Colorado Rapids-Portland Timbers Second Half Preview (7/12)

The longest halftime since Justin Timberlake performed at the Super Bowl finally comes to an end tomorrow night at 6 PM (Apple TV). It has been a turbulent halftime for the Timbers, but Colorado has been busy accomplishing things.

By accomplishing things, I mean winning their game last weekend against Dallas. They won 2-1 with goals from a penalty and a corner kick. Classic Crapids performance. 

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For a report on Portland’s extended halftime, here’s my piece on Santiago Moreno wanting out of the club (click here for the initial article and click here for my updated thoughts following yesterday’s press conference). 

45 minutes will be played, and only players who were named in the squad for last week’s game can play. Here is a refresher on who those players will be.

Santiago Moreno’s status is still uncertain, and I could do a deep dive into the league rules to find out an answer for a player who couldn’t play in a rescheduled match but I don’t really want to. This match should’ve been postponed before kickoff and the league is mostly to blame for that so I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of digging through their stupid rules to answer a corollary. Now let’s move on to what the Timbers need to do in order to bring home three points, because this is a match they cannot squander in any way.

This is what I wrote to summarize the first half last Tuesday:

“The Timbers and Rapids did play a first half of soccer, and nothing notable happened. Colorado had a foul called on a corner kick that erased a possible goal and they had a penalty shout late in the half. Portland had one serious attack but Nathan Fogaca’s shot from a tight angle was saved.”

That’s pretty much all that happened. The Timbers could count themselves lucky that they weren’t losing, but Colorado wasn’t much better. The key to secure a result is to make some halftime subs. Both teams have 5 subs remaining and all 3 substitution windows. Halftime doesn’t count as a substitution window, so Giovanni Savarese should use it as a way to tweak the lineup that played the first 45. My solution comes in the form of two players: Sebastian Blanco and Tyler Clegg. Contrary to the FotMob player map shown above, the Timbers lined up in a 4-3-3 with Victor Griffith and Cristhian Paredes playing in front of Diego Chara. Nathan Fogaca and Marvin Loria played on the wings while Franck Boli set up shop up top. FotMob wasn’t incredibly kind to Nathan, but he was the best attacker in that first half. Blanco can sub in for Loria and take the 10 role. This would shift the formation to a 4-1-2-1-2 diamond. Nathan and Boli can play up top and provide more pressure to Colorado’s center backs. Claudio Bravo and Juan Mosquera can provide some width as well. Between the Minnesota match and last Tuesday’s events, I can conclude that the Eric Miller center back experiment has failed. He’s still a quality player but he’s just outmatched in the middle of the backline. Sub him out for Clegg so there are two natural center backs playing center back. Not really a choice that requires much convincing. With both of those changes coming out of halftime, Savarese can theoretically make these 45 minutes a brand-new game. Noel Caliskan could also be a halftime substitute due to his passing ability. With the whole injured list minus David Ayala and Eryk Williamson set to return for Columbus, Savarese can get creative with the players that he has available without worrying about possible injury risks to key attackers. Without those subs, I don’t really see a way for the Timbers to leave Colorado with three points. 

I don’t really have anything on Colorado except that their win on Saturday was their first league win since May 6th and their first home win of 2023. They will want to keep that momentum going. It’s up to an underperforming Timbers team to put a stop to Colorado’s accomplishments. A loss here would be very bad for Portland, plain and simple. Especially with a full week of rest ahead of this resumption. I don’t care how ugly it is; the Timbers just need to get three points by any means necessary. 

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