Lessons To Be Learned

On a cold night at Providence Park, the Portland Timbers blew a 2-0 lead and drew 2-2 to DC United. There are multiple reasons why it happened, and it’s time to get into them.

For the second week in a row, there was a late scratch in a starting lineup at Providence Park. Christian Benteke, fresh off a hat trick, exited warmups with a trainer. He was replaced by Cristian Dajome. While Benteke’s sudden scratch was a surprise advantage for the Timbers, this game got out of hand really quickly.

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The first omen was a 6th minute challenge by Diego Chara on Jared Stroud. He got all ball, but the referee immediately pulled out a yellow card. That’s 6 minutes into the game, and he’d only committed one foul at that point. Did it look like a reckless challenge? Maybe to a far-away viewer, but it was a trademark Diego Chara tackle. But the ref had already lost the plot long before this clean tackle-turned-booking. Dairon Asprilla had gotten thrown to the ground by DC defender Lucas Bartlett with no call in the second minute. After a relatively decent opening match by scab-refereeing standards, the floodgates were open for a disaster tonight. 

Portland did get the first goal after a wonderful bit of skill by Santiago Moreno opened up a runway to the DC box. He squared it to Dairon Asprilla, who celebrated by raising some goggles to the press box. More on that later. That’s a deserved 1-0 lead. The Timbers held on to that lead for the remainder of the first half, but it wasn’t completely safe. Maxime Crepeau, making his first start at Providence Park, was able to save a point-blank header from Christian Dajome in the 31st minute. Juan Mosquera did have a breakaway chance in the 37th minute, but he didn’t have an open option to pass and took his shot directly into the side netting. Eryk Williamson had a chance in the 41st minute that forced Alex Bono to make a terrific save. Asprilla had his hands up when Williamson entered the box. It took a brilliant piece of goalkeeping to beat Dairon’s magic there. Nevertheless, the Timbers ended the first half with several good chances and the opportunity to add to their lead after the break. DC’s pressing structure was giving them some fits, but their breakaway opportunities were clear-cut chances. No reason for serious worry in the second half.

Well, DC came out of the second half with even more energy than they had in the first half. 90 seconds into the second half, DC engineered a breakaway that ended with a shot into the side netting. This was only a warning shot. The game became an end-to-end battle for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Ted Ku-DiPietro missed an absolute SITTER of a rebound in the 51st minute that should have tied the game. Cracks were beginning to show in the Timbers’ defense. But in the 61st minute, Eric Miller’s second ball was aerially contested by Dairon Asprilla in the box. This is what is known as a “Mabiala duel,” made famous by the Timbers defender after it allowed Felipe Mora to slot home the equalizer in the 2021 MLS Cup Final. Asprilla’s objective wasn’t to win the ball, but to take a defender out of the play legally. Santiago Moreno was on the back post and finished the chance with a low shot that gave the Timbers a 2-0 lead. And then the substitutes came. 

Dario Zuparic and David Ayala entered the game for Eric Miller and Eryk Williamson. Now the Timbers were in a back three. More on that later. A DC free-kick was swung into the box in the 69th minute. Diego Chara and Cristhian Paredes both had their hands up, saying that the player who got the first touch on the ball was offside. However, the ball hit their hands, and the referee pointed to the spot. More on that later. After a lengthy VAR check, the call stood. Mateusz Klich slotted home the penalty, and it was 2-1. Crepeau made an excellent double save in the 78th minute. But Crepeau saved his greatest moment from tonight for the 80th minute. After a DC breakaway (it was miles offside but no flag went up) a square ball was played from Ku-DiPietro across the box to substitute Kristian Fletcher. Crepeau moved across the goal to snuff out the point-blank shot. Incredible. In the 81st minute, Nathan Fogaca entered for Antony. One minute later, DC found acres of space down the right side and a square ball from Aaron Herrera got past the outstretched Crepeau and found Fletcher for the easiest equalizer he will ever score. 2-2. The comeback was complete for the visitors. Both teams tried to find a winner, but both failed. The game ended 2-2, and it could have been a lot worse for the hosts. 

Two entities share the blame for this collapse: the referees and Phil Neville. Each will be dealt with in a different section, so I’m going to start with the refs. Earlier this week, this article was released on SB Nation. Not only is this a puff piece written by a completely anonymous writer, it doesn’t reflect the views of the majority of MLS fans. The scab referees used by the league over the past two weeks are nowhere near comparable to the PSRA referees that PRO usually uses. Those refs have gone through months and years of training to be able to work MLS games. Whatever you may think of the usual cast of referees that MLS uses, they have put in the time and effort to get to the top of the refereeing pyramid in this country. I’ve made several complaints about PROReferees in the past, but they have the most scrutinized job in the world of sports.

What happened tonight at Providence Park was a disgrace to the refereeing profession. There isn’t just one stand-out bad call either. The referee’s main job is to set a standard for fouls. Some refs are OK with a little more physicality, and others aren’t. The ref has to set that tone. When Dairon Asprilla was thrown to the ground in the 2nd minute without a whistle, the door was open for a physical (not dirty) DC United team to routinely rough him up. Diego Chara’s yellow card should have set the standard for a caution throughout the entire match. These referees did not have any standards. Asprilla went the rest of the game getting thrown to the ground and tackled hard, and Diego Chara even had an opposition player grab him around the neck without a card being issued. Consistency is key, and these refs didn’t have a semblance of it.

In my recap of the Colorado match, I talked about how these scab referees are endangering the safety of the players. Look at Dairon tonight, or a moment where Nathan Fogaca was tackled from behind by two DC players with a yellow card being the only result. It wasn’t a straight red card challenge, but the two defenders knew that they could get away with it due to the loose standards of the referees. And now, we get to the penalty.

Under PRO, that offside is noticed immediately. A whistle is blown, and the play immediately resets to a Timbers free-kick. Two serious issues with the scabs are at work here. The first is the delayed offside flags I talked about in the Colorado recap. Those continued tonight, and as mentioned before obvious offside calls were completely missed. But the second is an even weirder phenomenon. Since the season started, there have been times that a foul has been given but no whistle has blown. The whistle is the most important part of the foul process because it alerts the players that they have to stop what they’re doing for a stoppage. These scab referees are calling fouls without blowing a whistle. Not only is that incredibly dangerous to the players, who are taught to play to the whistle, but it’s incredibly dishonest to them. By being dishonest with the times they choose to blow their most useful tool, they endanger players. A PROReferee is blowing that whistle the second a player is offside on that free-kick, especially when it’s that obvious. That would completely negate the penalty. Of course, Diego Chara and Cristhian Paredes do deserve some blame, but they’re used to dealing with fully trained referees and not the jokers who took the pitch in Portland tonight.

This week, The Athletic published an article that updated the public on the state of the referee lockout. In this article, Tom Bogert and Pablo Maurer reported that PRO has left a “best possible offer” on the table for PSRA. If not accepted by March 11, the terms will continue to get “less favorable” (even worse and worse) until an agreement is reached. PRO is funded mostly by MLS, although their refs are used by other leagues like NWSL. Those NWSL refs are not part of the strike because their labor agreement is still active and valid. Most of adult life is separating the things that you can’t control from the things that you can. In this case, I cannot control the negotiating bodies in this dispute, because I would be slamming PRO’s metaphorical head through many pieces of drywall until they give the locked-out referees what they deserve. It is completely unfair to the fans and players that we have to watch clown show after clown show hour after hour for a league that we have given our hard-earned money, time, and energy to support. End this stupid lockout before a player gets seriously hurt due to some of these refereeing decisions. Pay the referees what they are worth, which is far more than what they were earning prior to the lockout. They have a thankless job. They have to deal with abuse from fans and players. For once, MLS and PRO, do the right thing.

Now we can get back to the actual analysis of what went wrong on the pitch. That begins with the first-half struggles the Timbers showed in attack. Here is a rough outline of DC United’s pressing structure.

I didn’t add any specific players because the structure was the most important part. Phil Neville wants the Timbers to play out of the back. That’s perfectly fine, but their execution left a lot to be desired. DC was lined up in a 4-1-3-2 to press. The 10 pushed up alongside the striker and one of the defensive midfielders (usually Klich) pushed up between the two wingers. The two wingers were usually clogging the half-spaces. There was plenty of space out wide for the Timbers to play into, and the Timbers do have some excellent dribblers in those wide spaces. But the Timbers were trying to run everything through Eryk Williamson, and that often allowed DC to clog the middle and force a turnover in Portland’s half. If the Timbers tried to go wide, they would’ve found a lot more success in beating the press. Asprilla’s goal was created out of a nifty turn by Moreno who then had ACRES of space to run into behind DC’s high line. But outside of that, and a couple other attempts, the Timbers largely ignored the wide areas in buildup. Antony was barely getting involved, and usually had to make a tackle or interception to get SOMETHING going down the left side. That’s all something to work on, but the Timbers were still able to create quality chances in the first half. The collapse stemmed from the double substitution in the 65th minute.

Williamson was getting mobbed all game, and wasn’t at his best tonight. That’s OK. He wasn’t afforded the same amount of space he had against Colorado and had an off-night. Bringing on David Ayala for him was a logical move. Eric Miller wasn’t having a bad game, and he was credited with the assist on Moreno’s goal. I didn’t have an issue with Dario Zuparic entering the game, although I think Miller should have stayed on the pitch for longer. But it wasn’t the end of the world for Zuparic to enter for Miller. The pieces were there to solidify the backline. But Phil Neville screwed it up, plain and simple.

Neville changed the back four into a back three. Antony slotted in at LWB, Mosquera pushed higher up to RWB, a midfield three of Chara-Paredes-Ayala was formed, and Asprilla and Santi pushed up top as free-roaming forwards. Antony as a wingback was tickling my brain all week after I saw his defensive effort against Colorado, but it sacrifices his attacking quality too much. He likes to cut inside and roam from the wing on and off the ball. Neville put him at wingback after the 65th minute substitution, and he didn’t look entirely comfortable playing there. It looked like the team hadn’t fully trained for this type of situation. This put the Timbers fully on the back foot for the rest of the match. But the most catastrophic blow came when Nathan Fogaca entered for Antony in the 81st minute. With Antony gone, the Timbers’ shape looked like this:

The team wasn’t prepared for this type of situation. Who was supposed to cover the space that Antony had just vacated? Within one minute of this substitution, DC exploited that exact space to score their equalizer. Now the momentum had completely shifted. With his last substitution window in the 84th minute, Neville brought on Miguel Araujo for Juan Mosquera. Finally, the Timbers had stabilized.

This should have been the plan from the beginning. Kamal Miller had a better shift at left back than Antony did at left wing-back. The team was able to tighten up defensively, and they were able to hold out for a draw. In his post-game press conference, Neville talked about the 65th minute substitution. He said that he wanted to bring on some “experience” to calm his nerves after going up 2-0. It’s called “the most dangerous lead in soccer” for a reason. Tonight, Neville experimented and failed. In my honest opinion, I’m perfectly fine with a bit of experimentation. The roster is nowhere near complete, and the Timbers were not safe. We can only hope he learns from this disaster, because without Crepeau the Timbers could’ve lost this game by multiple goals.

Now on to the players, because there were several stellar performances tonight. Maxime Crepeau started between the sticks for the first time as a member of the home team at Providence Park. “It’s really great to be on the other side of those chants now,” he remarked, referring to the taunts usually hurled at opposing goalkeepers by the Timbers Army. And boy, did he repay their faith. Chants of “that’s our keeper” swelled out of the North End tonight after Crepeau made key save after key save. He’s the man that’s most responsible for the point the Timbers walked away from tonight with, so he’s the easy Man of the Match. 

Santiago Moreno tallied a goal and an assist while proving to be a tough opponent to DC’s left side. He got neutered a bit in the second half following the switch to a back five, but he’s continuing to be a key piece of the attack. After his goal, he ran over to the family stand to raise a heart to his family. How can you not love this guy?

Dairon Asprilla scored his first goal of the season, and is now the second Timber to score a goal in nine separate seasons. Diego Valeri the other one. It was a striker’s finish, and he continued to be a monster off the ball. Besides his “Mabiala duel” that should count as a secondary assist, he was constantly chasing down opposing defenders and muscling them off the ball. I also mentioned how he got hacked to bits earlier without any reprieve from the officiating crew. But I’m going to draw your attention to his goal celebration. Here it is, captured in three separate screenshots from the broadcast.

After he scores, he turns away from the North End and puts goggles over his eyes. He’s not looking at the fans and he’s not looking at his team’s bench. The point gives it all away. This is a message. After the point, the goggles come back on. Who is he displaying this message to? Given the angle of the camera and the direction of his gaze, I can extrapolate where he’s looking. And I think I know the spot.

He’s pointing to one specific room in the Providence Park pressbox. That is where Ned Grabavoy watches the games. Merritt Paulson has his own suite, but Dairon isn’t looking there. He’s looking directly at the man who he is currently feuding with. Dairon Asprilla’s contract expires at the end of this season, and he desperately wants a new one. Grabavoy is lowballing him, and the biggest cult hero the Timbers have ever had is furious with his former teammate. He wants to get paid what he’s worth and continue playing for the team he’s given his heart and soul to. Last week, after the final whistle blew, he joined his teammates in the post-game tradition of the slow walk around the stadium to the log in front of the North End. Sometimes players keep their jerseys on, and sometimes they remove them. Dairon really wanted to score last week, and the evidence is written on his shirt. “Tired of your unfulfilled promises. Value my work.”

Pay this man, Ned. He’s been playing out of position for the first two games of the season and has given it his all. His value to the team and this city cannot be put into a single number. Give him the opportunity to keep creating miracles for the Portland Timbers. I understand that this league has a salary cap, but Dairon Asprilla is an inevitable force of nature. Any number below the senior max is a value contract for a player like him. Some might view his antics as “childish and unprofessional,” but he’s making his feud public after giving it his all on the pitch. He has the right to do that. He’s showing you exactly what he brings and then standing on business afterwards. I don’t think there will be a quick solution to this contract dispute, but it is something to keep in mind for the rest of the season. Normal Dairon is already magical. And now he’s giving an extra 100% in a contract year.

Zac McGraw and Kamal Miller both had solid outings tonight. McGraw’s greatness doesn’t surprise me anymore because I expect it of him. And he keeps delivering on those expectations every single game. Miller is still settling, but still put together another solid performance. Cristhian Paredes continues to be an absolute workhorse. Antony should have gotten the ball more, and was definitely hurt by the tactical switch in the 65th minute. More solid outings from players who are now key parts of this Timbers team.

Diego Chara deserves a special mention tonight. He has tied Nick Rimando for second place on the MLS One-Club Ironman list (most MLS regular season games played by a player for one club). That number is 369, and he will break it next week on a baseball field in New York. The record is 376, held by San Jose Earthquakes icon Chris Wondolowski. Chara will break that record this year. On the field tonight, Diego Chara was stellar. Despite that second yellow and the ill-timed handball, Chara showed off his greatest superpower: his temperament. Getting a yellow card six minutes into this game might completely throw off a player’s game, but Diego Chara is cut from a different cloth. He picked his spots perfectly for the rest of the match and didn’t get that second yellow. Just another classic Diego Chara game. I would also like to call attention to his passing. When the DC press was clogging up one side of the field, Chara was one of the only Timbers players willing to play a long diagonal pass to open up space on the other side. He’s 37 years old, is showing no signs of slowing down, and is irreplaceable. Build the statue.

Despite the circumstance in which he entered, I don’t think Dario Zuparic had a bad game. He is the best player in the league, after all. Nathan Fogaca continued to harass DC’s backline in his limited minutes. But the two best subs tonight were David Ayala and Miguel Araujo. Ayala is absolutely fearless. He does not shy away from any contact and shone in the 30 minutes he spent on the pitch. He’s still recovering from his ACL tear, but he looks like he hasn’t lost a step. Miguel Araujo is not a right back. He made a point of telling me that last year after the Leagues Cup loss to Monterrey after playing, you guessed it, right back. Tonight, he played right back again, and reminded us why he was signed here in the first place. Like Ayala, he’s incredibly physical and has an eye for a pass. I think he should see more minutes at right back in the future. Just don’t tell him what position he’s playing. 

Phil Neville experimented tonight, and the experiment failed. His feeling after the Colorado match and tonight’s draw is the same. “We still have a lot of work to do. Four points from the first two games is probably what we deserve.” He’s correct. This was a game that the Timbers could have lost, but one might wonder if Portland could have walked away with three points tonight. The answer to that question is easy: they should have. I do agree with Neville’s sentiment that the game wasn’t safe at 2-0, but he screwed up in his execution. It’s only his second game, and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he will learn from this. There are still issues to be fixed, with transition defense and playing out from the back the primary ones in the front of my mind. It’s still a work in progress, but four points from two games without any DPs is good work. Especially now that a $15 million bid to Monterrey for German Berterame has been publicly reported. This roster is still being constructed, and the squad depth isn’t fully there yet. But tonight was a learning experience for Phil Neville. Let’s see what it teaches him. 

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