancouver thin, the second one nearly broke them, as Adi assisted a Will Johnson goal moments thereafter and Portland came very close to pulling themselves all the way out of the 1-4 hole they dug for themselves. And yet, Fernandez’s flexibility to not only play at different spots of the same level of the attack, but to bounce back and forth (and, indeed, in between) levels of the attack gave Porter the flexibility to make the shifts.
But none of this would be possible without Fernandez being remarkable for his selflessness. Against Colorado on Friday, Caleb Porter elected to play Fernandez deeper in the midfield after he came on with Maxi Urruti to replace Steve Zakuani and Fanendo Adi. Lining up with Diego Valeri to his left – in a little twist we’ve rarely seen before – and Darlington Nagbe to his right, Fernandez stepped in as a facilitator rather than a true creator, to help the on-fire Valeri take over the game. And in doing so, Fernandez played his defensive part as well, turning Colorado over five times – four of which were in the Timbers’ attacking half.
This selflessness was crucial to the Timbers scoring the equalizer against the Rapids, as Fernandez stepped back to midfield to provide an outlet for Diego Chara and then again for Michael Harrington. But at the point the ball reached Fernandez a second time, Colorado was fine – they were sitting with seven players behind the ball. La Gata took two touches, however, drew Dillon Powers out of his line, then played a ball along a newly-freed passing lane to Diego Valeri where, one flick later, the Timbers had a four-on-three situation. When the ball reached Gaston’s foot the Rapids defense was sitting comfortably. By the time it left two touches later, Fernandez had delivered the ball to the Timbers’ most dangerous attacking players in a situation in which an undermanned defense was at their will.
Fernandez’s quality, flexibility, and selflessness, then, have been a crucial part of Portland’s success at salvaging points late in games, and – as we saw on Saturday – keep them alive in the playoff race.
In other words, La Gata has been a home-run signing.
Onward, Rose City.
