It was easy to shake it off when it happened in the preseason. On Feb. 17, FC Dallas dominated the first half of their preseason match against the Portland Timbers; and, a week later, Sporting Kansas City did the same. Portland Timbers defender Liam Ridgewell was, in fact, slightly dismissive in the buildup to Sunday’s 2018 regular-season opener, saying, “It doesn’t matter in the preseason. It’s all about the league.”
Come the 30-minute mark of the Timbers’ opener in Carson, California, though, those unlearned lessons from Arizona began to resurface. Not enough pressure through the midfield, as evident on the two Jonathan dos Santos passes that preceded LA Galaxy’s 31st minute opener. Not enough bite, either, as evidenced in the transition play that led to LA’s second goal.
The same preseason issues that left Portland’s defense occasionally compromised in Tucson where there, again, in California as the Timbers fell to the Galaxy, 2-1 Sunday night.
“Definitely not the result we were looking for for our first match …,” Portland head coach Giovanni Savarese said after the loss. “I think they weren’t that dangerous until the moment they were able to score the goal, and then I think we collapsed a little bit during the end of the first half.”
The game had started so different, too. A back-and-forth settling-in period at the game’s onset produced a good sixth-minute chance for Timbers midfielder Sebastián Blanco before the game found its footing. Once it did, Portland seemed to have the upper hand thanks to its high pressure, something that produced a one-on-one chance for Andy Polo after a dos Santos turnover.
That chance, though, seemed to awaken dos Santos, if not the entire Galaxy team. Slowly, the hosts came into the match, responding to their defense’s close calls by out-working their opposition. It was an awakening that led to Ola Kamara beating the Timbers defense for the game’s first goal, then Romain Alessandrini, among a swarm of Galaxy attackers, putting home his own rebound to double LA’s lead two minutes later.
The goals came in the first five minutes of a controlling, half-hour stretch for LA, one that straddled halftime while conveniently nestling into the match’s middle third. Around that span, though, the Timbers were arguably the better team: slightly so in the first half-hour; clearly so in the last. For the match, the Timbers had the edge in possession (54.1%), shots (15-14) and shots on target (7-3).
“We came with a different energy in the second half,” Savarese explained. “I thought we created chances. We became dangerous. I think we dominated the play in their half of the field.”
That dominance eventually produced Blanco’s 66th-minute goal, a nutmeg of Galaxy 'keeper David Bingham, but it also began revealing space for the Galaxy’s counter. As Portland pressed for an equalizer, LA became more adept at getting out on the break, and while the hosts never restored their two-goal lead, the Galaxy’s transition was vital in killing off the remainder of the match.
“The counters were difficult,” Savarese said, “because then, all of a sudden, we had to make sure we were in good areas for them not to find space. We had a couple of chances at the end.”
Even though his team came up short, Savarese was still happy with the Timbers’ response, having taken his halftime message to heart to fight back over the second stanza.
“If we believe in ourselves a little bit more, if we move the ball faster, we’re going to find space,” he said, when asked about his message in the locker room. “We did that, and we started finding the spaces, and then that’s when the goal came. Unfortunately, right after that, I think we became a little too anxious to want to get the second goal. That’s when we started creating more spaces for the other team to counter.”
With the preseason, you could see what Dallas, Sporting KC and, earlier, Seattle did to Portland’s defense and say it was just part of preparing for the season. But season is here, now. As Ridgewell said, “It’s all about the league,” and to the extent February’s problems persist, it’s time to find March’s solutions.
Against LA, over the last half-hour, the Timbers showed themselves capable of playing better and creating solutions. Looking ahead, another solution could come in the form of Diego Chara, whose return to the lineup would help provide additional steel to the midfield. The more those problems are addressed, the better the team should look going forward.
