If you were to judge the Portland Timbers’ game against the Los Angeles Galaxy on off-the-field storylines, then Wednesday night was a good one for the team in green and gold.
Diego Valeri again etched his name into the MLS history book, becoming just the third player in league history to score at least 80 goals and contribute 80 assists when he put the ball past David Bingham in second half stoppage time.
Goalkeeper Jeff Attinella made his long-awaited return after recovering from shoulder surgery — and he got to do it at Providence Park.
Head coach, Giovanni Savarese, played a heavily rotated lineup for the midweek game, giving younger players the opportunity to play MLS minutes.
But once you pivot to on-the-field performance, it’s the same old story for the Timbers.
The defense—one that has given up ten goals in just three games since the MLS regular season restart—looked shaky at the best of times. A Galaxy team that the had Timbers comfortably dispatched in Orlando presented plenty of new issues, even sans-Chicharito. Cristian Pavón ran rampant down the left wing and was a handful for the Timbers’ young outside backs.
By the time the final whistle blew, the scoreline read: Galaxy 3, Timbers 2. Portland is now just 1-3-1 at Providence Park this season, and it doesn’t get easier from here as they travel to Seattle for a rematch against the Sounders on Sunday.
A young starting eleven
It wasn’t long after Portland released their starting lineup that fans started to take notice of the different names: Valeri, Eryk Williamson, Sebastián Blanco, and Diego Chará started on the bench in favor of Renzo Zambrano, Tomás Conechny, Pablo Bonilla, and Marco Farfan.
The logic behind the decision was sound. With an important game approaching in a matter of days, Savarese wants his team to be well rested. Additionally, this gave younger players the opportunity to earn more playing time.
It was easy to tell early on that last night’s starting XI was a lineup that hadn’t played together very often. The Galaxy midfield dominated much of the early game, and their press often forced the young defenders to play more direct out of the back. While the Timbers eventually grew into the game, there were still shaky moments in the first half.
“I think the team in the first half created some good chances,” Valeri said. “Obviously you need more minutes to understand each other, but even in the defense and the attack, the team had the game there in the second half.”
Zambrano started alongside Cristhian Paredes in defensive midfield and showcased both the good and the bad. There were times where he looked rushed in midfield and turned the ball over, but there were also moments (as shown below) where he won the ball back at the top of the Timbers’ box.
Conechny had a few solid moments, but was mostly anonymous on the right wing, while Pablo Bonilla completed just 38-percent of his passes in the first half and was caught out of position on defense a few times.
Nonetheless, each player showed flashes of their potential against the Galaxy and grew into the game as the first half wore on.
“The young guys that came in did a very good job, the majority of them,” Savarese said.” “Some definitely showed some moments where they can do some things a little better, but overall a very good performance, and I have to say that I am proud of the way the guys came in and used their minutes.”
“Just to give that first group a shoutout, I thought that they played very well,” Attinella added. “It’s a group that not a lot of people know the names of outside of our organization recognize, but it is a group that puts in a lot of work, and this is an opportunity for all of us that were on the field tonight to get rewarded for that.”
A deeper role for Loria?
Another player that benefited from the rotated lineup was Marvin Loria.
Often played on the wing where he can cut in and fire a shot at the top of the box, Loria took on more of a deeper midfield role against the Galaxy.
Whenever he plays out wide, there are moments in which it looks like Loria is less involved in the game; however, the deeper role allowed the Costa Rican to control the game’s tempo at times. Instead of relying on an outlet from a teammate, he constantly picked up the ball near the top of his own box and dribbled it into the attacking third.
“He tried to find those [open] spaces because of the pressure of the LA Galaxy,” Savarese said. “We had Loria sometimes coming into the middle to try and find the ball there, but also in some moments—as we told him in the second half—he needed to make the runs in behind the fullback to find more of the space going forward.”
On defense, Loria seemed to be everywhere. There were moments where he helped Bonilla deal with Pavón on the left flank, but also times where he helped his front line out with pressing. Below is an example of him defending in the deep corner of the field:
As the night went on, the Timbers looked for Loria to make a specific movement to help the team open up the game, and as the game progressed he was able to find different ways to use his movement to exploit the Galaxy defense.
“In the first half, he couldn’t find that space inside that we wanted him to find,” Savarese said. “Nevertheless, he had a good performance and had very good moments.”
Second-half substitutions
As the veterans began to trickle into the game, it was easy to sense their immediate impact. When Blanco, Williamson, and Jeremy Ebobisse came in, the Timbers started to play with a greater sense of ease.
Inserting Williamson into the midfield helped Portland regain control of the middle of the field. There’s something about watching him ping a perfect ball across the field to switch play that almost feels natural.
When Yimmi Chará checked in later, he quickly found the back of the net, but it was called offside. Ebobisse scored late in the second half, but that was (more controversially) waived back as well. Valeri came on late in the game with fresh legs and found a goal in stoppage time.
Savarese had a wealth of options available to him as the second half wore on, and while it didn’t win him the game, it did show just how much talent the Timbers have in their starters.
Welcome back, Jeff!
I usually try to keep these day-after articles to three main points, but it was nice to see Attinella back on the field again tonight.
After enduring months of rehab for a shoulder surgery, Attinella was finally cleared to return to full activity the day that MLS shut down due to COVID-19.
On Wednesday night, he was tested early and often, whether it be clawing a shot out of the net or punching a corner away. With his wife, daughter, and infant son on hand at Providence Park to witness his first game back, Attinella called it one of the best moments of his career.
Regardless of what happens in the future, Attinella said that he will be ready whenever he is called upon.
“I mean, I’ve learned with Gio—and this is my third season now—that he manages every game differently,” Attinella said. “And I know that if you’re putting the work in and you know what you are doing, you have the chance to get your number called.”
For the first time since Orlando, the Timbers will play a game on the road. Just two weeks after losing to the Sounders at home, they will travel to CenturyLink Field to try and exact revenge on their Cascadia rivals.
Portland is showing something new in every game, but there is still plenty that needs tweaking if they want to snap out of this cold spell. Maybe a quick change of scenery is all that they need.
“I will say that the positive side of this game was the reaction of the team,” Valeri said. We almost got a point, and that’s it. We have to move forward, scout the game a little better, and prepare for the next game in Seattle.”