If the teams’ first meeting of the season became an emboldening performance for the Portland Timbers, Saturday’s rematch against the Colorado Rapids should prove a stabilizing one.
When the two Western Conference foes first met, this season, in Commerce City, Colorado, the Timbers’ attack showed a potency that had been alluding them for much of the season, breaking out for three goals and fully identifying a new number one striker after a brace from Samuel Armenteros. The score at match’s end read 3-2, Timbers, but in the underlying performance, there was a feeling of significant progress among Portland’s squad.
Now, Portland is at a different point in their progress, needed to solidify its place as a potential contender rather than convince others of their quality. If Saturday produces another one-goal result, it will feel less like a step forward than a point of consolidation. Results like those should be the norm for the Timbers, right now.
Whether that norm plays out will partially be up to Colorado, partially come down to the mentality Portland carries into the teams’ final meeting of the season. Here are three areas of focus for the Timbers – our KeyBank Scouting Report:
1. Building on Toronto (half of Toronto, at least)
When the Timbers left the field at Providence Park last Wednesday, they had just finished a 45 minutes to build on. The attack had finally broke through. The team had the goals they needed to snap their four-game losing streak. In an ideal world, that half would have given the team momentum to build on.
Then reality set in, the schedule played its part, and the team had to make massive chances for the game three days later at the New England Revolution. Any lessons the Timbers could have built on in the wake of Toronto had to be filed away for study at a later date. When Portland took the field at Gillette Stadium, there was an entirely different context to their performance.
This week has finally given the team a chance to build on Toronto: a chance to have the entire team back together; recreate what worked; move forward from where the group left off. The cohesion the team showed in attack over last Wednesday’s final 45 minutes – the connections that led to that breakthrough goal from Diego Chara – can be explored and expanded upon. If progression in attack that Giovanni Savarese has been talking about for months surfaced, in some way, after intermission against Toronto, this weekend gives the group a chance to pick up where they left off.
Implicitly, that has to be the standard for Saturday; at least, it has to be the standard as much as claiming all three points. Because whereas the team’s short-term goal is to handle challenges like Colorado’s, the bigger picture demands the team continue making progress to the unit they can become. And that vision demands building on Toronto.
2. The value of Jeff Attinella
As if Timbers fans needed be reminded of how valuable the team’s No. 1 has become, New England tested Jeff Attinella within 20 seconds of Saturday’s kickoff. And Attinella’s response was near perfect. Bolting off his line to meet Revolution forward Teal Bunbury as he turned onto a through ball, Attinella prevented what, with other goalkeepers in net, might have been the game’s opening goal. Thanks to Attinella’s quick read, Bunbury wasn’t even able to get his chance on target.
Unfortunately for Portland, Saturday presents another opportunity to test Attinella’s value, albeit in a drastically different way. Having hurt his right hamstring in the second half in New England, Attinella will miss this weekend’s game against Colorado. In his place, the newly-acquired Steve Clark will get his first Timbers start.
Clark acquitted himself well in his Saturday debut, even if he was put in a near-impossible position on the game’s first goal. Against Colorado, though, he’ll have a chance to play out a full 90 minutes. And, if all goes well, his first match for Portland in front of the Timbers Army will prove a successful one.
3. Battles at the back playing out
Among the Timbers other absences this weekend will be Alvas Powell, who joins David Guzmán on international duty (Powell for Jamaica; Guzmán for Costa Rica). That gives the fullback tandem of Jorge Villafaña and Zarek Valentin a second chance to play together, giving each another salvo in what’s becoming an ongoing positional battle.
Since he was reacquired from Santos Laguna, it’s been assumed that Villafaña will claim the left back’s role, and based on his history, that isn’t a poor assumption. But Valentin’s recent history tells us that his role on the field has evolved into a valuable one, something Savarese can’t completely ignore when considering whether to take him off the field. Whether it be at left back or right, where Powell starts, Valentin will continue to have a say in who’s picked each week. There’s a reason he leads the team in both minutes and appearances, this season.
That isn’t the only battle in the Timbers’ defense, right now. Having stayed home for the team’s trip to New England, Liam Ridgewell is back in contention to start against Colorado. Should he do so, the confidence and composure the back line’s showed in his starts is likely to return, albeit at the expense of another center back. Be it Larrys Mabiala or Julio Cascante, one player who has started most of the season may have to make way for Ridgewell.
In all likelihood, that will be Cascante, with Portland’s defense having looked its best when Ridgewell and Mabiala play in tandem. Still, having acquitted himself well through most of this time in central defense, this season, Cascante will join Valentin in having something to say about playing time throughout the rest of the season. And, being projected as an eventual starter, down the road, the Costa Rican’s development can’t be forgotten when considering how to parcel out playing time.
