Too often, contrast is obscured until the distinctions are next to each other: dark isn’t as dim as when it’s next to light; sweet becomes tart when it follows sour; rough is more abrasive when compared to smooth. It’s a type of relativity that’s become unconscious, and in that way, universal.
So universal, in fact, that those comparisons hold true with far more complex ideas. Like sports teams. Products of not only players and fans but histories and cultures, teams can rarely be reduced to light and dark, rough or smooth. Yet it’s only when you compare one to another that you truly see a group’s qualities emerge.
Take the first two opponents of the Portland Timbers’ season. Last week, Major League Soccer’s 2018 Western Conference Champions visited a place unfairly referred to as fly-over country, took on a league original that, in many ways, is searching for an identity. Huge roster turnover, a coach still establishing himself in the league, a venue that’s in the suburbs of its neighboring urban core. The Colorado Rapids represent one MLS reality, still carrying many characteristics that were shared across its league for much of the team’s existence.
The contrast to Colorado’s reality is Portland’s Sunday opponent: Los Angeles FC (4:30pm PT, FS1). The second-year team has joined Atlanta United FC as MLS’ media sweethearts, taking mantles that had recently been held by Seattle Sounders FC and, tellingly, LAFC’s neighbors: the LA Galaxy. With a celebrity-laden ownership group, revered head coach, a new downtown venue and a high-profile star that speaks to a coveted local demographic, LAFC represents what Major League Soccer wants to become. Instead of struggling for an identity, the organization has embraced one, seemingly from game one.
Between Colorado and LAFC, there may not be two teams in MLS’ 24-team circuit who have less in common – differences that are not limited to the organizations’ identities off the field. Within the lines, Anthony Hudson’s (Rapids) and Bob Bradley’s (LAFC) groups represent severe differences in shape, style and, if recent history is any indication, potency. Though, last week, Colorado proved to be a worthy challenge, this week, the Timbers will have to take their play to another level.
Here is this week’s KeyBank Scouting Report: three things to watch as the Timbers visit Los Angeles:
The on-field differences between Colorado and LAFC
At Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the Timbers faced a team that had a very narrow look, with the midfield diamond shape employed by the Rapids often tasking one of its forwards, Kei Kamara, with moving wide to serve as an outlet for possession built through the middle. Within that shape, players had very defined roles: Kamara as a focal point; forward partner Diego Rubio (during the limited time he was on the field) exploring the space in the middle; attacking midfielder Nicolas Mezquida the next jumping into attack; central midfielder Kellyn Acosta the fourth to make up the numbers. With the team’s fullbacks providing the rest of the team’s width, you knew what Colorado was going to try to do.
Los Angeles may not be any more mysterious, but they are very different. With three in midfield, three forwards in attack, the team’s shape is very different, but the way players move within that look is different, too. Forwards are interchangeable, defensive lines can set very high, and in the opponents’ half, players have license to pursue the ball with the assumption teammates will be smart enough to adjust. The breadth of the field from sideline to sideline is persistently explored. The ball moves ambitiously, constantly and confidently, reflecting a team entering its second year of a philosophy-driven approach.
“There are many differences,” Portland head coach Giovanni Savarese said, when asked to compare his team’s first two opponents. “In the system, how they look to do certain things with the ball, where they are more dangerous, the types of players that they have. Both teams are different …”
Savarese was quick to note, though, that those differences aren’t just about Colorado and LAFC:
“MLS, in general, when you look around, there are not a lot of teams that are similar. So, you have to always plan the right way. You have to know who you are playing against; make sure you see their strengths, their weaknesses, and try to play the best possible way.”
Though the contrasts between the last two weeks’ opponents may feel more profound, Savarese and his staff will prepare the same way. The first days of the week will be devoted to their scouting’s due diligence. Over the last half of the week, the plan they form will make its way to the field. Come game time, players will know how coaches want the opponent to be addressed, and while, from week to week, opponents’ style and talent change, the routine of MLS’ week-to-week endures.
“We know that this is going to be a completely different game,” Savarese said, “and we hope to win. We’re excited about it, and we looking forward to being there, already.”
Act or react with the starting XI
Part of the week’s preparation is absorbing lessons from the prior performance, from the tactical elements that worked (and didn’t) to the individual execution that defines who will (and won’t) make the next start. It’s part of the process that takes teams from one weekend to the next, albeit a part that came with a huge wrinkle this week.
When Timbers staff sat down to assess the result in Colorado, they evaluated players who may never again play in such conditions. After the coldest game in MLS history, played amid snow that left grounds crew staff shoveling lines over the match’s final 45 minutes, it’s unclear what, exactly, coaches should take from the players’ output.
“I was impressed watching how our guys played in such a difficult condition,” Savarese said, “not only having the difficulty of being able to play on the snow, which slowed the ball down and made it very difficult, but also how cold it was. Some of the guys, I know by fact, couldn’t feel their feet, their hands. For them to have lasted the entire match and to have some very good moments during the game, I was very pleased with the performance.”
Amid all our talk around icicles on ears, poor footing and the inability to see through sideways-flying snow, we haven’t spent enough time talking about the technical elements. They were the same for both teams, but how do you actually trust your touch when you can’t feel your feet? How do you trust your footing when, in terms of sensation, you’re cut off from your base? Some players clearly executed better than others, but when coaching staffs evaluate how instructions were executed – and, perhaps most importantly, how that execution foretells future performance – how can anything be taken from Saturday’s film?
“There are other areas that we have to improve, get better,” Savarese admitted. “That’s normal. I think for being the first match that we played, I was very content with what I saw.
“The only thing is what I said after the game. I wish would could have held on to the three points, because we deserved it … But I was very pleased with the performance of our team and hopefully they can continue the same way.”
Changes may very well come for Sunday’s game, and those decisions could be based on last Saturday’s performance or the distinct matchups the team will face in Los Angeles. But the Timbers’ season opener in Colorado will always be more about the memories than fortunes. The coaching staff will have to act with LAFC in mind, not react to last week’s one-off.
Accounting for Vela (and where he will be)
Something the team will need to react to is Carlos Vela. The Mexican international is one of the four or five best talents in Major League Soccer, and with the offseason departures of Sebastian Giovinco and David Villa, that may be selling him short. The 14 goals and 13 assists the 30-year-old accrued in his MLS debut came around a prolonged absence for last summer’s World Cup, casting LAFC’s third-place finish in the Western Conference in the what ifs of Vela’s departure.
Beyond his occasionally game-defining performances – of which, Portland fans got a glimpse last year at Providence Park, when a wonderful, curling score from the right of goal nearly secured an LAFC point – Vela presents a problem of positioning. Though a formation graphic will list him on the right side of Bradley’s 4-3-3 formation, Vela moves all around the field.
While right flank may be his most frequent location, he’ll occasionally come underneath the team’s striker, to play as a 10. He can go high and play along the line, casting himself more as a traditional forward. When the team’s defensive lines fall deep, he will become an advanced midfielder a la Diego Valeri, tasked with managing his team’s transition game.
When you’re preparing for Vela, there is no single way you can plan to shut him down. His solution is a series of if-then statements, applied across the field, typically left lacking for lack of imagination or talent.
“I won’t say it makes it more difficult, because we know exactly how good he is,” Savarese said, when asked about Vela’s positioning. “It’s about trying to make sure that we do the things we need to do, and we need to have the support of all the players around.”
Timbers’ left back Jorge Villafaña will be across from Vela as the formations line up, but the team’s central defenders won’t be free from the task. Nor will the group’s central midfielders, nor a player like Sebastián Blanco, when his team is pushed into their defensive third. As much as anybody in MLS, Vela demands an opponent’s entire attention, with the risk that too much attention provides a platform for LAFC’s other stars: strikers Christian Ramirez and Adama Diomande; left wing Diego Rossi; midfielder Lee Nguyen.
“Definitely, [Vela is] an important player,” Savarese affirms, “but we have to make sure we don’t only concentrate on one player on the other team, because especially LAFC, [they have] a good team, in general.
“For us, it’s making sure that we have a gameplan and try to execute it.”
