Tag: santi moreno

After a 2-3 defeat at LAFC, the Portland Timbers faced off against MLS’s newest expansion side, St. Louis City SC. The Missouri side came into the game undefeated, with victories over Austin FC and Charlotte FC.

In a game the Timbers could have won, they were left with no points and a home defeat. The injury list continues to pile up and their identity continues to be a mystery.

With the Timbers bringing a makeshift lineup into the game, there were a lot of questions and concerns. Still, they saw the return of Claudio Bravo and the first start for Nathan Fogaça in 2023.

One of the biggest question marks is the identity of this Timbers side: Who are they? Unfortunately for Portland, St. Louis knew the answer.

St. Louis has capitalized on mistakes early this season, and this game was no different. Their side is physical, tough, and opportunistic. As a result of their ability to grit out results, they’re currently the only 3-0-0 team in MLS.

St Louis City head coach Bradley Carnell said the club has spent preseason trying to prepare their players for MLS. “We played a very competitive opponents in pre-season,” he said. “We’ve been committed to a style of play for over a year now. We’ve had a very committed group of guys and this style of play is not easy. It demands a lot of commitment, not just to the philosophy but to each other as a teammate.”

The takeaways were plentiful, but I broke it down into a few.

🚨 The XI is in 🚨

▪️ Bravo returns 🇦🇷
▪️ Nathan leads the attack 💥
▪️ Paredes' first start of '23 💪 #RCTID pic.twitter.com/Z7EE79AcWA

— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) March 12, 2023

Injuries and Officiating

With Evander less than 100%, Portland opted to insert Cristhian Paredes in the game. Sadly, that plan quickly went awry, as the Timbers were forced to make a change in the 11th minute, with Evander coming in for Paredes.

Timbers head coach Gio Savarese said the team was “very unlucky” in terms of injuries. “We felt maybe that we still had our group to put a fight, and all of a sudden this first sprint [Paredes] gets injured,” Savarese said. He said this is the team’s second hamstring injury—the previous being to Yimmi Chará—though he is optimistic that Paredes’ is less severe.

“And then we have this situation with Evander during the week,” Savarese said. “He couldn’t train, and then we were able to make it to the game. In the game, he was feeling a little bit of groin tightness, and we didn’t want to risk in any way to get another injured player.” Saverese said the move to sub Evander out in the 69th minute was a reflection of that precaution.

“We’re very thin,” he said, “but we still have to continue to work a good fight.”

The officiating allowed physical play throughout the game without much repercussion. In a game with five yellow cards, head official Victor Rivas could have set the tone way earlier. Portland was very fortunate to not have more injuries.

St. Louis won 61.6% of duels, while the Timbers only won 38.7%. To make matters even worse, the Timbers only had nine tackles with four won, compared to St. Louis’ 29 and 17 won.

Fogaça for Niezgoda 

Fogaça has provided a much-needed spark in the Timbers’ attack in each opportunity he’s received this season. He continues to have an insane work rate and relentlessness that is unmatched by any other Timber on the frontline.

Fogaça allows the Timbers to play their press higher up and consistently throughout the game, but he also has the ability to open lanes in the counterattack. This was evident early in Saturday’s match, when Fogaça almost put one away in the second minute.

The Timbers have not been able to find their trademark counterattacking this season, and it showed again this game. If they are going to sit back and counter, it has to be way better.

Fogaça should be the starter moving forward, unless another option presents. He gives them the best chance to win right now.

Jarosław Niezgoda could very well regain his finishing form, but it needs to come soon; unfortunately for Portland, he has not looked like himself this season.

Just before PTFC conceded the second, they were breaking 4v4 and Niezgoda had Mosquera running outside of him. Instead of playing that simple ball to JDM that would’ve forced StL to break open, he played a hopeless and pointless ball into the middle that killed the break. #RCTID

— Chris Rifer (@ChrisRifer) March 12, 2023

CB1 and FB1: Zac McGraw and Juan Mosquera

Going into the year, the Timbers’ backline was a question mark, with Juan David Mosquera and Zac McGraw being two notable exceptions. Mosquera and McGraw continue to be the two bright spots on the team.

Against St. Louis, McGraw scored his second ever goal in third minute off a beautiful corner kick by Eryk Williamson, and Mosquera routinely created chances and dominated the right side of the pitch.

An early goal for @TimbersFC.

Eryk Williamson and Zac McGraw connect from the corner kick in the opening minutes. #RCTID pic.twitter.com/L1TL9o7UPK

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 12, 2023

Backline Changes and More of the Same

After Timbers rolled out a traditional four-back for the first two games, Savarese threw a changeup to St. Louis in the form of five defenders. The new formation allows the Timbers to maximize their attacking fullbacks in Bravo and Mosquera.

By replacing an attacker in the starting XI, the Timbers were also able to add veteran Larrys Mabiala as the third center back.

What does this formation not solve? Their set piece defending. In the 75th minute, the Portland Timbers surrendered another one, conceding their second goal of the match. If this team wants to finish in the top half of the table, this needs to be cleaned up.

Still, we must give credit to St. Louis; they played this game on their terms and made sure the Timbers were particularly ineffective coming forward.

Missing: Portland Timbers

What is this team’s identity? Where is the counterattack? Where are the dynamic runs? Where is the creativity?

Whatever product the Timbers are putting out on the pitch right now is not good enough, and there’s absolutely no rhythm to it. Portland has a lot of soul searching to do before the results start pouring in.

They can’t move forward until these questions are solved.

Standouts

Zac McGraw Opened his scoring account for 2023 and has been the best CB for Portland.

Juan David Mosquera continues to be excellent moving forward and helping on defense. As always, he was dominating the right side of the pitch and even paced the team with four chances created.

Santi Moreno led the team in four shots, with one shot on goal, and two tackles.

Bonus Stat

On a positive note, Portland has somehow continued to find the back of the net consistently:

23 – @TimbersFC have scored in 23 consecutive matches, the longest active streak in MLS and the longest in club history. Standard. pic.twitter.com/J9BEoq5SqZ

— OptaJack⚽️ (@OptaJack) March 12, 2023