We’ve seen it thousands of times in sports: An overmatched team hangs in with a superior team for a time, maybe even a half, until the superior team locks in and shows their class.
Make no mistake: The Portland Timbers were soundly beaten by the Seattle Sounders Sunday night at CenturyLink Field, meekly layering on another beleaguered chapter in a season that is falling away as quickly as the Timbers did in the second half of this derby.
That’s why instead of the combative, intense Caleb Porter we’ve grown accustomed to seeing post-game, we got a mellow, congratulatory, defeated coach praising Clint Dempsey and apologizing to the traveling Timbers Army.
It’s clear when a team gets comprehensively beat. Portland’s attitude after the game smacked of, “Look, we’ve got Danny O’Rourke and Raushawn McKenzie; they’ve got Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey.” Could you do better?
Portland, in their current condition, was never going to walk into the raucous home of the league-leaders and come away with anything but a loss. Sure, Portland kept things tight in the first half by sitting back and playing defensively, but the game ended when the Nigerian Martins was introduced just minutes into the second half.
Unfortunately, the league leaders are Seattle and it hurts to lose this match, as the Timbers have been outscored 8-2 in MLS regular season play in Seattle. Sure, it would have been nice to see some more fire from the away team. Some more passion from certain attackers, more desperation. But what can you expect? A team knows when they’re beaten as well or better than their coach does.
The overall success of the Timbers season wasn’t decided last night. Porter is right when he says there are bigger games coming up, starting with the Friday night clash with the Colorado Rapids back Providence Park this week. The Timbers, who are now second from bottom in the Western Conference, need to start picking up points soon – but this wasn’t the place where they final push was ever going to start.
That the Timbers performance was particularly insipid will be a soon-forgotten side-note. It was a celebratory night for the Sounders and one that Portland will move on from quickly.
But there are a few important takeaways before we hit the final do-or-die stretch of the 2014 campaign.
Here’s one: The Timbers player acquisition model isn’t looking very good. See what Obafemi Martins did when he came on? He was almost unplayable and suddenly, the Timbers’ defense was overloaded. Marco Pappa looked like Michael Bradley.
That’s what your big-money, DP striker needs to be able to do. Win a game. I like Fanendo Adi. Really do. But I’ve always questioned whether the Timbers overpaid and settled for him. Adi was bottled up by Chad Marshall in this game, just as he was in the Open Cup on Wednesday night. From the 20th minute on, Adi’s vague presence in the game was an allowance from Marshall.
It’s well known that the Timbers were targeting names bigger than Adi when they settled for taking the Nigerian on loan from FC Copenhagen in May. And while Adi is certainly a young player the Timbers didn’t want to let get away, he’s no Martins – and the Timbers could use an Obafemi Martins right now.
Seattle and Portland have always had different styles. Seattle is flashy, flamboyant, and all about stars and records. Of course they got Clint Dempsey. Meanwhile, Portland signs two DPs this summer, and they’re Adi and Liam Ridgewell. Well, if the Sounders get their chemistry right – and if you can judge by their celebration on Pappa’s second it looks like they are – it’s not surprise that Seattle is going to be the better team.
Ridgewell will be good for the Timbers. As good as Marshall was last night? We can only hope. And that, I fear, is the problem.
In reality, the Timbers defense didn’t have a bad night against Seattle. Danny O’Rourke continued his strong play, and while McKenzie had some bad moments, he didn’t hurt the team overall.
Donovan Ricketts had a god-mode game.
If Will Johnson had stepped up quicker, Ricketts’ double save on what was eventually Dempsey’s opener would have been a candidate for Save of the Year. The second goal only came – as Porter was quick to point out – after his patented attacker for fullback 80th minute substitution chasing a goal.
Jack Jewsbury, still an impeccable passer and natural #6, did well filling in for Diego Chara. Johnson was good in the first half, terrible in the second, but that’s to be expected from an entirely erratic and inconsistent player.
It was the front-four who did the worst. Starting Steve Zakuani and matching him up with his former Akron Zip teammate DeAndre Yedlin was a move by Porter to try to expose Yedlin’s defensive frailties, but Zakuani and the Timbers offense never tested the newly minted World Cup star.
Darlington Nagbe was once again frustrated, as was a snippy Diego Valeri – perhaps still smarting from Argentina’s World Cup Final loss.
Seattle is really, really good. They should be in the process of running away with the Supporters’ Shield, and are most certainly in the best position for an American treble of any team we’ve ever seen. The Timbers’ inability to knock Seattle out of the US Open Cup ensured that.
Portland gets one final crack at Seattle this year at home on August 24th. By that date, we should know if we should stick a fork in the Timbers 2014 season or not.
The clock is ticking. There was nothing much to see at CenturyLink Field. Just a good team beating a bad one. Happens all the time.
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