Rose City Review
The Portland Timbers grabbed their fifth win in a row on Sunday night, taking down the San Jose Earthquakes 3-0 at Providence Park. Snapping the Quakes’ three-game winning streak was enough for the Timbers to maintain control of second place in the West and move even on points with the Seattle Sounders once again—after their Cascadian rivals stumbled against LAFC earlier in the night.
It looked like the Timbers were well on their way to a 1-0 win over a bunkered in FC Cincinnati side Tuesday evening when, out of nowhere, goalkeeper Steve Clark made things interesting…
After four months without a match, the Portland Timbers returned to play last night in the MLS is Back Tournament. Before the opening whistle, cameras at the ESPN Wide World of Sports caught Diego Valeri in a smiling conversation with an LA Galaxy player.
Moments later, the Maestro and every other player on the pitch were kneeling in silence.
And moments after that, the whistle blew and the Timbers were once again playing soccer.
Despite a 75th minute red card to center back Dario Župarić, the Timbers were able to snatch all three points in Monday night’s up and down affair against the Galaxy––taking down the Californian side 2-1 in their first action since the suspension of the MLS season back in March. The match itself played out in four phases:
It was that third phase that gave us the most exciting moments to hold on to when the Timbers opened the scoring in the 59th minute and quickly followed that up with a second goal in the 66th.
The first goal was a pure distillation of this Timbers side. Yimmi Chará started the moment with an impressive snap header on goal off a cross that looked over-hit, forcing David Bingham to palm the ball away with a quick reaction save. Then Diego Valeri and Sebastián Blanco combined brilliantly as the Maestro received the ball at the top of the Galaxy box and patiently picked out a long, curving run from Blanco in behind the Galaxy back line. And, finally, Blanco was able to turn on the ball and pick out Jeremy Ebobisse in front of goal, threading a pass through a handful of defenders for Ebobisse to knock home despite a defender firmly attached to his back.
The second goal was simply down to the sheer cussedness of Blanco. After a shot from Ebobisse was deflected off his foot and sent looping away from goal, it seemed certain that the Timbers attack was broken and the Galaxy would have a chance to clear. As the ball fell back to earth out on the wing, however, Blanco refused to let it die. Rushing forward, he got a head to the ball, catching a defender unaware and skillfully touching it toward goal where another Galaxy defender was waiting to make the tackle. Instead, Blanco was able to somehow push the ball through that second defender and into space in front of the Galaxy goal where he wrapped up the move by hamming home a shot from close range that left Bingham waving hopelessly at the ball as it flew by.
While Blanco and the Timbers attack grabbed the win for the side, the defense nearly gave the game away on two occasions before clamping down and securing the three points for the side.
In the 11th minute, on one of the first attacking moves from the Galaxy as they tried to escape a protracted period of possession from the Timbers, a deflected ball fell to Cristian Pavón twenty yards from goal. Approaching the top of the box, the Galaxy No. 10 let loose a shot that flew directly into the torso of Župarić, clattering off his arms and immediately drawing a whistle and a yellow card from referee Ramy Touchan.
Chicharito Hernández stepped up to the spot and, with Timbers hearts sinking, struck his attempt on goal. Steve Clark, however, had other ideas and, reading the Mexican international legend’s run up, dove the correct direction and stopped his shot. Then, scrambling, Clark did the splits to stop the follow-up from Sacha Kljestan before diving on the ball to end the Galaxy hopes of an easy opener.
Although he was bailed out by Clark, that yellow card would come back to haunt Župarić in the 75th minute when he took down Pavón just outside the Timbers box, prompting an easy second yellow from Touchan and leaving the Timbers down a man for the rest of the game.
While the Galaxy would eventually find the back of the net in the 88th minute when Chicharito momentarily showed off some of the predatory instincts that made him such an effective player throughout his career, they were stymied time after time by the Timbers backline stepping up for an offside trap or swarming the ball to take advantage of a loose touch, or simply knocking away cross after cross that the Galaxy sent hopefully into the box.
With just over 12 minutes gone in the Portland Timbers second game of the 2020 MLS season, Diego Valeri took a step back, turned, and struck a bouncing ball past Nashville SC goalkeeper, Joe Willis, on a half-volley. 1-0 Timbers. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, that individual moment of brilliance would be the last Timbers goal for over three months.
In just over a month, the Timbers will take the field once again, but this time there will be no green and gold smoke or victory log slices. In fact, it will not be anywhere close to the Pacific Northwest.
Instead, the Timbers and other teams from around North America will be leaving their home markets to converge in Orlando, Florida for a tournament that would never have happened in a pre-COVID world. What will that tournament look like with no fans in the stands, no supporters groups, and no tifos? Well, nobody knows for sure.
It wasn’t long ago that many people within the league believed returning to play soccer in the first place would be impossible. Now, optimism is growing as additional information about COVID-19 becomes known. After nearly three months of archived games, streamed FIFA competitions, and too many organizational Mount Rushmores to count, the league is beginning to plan its path forward.
Despite many recent positive developments, it has not always been smooth sailing. Just a few days ago things looked choppy when multiple reports surfaced that the Players Association and the league were still at an impasse, held up by details like the language of a new force majeure clause and shared media revenue.
These talks came to a head over the weekend when ESPN’s Hérculez Gómez reported that the league threatened a lockout if the two sides couldn’t reach a deal in the coming days. On Wednesday morning, MLS commissioner Don Garber spoke to national media via Zoom about the labor agreement and said that this has been one of the few times in the history of the league that a severe measure, such as a lockout, has been considered.
“As leader of this league, I believe that [threatening a lockout] was important to do to reach an agreement,” Garber said. “At the end of the day, if we didn’t believe we were advocating for what was crucial for the success and the future of the league, I certainly wouldn’t have gone down that path.”
In addition to outside reporting, Garber admitted that there were four to five points that the two sides had to agree on, citing both the force majeure clause and shared media revenue as points of emphasis.
From the players’ perspective, Portland Timbers goalkeeper Steve Clark said that many players knew that lockout threats were a part of difficult labor negotiations—although he fully expected that both sides would finally reach an agreement.
“Negotiations are always tense,” Clark told local media via Zoom. “Overall, you have two sides that wanted to play soccer. We both had competing ideas and we wanted to take care of our own, but again, working with the Timbers, Merritt, and Gavin is fantastic.
“Not only that, but all the owners were on several Zoom calls with players. Getting on with Don Garber on Zoom with hundreds of players and a few owners is really unique.”
What Clark said impressed him even more was the amount of involvement from every player on the roster. Whereas in the past just a few players per team would work on the negotiations, this year everyone—from the lowest player on the roster to the designated players—was heavily involved.
“I truly believe that players are the most united we have ever been, and there is a kind of historic enrollment from the top of the roster to the bottom,” Clark said. “And the other part of that is the willingness of the owners to hear us out and get out of their shoes to walk a mile in our shoes. I’m really grateful for that.”
Over the past few weeks, MLS training facilities across the country have been opening up for individual workouts. These openings are reliant on local regulations as well as testing capacity in local markets and sanitizing regulations enforced at the training facility. On Thursday, the league lifted the training moratorium, allowing teams to plan their return to full team training. If teams can return to full training in their local markets, they can delay going to Orlando for at least a week.
Clark, for one, is excited to get back on the field, regardless of where the game is played and despite the lack of fans.
“I’m a soccer player,” the 34-year-old said. “I play goalkeeper. That’s what I do, I think it’s essential to my being, and I’m really excited to be out there playing.”
During the conference call, Garber did not announce any set dates or times for the Orlando tournament but said that more details are on the way. And regardless of what the tournament brings in, the league will take at least a $1 billion revenue hit. So while limiting the tournament to a maximum of 35 days helps players such as Clark, who will be leaving his family for at least a month, it doesn’t help the league’s bottom line.
And when teams eventually kick off in Orlando, there is at least one glaring question that needs to be answered: what will the on-field product be like? This tournament will undoubtedly give the league nation-wide attention from those interested to see how it handles the moment. Those new eyes will almost assuredly turn away if the product on the field is subpar, even if teams are now essentially in preseason form. (It’s worth acknowledging that the first few games will not be representative of the quality of the league during a normal season.) It will take time for teams to reach the quality of a derby game, or even what MLS fans saw during their last glimpse of live MLS Soccer—an end-to-end 3-3 game between the Philadelphia Union and LAFC.
Despite those worries, Clark said that the team is revving to play and believes that the quality on the field will not suffer, despite the lack of energy from the stands.
“The product will be good on that field,” Clark said. “We’re going to want to win and there’s going to be ways that I’m going to communicate better without fans. People will be able to hear me. I’m looking at it not in a negative way, but in a glass-half-full to see how I can impact the game, or as a goalkeeper, with my communication, because everyone can hear me.”
While the return to play is a positive step for all parties, there are still the unavoidable losses. Among these are the loss of revenue, and the (temporary) loss of fans. Playing a Cascadia Derby without the Timbers Army or Emerald City Supporters in a stadium over 3,000 miles away won’t be the same. Yes, the tournament-winning team will get a million dollars and a trophy at the “Most Magical Place on Earth,” but for the league’s 25th anniversary season, it’s a bit of a disappointment.
There remain plenty of questions around the league, many of which have no answer, but with tough negotiations behind them and a tournament on the horizon, it’s up to the players and the league to make the most of the situation. If there’s one thing for sure, it’s that the players are ready.
“It was nice to have a break,” Clark began, “but it’s time.”
Unlock with Patreon