BEAVERTON, Ore. – The two themes weighing on Portland Timbers players and staff this week were the ones you could have predicted coming out of Saturday’s 2-1 to FC Dallas in Frisco, Texas: lament at the point that could have – and in more Timbers’ minds, should have – been; and, the improvement the team saw from the previous week’s performance.
That improvement was mostly in the team’s effort, team members said on Wednesday, with Jeff Attinella echoing a view shared by head coach Giovanni Savarese, as well as teammate Sebastián Blanco.
“If you watch the Dallas game compared to some of the other games, the effort level,” was something to build on, the team’s starting goalkeeper explained. “We went down 2-0, and in other games, when we went down, we’ve kind of conceded that third. And then that’s all she wrote.”
Losses at Los Angeles FC (March 10, 4-1), FC Cincinnati (March 17, 3-0), and the San Jose Earthquakes (April 6, 3-0) saw the Timbers quickly concede once they went down by a second goal, making a difficult, two-goal deficit into an almost insurmountable obstacle. In contrast, on Saturday, after Dallas’s Reto Ziegler converted the team’s second-half penalty kick, the Timbers controlled the rest of the game, not only responding like many teams do when forced to fully chase a game but also correcting the response that had dogged the team in some of their previous losses.
“In this game,” Attinella continued, referring to Saturday, “for us to go down 2-0 and to battle back and get that goal, and to just give ourselves a chance to get that result we were looking for toward the end of the game was a big step in the right direction.”
For Blanco, that turnaround was tied to the team’s effort, something that was better overall from the weekend before in San Jose but, in his eyes, only reached the level the team needs after Dallas scored their second goal.
“We need to repeat the second half against Dallas, but for 90 minutes,” the Argentine attacker explained. “We need to give the best effort, and (the players) need to sacrifice, because we need more, from each (of us). We need to give more effort, take more risks. We have potential, but we need to believe in us.”
The team’s effort was a major area of focus coming out of San Jose, where dispiriting results in the first half were complemented by an apparent dip in the team’s work rate. Against Dallas, however, Savarese had no problems with the mentality he saw on the field.
“I saw a good reaction from the team,” the coach said. “I felt that we brought the right spirit to the match, and there was a desire to want to win the game … we need to make sure that we carry on with this.”
That Saturday’s effort came amid controversy, with at least two key, late penalty calls going against the Timbers, had begun to turn into a rallying point, come Wednesday – something that was augmenting the sting of a fifth-straight loss. Though the team carried the burden of another defeat out of Toyota Stadium, the feeling within the group was that the effort deserved something more, and that under most circumstances, Portland would have snapped their losing streak in Dallas.
“I thought it was a moment that brought everybody a little bit closer together,” Attinella said, “because we saw what we saw. We felt like we kind of got the raw end of the deal and deserved a little bit more, and knew that the work that we put in, especially the week leading up to Dallas, especially coming off of San Jose, we did deserve a little bit more.
“We put in the work, and it was a good, honest performance. I think that was something that we kind of rallied behind.”
The main point of controversy in the wake of Saturday’s loss centers on a stoppage time non-call on Dallas’ Ryan Hollingshead, who appeared to commit a hand ball foul in the penalty area. Video review of the play by referee Marcos de Oliviera allowed the run-of-play ruling (no foul) to stand, seeing that play to join an earlier non-call when Hollingshead appeared to foul Jeremy Ebobisse while contesting a cross near the six-yard box.
MLSSoccer.com, in the league site’s weekly review of controversial calls, also highlighted a third potential, late FC Dallas penalty, with Portland defender Bill Tuiloma possibly tripped near the byline while trying to save a ball rolling into touch.
