Nursing the Hangover from a Disastrous Night

Well, that was just awful. If it hadn’t been for last season’s almost identical implosion against Seattle, when we blew a lead and conceded two late goals to fall 3-2 to our most hated rivals, Saturday night’s self-destruct loss to Salt Lake might count as the most disappointing finish to a Timbers game in my memory. That Seattle game still hurts just enough that the RSL loss can only be #2.

It started, for the fourth time in as many matches, with us conceding the first goal. There have been and will continue to be enough words spent on other blogs on this problem, so I won’t repeat them except to say that we obviously can’t be a playoff team if we concede the opening goal so regularly. Enough said on that. John Spencer continued his good run of halftime motivation, and the first 40 minutes of the second half belonged to us.

Kris Boyd was largely ineffective, but instead of getting lots of chances and missing them, as he did in New England, he just didn’t get a lot of quality balls in this time. That’s not to say he shouldn’t have done better – he absolutely should have and will need to soon – but I didn’t think his performance was as terrible as last week.

What Boyd has done is clear space for Darlington Nagbe. He may have scored the Goal of the Year last season in MLS, but it was one of only two goals for him the entire campaign. This season, he has three in four matches, including his two beauties Saturday night. Nagbe is the brightest spot in our season so far, and is really coming into his own. The attention that defenses are rightly giving Boyd is giving him opportunities, and so far he has basically taken them all. If it wasn’t for Nagbe’s goals, more Timbers writers would be gushing over Eric Alexander today as well, who had his best night in a Timbers jersey, consistently beating his man and setting up opportunities that kept RSL on their back foot. 

Then came the disaster. In the 88th minute, we led RSL 2-1 in front of a suitably raucous sell-out Timbers crowd. There would be three minutes of added time, so we were five minutes away from our second win of the season, and in all likelihood a place in the top three of the Western Conference. In those five minutes, we managed to concede twice, and throw away all three points. 

I’ve never understood the prevent defense, in any sport. We were not only leading, but had all the momentum and if anything, were the more likely to score another goal in the closing ten minutes. But instead of pressing our advantage, the way that DC United did in their dismantling of FC Dallas the other night, we decided to defend and play Boyd alone up front with essentially no support. We took away any chance of us scoring again and finishing the game off, and decided to put all of our faith in our ability to stop RSL from scoring another. It was more than a poor strategic decision – it was a cowardly one, and we paid for it. 

I’m a huge John Spencer fan – I have been since he arrived – but the decision to back up and change the tactics that were working for us baffles me. Yes, Boyd was unproductive (although he did some decent work setting the ball up for others). Yes, the back line made a few messes. Our wing backs, Palmer and Wallace, were particularly weak defensively. But I keep coming back to the capitulating decision to defend rather than attack. That’s what lost us this game. 

I said before Saturday night (in a preview that I unfortunately didn’t get to the editors in time to post, so you’ll have to take my word) that whoever lost this game would be in a tight spot. Both the Timbers and RSL were coming off of disappointing losses, and both were trying to avoid the losing streak that we now find ourselves in. For better or for worse, our next game is one that on paper should be one of the easiest of the season: at home against Chivas USA. But ask the LA Galaxy about the disadvantages of playing an easy fixture on bad form. They were spanked at home by New England last night as well. While I think we are still huge favorites to convincingly beat Chivas, there’s something particularly dangerous about this next match. A win will feel a little empty, or at least only expected. A loss will turn our tumble into a free-fall. 

It was a terrible finish to a decent game. Now we have to go forward and make it clear that it goes down as a momentary lapse, not a return to the lack of discipline and inability to finish off matches that plagued us so much of last season. RCTID.