—by Chris Rifer

Barring a catastrophic collapse from the Timbers, Caleb Porter should and will be MLS Coach of the Year.  Jason Kreis is the only other coach whose name reasonably should be on the ballot, but considering the Timbers’ cupboard was almost entirely bare a year ago, Porter is the clear choice.

So it goes without saying that Caleb Porter has done a tremendous job as manager for the Portland Timbers in 2013.  But he hasn’t been perfect – most especially lately.

As the Timbers have made their up-and-down stretch run, Porter has made some tactical decisions that have come back to bite the boys in green.  And in almost every case, it was about overthinking the tactical matchups.

Three examples bear this out.  First, as was thoroughly discussed at the time, Porter’s short-lived experiment with a 3-4-3 in Salt Lake went south quickly.  Second, against Chivas USA a little more than a week ago, Porter built the functional right side of the Timbers formation out of Kalif Alhassan and Sal Zizzo, making that side a vulnerability that the Goats exploited to some success.

Finally, and this one merits some discussion, Porter tapped Maxi Urruti to start at striker over Ryan Johnson and Jose Valencia against Colorado.  While I have no reason not to agree with Porter that Urruti is a promising young striker, his lack of aerial prowess and holdup ability caused significant problems for the Timbers in breaking down Colorado’s pressure and holding the ball in attacking areas.

In the 30 minutes after Ryan Johnson came on, the Timbers held 51.5% of the ball despite the Rapids becoming increasingly desperate for an equalizer.  In the 60 minutes during which Urruti was on the field, Portland only held the ball 47.2% of the time.  In his hour-long stint, Urruti completed three passes in the attacking third.  In half the time, Johnson had five.  Despite having several passes come his way aerially via Route One, Urruti only won one header in his hour, whereas Johnson won six in half-an-hour.

The result of Urruti struggling to win long balls and hold up play was that the Timbers had a hard time formulating much in the way of sustained offense.  Portland had to send long balls forward because Colorado were being very aggressive in pressing high.  There were spaces, then, for the Timbers to exploit, but only if they had a target man who could win the ball and hold it until the midfielders who were sucked into defense and trying to beat the high pressure could release.  Urruti couldn’t buy them the ball or that amount of time, however, so Portland’s long balls often turned into glorified clearances.

Simply put, Porter put the wrong personnel on the field to play the direct game Colorado was begging the Timbers to play.  The selection of Urruti, then, was another unexpected wrinkle that backfired.

Now, it’s possible Porter was surprised by Colorado’s high pressure, and was caught needing to play a direct game with a tiki-taka oriented team.  Either way, however, he’s outthought himself again.  After all, he’s seen this tactic from Colorado before.

Rewind three months to June 23, 2013.  Everybody remembers that Portland won that game 3-0.  Indeed, Colorado came to Portland as a reeling team, so the result wasn’t all that surprising.  But rather than lie down and get whooped, as I expected, the Rapids actually came out firing, pressing the Timbers high and forcing them to play direct.  Yeah, basically the same general strategy the Rapids employed on Friday.

In that game, however, the Timbers were set up for it, with a backline of four guys who naturally stay at home – Jack Jewsbury and Ryan Miller at fullback – and Frederic Piquionne at striker.  So when Colorado forced the Timbers to bypass the midfield to some extent, they played right into the Timbers’ hands.  Piquionne was a beast, winning nine headers in 60 minutes, effectively holding the ball up, completing a gaggle of passes in attacking areas, and notching his first – and, to date, only – MLS goal.

The Timbers won 3-0 despite a stat sheet that was shockingly to the September rematch.  In June, Colorado outshot Portland 18-6 (!), had 19 open play crosses to the Timbers’ 11, earned five corners to Portland’s two, and held 47.3% of the ball, which at the time was the highest Portland had allowed at Jeld-Wen Field.  In September, Colorado outshot Portland 13-9, won open play crosses 18-10, earned 9 corners to the Timbers’ three, and held 50.9% of possession.

The decision to put Urruti up front on Friday, then, yielded considerably poorer results against a Colorado team that essentially doubled down on the general strategy that the Timbers easily handled three months earlier.

Three times in recent weeks, then, Porter has made moves for games that haven’t quite come off, and while he got away with it against Colorado, the same can’t be said for the road trips to Chivas and RSL.

Now, to be sure, the Chivas and RSL moves were at least in part motivated by injuries that limited Porter’s options.  Given a full roster, he never plays a 3-4-3 against RSL or Zizzo at right back – or Alhassan at right mid, for that matter – against Chivas.

But in both games, he opted for counterintuitive selections, injuries notwithstanding.  Against RSL, conventional wisdom was that Portland would play their 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 with Zemanski at right back.  Against Chivas, Porter could have either put Zemanski at right back – a position at which he has considerable experience from season’s past and a few capable appearances early in 2013 – or moved Nagbe to the right (where he normally plays) and put Alhassan in the center (where he normally appears in relief) which would have given Zizzo the additional cover of Nagbe’s superior wing defense.

What we’ve seen from Porter recently, then, is a tendency to get too fancy with the wrinkles he introduces into the game plan.

As we saw in the last half hour on Friday, and as we’ve seen over and over this year, when the Timbers set up relatively conventionally, they’re usually very good.  The system Porter has installed and the footballing habits he’s instilled in this team can take them a long way.

But recently, when Caleb overthinks the game plans and his selections, he’s gotten himself in trouble and has put the team in precarious positions.  Instead, Porter just needs to ride the horse that brought him.

If he does that, you can count on Caleb winning Coach of the Year, and the Timbers making a lot of noise in the playoffs.

Onward, Rose City!

—by Chris Rifer

The Timbers have earned a lot of style points in 2013.  Throughout much of the season, they’ve looked to the naked eye like one of the best teams in MLS.  And yet, coming into Friday’s match against Colorado, Portland sat in fifth place in the West with playoff qualification hanging in the balance.

So, if you’d been told a team lost on Friday despite holding a small majority of the ball, a 13-9 advantage in shots, a 9-3 advantage in corners, and an 18-12 advantage in open play crosses, it would have been understandable if you started questioning whether Portland could make the playoffs.

But the script was flipped at Jeld-Wen on Friday, and in the light of Saturday, the Timbers sit an enviable third in the conference with five points separating them and the red line.  In as ugly a win as the Timbers have logged in 2013, Portland rode a beautiful Diego Valeri chip to a 1-0 win over the playoff rival Colorado Rapids.

Valeri’s quality showed itself early to provide the final margin.  After Maxi Urruti forced a somewhat-harried Drew Moor 13^th minute clearance, Rodney Wallace got head to the driven ball and redirected it to the feet of Valeri.  Under pressure from Moor, Valeri needed only one touch to chip over a caught-out Clint Irwin and fill the net.

Colorado held a lot of the ball early, and earned more than their fair share of attacking set pieces, but ultimately couldn’t create anything meaningful.  Portland, on the other hand, sat back under Colorado’s pressure and nearly found a second in the 29^th minute.

After Diego Valeri won a rare second ball, he magnificently played to Darlington Nagbe near the centerline just in front of Colorado’s high backline.  Nagbe showed his quality to touch Urruti through onto the break, but Irwin came out to make a great save.

In the 38^th minute, Portland’s defense made a major mistake that they nearly paid the price for.  After Marvell Wynne played a hopeful cross into the box, Futty came out to routinely clear, but misplayed the ball straight to Buddle in the box.  With only Donovan Ricketts standing between he and an open net, Buddle bungled the ball into the far post before being controversially—but arguably correctly[1]—flagged offside.

The halftime stat sheet was ugly for Portland, but the scoreline wasn’t unjust.  Despite Colorado having a slew of set piece chances and crosses into the box, they really weren’t terribly dangerous.  And when they were, the finish was usually Buddled.

Slowly but surely, the Timbers put their foot on the game in the second half.  In the 54^th minute, after Michael Harrington and Wallace earned a little bit of space off of a throw in from the Timbers left side, Harrington whipped a tremendous cross into the box to Urruti, but the young striker couldn’t get solid head to it.

Colorado’s only serous chance of the half came in the 63^rd minute.  After the Timbers struggled to clear another set piece—something that plagued them all day and, to some extent, has all season—Buddle found space to turn and shoot at the top of the box, but, not surprisingly, failed to put it on frame.

Seven minutes later, Rodney Wallace went close twice.  In the 70^th minute, Valeri drove a free kick from the right wing into the box, where Wallace attacked it on the near side, but his header flashed wide.  A minute later, Valeri, Nagbe, and Ryan Johnson combined to buy Wallace a foot of space on the left, but he hit his left footed strike just outside the near post under considerable pressure from Wynne.

As the second half wore on, the Timbers looked increasingly poised to ride out their one-goal advantage.  With Johnson providing some valuable holdup play, Portland held the ball much better than in the first half, and the Colorado half-chances became fewer and farther between.

Sure, there was a Gabriel Torres crack from distance here, and a Timbers scuffed clearance there, but the Rapids—as they’d been all evening—were poor.  Their one shot on frame is inexplicable considering the multitude of attacking set pieces Colorado earned.  But while Colorado were more offensively promiscuous, the Timbers were far and away more dangerous.

In that respect, then, the three points were just for the Timbers.  As the Timbers have found out too many times this season, soccer ultimately isn’t a game about possession or crosses.  It’s about goals.  The Timbers had one, and Colorado had zero.  And, viewing the game as a whole, that’s not all that surprising.  Portland will gladly take real points over style.

Match Observations

• Portland’s defense deserves some credit for Colorado’s failure to put anything dangerous on frame despite loads of possession and set plays. But Portland has to be better at relieving pressure. The Rapids were simply wasteful, and you can bet L.A. Galaxy, Real Salt Lake, and the Sounders won’t be quite so generous.  If the Timbers can’t get dangerous balls clear and get out from under their own goalposts, they’re going to have a rough time in the final month of the season.
• Colorado deserves credit for their game plan. Their midfield played very high, applying pressure to the Timbers the second they got their foot on the ball. As a result, the Timbers were forced to play very direct early on, which the Timbers really weren’t set up to do up top. But for their ineptitude in the final third, Colorado’s strategy may well have paid off.

Timbers Grades

Donovan Ricketts, 5 It’s not that he was poor, just that he didn’t have anything major to do.  Would like to see him put two hands on a few more of those crosses, though.

Michael Harrington, 6 Defended well and hit his best cross of the season.  Pretty unlucky not to come away with an assist.

Futty, 5.5 Had an overall solid day, but it was his gaffe that gave Colorado their best (read: only real) chance of the day.

Pa Modou Kah, 6 Had a good day on the whole, but he’s developed a bad habit of coming well forward to challenge for a ball, then losing it.  If Kah is going to come up like that, he must win the ball.  The Timbers weren’t punished for that on Friday, but if he keeps it up, they will be.

Jack Jewsbury, 6 Caleb Porter wanted to introduce a little bit more experience and steadiness to the Timbers backline.  That’s exactly what Jewsbury gave him.  Assuming he stays healthy, expect Jewsbury to be the regular right back from here on out.

Will Johnson, 5 Another quiet night for Johnson, as Chara was the most industrious of the defensive central midfielders.  Colorado showed him a good amount of respect, however, insofar as they generally steered away from Will.  Had a number of squirrely clearances, however, which is a little bit uncharacteristic.

Diego Chara, 7 One of the few Timbers that didn’t look put off by Colorado’s pressure.  Chara was his typical sidling self.  Also, apparently does a solid gymnastics floor routine.

Rodney Wallace, 7 His header to redirect Moor’s clearance to the feet of Valeri was tremendous, if perhaps a little bit lucky.  Still, Rodney had a good night on both sides of the ball, even if his finishing touch was a little bit off.

Diego Valeri, 8 Okay, so he didn’t get that many chances to make his case for MVP, but the one he did get was decisive.

Darlington Nagbe, 6.5 There weren’t a ton of chances for Nagbe to strut his now-hyped stuff, but when he did get a chance, he showed it nicely.  His pass to Urruti to set the Argentine free was outstanding, but a play later in the first half in which he found two consecutive Rapids’ five-holes was transcendent.

Maxi Urruti, 3 Colorado forced the Timbers to go direct, and Urruti was wholly unprepared to contribute in that way.  Despite a number of balls thumped his way, Urruti won one header, which is particularly eye-popping in light of Ryan Johnson’s six in half the time.  Contributed to the goal with a little bit of pressure, but that’s really to be expected of him.

Ryan Johnson, 7 If you’re result-oriented in how you judge your striker play, you hate this grade.  But the Rapids were pressing just as high—if not higher—when Johnson was in the game, yet the Timbers were able to manage it and get their foot on the ball much more.  Why?  Because Ryan Johnson won balls and held up the play to let the Timbers press their lines up.  That, in that situation, was as valuable as a goal.

Kalif Alhassan, 4 Was smart to pull the ball back a couple times late in the game rather than go at goal, but ultimately needs to be better defensively if he wants to get on the field in close games once Valeri is back to full fitness.

Ben Zemanski, INC.

Preseason Prediction: Timbers 0, Rapids 0.

Actual Result: Timbers 1, Rapids 0.

Onward, Rose City!

—by Chris Rifer

The StubHub Center continues to be a hullabaloo for the Portland Timbers.  Winless in seven tries at the house shared by Chivas USA and L.A. Galaxy, the Portland Timbers disappointingly drew the Goats in a disjointed Saturday evening affair.

The Timbers were out of synch from the gun on Saturday, as eight minutes in an inexplicable pass by Pa Modou Kah was easily intercepted by Carlos Alvarez to put the rookie through on goal, but Donovan Ricketts was quick off his line to deflect the finish away.

In the 15^th minute, it was Jose Valencia’s turn to make goats out of Chivas’s defense.  After picking the ball up near midfield, the young Colombian weaved through the rojiblanco traffic cones only to pull his shot wide from the top of the box.

The Timbers shaky early form, however, made a concession an eventually that arrived in the 23^rd minute.  After Kalif Alhassan was in position to easily intercept a Chivas switch, the young midfielder acted only as a turnstile on the ball’s way to Edgar Mejia.  Alhassan then failed to either close down Mejia or track Carlos Borja’s overlapping run, freeing Borja to send a beautiful free cross from the left side into the box for Bryan de la Fuente, where the American youth international rose to nod it home off the inside of the far post.

The concession seemed to wake the Timbers up.  The boys in green controlled much of the play for the remainder of the half, but couldn’t find any legitimate chances.  Rodney Wallace found himself in space on the left side of the box after Darlington Nagbe ran into acres of space in the Chivas midfield, but sent his shot soaring well over the bar.  Kah got head to a Will Johnson corner, but could only meekly bounce it straight at Dan Kennedy.

For the second game in a row, however, the introduction of Diego Valeri—this time at the half—changed the course of the match.  Four minutes after coming on, Valeri found space and started a sequence that led to Valencia on the ball in the box with his back to goal.  Holding off three Goats, Valencia laid it off for Valeri on the right side of the box, where the talisman laced it inside the far post for the equalizer.

Valeri popped up again in the 54^th minute when he gathered the remnants of a great Diego Chara through ball that deflected off of Valencia’s heel and fired toward Kennedy’s goal, but the strike skipped just wide.

Five minutes later, Valeri should have been responsible for creating a second goal.  After the ball bounced around the box—and Valencia again caused problems for Chivas in the area—Valeri picked out Rodney Wallace at the near stick, but Wallace’s open tap dribbled wide.

As the half went along, however, the Goats started to get their foot on the ball a little bit more and created a couple chances of their own.  In the 67^th minute, Erick Torres found himself through on goal after the Timbers backline fell asleep on a ball coming up Route One.  Cubo gathered and tried to chip over a challenge from Ricketts, but the ball got away from Torres and Andrew Jean-Baptiste cleared.  The Goats yelled for a penalty, but the two steps Torres took after his glancing collision with Ricketts exposed Cubo’s soap-quality theatrics.

Despite some positive spells of play as the second half went along, Chivas couldn’t find the winner, and, but for a fantastic sliding tackle from Bobby Burling, Portland may well have.  After Valeri—who else—set Valencia through on the left side with another precisely weighted ball in the 79^th minute, Trencito looked set to slot home the winner, but Burling’s last second intervention took the ball off Valencia’s foot and sent it behind for a corner.

There was one last gasp left in the game, but it belonged to Chivas.  After Carlo Chueco gathered a partially cleared entry ball on the left wing, he sent it back into the box for Matthew Fondy.  The cross was well too high for the mop-coifed forward, but ended up falling enticingly to late substitute Tristan Bowen.  The Los Angelesian striker had a clear look at goal, but cracked a poor shot well over the bar with the last meaningful kick of the game.

While this Chivas team is much improved from the incoherent one that visited Portland in May, Portland nonetheless let themselves down by coming away with only a point.  That’s a feeling that is all too familiar for the Timbers this season, and it’s a feeling that, should it stick around the Rose City over the next six weeks, could come back to haunt the Timbers come playoff time.

Notes & Observations

• While the result was disappointing, and it was clear the Timbers had three points for the taking, it’s worth noting that Chivas is on a decent run of form right now.  At 2-2-3 in their last seven, this is a far cry from the team that went on a 14-game winless streak earlier this year.
• Lining up Kalif Alhassan and Sal Zizzo on the same side of the field was a bold choice by Caleb Porter. While Alhassan’s defense has improved this season, he is still quite a ways from being a legitimate defending midfielder, and was far from good in that respect on Saturday.  Similarly, I’m not sure why Porter looked to Sal Zizzo at right back over Ben Zemanski, a player Porter has seemingly rated higher overall and has much more experience at the position.  Nonetheless, the combination of Alhassan and Zizzo on the right side of the Timbers set up allowed Chivas to find quite a lot of joy on their left wing.

Timbers Grades

Donovan Ricketts, 7 Remember those games early in the season when Ricketts would make two or three big time saves to keep the Timbers in the game?  Well, he did it again Saturday.  Oh, and Torres dove (more than once, really).

Michael Harrington, 4.5 Didn’t have his best game offensively.  Was his usual competent self defensively, but because of the Timbers set up, Harrington was often left unaccounted for in the attacking half.  Despite finding himself in a position to do something on numerous occasions, he accomplished very little.

Pa Modou Kah, 4.5 I’m not sure what he was thinking on his early pass straight to Alvarez, but he was fortunate not to concede a goal.

Andrew Jean-Baptiste, 5 The central defense had a bit of a shaky day altogether on Saturday, with numerous nervous moments.  Despite the midfield largely controlling the game, the defense did a poor job of keeping Chivas in check on the relative handful of times they were able to break out.

Sal Zizzo, 3.5 Miscast at right back, Zizzo still looks a little bit confused about his positioning, which compounds the problems created by his below-average one-on-one defending.

Diego Chara, 7 The best player on the field for an extended period on Saturday, Chara added more to the attack than we’ve seen recently, carving up Chivas’s midfield and repeatedly sending well-placed passes forward for Valencia and company.

Will Johnson, 5 A little bit of a quieter day for Will, though mostly because Chara’s extra offensive aggression left the captain in defense more often than we usually see.

Rodney Wallace, 4 Got himself in the right spots, but was uncharacteristically poor at the finish.

Darlington Nagbe, 3.5 Was nothing short of wretched in the first half, shanking passes all over the field and letting his touch get away from him on multiple occasions.

Kalif Alhassan, 3 His defense, or lack thereof, killed the team, including being caught with his fingerprints all over the concession.  Kalif has come along in many way in many respects this year, but his performance on the road has not been one of them.

Jose Valencia, 6 Had a couple looks that he could have done better with, but his holdup play was tremendous in the second half.  Still learning the off-ball aspects—as you’d expect at this point of his career— but Valencia has molded himself into a very viable option up top.

Diego Valeri, 8 Portland needs him on the field fulltime.  If he isn’t full-go soon, it’s hard to see the Timbers doing anything more than squeaking into the playoffs and making a very early exit.

Maxi Urruti, 4 Had a rough go in his first outing as a Timber, though, in his defense, this is a difficult point of the season to come into a team and make an immediate impact.  The jury will have to remain out on Urruti until 2014.

Ryan Johnson, 4 Ryan isn’t an 80^th minute substitute kind of guy.  He gets a lot of flak, but the team’s most successful stretches have been with Johnson as the first choice striker.  At this point, he is the best fit systemically, even if Valencia is a bit more electric.

Preseason Prediction: Timbers 1, Chivas 1.  Valeri.

Actual Result: Timbers 1, Chivas 1.  Valeri.  In the words of Tom Petty, even the losers get lucky sometimes.

Onward, Rose City.

—by Chris Rifer

In August of 2012, the Timbers' cupboard looked bare.  John Spencer had been fired, the club was mired in the midst of a horrible run of play, and any young talent the Timbers once had was showing little sign of developing into anything but unfulfilled potential.  Then, against Dallas on August 5^th, Bright Dike came back from a loan to the L.A. Blues and entered into the game in the 61^st minute.  Two weeks later, he notched his first goal of the year in a heartbreaking loss at New York, and starting a torrid finishing stretch in which Dike found the net fives times in eleven appearances.

More important than Dike’s five goals in eleven largely meaningless games, however, was the hope he injected into the Timbers’ future.  If nothing else, the cupboard now held a bull-in-a-china-closet striker who might just be the answer to the Timbers’ chronic goal-scoring problems.

It came as a shock, then, when an early Monday morning tweet from Bright Dike revealed that he was being shipped out of town.  His reputation built by an endearing personality, sterling hard work, and significant contributions to the first team, Dike had made himself one of the most popular Timbers to grace the Rose City in the last four years.

So it’s understandable that the first reaction to Dike’s departure was disappointment and confusion.  More shocking that Bright’s departure, however, was what the Timbers garnered in return.

Later in the morning, it was leaked that the Timbers received Maxi Urruti, a highly rated 22-year-old Argentine forward signed by Toronto FC less than a month ago for Dike, a 2015 draft pick, and allocation money.

The promising Argentine youngster’s arrival shines a light on the most positive development in Portland’s roster structure – the abundance of already-good but high-upside young talent on a roster loaded with still-in-their-prime veteran leadership.  And it also provides yet another checkpoint on the Timbers’ yearlong journey from borderline hopelessness to undeniable promise.

Alvas Powell, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Kalif Alhassan, Darlington Nagbe, Jose Valencia, Maxi Urruti.  Those six men have two things in common.  One, they presently – or, in Urruti’s case, are expected to presently – contribute meaningfully to a contending MLS team.  Two, they’re all 23-years-old or younger.[1]

Looking around MLS, there isn’t anther club with the Timbers’ volume of young players showing considerable present value.

But more important than Portland’s upside, is the club’s capacity to develop it.  All the talent in the footballing world doesn’t make any difference if a club isn’t set up to make it flower on the field.  And over the course of the last year, the Timbers have assembled a formidable structure to develop their young talent.

From Will Johnson, to Diego Valeri, to Diego Chara, to Jack Jewsbury, to Futty, to Mikael Silvestre, to Frederic Piquionne, to David Horst, to Pa Modou Kah, to Ryan Johnson, the Timbers have veterans leading the way across the field, giving the Rose City youngsters a gaggle of role models to incubate their development.  Moreover, the most prominent of these veterans are near the beginning of their prime, with the Diegos and Will Johnson all 27 years or younger.

In addition to the leadership on the field, the Timbers’ recent coaching hires have added considerable young player development experience, with Sean McCauley previously running the academy at Sheffield Wednesday and Caleb Porter leading the most successful men’s collegiate soccer program in America.

The Timbers’ structure – much of which has been built in the past twelve months – is constructed according to a master plan that not only permits winning in the short term, but also sets the table to continue to be successful down the road by investing heavily in youthful players loaded with potential.

And over the course of 2013, we’ve seen a lot of this potential turn into product on the field.  Andrew Jean-Baptiste has gone from an emergency option at center back at the beginning of 2012 to a guy whose name gets bandied about as a future option for the National Team.  In 2013, Jose Valencia has transformed from a reluctant passer looking lost in the Timbers’ system to a player capable of putting in one of the best outings of any Timbers forward this year, as he registered against Toronto FC.  Darlington Nagbe has evolved from a player who looks like he could terrorize opposing midfields into an attacker who does terrorize opposing midfields.  Even Kalif Alhassan has emerged from the edge of being a lost cause under John Spencer to a much more intelligent, versatile midfielder who shows signs of being a capable finisher.[2]

The Timbers’ stockpile of young talent, then, is already paying dividends and looks to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  Dike’s trade, while emotional in light of the loss of a good player and person, is indicative of the success the Timbers have had in the past year of turning Dike’s glimmer of 2012 hope into a roster structured to shine for years to come.

Onward, Rose City.

As of 10:00AM September 7th the kits are sold out!

Volunteers from each of the three Cascadia supporters group have come together to produce a limited-edition Cascadia kit. Here is some information from Kelly Dews on how to get yours:

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The kits will are being produced by Looptworks from Portland using upcycled material. They will sell for $60 each. 100 kits will be going to each market (Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland). The final price of production is yet to be determined but approximately $20 from each kit sold will go to help fund the Cascadia Association Football Federation in their mission to field a Cascadia National Team in the coming year. These will be the kits worn by the team when they take the field.

We have a volunteers in each market to handle sales and distribution. Please purchase from your representative. We will primarily be using Paypal to collect funds. Please select "I'm sending money to family or friends" to avoid Paypal fees. In the comments section state the size you would like (sizing information is below). We will need to know the number of each size needed before placing the order. YOU WILL NOT BE ON THE RESERVED LIST UNTIL FUNDS ARE RECIEVED. Updates on production, sales, and distribution will be posted on the Cascadia Trifecta Facebook Page.

For Portland the point man is Kelly Dews

His Paypal account is Kdsparky@hotmail.com

Note: you can also use this email to ask any questions

Timeline:

We are\currently awaiting a test kit to verify size and fit. That should happen in the next few weeks. Once that is approved it may take up to 60 days to receive the shipment once the order is placed. Like I said we will need a complete list of sizes required before we place the order. It is vital that we complete the pre-sale by then to avoid any further delays. I'm aware that this likely puts us out of the regular season but it is what it is. If the process can be sped up I will seak to do so.

I'd like to thank the Cascadia Association Football Federation and Looptworks for their work in making this happen. Please "Like" their Facebook.

I'd also like to thank all the Cascadia football supporters no matter your club or supporters group. It was discussion between all of us on the Cascadia Trifecta Page that led to the first kit and helped inspire the creation of the CAFF. If it wasn't for all of you this would not be taking place.

In summary: Kits cost $60 and you can PayPal funds (using Friends and Family not Goods and Services) to Kdsparky@hotmail.com. Please put your size information in the PayPal 'comments' field. You are NOT on the 'reserved' list until your payment is received.

—by Chris Rifer

It was easy on Friday night to watch the Timbers get crushed in Salt Lake and conclude that the sky may be falling on a 2013 campaign that once harbored so much promise.  Indeed, the Timbers haven’t put in a performance that flat, that disorganized, and that utterly inferior since August of 2012.

But consider that Real Salt Lake are the unquestioned best team in MLS right now.  And further consider that the Timbers were playing without a slew of first choice players, including Captain Will Johnson, utility man and first mate Jack Jewsbury, most of their center backs, and Frederic Piquionne – a player who was valuable not just for his attacking prowess, but also his set piece defending.  And finally consider that the Timbers lost Jewsbury’s utility understudy, Ben Zemanski, to a flukey-for-him red card just before halftime.

Banged up.  On the road.  A man down.  Against the best team in MLS.  In the grand scheme, 4-2 isn’t that surprising.

And consider even further that in the disastrous opening fifteen minutes the Timbers were employing a defensive strategy foreign to them outside the final moments of a match in which the team needs a goal and is throwing caution to the proverbial wind.  Now, the failed 3-4-3 experiment Porter ran on Friday, at least with the team he put on the field, is unlikely to recur.  Caleb Porter is a smart guy.  What you, I, and the rest of the viewing public saw from the Timbers defense to open the game on Friday is also utterly obvious to Porter.  Don’t expect to see that again soon.

So, while Friday felt awful in the moment, a number of one-off conditions in that game substantially limit its contagion.

The next cause for concern extends beyond the struggles in Sandy and into the Timbers’ general form over the last several games.  But taking a step back and examining the last four reveals that – while not ideal – the Timbers four points in four games is eminently understandable.

The Timbers beat FC Dallas in a game in which both teams played pretty well.  Portland drew RSL at home in a strange outing marred by a referee who wanted to compete with the teams on the field for the right to determine the outcome of the match.  Next, the Timbers lost a close game to a hot Seattle team despite being on the road and facing an absurd selection crisis in the most important position on the field.  Finally, as discussed above, the Timbers fell to Salt Lake under less-than-ideal conditions.

While Portland probably feels like they left points on the table at home against RSL, it’s hard to call four points through those four games an unacceptable result.  Imperfect?  You bet.  Disastrous?  No way.

Even after all that, the Timbers still sit tied for fourth, with three winnable games on the horizon against Toronto FC, at Chivas USA, and home again to Colorado.  If Portland can win all three of those – a possibility that is certainly realistic, if perhaps not necessarily probable – it’s hard to see the Timbers any lower than third in the West with a growing gap between them and the red line.

Thereafter, the Timbers get to face each of the other three prime candidates for the coveted top-three conference spots at home in the season’s final five weeks, giving the club the opportunity to control its own destiny from the friendly confines of Jeld-Wen Field.

In that way, the Timbers’ remaining eight games are close to perfectly set up.  Winnable matches on the road and Western Conference rivals at home, where Portland still hasn’t lost since March 9^th.

So, while Portland would prefer to be sitting more comfortably in the table at the moment, their present position and finishing stretch of games sets them up nicely to bring playoff soccer back to Portland.

Yes, what happened in Salt Lake was frustrating, but in no way is it a sign of an imminent apocalypse.

Onward, Rose City!

—by Chris Rifer

It was always going to be difficult for the Timbers in Seattle without Will Johnson and Diego Chara.  But for forty-five minutes on Saturday, the Portland Timbers were dominant, carving their way through the Seattle midfield with ease.  But as has become a habit in big road fixtures, they failed to capitalize.  And when Seattle found their inevitable goal on a set piece in the second half, Portland was left to rue what could have been, but wasn’t on account of their lack of opportunism.

The Timbers opened the chances in the third minute, when Diego Valeri found Jack Jewsbury on a deep corner kick, but Captain Jack’s looping header was cleared off the line on DeAndre Yedlin.

Just two minutes later, Seattle would just miss their first set piece chance.  After Brad Evans served a ball beyond the backpost, Shalrie Joseph got free head to it, but sent it poorly wide with Donovan Ricketts caught in no-man’s land.

Perhaps the Timbers’ best chance of the night came in the 16^th minute, when Diego Valeri found Ryan Johnson on a beautifully designed and weighted through ball, but Johnson couldn’t get his feet right and Michael Gspurning was quick off his line to take the ball off the Jamaican’s boots.

Portland flirted with the spectacular in the 34^th minute, but once again came up with nothing.  After Kalif Alhassan did well to gather a partial clearance from a Rodney Wallace cross, he and Darlington Nagbe played to Valeri 25 yards out.  The Maestro rocketed a shot through the Seattle defense that Gspurning could do nothing about, only to be denied by the far post.

Three minutes later, MLS Headquarters very nearly erupted into self-congratulatory euphoria.  After the Sounders did nicely to work the ball around to Leo Gonzalez on the left wing, he sent a cross into Clint Dempsey—who plays for Seattle now, if you hadn’t heard—but Deuce’s touch was too heavy and Ricketts came off his line to deflect the ball out for the Timbers defense to clear.

The Timbers weren’t done with their first half onslaught, however.  Sparked by a brilliant Darlington Nagbe run down the right side in first half stoppage time, the prodigy sent a nicely shaped ball to Johnson at the far post, but Yedlin and Gspurning combined to block Johnson’s header.

After dominating much of the first half missing their entire central midfield, the Timbers proved they could play toe-to-toe with Seattle even in their current setup.

The second half would bring Portland back down to earth.

Seattle struck in the 60^th minute, when second half entrant Mauro Rosales sent a set piece from the left wing into the box, where Eddie Johnson beat Alvas Powell to it and flicked inside the far post.

The Timbers made noises about getting it back two minutes later, when Jose Valencia harried Gspurning into a hurried clearance that Kalif Alhassan picked off and took to the top of the box, but the Austrian keeper made a diving save to his left.

But the second half belonged to the Sounders, and in the seventieth minute they would’ve made it two but for some heroics from Ricketts.  After Rosales got free down the left, his cross was partially deflected by Alvas Powell, but nevertheless fell to Eddie Johnson at the far post.  Johnson’s header looked goalbound, but Ricketts reacted instantly to knock the ball away.  Dempsey tried to bicycle home the rebound, but caught nothing but Powell—which apparently isn’t a foul anymore.[1]

Five minutes later, Deuce found himself on the end of another Rosales corner, but his header—which may have been off target—was partially cleared by Valeri before Ricketts gathered a reentry cross after a scrum in front of goal.

Try as they might, however, the Timbers couldn’t find their first half attacking verve to make a serious run at the equalizer.  In the 88^th minute, Nagbe put his foot through a ball from twenty yards, but Gspurning saw it the whole way and tapped over the bar.  The last gasp would come well into stoppage time, when a deflected cross found its way to Andrew Jean-Baptiste in the box, but his well-nodded header to the far post was captured by Gspurning to secure the win.

With the odds stacked against them in the absence of their central midfield, the Timbers put together a solid performance, especially in the first half.  But, as the Timbers have learned on multiple occasions, solid performances mean very little if you don’t get the result.

And on Sunday evening in Seattle, the Timbers once again failed to get their result, making a once-smooth path the playoffs look increasingly perilous.

Notes & Observations

• Porter’s tactics surprised me a little bit once again, but this time to his credit.  With the central midfield so banged up, I expected Portland to play a little bit more compact and choose an area of the field on which to focus their attack, so as to provide a little more cover to the central midfielders.  Rather, the Timbers spread the field and pushed both fullbacks forward, dropping Jack Jewsbury very deep.  This put a lot of faith in Jewsbury and Alhassan to not get burned, as it was inevitable the Timbers would be opened up once or twice.  The makeshift central midfielders both did well in this respect, and the Timbers—especially Diego Valeri—terrorized Seattle in the spaces these tactics created in the middle.
• It’s incredible Ozzie Alonso escaped the book on Sunday.  On the night he committed five fouls, all of which were entirely tactical, and most coming from behind with no play on the ball.  Alonso staying out of the book was a significant advantage for the Sounders, as anytime Nagbe got loose, Alonso could chop him down with impunity.  If Alonso goes into the book sometime around halftime—as, by all rights, he should have—the Timbers would have likely had an easier time finding space in the center of the field.

Timbers Grades

Donovan Ricketts, 6.5 Came up huge on a number of occasions.  Nothing he could do about the concession, but his grade is deflated just a little bit by a couple avoidable spills.

Michael Harrington, 5.5 A pretty classic Harrington night.  Didn’t contribute anything of note to the attack other than the secondary effect of the spacing created by his presence, but defended competently.  If you’re dissatisfied with this performance from Harrington, you’re never going to be able to appreciate Mikey.

Andrew Jean-Baptiste, 6 Had a pretty tough task going back and forth between Dempsey and Eddie Johnson, and his backline generally acquitted itself well.

Pa Modou Kah, 3.5 Also had a decent game in defense, as he took the brunt of the Deuce onslaught and kept him relatively quiet.  His grade suffers, however, for picking up a yellow card and begging to be sent off in the scrum.  The Timbers will be without Kah for at least one match, if not more if the Disciplinary Committee has something to say about it.  With a dearth of options at center back right now, Kah really hurt the Timbers’ playoff chances on Sunday night.

Alvas Powell, 5 Struggled a little bit in the attack despite getting down the line well, but had his best defensive game as a Timber.  Lamar Neagle got by him a time or two, but for the most part the youngster won that battle.  His only big sin was a decisive one, however, as he lost Johnson on the concession.

Jack Jewsbury, 6 Really good, pragmatic performance from Jack at the pivot point on Sunday.  He had a big task, as the Sounders were set up to attack up the gut by dropping Dempsey deeper and having Johnson play over the top of him, but, especially in the first half, the Timbers forced Seattle to send crosses in from the wings, where Jean-Baptiste and Kah could clean up.

Kalif Alhassan, 5.5 Tremendous first half.  Anonymous second half.  Kalif was the player Porter asked the most of on Saturday, as—although he played up at times—he was tasked with being the second defensive central midfielder.  For a position he’d never played, Kalif did a nice job of breaking up passing lanes and—after a nervy first few minutes—launching the attack from deeper central positions than he’s used to.

Rodney Wallace, 6 Popped up all over the field on Sunday.  Did most of his damage from his usual advanced spot on the left wing, but floated centrally and even flipped to the right for a period during the second half.

Diego Valeri, 7 Didn’t get much of an opportunity to make his mark on the second half, as the Timbers deeper midfield players struggled to find him to relieve pressure.  But he was far and away the best player on the field in the first half, just missing both a magnificent assist and a surefire Goal of the Week.

Darlington Nagbe, 5.5 Spent most of his night being fouled by Alonso.  Nagbe was the one Timber that was a little bit quieter in the first half.  He made up for it in the second, as he was the Timbers’ most dangerous player when he found space to run into in wide areas, usually only to be sent to the turf by Alonso without real punishment from the referee.

Ryan Johnson, 3 He did some of his usual nice work when he floated deeper, but, in the end, his wastefulness in finishing doomed the Timbers.

Jose Valencia, 6 Trencito’s work rate has improved substantially over the course of the last several weeks, and it’s starting to pay dividends for the Timbers.  On Wednesday, it was his effort that forced a poor clearance that Alhassan fired home for the third goal.  On Sunday, his pressure again forced a poor clearance that Kalif nearly put back for the equalizer.

Sal Zizzo, 5 Came on for Powell and assumed a position on the right side of midfield.  Did nicely to work into space on the touchline a number of times, but also had a couple crucial overhit crosses.

Ben Zemanski, 5 Came on for Jewsbury late, but didn’t do a whale of a lot in the attack.

Preseason Prediction: Sounders 1, Timbers 0.  Alonso.

Actual Result Sounders 1, Timbers 0.  Johnson.

Onward, Rose City!

—by Chris Rifer

In hindsight, it should have been predictable.  Coming into Wednesday, there was every reason to believe we’d see two quality teams put on a classy performance.  Rather, on Wednesday night at Jeld-Wen Field the Timbers Army was treated to two good teams playing disjointed soccer, and a referee with aspirations for stardom.

For a while, however, it looked like the Timbers were going to be able to run away with this one.  In the fourth minute, Alvas Powell raced up the right side and sent a ball into the box for nobody in particular.  Nat Borchers was there, but made a mess of the clearance, which only got as far as Diego Valeri eight yards from goal.  With only Jeff Attinella, RSL’s backup keeper, to beat, Valeri sent his shot off the far post.

But the Timbers weren’t done.  While RSL had their share of the ball, their defense looked lost in the absence of Kyle Beckerman.  In the 24^th minute, the Timbers found their goal.  After Valeri sent a perfectly bent free kick from the left wing into the box, Rodney Wallace raced his way to the end of it and finished routinely with his head.

For the next fifteen minutes, the Timbers were dangerous, but couldn’t find the goal that would make the game a laugher.  Instead, RSL found one that would make it interesting.  After Valeri bungled an ill-advised bicycle clearance under pressure from Javi Morales, the veteran Argentine sent a ball into the box where Robbie Findley got open head to it.  Donovan Ricketts made a fantastic save falling to his right, but the rebound fell straight to Borchers who easily tapped home.

Enter referee Ricardo Salazar.  Five minutes later, after Khari Stephenson rocketed a swerving shot that Ricketts could only get his chest in front of, the ball bounced to—and away from—Morales under pressure from Jean-Baptiste.  The young central defender had his arm across Morales’s chest and, feeling the touch, the dive master dramatically threw himself to the ground to Salazar’s delight.  Morales coolly stepped to the spot and slotted past an incorrectly guessing Ricketts.

Going into the locker room in full meltdown, the Timbers came back out and slowly began to right the ship.  They almost drew level in the 50^th minute, when Valeri found Ryan Johnson all alone at the backpost on a free kick from the left wing, but Attinella was quick off his line and made himself big to snuff out the chance.

If the Jeld-Wen Field crowd thought Salazar was biased, however, the much-maligned referee put that notion to rest in the 56^th minute by whistling a penalty the other way just as soft as the first.  After Darlington Nagbe found Rodney Wallace with a very nice vertical pass, the ball bounced up on the edge of the area and hit Brandon McDonald in his unintentionally semi-outstretched arm.  The ball fell to Wallace who looked poised to gather and send back into the center for Valeri, but, despite having to his avail the far less dramatic options of placing the ball just outside the area or swallowing his whistle altogether, Salazar fancied himself once again and awarded the Timbers a penalty.  Diego Valeri—despite a startling finishing slump—stepped to the spot and beat Attinella.

From there, for the first time in the game, both teams looked like they were settling into their rhythm.  Although the Timbers were playing with a little bit more desperation, the next twenty minutes saw some of the best soccer of the night.  After a nice piece of buildup from the Claret-and-Cobalt, Findley unleashed a shot form the left side of the box that looked goalward but for a deflection from Pa Modou Kah.  On the other end, Valeri was set up beautifully after Alvas Powell—who put together a nice little second half for himself—made a long run up the right side and set the maestro through in the box, but good nearpost positioning from Attinella forced Valeri to be too cute and send the ball into the side netting.

For Salazar, however, this was too much of the teams on the field deciding the game.  So, in the 79^th minute, the referee took matters into his own hands and gave Yordany Alvarez a red card for the sin of being a split second late to challenge Diego Chara for the ball.  Alvarez went in one-legged and side-footed, so as to keep his studs away from Chara’s leg.  It was the sort of challenge that can bruise a shin and hurt like a mother, but was ultimately not that dangerous.  But that was enough for Salazar, and that was it for Alvarez.

And for a few moments, it looked like Salazar’s gratuitous red card would decide the game.  After Powell sent a nice cross from the touchline into the box, Jose Valencia challenged Borchers for the ball just enough that his clearance could only find Kalif Alhassan ten yards out, where he took a touch and fired inside the far post.

As it stood, the result was great for the Timbers, if perhaps a little bit uncomfortable for Lady Justice.[1]

Some gut-wrenching justice would be served in second half stoppage time, leaving fans of both the Timbers and soccer ambivalent[2] about the result.  A couple minutes into stoppage time, after Tony Beltran squeezed the ball away from Ryan Miller and Diego Chara, Luis Gil sent a ball into the box that was knocked away by Jean-Baptiste only so far as Cole Grossman, who fired it back in past Ricketts for the equalizer.

In the end, walking out of Jeld-Wen Field on Saturday had an empty feeling.  A game that had so much potential on so many levels left something to be desired in many ways.  Even if the match was marred by Salazar’s hyperactivity, the Timbers were ultimately undone by their lack of focus and grit.

Now wouldn’t be a bad time to find those brass balls again.

Notes & Observations

• I’m reluctant to draw too many sweeping conclusions from Wednesday because it was just a really strange game.  Portland didn’t play all that well, but they weren’t horrible.  RSL—as is to be expected from a Jason Kreis team—overperformed considering the absence of several key players.  In the end, there was just enough randomness to the evening to make it dangerous to take too much away from the game.  That said, I’m undeterred in making a handful of observations.
• I thought the Timbers really missed Will Johnson on Wednesday.  While his absence has been felt tangibly on the field, it’s hard not to notice the vastly increased frequency of the Timbers’ mental lapses in his absence.  From the concession against Dallas to the poor reaction to almost every major moment against RSL, Portland’s lack of steadiness and grit has been marked the last couple weeks.
• I’m really not sure what to make of the Timbers’ tactics on Wednesday.  For one, there were extended stretches where the game was frantic enough that there wasn’t much in the way of tactical soccer.  When the Timbers did slide into their system, they tended to play unbalanced favoring the right side of the field – the opposite of their normal tendency.  This included often bringing Rodney Wallace into the center of the field, both offensively and defensively, where he looked a little bit lost at times.  Even more unusual, however, was that Portland was still aggressive with Alvas Powell—their right back.  Typically when the Timbers play an unbalanced midfield, they bring the opposite fullback forward to provide a switch outlet.  On Wednesday, however, the Timbers often pushed the fullback forward on the same side they had skewed the midfield, which would occasionally let Wallace leak out to the left to provide the switch.  Ultimately, this led to mixed results, as the Timbers looked a little lost tactically at times, especially Valeri and Nagbe, and left Michael Harrington exposed a time or two.

—by Mike Coleman

It seems strange that his even needs to be said, I mean we're all adults here (except for the kids, they're kids). But, alas, it appears it does need to be said: Don't steal the flags.

They're not a Darlington Nagbe face or a set of Alaska Airlines pins or a House of Pane shirt - in short, they're not your free gift for showing up and sitting in the north end.

Those flags that you feel entitled to abscond off with are bought and paid for with 107ist dollars. These are also the same dollars that fund our community giving - you know, like when we buy uniforms for kids in need or build an accessible playground or refurbish soccer fields around Portland. They're also the same dollars that go to fund our large-scale tifo displays.

So when you take a flag, and we have to buy a replacement - that's money that doesn't go to advancing our mission to support soccer from the grassroots to the highest level. It's money that goes to replace something we already had.

Now, I'm sure you, constant reader, aren't the person who actually steals the flags. But, maybe you've seen one of these clowns perpetrating said nefarious act. If so, take action!

Kindly ask the person what they're doing, explain the flags are not theirs to keep (they're all stamped 'property of the 107ist', and kindly ask for it back .

I certainly don't want anyone to get punched in the nose over a flag, so if they get obnoxious find a capo and let them know. Capos know who our internal TA security folks are and we can deal with it. If no capo is handy, you can always alert an usher. Or you can point at the fool, and begin chanting "don't steal the flag" - get others to join in - it'll be fun.

Finally, if you do have a flag in your possession, we will always grant you amnesty if you return it. Just bring it back to the stadium, and leave it - poke it through the fence if you have to.

No questions asked.