Bad Team Gets Utterly Thumped 4-1 By Another Bad Team

Yuck.

Despite an opportunistic early goal from Franck Boli, the Timbers looked incredibly lackluster in the first half. There was a legitimate penalty shout from Evander in the 27th minute, but VAR didn’t recommend a review. In typical fashion, Erik Thommy equalized not long after for the hosts with a great strike from outside the box. SKC nearly went 2-1 up but a foul ruled out their would-be go-ahead. Following the ruled-out goal, Portland got into some dangerous areas but missed three clear chances to end the half.

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It’s not a promising sign when your halftime sub can only play 8 minutes before leaving. Right after another wasted counterattack, SKC grabbed the lead through an easy goal. Then, right off the kickoff, they marched down the field AGAIN and went up 3-1. The Timbers looked absolutely hapless. A final goal in second half stoppage time completely sealed it for the hosts, but it was already over long before that fourth goal found the net.

I am disgusted. I am furious. This was an easily winnable game and the team got thumped 4-1. There is really only one problem with tonight though.

From the opening whistle, this team looked flat and lazy. And there’s no midweek game crutch to fall back on either. They had a full week of rest and came out exhausted on the road. The biggest evidence of that was getting outhustled to every ball and a complete lack of urgency in any counterattacking situation. There is talent on this team. There is no denying the talent on this team. But without the effort, the talent is useless. With MLS Season Pass, I am able to watch every other team in the league. When I compare this team to other teams in the same league, my biggest takeaway is a seeming lack of fitness. Other teams hustle. They win balls in dangerous areas and are quick to try to exploit it. Today, Portland had several of those opportunities. They promptly wasted them and gave the ball away in horrific fashion. Stringing a few forward passes together looks like an insurmountable task for this team. If you can’t do the basics correctly, how can you even think about scoring goals or even stopping them? This team’s structure was completely out of whack today. It was all too easy for SKC to use the wings to their advantage and punish Portland’s horrendous positioning. There is no excuse. This is the worst loss of the season at this point. I’m only adding in “at this point” to prove that there are definitely worse ways this team can lose a game, and it looks like a real possibility that this loss looks tame by the end of the season. 

In order to fully explain what went wrong today, I have decided to look at each part of the team and what their weaknesses were. Because all of them were on display today. Let’s start with the defense. Conceding in transition is their biggest problem. I could go into detail about Larrys Mabiala and his clunker today, but he is only an emergency player and we all know how bad he is. The problem is with the structure. With both Juan Mosquera and Claudio Bravo encouraged to get forward, Diego Chara has to drop in between the center backs to keep us somewhat balanced. That provides no cover in the wide areas so opposing teams have acres of space to create an attack. Look at Kansas City’s second from today if you want more proof. This is not a new problem, it’s an ongoing one. And problems are supposed to be fixed. Nothing has been done about it. It is all too easy to create chances against us and it doesn’t take a world-class striker to finish them.

Onto the midfield/attack, which I’m treating as their own group. Mostly because they share the same sins. Passing is a fundamental part of soccer. If you can’t complete passes, you can’t move the ball. If you can’t move the ball, you can’t create chances. IF THERE’S NO CHANCE CREATION YOU CAN’T SCORE GOALS! This team has a frustrating tendency to take plenty of time to build chances. But they don’t retain possession enough to have the time necessary to build up play. There were so many moments when this team was so wasteful in counterattacking situations. And when those moments suddenly vanish through this team’s own awfulness, it opens the door for the opposition to attack the overextended backline. There is no tactical identity in the attack. Giovanni Savarese just lets his best players try to figure it out. There’s no real press. It’s just about putting the players in space to let them create on their own. Because of that, the attack is rather disjointed. The extra runners required to capitalize on counters never get forward because there’s no urgency for them to. It’s up to the few players already forward to create on their own. This makes our attack look incredibly predictable. It is so easy to stop what’s already coming, and the individual quality of the players isn’t enough to strike fear into the hearts of teams. SKC had a field day just winning possession in the midfield because it is so easy to stop Timbers attacks in 2023. Every pass was telegraphed. Today’s lone goal came more from Franck Boli’s own invention than anything tactical. But this team also has a habit of wasting massive chances in horrific ways. Whether it’s a misplaced header or taking an extra touch, there is a severe lack of killer instinct in this team. 

That lack of a killer instinct also points to a lack of on-field leadership in the attack. Diego Chara is the captain, but his place on the pitch is closer to the defense. There’s no one in the attack willing players to get forward. That’s what Sebastian Blanco brings, but he’s not healthy enough to start every game. It is also unknown what both Evander and Blanco will bring to this team if they’re playing together. Savarese said that the 80th minute triple sub was to change the team’s formation to more of a diamond. I would imagine the diamond would have Blanco at the head, Evander and Paredes on the sides, and Chara anchoring. But I wouldn’t have known that unless Gio had openly told us about it, because it looked nothing like it on the field. 

Is the fitness level to blame for the lackluster hustle shown by the Timbers today? They had a full week of rest, and the starting XI was pretty much known following last weekend’s loss against Minnesota. So, by definition, fitness shouldn’t be questioned. But that leaves effort as the main factor behind such a sloppy performance. Yes, the team was trying. But what exactly were they trying to do? 

Giovanni Savarese briefly took to the podium after this game ended. Despite technical difficulties, he went on to say the following: “I thought we managed the game very well in the first half. We were in control. Yes, not a lot with the ball, but we were in control.” This is the point where I begin to question the fundamental tactics of this team. I understand how important structure is in soccer. If you aren’t solid formationally, you can’t do much. But the key word here is “managed.” The Timbers rarely try to impose their will on opponents, especially on the road. Our only road victory in St. Louis was defined by structure and on-field solidity rather than anything the attack tried to do. At home, the attack can run wild, but managing isn’t the same as being active. “Managing” seems to indicate that the Timbers are content to rely on other teams to control the ball but limit their opportunities. Once the ball eventually gets won back, the team will try to counter and create chances of their own. Today, Portland did not truly try to counter. In a way, Savarese’s quotes are correct. In his mind, they did manage the game. But this team has enough talent to try and win every game no matter who the opponent is. That’s why a lot of matches this year can be defined by small segments of play rather than a full game of dominance. The Seattle match was won on pure momentum following Dairon’s bicycle kick. Minnesota will be defined by sloppy defending at the worst possible time. The matches that can be judged in full are results like Atlanta away and today. “Three minutes of distraction changed the game completely,” Savarese said postgame. I would agree that those three minutes in which SKC blitzed us for two goals did change the game. But could any viewer honestly say they didn’t see it coming? 

If I could describe this year’s Timbers team in one word, I would choose passivity. The Timbers exist in a land of being indirect. That applies to both the attack and the defense. There’s no press in the attacking end and there is endless space to exploit in the back end. And that’s just without the ball. With the ball, the passivity rears its head in aimless long balls from the back and indecisiveness in danger areas in the attack. This must be changed, and Savarese needs to understand how this team has the talent to impose itself on other squads in MLS. Passivity is not going to cut it in this league. Just making the playoffs is no longer acceptable. The next transfer window needs to be absolutely perfect. 

In terms of individual players, only two stand out. Franck Boli got the goal, and was actively pressing in all of his moments on the pitch. However, he did miss a sitter at the end of the first half. No one today truly played a wonderful all-around game. That includes Aljaz Ivacic, who was once again left to the mercy of his own defense and tried to do everything that he could. This manifested in a few really good saves. But there is another glaring problem that I saw from him today. All season, I have been questioning how much control he has over his backline. Today, that manifested in him not coming off his line on SKC’s fourth goal. With Ivacic in net, this team has conceded 4+ goals twice this year. And it’s not entirely his fault either. 

I wrote in my preview about Larrys Mabiala, and with him starting it’s like we’re already down 1-0. You can argue about whose fault it is that he is the 3rd CB on the roster, but even without his presence the underlying issues with this team still occur. He’s just an easy scapegoat at this point. If the structure is wrong, no one will succeed. Especially a player who isn’t at this level. 

Santiago Moreno came off at halftime with what looked like dehydration symptoms. He was replaced with Yimmi Chara, who then got stepped on and had to be subbed out. No long term concerns with them, but it’s perfectly Timbers for the substitute to get injured. 

May has come to an end, and after the Austin game I set a points goal for the May matches. I said that 8 points in the remaining 4 games would be doable. The Timbers collected four points in those four matches for a combined record of 1-1-2. Their season record now sits at 4-4-7, which is somehow good enough for the final playoff spot. I did not see a playoff team on the pitch in Kansas City today. 

With another full week of rest ahead, the focus turns to Seattle. The Timbers have a massive advantage because Seattle has a midweek game against San Jose. There is no better time for this team to turn things around, and given Savarese’s track record against Seattle there is every reason to believe they will. But today’s team looked like a Spoon winner, not a MLS Cup contender. Whether this team is good or bad remains to be seen. The only thing I can truly say is they are wildly inconsistent. Today is what I like to call a paper-bag loss. It makes you ashamed to say you support this team. But that inconsistency works in both ways, and the season is still salvageable. Can the team realize that and suddenly find some consistent form? It’s what we’re all asking, and if they can’t, our season could very well end at the monster truck/concert venue up north next weekend. 

Cover photo credit to Craig Mitchelldyer/Portland Timbers.

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