PORTLAND, Ore. – In a season of two steps forward, one step back for the Portland Timbers, Saturday night needed to be a step forward, given the unmistakable backward step the team took last weekend in Minnesota.
In that context, the night’s 0-0 draw against Western Conference-leading FC Dallas has to be seen as a positive. Through a wider lens, though, one that sees all the heights the Timbers are capable of reaching over the season’s final month, the draw also feels like two points lost.
“I thought it was a pretty even game,” head coach Giovanni Savarese said, embodying the middle ground of a mixed result. “I thought they had their good moments. We also had some good moments, especially in the second half. I thought we created some good opportunities.
“But it is difficult. Dallas is a good team. (We knew) it was going to be complicated. We tried everything that we could to get three points.”
Much of the night played out as a stalemate, with neither goalkeeper consistently tested throughout the game’s 97 minutes. The best chance fell to Dallas in the second half, when a mis-hit back pass by Larrys Mabiala gave Dallas’ Cristian Colmán a clear chance on goal. A quick read from Jeff Attinella cut down Colmán's options, leaving the visitors empty handed after their night’s only shot on goal.
Even if, aside from Colmán's shot the Timbers seemed to have the better of the chances – most notably in the first half, when a collision between Andy Polo and Lawrence Olum cost the team a shot near the penalty spot – better didn’t mean to likely to score. Although the game ended with Dallas playing five-at-the-back and bleeding out the clock, a scoreless draw was the fair result.
For Portland, though, fair didn’t mean the night was without costs. A draw at home always has to be looked at as a possible two points lost, and had the team broken through with one of their chances, they would have been within three points of the top of the West’s standings. In addition, a late red card to central defender Liam Ridgewell, a shoulder injury to Attinella, and a head injury to right back Alvas Powell means Portland may be without three of their most important defensive pieces when they travel to Real Salt Lake next week.
“Ultimately, we didn’t get the three points,” forward Jeremy Ebobisse said, offering the night’s bottom line. “We didn’t get the goal that we were looking for. But we created a few good chances and we limited them. There are some positives.”
As with the negatives, those pluses must be counted, too. Dallas’ 2-1 victory last week at Vancouver Whitecaps FC showed what Oscar Pareja’s team is capable of on the road. In Portland, they never came close to replicating that output, a fact that reflected a noticeable upturn in the Timbers’ defensive performance. Over the previous 270 minutes, Portland had conceded nine times. Against Dallas, the Timbers kept their first clean sheet since Sept. 8.
“Defensively, we did a lot of good things,” Savarese said. “One time we got, with a pass back from Mabiala, just great goalkeeping that kept us in the game. But besides that, the guys did a fantastic job to make sure we covered all the spaces.”
All of which means the Timbers took a step forward from their last outing in Minnesota. But at this point of the season, the question is whether steps forward are enough. Saturday represented a chance to gain significant ground on Dallas at the top of the Western Conference, yet in the big picture, it may be still more important that the team’s underlying process is back on course, regardless of the result.
“A point is good. You cannot fault the effort,” Olum said. “Sometimes, we’ve played at home and lost a game and never got a point. Today, playing at home, and we didn’t get all three, but at least we got a point.”
And that ultimately, if through gritted teeth, was how Savarese also saw the world.
“We take the point,” he said. “It's better than [nothing], but we tried everything we could to get the three points today.”
