The Sun Has Set

For the second consecutive season, the Portland Timbers have lost their final two games and missed the playoffs.

I only have a couple of things to say about this game. The Houston Dynamo are my favorites to win MLS Cup. No other team is playing like they are. They make every touch of the ball count and have truly found the extra gear they needed in order to prepare for a deep playoff run. Credit to their coaching staff and that group of players.

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Except for Steve Clark. Tonight, Clark showed an impressive ability to catch a wet ball and time-waste without consequence. I suggest checking his gloves for pine tar or another substance because there is no way he can actually catch wet soccer balls. Your move, disciplinary committee.

Now, onto the Timbers. Playing on the front foot is great, but you HAVE to turn the chances you create into goals. Today showed a hesitant Timbers team in the final third, often settling for worse shots or taking too much time to find an angle that was “worthy” to shoot from. Since Miles Joseph took over, they’ve improved greatly in the ability to create good scoring chances. For the second match in a row, the Timbers led on xG, but failed to turn that into actual goals. Here are some handy pictures to illustrate this.

Hello, Timbers shotmap. That’s a lot of shots from inside the penalty area. Every red dot is an off-target shot. Dear God. 

Meanwhile, the Houston Dynamo took full advantage of the few shooting chances they had. That’s what the biggest difference tonight was. The Timbers had plenty of chances and couldn’t score, but the Dynamo put theirs away. 

Now we move on to the defense. Specifically, the set pieces. Defending set pieces is all about effort and positioning. You have to WANT to beat your man and get your head on a cross. The Timbers showed the want to score and defend on set pieces, but the Dynamo just wanted it more. Defending set pieces has been a weakness for this team for FAR TOO LONG. Once again, at the most critical moment of the season, they failed at doing so. 

Now the most important offseason in the team’s MLS history begins. It starts with the head coaching position. Miles Joseph took the podium after tonight’s game with tears in his eyes. Based on the way the team has been playing since he took over, I believe he has built a serious case to get the full-time job. Of course, the Timbers didn’t make the playoffs, but there were significant improvements to the team’s structure during this time. On paper, the Timbers got results in their last two games. So where does the blame lie?

Congratulations is in order for Merritt Paulson. Since the Yates Report was released last October, the Timbers have failed to make the playoffs. This is the first time the Timbers haven’t made the playoffs in consecutive seasons since 2011/2012. That’s a decade of being consistently competitive. In 2011/2012, this team didn’t have a hope of making the postseason on Decision Day. These past two Decision Days have seen the team lose by multiple goals when a playoff spot was already in their hands. Last year’s RSL loss was far worse, in my opinion, but they took the game to a team that already won a piece of silverware in 2023 tonight. With such fine margins, it was almost like an invisible force was pushing those passes the extra yard in front of a player so it was out of reach. One quote from Ned Grabavoy stands out to me. When he spoke to the press after Giovanni Savarese was fired, he said that the talent on the team was “adequate” and he was disappointed that it hadn’t resulted in better results and performances. While I do believe the Timbers improved their squad in the summer window, there are a couple horrific contracts that are still on the books. I’m going to delve into the offseason to-do list in several different articles but to me it is clear that the Timbers missed the playoffs because of an organizational failure to keep the team aiming for the highest honors in the league. 

Nowhere was that more telling than in one category: goals conceded. The Timbers allowed 58 goals with an xG conceded of 44.6. Tonight, they allowed 0.48 xG. The Dynamo scored 3 times. It’s so strange to tout Dario Zuparic and Zac McGraw as a top-tier center back duo when the backline is conceding this much, but they are one of the best partnerships in the league. The goalkeeping position was a lot less settled than previously thought, and now the Timbers are entering the offseason with a ton of different choices to make. After the game ended, Zac McGraw left the stadium in a dress shirt and a nice pair of pants. He walked to the corner of 20th and Morrison, crossed the street in front of my car, and vanished into the night. All of his excellence this season has been rewarded with an extended offseason which he does not want to have. 

There is a chance that Sebastian Blanco has walked off the Providence Park pitch for the last time. Same with Larrys Mabiala. Both players have been here since 2017, and have authored their own stories in Timbers history. No final decisions have been made regarding either of them, but deep down I hope they took in all the love that the fans have for both of them since they came to Portland. It wasn’t the ending they were hoping for, but they both can be proud of their accomplishments in the Rose City. If this is goodbye, thank you both for your tireless hard work on and off the pitch in Portland.

Diego Chara took to the podium and spoke about the emergence of the young players this season. He highlighted McGraw and Santiago Moreno specifically, and he’s absolutely right to. Both of them weren’t perfect tonight, but they put in all the required effort to get this team into the playoffs. That’s going to be the theme of the offseason: the young talent paired with the steady veterans and the additions that will be needed to get this team into title contention again. Tonight, there was no sun. A steady drizzle filled Providence Park from kickoff until long after the final whistle. Can a season truly be lost without a playoff berth? I can definitely count the 2022 season as lost because the season that followed it had the same result. Diego Chara has been here since the beginning of the Timbers’ MLS journey. He’s seen all the highs and lows and now he’s an MLS legend tasked with leading this team into the next era. He’s ready for the challenge.

This locker room is not going to take the events of 2023 to heart. The common word in the press conference was “disappointment.” Working on those fine margins will be the difference between the 1 point they needed to make the playoffs this season. Now we enter the offseason and all that comes with it. The journey continues, with no tangible destination in mind.

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