Portland Timbers-DC United Preview (3/2)

The Phil Neville Era got off to the perfect start last weekend. However, even after a 4-1 victory to open the season, Neville and the rest of the Portland Timbers are not satisfied. Now a DC United team with a new coach and a similarly shiny Matchday 1 victory come to Portland. Before we can get into the game, there’s a little bit of in-house news that I must discuss.

DaBella, Ciao

I wish I was clever enough to come up with this little headline, but someone on Twitter (please tell me who you are so I can credit you properly) was miles ahead on the comedy train. After about four months of a new uniform deal, allegations of sexual harrassment from DaBella’s CEO surfaced earlier this week. The news was made public on Wednesday (I would highly recommend reading this entire article, there is a whole lot more going on at DaBella than just predatory sales techniques). Twenty minutes later, the Timbers announced that they had dropped DaBella as their corporate partner. 

Cascadia FC's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The Timbers have handled this well. Dropping DaBella immediately after the allegations were made public is the right choice. CEO Heather Davis said the deal was seven figures, so this wasn’t an easy business choice to make. But money isn’t everything, and the Timbers made the right choice here. There will be no sponsor on the jerseys for this weekend’s game, but the rest of the season is still up in the air. There is a good solution, and Chris Rifer does an excellent job of explaining it. 

For the away jerseys, the Timbers should just put the Stand Together logo on the front. If this isn’t a feasible option, then leaving the front of the shirt blank is the best way to go. A new sponsorship deal might not be announced until the end of the 2024 season, and the jersey designs are good enough to work without a sponsor. It’s a shame that the Timbers (and their fans) are involved with off-field controversy once again, but they handled it well. The Timbers are 1-0-0 in the DaBella Era; a record that will never be broken (until they go 1-0-0 under the new sponsor). 

The Open Cup Verdict

The Portland Timbers will not be competing in the 2024 US Open Cup. T2 (or Timbers 2, if you like a lot of words) will be taking their place. MLS has announced that only eight MLS clubs (Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, SKC, LAFC, RSL, San Jose, and Seattle) will compete on a first-team basis. Those eight teams were chosen based on last season’s Supporter’s Shield standings and due to their lack of continental soccer. Houston is the exception because they are the defending champions.

Yes, this news is awful. Yes, MLS has completely overstepped their boundaries. But the most cowardly part of this is US Soccer’s decision to bend to the league’s will. If they had held their ground and forced MLS’ hand, all of the first-teams would have entered into the Open Cup. But the federation doesn’t have any power to keep MLS in check. MLS can do whatever they want. Of course teams wanted to compete in this tournament. Every team wants to win as many trophies as possible. MLS knew that they could come to a compromise to keep some first teams out of the tournament. But would first team players be entirely kept out of the Open Cup?

The loan system between MLS and MLS NEXTPRO is very odd. NEXTPRO players have 4 short-term loan opportunities to the first team during the entire season. Most teams don’t field XIs populated by entirely senior players during Open Cup anyways. Let’s go back to last season. The Timbers lost 4-3 to RSL in the 4th round of the Open Cup. Yes, several first team players were in that starting lineup, but the team was heavily rotated. If “match congestion” and “load management” are actual reasons for this change, it’s a load of horseshit. However, loans from the first team to NEXTPRO teams are unlimited. Any player with a first-team contract can play with the NEXTPRO side. So we might see some first-team players suit up with the second team for Open Cup. Of course, those decisions will be made by the coaches. But it is possible that a NEXTPRO team fielding senior players makes a really deep run in the tournament. 

We know it’s a load of horseshit because of the Apple deal. With the Open Cup being broadcast on CBS Sports, MLS isn’t getting their TV revenues from it. They are testing Open Cup’s viability from a purely in-person standpoint. If people show up to the games, MLS will commit more teams to it next year. Of course, this line of thinking is entirely hypocritical. Midweek MLS games can be hard to get to for a lot of fans. Plus the league does a terrible job of marketing anything that isn’t Leagues Cup or the MLS regular season. They created these conditions that they are bemoaning. In other words, they built that wall.

The way MLS has handled this from a PR perspective has been absurd. There was no reason to publicly announce that they were planning on pulling teams from Open Cup. Just another catastrophe from the league in a year where they should be trying to keep their hands as clean as possible. USSF is probably the biggest loser from this re-worked deal. MLS just held them hostage and the federation was completely OK with it. It’s clear where the power in US Soccer lies now. Yuck.

The DC United Report

Last season under Wayne Rooney, DC United finished 10-10-14 and missed out on the playoffs by 2 points. Rooney didn’t return to Audi Field because he had more important things to do. When an American group of owners (including T** B****) completed a takeover of Birmingham City Football Club, they needed to find a manager who would be able to realize their vision. John Eustace had been in charge and had guided a new-look Blues up the table towards the playoff spots when they hosted West Bromwich Albion on October 6th. After the Baggies took an early deserved lead, a controversial penalty was awarded after Cedric Kipre got all ball on a challenge. Birmingham’s Juninho Bacuna slotted home the spot-kick, and Birmingham would score twice more to give the Blues a 3-1 lead dripped in controversy. That would be the last game that Eustace would coach for Birmingham. The club was sitting in the promotion places, but along came Mr. Rooney. It was a highly controversial appointment and the good form under Eustace immediately evaporated. Birmingham City would go on to collect only 10 points from their next 15 games and tumble down the table. After a 3-0 loss to Leeds on New Year’s Day, Rooney was sacked. When Wayne Rooney left DC United on October 7th, one day after Birmingham had won their cup final over West Brom, he knew what he had to do. It’s a more impressive feat than anything he did on the pitch. Birmingham rebounded a bit under new manager Tony Mowbray (get well soon Tony), but Rooney’s feats of heroism will not be forgotten in a long time. 

New head coach Troy Lesesne was the interim coach for the New York Red Bulls last season, and Phil Neville believes he should’ve gotten the permanent job. RBNY’s loss is DC’s gain. DC has an interesting mix of young players and proven veterans. Their DP spots are occupied by two veterans of the English Premier League: Mateusz Klich and Christian Benteke. The youngsters are Matai Akinmboni, Ted Ku-DiPietro, and Kristian Fletcher. DC just missed the playoffs last season, and do have the talent to make it into the postseason. However, the East is loaded. They opened up their season with a 3-1 win over New England. That scoreline is pretty misleading. Benteke did score a hat-trick, but New England were playing with 10 men since the 25th minute sending-off of Giacomo Vrioni. This is Lesesne’s first road game in charge of DC, so they’re hoping to build off their season-opening win. Portland has a 4-2-4 record against DC in all previous meetings, with the last meeting being a 1-0 DC victory at Providence Park in 2019. In that game, the Timbers had 67% possession, but couldn’t find an equalizer after an early Bill Tuiloma own goal.

Availability-wise, there are no changes to DC’s injury report from last week. Steven Birnbaum, Russell Canouse, and Tyler Miller are still out. Jacob Murrell and Garrison Tubbs are questionable.

No changes from the team that beat New England last weekend. DiPietro and offseason acquisition Jared Stroud should start on the wings. Both Pedro Santos and Aaron Herrera like to get forward. Winter signing Matti Peltola starts alongside Klich in the midfield. And Benteke rounds out the XI up top. This is a solid team, but the Timbers are simply better.

The Timbers Report

Heading into this past week of training, the Timbers knew that they needed to work. A 4-1 victory to open up the season wasn’t good enough in their eyes. Zac McGraw spoke about the team’s disappointment to not get James Pantemis a clean sheet on his debut. That’s the kind of stuff you love to hear. This week has been dominated by off-field noise, from DaBella to the “7-10 day” timeline Ned Grabavoy spoke about last week regarding the new DP. No news besides rumors have surfaced on the DP front, and the Timbers are taking the field in sponsorless jerseys on Saturday. In other words, the Portland Timbers are so back.

Felipe Mora is out for this game. Phil Neville said that he would be back on the training pitch as soon as his injury has healed. Evander is “50-50” for this game, so I’m going to err on the side of caution. No new injuries to report from training this week.

Tomorrow will see the debut of the new “Nature Unites” kit. The lineup, however, should remain unchanged from last weekend aside from Maxime Crepeau. After being in the stadium for last week’s win, he is ready to make his Timbers debut. With Evander still expected not to play, Eryk Williamson gets another start at the 10. Williamson is from the DMV area, so he’s set to start against his boyhood club. Dairon Asprilla will once again start up top. 

Tactical Preview

Defense

Benteke is an aerial monster. I expect either McGraw or Kamal Miller (probably Kamal) to man-mark him. Neville put it best in the pre-match press conference, when he talked about the team’s set piece preparation. “We’re not a big team, apart from Zac (McGraw)...players are going to have to be really concentrated and disciplined on set plays. There’s only one ball that’s going into the box. Regardless of your size, you just have to stop your player from scoring. The first thing you have to do is not give many free kicks away and then you’re going to have to defend less.” Well put from the manager. Set pieces are going to be a huge factor in this game due to Benteke’s ability. Outside of dead-ball scenarios, the Timbers have to improve defending on the flanks. Eric Miller was solid on the left side last week, but the right side of defense once again turned into an expressway. Juan Mosquera loves to get forward, but when the Timbers lose possession there is often acres of space down his side of the field for the opposition to attack into. In order to limit the chances Benteke has to pounce, they have to lock down the wings.

Attack

Evander is questionable, but Eryk Williamson stepped into the driver’s seat last weekend. While the defense was a question mark, the attack was electric against Colorado. I’m going to chalk that up to two things: confidence and decisiveness. The Timbers felt like they could do whatever they wanted with the ball. The quick combos were working. Antony was sprung free to run onto any ball that was played in behind. This team played with a confidence in attack that has been absent in recent years. However confident they may be, they also had to be decisive. Three shots on goal turned into three goals. There is a ton of attacking talent on this team, and each player contributed something in the final third. I’m going to highlight Dairon Asprilla again because he will get the start at striker for the second week in a row. He impressed me with his awareness and off-ball movement last weekend. If Asprilla can keep opening up space in the box while also getting on the end of crosses, he will have another excellent game. 

Final Thoughts

Both teams are entering this game off a win with a new manager. The Timbers do have home-field, and that’s always an extra boost. It’s another late kickoff for the Timbers this week (7:30 PM Pacific, NOT FREE on Apple TV). Next week, the Timbers will hit the road for the first time this season. In order to keep the confidence high, three points are necessary tomorrow. Time to keep working on killing the “slow starts to the season” narrative.

Cascadia FC's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.