The Portland Timbers, in the bright sunshine, operating with precision and purpose and playing a rival off the field at Providence Park.
Everyone had rhythm and understanding. Everyone played their part. Back to front, front to back. No holes. Defense, offense, coaching. It was all there. For 90 minutes.
For everyone who has lived the Timbers’ insane season through each calamity, each comeback, each late goal, each early concession, it was sweet and utter fulfillment.
Portland played their tails off on Saturday afternoon. They also simply played up to their potential.
You cannot overstate how good the Timbers feel right now. In big soccer games, there’s nothing like realizing as the clock winds down around the 85th minute that what was once a hyped match of epic proportions has become a bunch of guys knocking the ball around at the park.
The Timbers reduced the Whitecaps to a nub. They’ve scored eight goals in a row in the season matchup against Vancouver, and however much of this win was the Timbers owning their rivals to the north and the Timbers finally clicking we don’t know. But enjoy this win – they don’t come much more satisfying than that.
Thing is, we want to like – no, love – the Timbers. Anyone watching Pa Moudu Kah warm up for the match would have intensely wanted Kah to play a spotless game against Vancouver, keep his place in the team, and stick around for five or ten years more.
Kah was out there pre-game in his sweatpants in the 95 degree heat. When the starters were knocking the ball around, he leaned on the advertising hordings chatting with opposing coaches. When the team did short sprints, Kah walked and jogged behind. When the team split into mini-groups for a little routine 4-v-1 possession game, Kah missed six passes in a row. He couldn’t find a teammate.
When the teams walked out of the tunnel at game-time, Kah walked five feet behind everyone – as is his custom. The kid who accompanied him out must have been bewildered. At least he didn’t need to change his shoes two minutes into the match. We’ve seen that stunt before too.
Part mad-man, part prima-donna. Training an eye on Kah is horrifying – but very endearing. So when Kah did his dance with Fanendo Adi after the Timbers’ second goal and jumped onto his back saluting the crowd, you would have grinned ear to ear.
This is a guy who has been halfway around the world and back, been hit by horrible personal tragedy, and just this season, lost his best friend in Portland in everyone’s best friend Futty and had a mostly miserable season. But he’s still out there. Doing his thing. Making people laugh.
Maybe that doesn’t make a great soccer player. With Kah, you never know. But it does make you pull for the guy.
And Kah was phenomenal on Saturday. Inexplicably so. Even playing with a phantom yellow card for 75 minutes, he didn’t put a foot wrong in a performance that was worth its clean sheet and more.
The Timbers have a lot of guys we want to like. Darlington Nagbe is legitimate good guy. The only thing that could have made this afternoon better would have been Nagbe breaking his duck. As is, he played a positive game and made the third goal.
If his post-game interview was any indication, Diego Valeri has nailed English – along with four other languages including soccer. Brilliant, charming, and a cold-cut MVP candidate.
Ever listen to a Fanendo Adi interview? His eagerness and effusiveness jumps off the radio into your car, or off the television into your living room. If you’ve seen a better game from a #9 for the home team at Providence Park since MLS arrived in 2011, you’ve seen one of the best damn games a target forward can possibly play.
Adi’s holdup play was sensational, as were his touches and his spacing. Caleb Porter told Adi to play like a man – as if the Nigerian needing any prompting.
It was sheer karmic justice that just as Adi was about to be pulled for Maxi Urruti he turned on the accelerators and scored the second goal – and just as he was about to come off again, he got the third. If Porter had left Adi on the field three minutes longer, he just may have gotten his third.
If anyone can ever find the fountain of youth, let it be Diego Chara. The day that man gets old we will lose a physical specimen the likes of which we may never see again. This is a guy who, at 5’nothing, 150 pounds, was hurting people with clean tackles by the end of the night.
On the Timbers’ third goal, Chara stumbled leading a breakout. He had a multitude of options as he slowly came up the field after regaining his balance, but he sent an entry-pass of sorts towards Nagbe in the middle of the field. On the face of it, it was one of the lowest percentage passes Chara could have picked out.
But he knew Nagbe would seal his guy off, turn the corner, and be off to the races. Nagbe slipped in Adi, and the Timbers had their cherry on top of their Saturday sunday.
The second goal was made by Valeri – who stole a ball in midfield and threaded Adi in. The big man held onto the ball just long enough to pull it by David Ousted.
Valeri was the goalscorer to open the game, with a stunning turning volley into the roof of the net doing justice to a peachy cross from Jorge Villafaña.
But the evolution of the Timbers’ domineering performance started as early as the first five minutes, when the Timbers’ defense held off a quick start from Vancouver with relative ease. The Timbers found their footing, paced themselves, and piqued as Vancouver expired.
It was terrific coaching and game management. It was just a terrific game.
It goes without saying that if the Timbers continue to play like they did on Saturday, they’ll make the playoffs and be a force to be reckoned with to boot. Of course, it also goes without saying that the only predictable thing about this Timbers season has been its unpredictability.
But that was fantastic, huh?
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