—by Chris Rifer
Two road matches, one point. For most clubs and for most supporters that’s a disappointing road trip. And in many ways for the Portland Timbers, that’s a disappointing result, too, but only because of the way it happened.
On Wednesday, missing Diego Chara and Donovan Ricketts, the Timbers travelled down to San Jose to meet the surprising Supporters’ Shield frontrunners. By all means, there was absolutely no reason for Portland to be competitive in the game. And by and large, they weren’t. San Jose out-possessed, out-shot, and generally out-classed the Timbers through almost the entire field.
The only exception, however, was the final third. Whereas, for the first seventy minutes, the Quakes routinely made a mess of things in front of goal, the Timbers found chances with rarity, but took them with frequency. Danny Mwanga opened the scoring after intercepting a pass in San Jose’s own end, playing a give-and-go to Rodney Wallace, taking a touch around Jon Busch, and slotting the ball into the net.
Mwanga doubled the lead in the 62nd minute, as Franck Songo’o made a brilliant run, and fed Mwanga on the left wing. Danny, who became known for his shots from distance in Philadelphia, buried his effort from twenty in the upper far ninety.
From there, the Timbers didn’t park the bus. They slashed the tires, took the wheels off, and put the thing on blocks. There was no way that could last, and it didn’t. A brace from second half substitute Chris Wondolowski – who had been resting for Saturday’s win at Seattle – erased Portland’s lead. First, Wondo stole the ball off of David Horst’s half-hearted clearance effort, took a touch, and fired past a helpless Bendik. The soccer gods wouldn’t punish him for his wild fist pumping celebration, however, as Sam Cronin found Wondo on the far post a minute into stoppage time, and the striker nodded it home.
The drama wasn’t over, however, as the jubilant Earthquakes nearly threw their point away. After Songo’o got out on the break again, he found Bright Dike in the box, but the mercurial frontman’s strike from an enviable position went just wide.
The teams engaged in a little bit of post-match extracurriculars that were, in hindsight, much ado about nothing.
The Timbers capped off their eight-day, three match stretch with a visit to Salt Lake. If things looked dour on Wednesday, they looked downright hopeless Saturday. Still no Diego or Donovan, the third match in eight days, and playing at elevation against )albeit struggling) playoff opposition. Oh, and did I mention the Timbers previous visit to Salt Lake resulted in a three-to-goose egg loss that wasn’t even that close?
For a little over half an hour, it looked like that familiar script was going to play out. After set piece goals by Fabian Espindola and Javi Morales, the Claret and Cobalt looked on their way to an easy win.
The lead was a little on the specious side, however, as RSL had struck gold twice without really mining the Timbers defense. As the match went along, the Timbers began to assert a little more control. In the 61st minute, Sal Zizzo broke down the right and sent a cross toward the far post, where Bright Dike headed it back across goal and into the net.
The Timbers’ continued influence over the match, however, wouldn’t bring about a goal. For the third match in a row, Dike had a late chance go just awry, as his header off another Zizzo cross hit the bottom half of the bar and bounced away.
On one hand, the results are devastating. The Timbers very easily could have come away from this trip with four points from two of the better teams in the Western Conference. If they had, the talk would be about a surging Timbers team making a late, desperate, darkhorse run toward the pl-, pla-, playoffs. Imagine for a moment that Bright Dike converts all three late chances last week. Instead of two points, the Timbers come away with seven. Portland would be sitting on 34 points, four points behind Vancouver with a trip to the Great White North in hand. Bollocks. Story of our lives, I guess.
On the other hand, however, the results are encouraging. If I would’ve told you in July that the Timbers would go to San Jose and RSL and come back 3-4 on aggregate, you would have called me a noob, Merritt-loving, Gavin-apologist, fanboy. But there it was. And there was some good soccer played at times along the way, and it was all done with the Timbers’ best player being spelled by Rodney Freaking Wallace. So, a little bit of optimism, even if it is for 2013, isn’t altogether inappropriate.
So where do we go from here? Well, first of all, we welcome Chewy back to the Rose City on Saturday. That will be fun.
But the real matchup comes eight days later in Seattle. Here are three things to watch Saturday with an eye toward Sunday. First, yellow cards. Jack Jewsbury, Ozzie Alonso, and Fredy Montero sit one yellow away from missing the winner-or-drawer-take-all Cascadian showdown. Unlike Portland, which has the luxury of sitting Jewsbury if it feels like it, Seattle is in a race for playoff positioning. So expect Alonso and Montero to both be going hard on the other side of the border.
If Alonso, especially, misses Timbers-Sounders match, the complexion of the game changes. Whereas two weeks ago in Portland, he was able to single handedly mark Darlington Nagbe and thirty yards of space in the center of midfield out of the game, the Sounders midfield would suddenly start to look a little bit on the skinny side. With Franck Songo’o, Sal Zizzo, and Nagbe all on form, that could turn a major part of the game to advantage, Timbers.
Second, injuries. While Christian Tieffert is back for Seattle, Mauro Rosales is still MIA – although rumored to return on Saturday against the Whitecaps. For Portland, Ricketts looks close – although perhaps not quite ready – to return to the lineup, while Diego Chara looks ready – although perhaps not quite close – to return for Portland. At this point, it looks like both teams will be full strength heading into the penultimate Cascaidan match of the season, but that’s far from a sure thing. The Timbers’ roster inclusions will tip their hand a little bit as to how healthy this team is heading to Seattle. If Diego is in the eighteen – not necessarily the XI – and Ricketts starts, the Timbers can feel good about having all hands on deck heading to Seattle.
Third, most importantly, results. There is no question the Timbers’ play has improved over the last six weeks or so. Even the most ardent #GWOut advocates must admit that this team is in vastly better shape than it was at the end of the Spencer Era. But they still aren’t getting results. All three of the results over the past two weeks have been harsh. The Timbers simply should have gotten more from each game. Now, some chalk that up to bad luck. But you’re blind if you can’t look at this team and see a chronic inability to grind out a result.
Say what you will about improved play and possession, the only thing that will win a Cascadia Cup is a result. Which brings us to Saturday. This is the one reason why being overly cautious may come back to haunt the Timbers. If Portland leaves another result on the field on Saturday, you have to think it will be in the back of their heads on the way up to Seattle. That’s not the preferred mentality for a huge away derby. Three points, however, can put the Timbers on a bus with confidence in both their form and their ability to put that on the scoresheet. Now that's more like it.
Onward, Rose City!
