Obafemi Martins had the ball and a counter-attacking opportunity, and Clint Dempsey got on his horse. He had to make a 50-some-odd yard run to get into the box, blow away the retreating Michael Harrington in the process, collect, and finish past Timbers goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to make this extraordinary effort worth it.
Dempsey looked to the sky as he made his move, and like Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the final lap at Daytona, he charged by Harrington, collected an inch-perfect pass from Martins, and calmly snuck the ball past Ricketts. Dempsey wheeled away to celebrate, leapt into the air screaming and pumping his fists, and stuck the landing.
Goodnight sweet Timbers.
It finished on a gorgeous late summer afternoon at Providence Park with the scoreboard reading Seattle Sounders 4, Portland Timbers 2. That scoreline, of course, was flattering to the home side. The Timbers were so thoroughly beaten, it was 2-0 after 45 minutes and that was the half in which Caleb Porter thought the Timbers were actually the better team.
It wasn’t necessarily that the Timbers played all that badly, it was just that Seattle was another planet for the much of the game. Dempsey and Martins were the MLS equivalent of Stockton and Malone on the pick and roll, and the Sounders played the entire match with an air of inevitable superiority that was strange coming from a team that’s most used to imploding around this time of the year.
Yes, Portland got things wrong in spades. Caleb Porter, not for the first time, made some severely trying decisions in his lineup, and a few Timbers especially rankled. But it’s a story we’ve seen before. The Timbers don’t keep games close anymore. They don’t beat good teams anymore.
Why is this one especially frustrating? Because it was Seattle – at home. Because people camped out for four days beforehand. Because of that extraordinary tifo. Because the old stadium just doesn’t get as loud, doesn’t get as intense, doesn’t make neutrals want in equal parts to be thrown into the thick of the Timbers Army and hide under a rock as it does when the Sounders tramp south.
You could see it in the first ten minutes, how much the Timbers were ready for the fight. Will Johnson pulverized DeAndre Yedlin in the first minute, and Diego Chara stood up Ozzie Alonso and took his lunch on the edge of the area to an incredible roar from the amassed Army behind him. When Diego Valeri and Gaston Fernandez are flying in with tackles, you know it’s Seattle.
It didn’t last long. I know that the playoff picture didn’t change one iota with Portland’s loss, but that couldn’t matter less right now. The Timbers just got done losing 4-2 to Seattle at home.
In three Cascadia Cup home games in 2014, the Timbers have given up more goals – twelve – than they gave up at home in the entirety of the 2013 season. It’s embarrassing and it’s disappointing.
There’s not a whole lot to like about the Timbers this year. It’s a team that consistently flatters to deceive and fails to live up to ability and expectations.
There were a few players above reproach – Diego Chara had an Uber Diego Chara game in midfield, and Darlington Nagbe and Diego Valeri were both threatening, if not scintillating.
Problem was, the Timbers had their ears pinned back by a poor selection from Caleb Porter. Maxi Urruti was useless for about 55 minutes, and then channeled his inner toddler working on three hours of sleep. The incessant and angry complaining was one thing, but the cherry on top came when Urruti kicked the ball out of bounds on a nothing play, then started screaming at the referee with such fervor that he got a yellow card for dissent.
Urruti’s shtick does nothing for me. He plays soccer like a nine-year old prima donna.
And that’s fine, expect, this game, you know, mattered. Once Fanendo Adi, who is apparently being paid a DP contract to warm up, came into the game, he immediately scored a classic center-forwards goal and added another before the end of the match for a brace and Portland’s two tallies.
Porter also selected a team so devoid of any wide attacking threat that when the team needed a goal, it was Liam Ridgewell who got pushed into a wingback role instead of the starting fullback Danny O’Rourke. If that didn’t say it all, nothing did. Jack Jewsbury, who is a team leader with a great record against the Sounders, could have been that guy. It could have been, and was when he was substituted on, Rodney Wallace. Or Jorge Villafana out of the back.
But it wasn’t. You see, we’re in the O’Rourke period. Porter has tried replacing Jewsbury every three seconds this year. First it was Alvas Powell, then it was Villafana, now it’s O’Rourke – a solid squad player to be sure but someone who wasn’t even playing soccer in May. And he looked every bit a reserve when he ballooned his golden chance into the Timbers Army from six yards out.
All this needs to be corrected. But even if Porter nailed things tactically, we’d still have had Brad Freaking Evans blazing by Liam Ridgewell setting up the first goal, Dempsey looking to the heavens and leaving Harrington in his dust, Chad Barrett getting five minutes to pick his spot, and Martins doing the nutcracker through the Timbers’ entire defense.
Seattle and the Timbers could play 100 times, fifty in each city, and you’d have to give me pretty good odds before I’d bet that the Timbers would win even one.
That’s the new reality. How did it happen? Last year, Portland had the Sounders in their hip pocket – they had such an emotional and physical stronghold on Seattle that was no surprise at all that it was the Timbers that ended the Sounders’ 2013 in the playoffs.
It’s all turned around now. Seattle has better players across the board, a clearer idea of what they’re trying to do on both offense and defense, and a real chance for maybe the first time in their six year run in MLS to take home the trophy at the end of the year. Clint Dempsey has scored half his goals against the Timbers this year, and while utility-man Barrett has tallied his seventh goal of the year, Nagbe still looks for his first.
So the Timbers will continue their pursuit of the fifth playoff spot – just a year after winning the conference.
The atmosphere at Providence Park Sunday afternoon was fantastic. Almost as good as the Sounders.
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