We highlighted some of the connections earlier this week, noting the roles players like Jack Jewsbury, Lawrence Olum and Michael Harrington have played in forming links between the two clubs. But there some other connections that link the Portland Timbers and Sunday’s opponent, Sporting Kansas City in the first leg of the Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference Championship (4:30pm PT, FS1 | Presented by Oregon Lottery) – the type of shared history that shows how small the soccer world feels.
For example, Sunday’s presumed starting goalkeepers were one-time roommates during the fledgling part of their careers. When Timbers No. 1 Jeff Attinella was drafted out of South Florida in 2011, he roomed with Tim Melia, then four years removed from school, during their preseason with Real Salt Lake. Both `keepers would soon leave the team, with Attinella to return two years later. Both `keepers have since gone on to establish themselves as MLS starters, with Melia having collected a Goalkeeper of the Year honor.
But there is at least one more obscure link between Sunday’s foes, something that goes back to the world-spanning travels of Timbers defender Modou Jadama. As an 18-year-old, the Gambia-born Jadama found himself in Chile, training with Universidad de Chile as his professional career was ramping up. A year later, he was at Colo-Colo, having moved to a titan that had just sent Sporting KC forward-to-be Diego Rubio to Sporting Club in Lisbon. Though they never shared time in Santiago, Jadama and Rubio shared a matching port in their routes to Major League Soccer.
There’ll be more important storylines on the field over the next six days, but within these teams’ presents and pasts, there are number of notable, or perhaps just curious, connections that highlight MLS’ small world. And as Jadama and Rubio passing in the night shows, that small world is, more than ever, global.
Here are three things to watch as Portland begins their Conference Championship series with Sporting.
1. Back to the routine
Since the arrival of the 2018 playoffs, each Timbers match has come with a caveat, one that highlights how a compacted schedule has on a team’s preparation. From the 18 hours the team had in Portland, between trips to Vancouver and Dallas, to the three days’ rest that preceded each leg of their conference semifinal against Seattle Sounders FC, every Timbers game this postseason has featured a prep period cut in half by Knockout Round realities or car shows.
Perhaps this current, two-week break between rounds overcompensates for that, but as of Monday, the Timbers were finally back on a normal routine, able to prepare for the first leg of their Western Conference Championship with the same schedule they approached most of their regular season challenges. From managing training loads to being selective with training ground drills, the half-measures that come with quick turnarounds could be left in the past, for now. In a way, MLS’ two-week break allowed teams to get back to a level playing field.
Perhaps that field won’t include the momentum the Timbers could have carried out of Seattle, but it also won’t include any excuses. For two weeks Portland and Sporting – as well as Atlanta United and the New York Red Bulls, in the Eastern Conference – have been able to get their houses in order.
2. How much will we see Polo, Villafaña
The only caveat to that “houses in order” thought: The two-week break arrived because of a FIFA window. That meant international absences, and in the case of a couple of players, international workloads.
Andrés Flores (El Salvador) and Cristhian Paredes (Paraguay) are among Timbers carrying those burdens, but of chief concern, starters Andy Polo (Peru) and Jorge Villafaña (United States) played key parts for their teams during the window. Polo started his Peru’s final game, on Tuesday against Costa Rica, and while, that day, Villafaña only played the final quarter-hour against Italy, he started five days earlier in England.
Giovanni Savarese will install the final adjustments to his Sporting plan over this week’s final two practices, but during the same sessions, he will also be assessing two of his key talents. The rest of his staff will help, as will his athletic training and performance personnel. Among that myriad talents, there’ll be one questions, as it concerns the team’s returning talents: Can Polo and Villafaña handle this quick turnaround?
3. Keep watching those yellows
Last week’s Talk Timbers got into it, a little – the extent to which MLS’ postseason yellow card policy is just. Timbers analyst Ross Smith, on the show with host Tom Kolker and myself, said the rule suspending players for a game after a second yellow card is too restrictive. My response: Those players should stop fouling people.
No matter where you fall in the debate, the reality is the same. Get a second yellow ahead of MLS Cup, you’ll serve a one-game ban. It’s only at that final step the league concedes that those players should be back on the field.
For Sporting, that reality is already acute, with the team’s most dangerous scorer, Rubio, suspended after collecting two cards against Real Salt Lake. Midfielder Roger Espinoza will play but is on the precipice, electing to take a yellow two weeks ago, after RSL had started to making second-half strides in midfield.
Portland will have their full allotment of players, but depending on how you analyze the situation, they might be in worse shape than their counterparts. Diego Chara, Liam Ridgewell and Diego Valeri, all instrumental to their team, are one booking away from missing Thursday’s second leg in Kansas City, with the caution Flores picked up in Seattle putting the Salvadorian international in danger, too.
With Espinoza, a master of MLS’ dark arts, lining up across from Portland, it’s tempting to imagine another scenario like the one Portland faced in Dallas, when FCD’s Carlos Gruezo essentially took a basketball-esque charging foul on Chara to lure the Timber’s first caution. Espinoza may not have the same leeway on Sunday, but as that incident in Frisco showed, both Portland and Sporting’s stars are one cynical act away from missing the series’ last 90 (or 120) minutes.
