Monday, April 9, 2012

Portland Timbers shrivel against Chivas

I can't make sense of last night's match.  The first half seemed fine for the most part.  Boyd's poise at the moment the opportunistic bounce came his way for the opening goal suggested that the full eleven had that steely-eyed view of how to pick Chivas apart and spread the remains to the wind.  But that was a mistake.  
I thought Nagbe, Songo'o, Alexandar were dangerous but there were moments of horror. On the good side Nagbe ran right at the defense and gave them heart palpitations. Elsewise,  Wallace missed a tackle at about the 30th minute allowing his many a free run and cross down the side.   The resulting shot just passed the far corner of the goal.  But at the same time, Wallace broke up several attacks with a deftly placed foot.  The second half began with an onslaught of intersecting runs toward our goal from Chivas.  The  red and white strip  came out of the locker room like crusaders of old.   Their energy, accurate passing, movement off the ball combined to apparently unnerve the Timbers and the early tie goal accelerated Portland's angst. 
Lovell Palmer was mentioned in the print media as getting beat by his mark more than once.  Brunner was not able to stop his mark from scoring on an accurate cross.  And the second goal, not Brunner's mistake,  was also the result of a pinpoint cross.  Not that another keeper might have reacted differently,  but I thought Perkins was caught flatfooted on the the second goal.  More importantly,  our crew made errant passes and as anxiety set in the attack devolved to long 'hopeful' balls.  I think Boyd is a ferociously aggressive player.  He was trolling back last night to the fifty to try to win the ball.  A large number of balls played up to him were only within ten yards or so  of  Boyd.  Nothing much he could make of those.  And a fair number were long and high lobs that took Boyd far out of the danger zone to try to collect and redirect.   
Shades of Kenny Cooper!   The fact is that we want Boyd to be swimming in the rarified sea around the penalty arc where a ball on his foot creates a high percentage chance.  And there's too much time when we're not using him that way.  the forty yard lob to someone's head isn't a great attacking strategy-- unless it's part of a mix of attacking choices.   The Timbers didn't show much versatility in picking the Chivas defense apart and making them come unglued after the first half.   The hard-nosed runs at the defense were not continued.   
The smell of fear was in the air.   And while I think we have excellent players across most of the roster,  I think they need to believe that we have excellent players across the roster.   I believe that Jean-Baptiste did as well as he could but it will help to have Hansard back in the lineup.  I was glad to see Mike Chabala back on the outside defense.  But it was Palmer's side that was most vulnerable.
I have a hard time believing that this crew is so psychologically vulnerable that they are going to fall apart in a match just because they give up a goal or have some bad calls.  That would suggest that we haven't factored coldhearted professionalism into our calculations.   On the flip side,  the Timbers have made a clear effort to recruit and cultivate very young players of promise.   A good initiative I'd say. But one that also takes time to bring to fruition.


Looking forward to seeing how the crew tighten their belts and decide to step up.

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