Tag: Diego Valeri
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The Portland Timbers are going to the MLS is Back Tournament Final after taking down the Philadelphia Union 2-1 in a battle of the set-pieces.
After a narrow escape against FC Cincinnati on Tuesday, the Portland Timbers looked set for another nail-biting match in the MLS is Back Tournament quarterfinals after going down 1-0 early.
In a battle between two teams looking to outlast their opponent, wear them down, and catch them off balance, the Portland Timbers were the team still standing after 90 grueling minutes against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday night. In their second game of the MLS is Back Tournament group stage, the Timbers looked in control for most of the match as they fought their way to a 2-1 victory.
Although the Dynamo went down a man in the final minutes of the match after Alberth Elis picked up his second yellow card of the night, it was the Timbers’ ability to take their chances that played a deciding role in the match. Inch-perfect finishes from Jeremy Ebobisse in the 35th minute and Diego Valeri in the 61st minute put the Timbers up 2-0, giving the side the breathing room needed to see out the match.
Before his sending off, Elis did manage to pull one back for the Dynamo, earning a penalty kick in the 86th minute after putting a header off the hand of Jorge Villafana — who had an otherwise excellent game — and then stepping up to convert the spot-kick past Steve Clark to pull the Dynamo back within one with minutes left in the match.
In the heat and humidity of the Orlando summer, a major factor in the match against the Dynamo seemed to be the fresh legs of the Timbers’ substitutes.
Giovanni Savarese went to his bench early on Saturday, bringing on Andy Polo for Yimmi Chara in the 60th minute. He then made two more subs in the 69th minute, bringing on Marvin Loria and Jaroslaw Niezgoda for Eryk Williamson and Jeremy Ebobisse. Finally, Savarese capped off the night by bringing on Chris Duvall for Pablo Bonilla in the 82nd minute after the youngster absorbed his third hard foul of the night.
The Dynamo, on the other hand, made one sub in the 62nd minute, one in the 87th, and two in the 88th.
As a result of Savarese’s aggressive use of subs, the Timbers looked markedly fresher than their opponents during the second half even after having played with a man down for a big chunk of last Friday’s win over the LA Galaxy. With the Dynamo flagging, the Timbers subs were able to make a real impact on the match, quickly breaking up Dynamo attempts to get forward and winning the fifty-fifty balls that might otherwise have given Houston a chance to get back in the game.
Despite being subbed off late in the match, Saturday was a successful first-team debut for Bonilla who got the start over Chris Duvall at right-back, being granted the privilege of matching up against the Dynamo’s vaunted attacking trio: Alberth Elis, Darwin Quintero, and Mauro Manotas. Bonilla, a Venezuelan youth international signed from T2 exactly one month ago, was introduced to the MLS life by the Dynamo when in just the 7th minute he took a cleat to the thigh from Houston midfielder Maynor Figueroa.
Despite the rough treatment by the opposition, Bonilla acquitted himself well in the first half, providing solid coverage down the right flank and acting as an outlet for Yimmi Chara on his regular runs forward. In the second half the youngster continued his strong outing, getting further forward down the pitch as well as providing several clutch tackles when the Dynamo got forward on the Timbers’ right.
Most interesting was Bonilla’s play with Marvin Loria after the Costa Rican 23-year-old came on as a substitute early in the second half. After spending the pre-suspension preseason together with T2, Bonilla and Loria had clear chemistry playing together on the wing and combined for a strong chance on goal that Loria ultimately had blocked by a defender as he got his shot away.
The win against the Dynamo guarantees that the Timbers will reach the knockout rounds of the MLSIBT and leaves the Timbers with a final group match against LAFC next Thursday that will at most affect the Timbers’ seed coming out of the group stage.
How the Timbers treat this match will tell us much about how they view this tournament and how they view the possibility of playing out the remainder of the season. These group stage games count as part of the 2020 MLS regular season, so it will be interesting to see if the Timbers view this last group stage match as a chance to get minutes to players that have mostly served as subs like Niezgoda or Andy Polo, to bring in some youngsters like Blake Bodily or Marco Farfan who have yet to see the pitch, or just another game to run out the regular starting XI, tournament be damned.
Forty-one days into their 2018 regular season, the Portland Timbers played their first home game. In 2019, that number more than doubled to 91 days. Fortunately for Timbers supporters, the wait wasn’t nearly as long this season.
The Timbers kicked off their 2020 campaign at home for the first time since 2017—a match in which they defeated Minnesota United 5-1. This time around, the result wasn’t nearly as convincing; the Timbers fell to the Loons 3-1, allowing two late goals and picking up their first-ever home defeat to Minnesota in the process.
“It was an exciting moment for us to play at home, to be here,” head coach Giovanni Savarese said. “I think maybe we took it for granted. I think it’s something that I can think of because we were very excited for this match, to make sure we got a good result.
“We didn’t want to start the season like this. It’s unfortunate because we showed an incredible first half. Very dominant in so many ways. We put in place the things that we wanted to see. Ultimately, the result is the real value of what happened in the match. Even though we did many good things in the first half, we didn’t capitalize.”
Unlike the past few seasons, the Timbers’ home opener wasn’t marked by a circled date on a calendar a third of the way through the regular season. There was no need to find the nearest bar playing the game, and there were no different time zones to keep track of. Even the cool air felt nice, signaling the start of another season in the Pacific Northwest.
But all of those factors couldn’t prevent the Timbers from starting their season bereft of those vital three points. A year ago, Portland struggled to find any sort of early result on the road. It took until the seventh game to take home all three points, thanks to a 3-1 win in Columbus.
This time, as day turned to night on the first day of March, it was supporters in green and gold that filled the North End, unveiling a tifo that read “The Legends of Goose Hollow.”
“It’s amazing,” Diego Valeri said when asked about playing at home in March. “Obviously we have to work harder to give happiness to our crowd, but it’s always special.”
The Timbers looked solid and energized throughout the first half. The team strung together a couple of good moments in transition, dominated possession in the attacking third, and even garnered a penalty-shout by the fifth minute. The quality of play was a tad sloppy and left something to be desired, but that’s something to be expected for an opening game.
At times, Portland played with too much confidence, sending eight players forward into the attack. It was in those moments that the Timbers were caught out in the second half. They paid the price late in the game, conceding a pair of goals just two minutes apart.
“Those moments, we need to be in control the way we did in the first half,” Savarese said. “It was unfortunate because, as I said, the team did very, very well. In the second half, unfortunately, we allowed those moments and then the game changed completely because now when you have to go and search the game and look for the game you open yourself to the situations we saw in the second half.”
Once Kevin Molino scored the opening goal for the Loons, the floodgates opened. Just five minutes after Molino found the back of the net, Valeri scored the first Timbers’ goal at Providence Park this regular season on a 56’ penalty.
“It’s always special,” the Argentinian said about scoring at home. “It was a big responsibility taking the PK because it was an important moment of the game. Happy to have that moment. It’s always special for me to score in front of our crowd, but sadly it didn’t work to win the game and that’s the most important for me.”
While the Timbers looked to regain confidence after the goal, the penalty wasn’t enough; Minnesota were still able to put the game away.
With the Timbers’ schedule relatively back to normal, players will no longer have to worry about home-heavy or road-heavy stretches. Games are more evenly spaced out this year, both home and away. Portland will host Nashville SC next Sunday before traveling for a manageable road trip against the New England Revolution and Los Angeles FC. With fewer late-season midweek turns, the team could be more rested down the always-pivotal final stretch.
“In MLS it is very even, very competitive,” Valeri said. “We have to keep working to build as a team and to be stronger. To make the results, at home most likely, but we’ll see if the schedule helps us to be more consistent in what we want, which is to be higher in the table and make the playoffs.”
While Portland may not reap the benefits of playing such a home-heavy schedule down the stretch ever again, maybe the variety is for the best. The Timbers didn’t get the result they hoped for on opening night, but they all agreed that it was nice getting to start the regular season at home.
“I think it’s always great to play at Providence Park,” Diego Chara said. “Unfortunately, today wasn’t a good result, but it’s a great feeling, and now we have to be better for the next game.”
Lately, I’ve been feeling like 2020 might actually be kind of cool and that weird sense of optimism has extended to my thoughts about the Timbers. So after watching the preseason tournament and then actually thinking about the things that I saw, I’ve put together a few points that I predict will be true about the Timbers this year.
Eryk Williamson will have a breakout year
This dude is just so good, I literally could not keep my jaw off the floor while watching him in the preseason. He’s silky on the ball, his passing is incisive, and he’s pretty good at knowing where to stand, too. With
Tomás Conechny playing more of his minutes out on the wing these days, it seems like Williamson is poised to get a healthy number of minutes as the third (or maybe second, depending on where
Sebastián Blanco is playing) No. 10 in the depth chart. And that’s in part because…
Diego Valeri will play a reduced role
Don’t get me wrong. Valeri is still an incredible player and an 8 goal, 16 assist 2019 season is nothing to scoff at. That said, Valeri also showed some major signs of slowing down last year, and unfortunately for Portland; time’s arrow neither stands still nor reverses, it merely marches forward. Combine what will likely be a physical need to play fewer minutes with no longer being on a designated player contract and it’s not a stretch of the imagination to envision a Valeri that plays closer to 2000 minutes in 2020 than the 2600 minutes he played in 2019. With that in mind…
We’ll see a flat 4-4-2 more than we had
When Diego Valeri is on the field, it’s basically mandatory to play a shape that utilizes a true No. 10. That’s (one reason) why it has made sense for the Timbers to play a diamond midfield when they’ve wanted two strikers on the pitch over the last couple of years. But, as mentioned above, there will almost certainly be times this year where that is not the case.
What the Timbers do have this year is two DP wingers, one DP striker, and two other good to very good strikers. So, imagine a flat 4-4-2 formation with Ebobisse’s hold-up play filling the creative role in the center of the park, and Niezgoda, Blanco, and Y. Chara all running off of him. If I was an opposing defender, that thought might just keep me up at night.
The Timbers will have their best March ever
Everyone knows the Timbers are always bad in March (with the notable exception of 2017 (see below)). In fact, across all MLS regular season matches played in March, the Timbers average an abysmal .85 points per game. It (somehow) gets even worse if we look specifically at the Savarese era, as Gio has only managed to pick up three points in eight March games. That’s .38 points per game.
- 2019: 0-3-1 (1 pt)
- 2018: 0-2-2 (2 pts)
- 2017: 3-1-0 (9 pts)
- 2016: 1-1-1 (4 pts)
- 2015: 0-1-3 (3 pts)
- 2014: 0-2-3 (3 pts)
- 2013: 0-1-3 (3 pts)
- 2012: 1-2-1 (4 pts)
- 2011: 0-2-0 (0 pts)
But this year, I think, will be different. This may be a bold claim, because admittedly, what we saw defensively over the last two preseason matches was, well, not good. However, we also saw a hungry, attacking mentality, and I have a feeling that this team is going to want to make up for the lackluster finish to 2019. The Timbers have five matches this March: Minnesota(Home), Nashville (H), New England(Away), LAFC(A), and Philadelphia(H). My money’s on ten points out of that slate.