Well, that was an interesting home opener, wasn’t it?
I was stuck in the middle of Central Florida on a field trip
with my class last Saturday, so I couldn’t enjoy the game in live time with you
all, so I turned off my Twitter notifications, shut off text messages, and went
to sleep. Sunday morning, I watched the game via MLS Live in the car on the way
to our airboat tour. (Thankfully I had a little extra data to use this month so
I didn’t run out.) While watching on a 3.5” screen in the back of a bumpy van
with dodgy service on a bright Florida morning made the viewing difficult, I
managed to pick up on a few trends that occurred throughout the 90 minutes.
Overall, the Timbers impressed me. I didn’t finish the game
in the butthurt mood I usually do after a draw or loss. In fact, I was quite
happy with the result. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any plays that had
me punching the car seat in frustration.
I’ll start by addressing Nagbe’s form in this game – what an
improvement it was. There’s a reason he was voted Taco Bell McDonald’s Man
of the Match.
While Nagbe didn’t take many shots, and most of them were
blocked (or stolen…I’m looking at you, RodWall!), he was more eager to get
forward into the space between Beckerman and the centerbacks. Nagbe was taking
on 4-5 guys at once, beating people up the sideline, and starting counter
attacks. It seemed as though his 2014 tendency of receiving a ball, doing a
180, and passing it backward or laying it off for an overlap was gone. He also
got in the faces of a few players, which made me happy.
(Nagbe tells Gil to back the fuck up)
I’m still concerned about Nagbe’s defending, as he was often
further up field than the holding mids for RSL and I caught him walking back
far too often. It’s easy to see why fans and coaches like Asprilla for the
right wing position – his work on defense is great. But if Nagbe can continue
to get into those tight spaces and free up Wallace, Adi, and Asprilla, we’ll
see a few more goals and assists out of him than we did last year.
Nagbe was voted the MOTM, but for all that he did on offense
to earn that honor, Fochive did just as much on defense. I’ll admit that I
didn’t know a whole lot about George before this preseason after only seeing
him in limited minutes throughout the summer, but he truly impressed on
Saturday. He was everything we adore about Chara, minus the diving in for
tackles, which is what impressed me the most.
One instance in the 2nd half stood out in
particular. In the 54th minute, RSL looked to play the ball up
through the midfield, with the ball reaching Gil just north of the half-line.
Fochive took a quick glance of his surroundings and noticed Jewsbury behind him
and Villafaña
retreating on the sideline. He almost started forward, but stopped and
contained Gil’s run, making sure he stayed wide. The instant Gil took his
second touch, which was too long for him to reach, Fochive pounced and cleared
the ball. He patiently waited for RSL to make the first move on several tackles
throughout the night, showing great awareness of his surroundings and knowledge
of when to make the tackle.
Aside from Nagbe and Fochive, the Ridgewell-Borchers
partnership had a complete performance, as did Captain Jack and “Spree”, as
Clon refers to him. Kwarasey was good in his distribution, with some
awkwardly-thrown-but-still-very-effective balls. Borchers could do well to
limit his long air balls to Adi, which will almost never be effective. It’s not
clear why Porter insists on playing Adi in the air, as he is much better with
the ball at his feet being a hold-up man than he is at winning headers. Chad Marshall
bossed Adi for the back-to-back games last summer, and Olave got the better of
him on Saturday.
Two guys that could have done better were Wallace and
Powell. Wallace missed an easy chance on the corner kick that fell to him in
the middle of the goal box, and he wasted an opportunity in the 59th
minute by blasting it right at Rimando from a tough angle instead of squaring
it to Adi in the middle. Powell also had trouble when he attacked down the
right side. His run in the 88th minute after cleverly beating two
RSL defenders ended up in a goal kick instead of a cross, and his cross
straight to Rimando in the 51st minute needed to be much better.
Aside from a few sloppy crosses and poor shooting choices,
the Timbers played a decent game of football. The patchwork partnership of Jack
and George worked amazingly well against Gil and Morales, and Ridgy and
Borchers managed to keep Saborio quiet, much to the dismay of my Fantasy team.
The Trimmies probably suffered from Urruti’s substitution coming too late, and
I’m not alone in thinking that it should have come around the same time
Fernandez was put on. Nagbe looked great, but needs to release the ball a bit
quicker at times, and Wallace needs to avoid clogging Nagbe’s space. If the
Timbers can start playing Adi on his feet, and the centerbacks can keep their
marks, they should do well against the Galaxy. A tricky Zardes versus an
aggressive Powell worries me, but I could say that about almost any team in the
league. (We’re lucky Plata is injured, right?)
I’m off to Tampa to visit some breweries and hang out at
Busch Gardens. But don’t worry, I’ll be back by 7pm on Sunday. See you bums
then.
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