The second and final meeting this season between the Portland Timbers and Houston Dynamo Saturday (5:30pm PT, FOX 12 PLUS) puts Giovanni Savarese’s team back at the site of last year’s nightmare, where a 0-0 result in the first leg of the teams’ Western Conference semifinals didn’t doom the Timbers, but the health the team carried back from BBVA Compass Stadium nearly condemn them to an early exit.
Diego Chara ended up lost for the playoffs and into this season, breaking his foot in the first half of that matchup. Sebastián Blanco was already sidelined after an accident at home. Larrys Mabiala ended up out for leg two, too, and even though Darlington Nagbe (having left the game in Houston) was able to return in Portland, fellow Akron alum Darren Mattocks had to be subbed off early when the teams resumed at Providence Park.
There is no real rivalry between the Timbers and Dynamo. The teams, for the most part, are run of the mill opponents. But when Timbers and fans remember the 2017 squad, they’ll remember what could have been after finishing first in the Western Conference. They’ll remember the form Portland carried into the postseason and the hopes that, two years removed from that core claiming the club’s first title, a second star was approaching down the road.
After this year’s change of coaching staff and roster turnover, last fall feels so long ago. But for some, the mere mention of Houston will cast the mind into a world of hypotheticals. We will never know what could have been; are only left with what was.
Here are three areas of focus for the Timbers on their Houston return – this weekend’s KeyBank Scouting Report:
1. To rotate, or not to rotate (that is the question)
Three games. Eight days. The Timbers have been here before, this season. Multiple times. Tough decisions regarding who to play when is nothing new, and as he confessed following lopsided losses at D.C. United and Sporting Kansas City last month, Savarese has learned lessons from what he’s tried to do before.
Now, how do those lessons get applied to what the team faces this time around? Houston on Saturday, followed by Columbus mid-week and then a trip to Minnesota. Those are all winnable games, but particularly after factoring in the strength of each opponent and the challenges of the road, each is losable, too.
The order of the games doesn’t help. It’s not that you care if Houston comes before Columbus or after. It’s the fact that you’re going road, home, road. Link up those road games, MLS scheduler. Don’t make the group fly to Texas, race back to Oregon, only to fly to Minnesota a few days later.
Such is life in the league, though. The Timbers’ plight is not so much more difficult than other teams,’ if it’s more difficult at all. Even if it is, it’s the challenge that’s been handed to them. And how Savarese chooses to face that challenge will determine who will be in the starting XI versus Houston.
2. Don’t underestimate the Dynamo
The score the last time the teams played should be hint enough. If you beat a team 2-1 at home, you should expect a toss-up, at best, on the road. But since the Timbers faced Houston at Providence Park on July 28, the Dynamo have sunk in the standings. Now in 10th place after an eight-game winless run in league, Wilmer Cabrera’s team projects as a much easier opponent.
Projections, however, are only a type of fabrication, and if you go beyond this one’s surface, you see a Dynamo team that’s much better than their conference standing offers. That comes down to a squad that, in attack, has dangerous players like Mauro Manotas (12 goals), Alberth Elis (eight) and Romell Quioto (11 assists), as well as a goal difference that has seen Houston outscore their opponents this season.
That’s right. They’re low in the standings, but on aggregate, Houston is more likely to score a goal than concede one, and while that hasn’t produced the results Cabrera would have wanted in the past, it is a decent indicator for their capabilities in the future.
Nobody thinks a trip to Houston is a layup, but even those who respect the Dynamo might look at their recent plight and infer an easier challenge. But there is a reason why Houston is in the U.S. Open Cup’s final. Even if it hasn’t always happened, the Dynamo have delivered some wins when they’ve needed them.
3. Valentin and Wenger
One of the most interesting subplots of the teams’ first meeting is what was happening on Portland’s left flank, where Cabrera’s choice of Andrew Wenger at right wing back could put him in direct conflict with Portland’s left back, Zarek Valentin.
What’s the big deal about that? Valentin and Wenger grew up together in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, played club soccer together growing up and, after Wenger was taken first overall by the Impact in 2012, lived together during the Duke product’s first year of professional soccer when the pair were teammates in Montreal.
Personality-wise, the two are near opposites. As Portland fans have learned, Valentin is one of the most outgoing personalities in the league, always finding himself at the center of his teams’ social worlds. Wenger, however, is a far more cerebral person, and while it is far too much to imply that he is reserved, shy, or even quiet, he is somebody who provides an intriguing ying to Valentin’s yang.
The two have played against each other before, but according to Valentin, July 28 marked the first time they have even been lined up directly opposite each other, often isolated together, tasked with breaking down their childhood partner. Though the matchup is not guaranteed to happen again, there’s also a chance we’ll see the two Lancaster products lock horns for round two.
