The Timbers were thought to have had a midfield problem when the lost Darlington Nagbe to a brutal injury on Sunday against LA Galaxy. It turns out their problems run much deeper than just a midfield that will be missing its most creative player for an unknown length of time. The Portland Timbers defense is more of a mess than their midfield ever will be without Nagbe. The unit allowed three goals in under a half hour to FC Dallas on Wednesday night, and each one was preventable in its own unique way.
There were a couple of consistent goats throughout all three goals. Ned Grabavoy’s name was called for all the wrong reasons on two of them. On the opening goal, he played the laziest of lazy back passes aimed at Jack Jewsbury. This allowed Maxi Urruti to jump right in and steal the ball and make an easy play to Tesho Akindele, who played the key pass to Michael Barrios for the goal. On the second goal, Grabavoy got run over while defending along the left flank, thus setting off the entire attacking movement. Alvas Powell was just as guilty here too, though, he stops moving his feet and simply lets Maynor Figueroa to run by him into space for an easy cross.
The second goat of the evening was the original Timber, Jack Jewsbury. Jewsbury had a night to forget in the defensive midfield. It was his lazy reception of the lazy Grabavoy pass that got the first goal started. It was his error that led to the second Dallas goal as well. Whether it was simply him not paying attention to his surroundings or thinking too far ahead, he didn’t have any sense that Urruti was storming towards him from behind to create a takeaway in the defensive half. Fabian Castillo, who is far too skilled of a player to be given the kind of space he was allowed, received the pass from Urruti and bombed his way down the middle for an easy chip over Adam Kwarasey.
The center backs had a rough go the entire night, especially during the second goal. Their tracking back was slow. Their position on the breakout was far too wide to be playing passes through the middle. As soon as Urruti completed the steal the alarm bells started going off, but it was already too late. Castillo is far too quick to catch when you give him as much of a head start as Nat Borchers and Jermaine Taylor did while they were out wide. They were not to be excused on either of the other two concessions, either. Their marking was horrible on the first. Borchers lost track of Barrios, the eventual goal scorer, at the worst possible time. The entire unit was a mess on the third goal with no organization.
The defensive issues are probably the most glaring issue with this club right now. The lack of consistency in the lineup has not given this unit a chance to gel together. With Klute missing the beginning of the year with a leg injury and Liam Ridgewell having been out since the second weekend of the year, there have been four different starting units in six matches. Hopefully, Liam Ridgewell will return from his injury in the coming matches to bring a little bit of organization and communication to this clearly befuddled group.
Let’s not mince words, however, nobody had a particularly good game against Dallas. While Jewsbury and Grabavoy were the primary culprits, the entire starting XI had a forgettable night. Of everyone that was on the pitch when the score was 0-0, only Chris Klute and his nine tackles looked like they had any desire to be there. The Timbers are now winless since the opening week match against Columbus, who aren’t exactly playing well to open the season. The Timbers are off to an ugly start, and Wednesday night’s disaster of a loss was only the latest example.
Main Photo: Sean M. Haffey, Getty Images
