The Portland Timbers Sunday night defeat to the San Jose Earthquakes was the sort of loss their supporters have become all too used to. They were not outplayed. They dominated possession, but couldn’t finish the quality scoring chances they had. They took twice as many shots as their opposition, but only two of them were on target. While looking like the better side, there was one defensive breakdown to lead to the first goal and the second was the result of nothing more than an outstanding shot by Quincy Amarikwa.
This match, as frustrating as it was, could have been managed better by Caleb Porter, especially if he had his 2015 squad. In fact, I feel that the 2015 team would have fought out a draw at the very least. There was depth on the team that just wasn’t there on Sunday that gave Porter very little options for making an effective change when his side needed it the most.
The part of the match I want to criticize is Caleb Porter’s substitutions. I’ll admit he had very little choice with them. The options he had on the bench were better suited for sealing a game late with defensive cover, not for providing fresh options in the attack. They especially lacked bench players that fit into Portland’s wide attacking style.
The first change he made was bringing on Jack McInerney for Dairon Asprilla. The goal of this was to add a second target in the penalty area. This was done at the cost of the one thing that had been working right from the start, which was attacking from wide positions. The left flank being manned by Asprilla was no longer an option for filtering passes through. they had to try and force them through the middle instead, something San Jose was all too willing to stop.
Last season, this match probably would have seen two changes be made here, and it would have been more effective than this single one was. The first would have been to bring on a fresh winger, either Asprilla or Wallace, whichever wasn’t in the starting lineup. This keeps the width of the original formation and preserves both flanks as attacking options. The second would have been Maxi Urruti for Fanendo Adi. This doesn’t add a second body in the box, but, rather, a fresh one. Adi was looking gassed towards the end of the match, fresh legs would have had the same effect as a second striker.
Back to Sunday night, Caleb Porter subbed in Ned Grabavoy for Zarek Valentin. This fundamentally changed Portland’s basic shape and the way they played. They went to a three man back line that was more effectively two men with Alvas Powell as involved in the attack as he was. It’s a wonder San Jose couldn’t use their pace to find a third goal. This change did nothing to improve how the team played. Despite pushing the overall shape forward, it only served to clutter up a midfield that was functioning well before he came on. At least it was before it lost it’s left side attacking option.
The Timbers don’t work well when they are forced to chuck balls into the box through the middle. They make their money working balls wide and allowing their pace to get it back to the box for their big Nigerian striker to bang home. Porter’s choice of substitutes neutered this effective approach and replaced it with something that was never going to work agaisnt the Quakes.
The unfortunate part of all this was that Caleb Porter didn’t exactly have much of a choice in how he could react. His substitutes contained no wide players to reinforce the wings. They only had central midfielders who are more effective as late game defensive reinforcements than attacking options. Most of them were quite inexperienced and were only there in the event of an emergency.
Sunday’s match was a frustrating one in that the potential was there for the Timbers to make it out with at least a draw, if only the right players were on the bench. The fact that Porter did the best with what little he had available to him made it even worse. Thankfully, some reinforcements have arrived in this plight and others are on the way. The Timbers sent some Targeted Allocation Money to Vancouver in exchange for Darren Mattocks, a pacy wing player who can take over the reserve role and possibly evolve into more. At the very least, he will give the team an option off the bench to refresh the wing play in matches like Sunday’s. The option of Mattocks off the bench can get this team one step closer to what they were last year.
