—by Chris Rifer
If opportunity only knocked once in a lifetime, the Portland Timbers would have fewer prospects that the space shuttle program. Luckily, as the season has progressed the Timbers have shown the capacity to lure opportunity to their doorstep with some regularity. Now they just need to work on answering the door.
A week after suffering a series of near misses in a draw at San Jose, the Timbers spited their own attempt to steal points from Houston by repeatedly squandering golden opportunities. The chances started early. In the fifth minute, Eddie Johnson outran the Dynamo defense and found himself one on one with Houston keeper Tally Hall. Johnson’s first touch was too heavy, however, and he couldn’t get foot to ball until Hall had cut down the angle.
Still, for 15 minutes, Portland looked the much more dangerous side. Then Houston took advantage of a chance that seemingly didn’t exist. After Portland cleared a Dynamo corner, Adam Moffat gathered the ball some forty yards from goal, took a crack, and struck gold. The strike was equal parts brilliant and lucky, and just like that the Timbers again found themselves chasing a match they seemingly had control of.
Portland gave themselves a mountain to climb just ten minutes later. After Houston set up a passing triangle on the left wing, Portland’s defense failed to rotate properly, opening up a gap for Brian Ching to slip into. All it took was Colin Clark sprinkling a little nutmeg on Lovel Palmer and the Timbers were seemingly cooked. Ching’s clinical finish past a helpless Troy Perkins put Portland down two goals.
After Portland struggled to mount any effort to pull one back in the first half, the Timbers seemed destined for some lone star déjà vu.
The script would change after halftime, however. Unlike the debacle in Dallas, this time the Timbers would show some resilience. Sal Zizzo took a ball on the right touchline from Lovel Palmer, made a Kalifesque run into the box, but was denied by Hall.
In the 56th minute, Portland would break through. After Zizzo made another electric run down the right side, he played a cross to Darlington Nagbe at the far post. Nagbe couldn’t redirect the ball on frame, so he nodded it toward Jewsbury at the top of the box, who struck the ball through the Dyanmo defense and into the net.
In spite of opportunities to do so, Portland couldn’t find the equalizer to steal a just point. In the 83rd minute, Mike Chabala sent a low cross into the box, but Kenny Cooper couldn’t get his steps right, allowing Hall to stone Cooper’s meek redirection. In the 89th, Cooper had another opportunity as Chabala sent another cross in. Kenny’s nod, seemingly from point blank range, went wide, and with it the Timbers hopes of mining a point out of Texas.
Match Observations
-
- It is late in the season for this, and with every road loss the odds of sneaking into the playoffs shrink, but there was one huge moral victory in the Timbers performance on Sunday—for the first time on the road the Timbers fought back after digging themselves into a serious hole. Every other time Portland has fallen into a seemingly insurmountable hole on the road—at Colorado, L.A., Columbus, and Dallas—they have shirked from the challenge. In the second half Sunday they showed substantial pluck. While it didn’t fully pay off in Houston, that mentality shows Portland is developing greater capacity to overcome adversity—a capacity that is essential to earning results on the road.
-
- The early goals and injury to Eddie Johnson really forced John Spencer out of his game plan. By starting Johnson and Cooper and playing a more controlled, counterattacking style, Spencer hoped to keep the game close into the latter minutes when legs would be tired. That would have been a perfect time to bring on Jorge Perlaza and Kalif Alhassan—two players uniquely suited to take advantage of heavy legs. Perlaza especially could have used his pace to wreak havoc to find an equalizer or winner. Only going 20 minutes or so, they could have been much more aggressive than players that had been called on for longer spells in the heat. As it turned out, Perlaza was forced into duty in the first half after Johnson’s concussion, neutralizing much of the advantage that his fresh legs would have presented.
Timbers Grades
Troy Perkins, 6 Doesn’t bear any culpability for either goal, and was good in the other situations he was called upon. Troy was about as vocal in goal as we have seen him all year, something symptomatic of his defense being balky in front of him. I like the leadership, though.
Mike Chabala, 5.5 Right now he looks by far the better value out of the trade. Chabala had a decent game in back and was dangerous getting forward as well. For the moment, Rodney Wallace seems tied down to the bench.
David Horst, 5.5 Horst was by far the more reliable of the two center backs on Sunday. We have said this before this season, but it looks like, for the time being at least, Horst has locked down his spot in the center of the defense.
Eric Brunner, 4 Brunner is officially in a slump. After having his fingerprints all over the equalizing concession in San Jose, Brunner was once again a bit dodgy in back. He shares culpability with Lovel Palmer and, to a lesser extent, Sal Zizzo for the second concession, and otherwise had sort of a nervous day in front of Perkins. Still, through the course of the season Eric has been the Timbers most consistent defender. No reason to think this is anything but a brief slump.
Lovel Palmer, 4 It was clear he was trying way too hard to earn some level of redemption. Had a monumentally bad first half. Righted the ship a little bit in the second, but still never got fully on track.
Darlington Nagbe, 4 This is a harsh grade for Darlington, and I think there is something to be said that the game plan of controlled possession really doesn’t suit him that well. Still, Darlington had a few instances where he had an opportunity to run at the defense with a little bit of space, and was way too conservative.
Diego Chara, 4.5 I don’t understand his halftime substitution. Sure, Diego wasn’t playing that well, but what does Marcelin give you down 2 goals that Diego doesn’t? It was clear, though, that he too was uncomfortable in the possession game.
Jack Jewsbury, 6 Great strike with a little bit of luck to score the goal. Otherwise had a fairly anonymous night. Set pieces were generally pretty good, as usual. Didn’t make any major mistakes in midfield, or, other than the goal, do anything that amazing. I’ll take that.
Sal Zizzo, 6 I think Sal is your man of the match, in spite of bearing a little bit of responsibility for the poor defense leading to Houston’s second goal. On the offensive end, Sal was the lone true catalyst throughout the match. If something good was happening for the Timbers, it was a safe bet Sallie was involved. Showed he’s got some true grit, too, as he played through a fair few knocks.
Eddie Johnson, 4.5 Missed his one chance, and was otherwise pretty quiet in his short spell. There is good reason for substantial concern about Eddie. A recurrence of a concussion can keep a player out for quite a while. Just as it appeared that he was making his way consistently into the team, Eddie comes down with a freak serious injury. Gotta feel for the guy.
Kenny Cooper, 4 There is room for debate here. The optimist would say that he’s doing a good job of putting himself in position to get goals, and that eventually he will break out and the goals will come in bunches. The pessimist would say that he’s become an inept finisher, an absolute black hole of opportunities. I lean toward the latter right now, as my grade suggests, while not discounting that the former has some merit. It is also worth pointing out that his mid-game anonymity was not entirely his fault, as Darlington Nagbe was doing a poor job linking up with him. Still, if Cooper shows some moxie in front of goal, the Timbers earn a vastly different result.
Jorge Perlaza, 4.5 Again, this was a tough situation for him. Regardless, his first touch seemed to be betraying him all night. He was doing well to present himself as a target, even tracking back into the midfield some.
James Marcelin, 4.5 I say this all the time, but this was classic Marcelin. A few bad giveaways that created some dangerous situations, then a few instances of solid defending. I’m just not at all in love with bringing him on so soon.
Kalif Alhassan, 4 I was really disappointed in Kalif’s outing. I thought he was the one guy that had an opportunity to come on and change the game. He didn’t.
Onward, Rose City!
