PORTLAND, Ore. – Slightly more than half of the Portland Timbers team trained fully on Thursday. The rest recovered from their U.S. Open Cup game the night before. Whereas a normal times give the team plenty of time to avoid such harshly divided groups, these are not normal times in Portland. Wednesday started a four-game, 11-day stretch that forced players onto different schedules.
The reality of that was already apparent against the LA Galaxy. The Timbers rolled over their hamstrung opponents, 4-0, but they did so without the full services of midfielder Diego Valeri, who only played 12 minutes. They did so without the full services of defender Julio Cascante, allowing Claude Dielna to get 90 minutes’ work. The rest of the lineup featured regular starters, but in the little allowances the coaching staff made in Open Cup, you see nod to a longer term.
More allowances will have to happen on Saturday against visiting Houston Dynamo (8pm PT, TICKETS, ROOT SPORTS). Sebastián Blanco has been ruled out, having just accumulated five yellow cards in Major League Soccer play. Whether the high demands place on fullbacks Jorges Moreira and Villafaña, the miles collected by Diego Chara, or an intense month of change for Brian Fernandez will also demand a rest remains to be seen. These are the type of considerations the coaching staff will have kept in mind as they planned the coming week’s course.
This is just the reality of Major League Soccer’s June, especially when the league elects to take a break for the first part of Concacaf’s Gold Cup. Houston’s dilemma is even worse than Portland’s, with Saturday’s game starting a week of three games on the road, but even if those new challenges are shared among many of the league’s teams, they’re still challenges. Just as Wilmer Cabrera will have to manage Houston’s players, so will Giovanni Savarese monitor Portland’s.
Here are three things to keep in mind this weekend – this week’s KeyBank Scouting Report:
The impact of Wednesday
It’s not that all players can’t handle two games in four days. It’s just that we don’t know which can, which ones shouldn’t be exposed to the risk so early in the season, or which ones straight out can’t manage the load. Sometimes we use age as a proxy for that information, but each athlete is different. Some people’s genetics allow them to cope. Other players’ physiologies mean they have to sit out.
Here’s the workload, in minutes, Portland’s players collected on Wednesday, but even this only tells part of the story. Data on distance covered and sprints would help round out this picture, but even then, without a broader perspective on a player’s workload, those numbers would only tell so much:
Players like Valeri and Cascante seem like good bets to start on Saturday. Farfan and Williamson may also have been held back with the Dynamo in mind, but their appearances may have also been about the scoreline and occasion. For some players, Wednesday’s appearances may have been about maintaining their week’s normal workload.
From even the distance of the club’s own reporter, it’s difficult to tell. There are so many considerations, and so many individual nuances, conclusions end up broad and useless. We know changes are likely, but where, why, and to what extent is difficult to tell.
Houston’s absences
For the Dynamo, there’s another level of concern. Although the Timbers have lost Andrés Flores and Andy Polo to the Gold Cup and Copa America, Houston’s losses are much more severe. Alberth Elis, Romell Quioto and Maynor Figueroa are with Honduras at the Gold Cup. Midfielder Darwin Cerén is with El Salvador. Defenders A.J. DeLaGarza (Guam) and Aljaž Struna (Slovenia) are on international duty, while Memo RodrÃguez is out, injured. Whereas Portland is inconvenienced, Houston is hamstrung.
Mauro Manotas, the team’s most dangerous attacker, is still here, as is Tomas Martinez, somebody who’s made 13 starts this season in midfield. Fullback Adam Lundkvist and midfielders Boniek Garcia and Matias Vera have also been regulars for Cabrera, this season. They could all feature at Providence Park.
Regardless, this is the type of game where three points is the only acceptable outcome for Portland. Soccer can be a an unforgiving like that, especially considering how many games we’ve seen an early goal, unfortunate penalty, quick red card or injury can turn a match. There have to be expectations, though, especially for a team looking to take advantage of a stockpile of games at home. If the standard isn’t victory against a hamstrung Dynamo, what is it?
The climb starts now
Part of that standard is where the Timbers sit, now. Twelfth out of 12 in the Western Conference looks worse than it feels – everybody knows the Timbers have spent almost their entire MLS season on the road – but the hole the schedule dug adds some urgency to games like Houston’s. Losing to a full-strength Los Angeles FC three weeks ago was acceptable. Not reclaiming those points against Houston?
The players and coaches undoubtedly know this, but that knowledge has to translate to the field. Mistakes in these type of games can quickly turn a quest for playoff positioning to a fight for the playoffs, themselves. And with Open Cup advancement already creating another three-game week in the future (with the potential for more), the stakes of that fight could grow.
From the moment the MLS schedule came out, we knew this would be when the Timbers had to turn it on. Nothing’s changed since. The climbs needs to start soon, if not now.
