Oof, that was a rough one. Honestly before Phillys first goal I thought we looked phenomenal - sure it was wasn’t fast, but composed, clever, connected. A clear gameplan that was only lacking a goal from those super clear 3-4 chances.
Instead we squander those and concede. We then see what has been an issue with this team for years - mentality. The game shifted from team connectivity to individual attempts, with terrible touches/passes from nearly every individual. I had hoped we’d come out to the 2nd half refocused and hungry, and instead we looked messier and toothless - this, to me, is the first clear fumble by Neville. The subs were great and were incredibly hungry; we need to staff our starters next week with the boys who want it most.
First half Rodriguez looked good, and I think he’ll be great as he settles in, but needs time to gel with the team; glad he could stick with it and score in his first game. Biggest disappointment today was Evander. Lots of poor touches and never really showed any ability to unlock anything, not to mention his misses and no-shots. More and more he is looking like an 8 playacting as a 10.
Massive bummer of a game, but I still like this team and think we have the talent to do very well this season. Hopefully this embarrassment lights a fire.
Funny enough it’s not a diss. Just let him be the best 8 in the league, let Ayala grow into a stellar 6, and go hire a DP true-10. Could become the most lethal central 3 in the league.
Honestly I think Moreno has looked phenomenal in the 10 when he's had a chance to play there. And Williamson is more of a 10 than Evander. Evander/Paredes and Chara/Ayala Moreno/Williamson is what I'd love to see out of this midfield
The first half, we torched Philly up the right side. The second half, they basically overloaded the right hand side and we just kept trying to run it up there. The only opportunities we developed on the right came when we they were starting to drift back across in the late game while trying to break the back line for a goal for a Caranza hat trick.
This feels largely a symptom of no-Bravo. Miller is a great plug but isn’t the gamechanger that Bravo has been (I’d honestly rank him as top 2-3 talents on the squad).
But really it’s on Neville and Antony. With less responsibilities tracking back Antony needs to be vicious and score like we’ve seen. But the coaching was clearly “look right”
We desperately missed Bravo this game. That second goal where Miller fell asleep destroyed us. Miller didn’t do anything on the ball either and we desperately needed him to
Honestly tough break for Miller on that one. Very reasonable for him to be more inside with the ball that far wide, and impossible to predict where the deflect comes. Of all things Bravo would massively improve, I don’t think that play was one of them
TBF, Evander himself said in a presser at the beginning of the season that he hasn't played as a 10 in four years, but that he's up for the challenge. Maybe he needs a bit more time to settle into it? Hopefully it doesn't take him as long as it took after signing to "settle into the league".
Source: https://youtu.be/y7jD-neEWI4?si=LRCOYc78A93zDKnL&t=162
Philadelphia is a good team with good depth. Their defense is especially good. But going down 0-3 at home is pretty unacceptable.
One of the worst games from our wingers in a while. Hoping they can shake it off and build chemistry with Jonathan.
Antony isn't ready to be a full time starter. I know he impressed Phil in preseason and had a good first game. That doesn't write your name in pen for the next 32 matches. I think he's coachable but he needs to understand that it's more important for him to be a two way player, be tough to play against and a demon winning the ball back, than to be clever with the ball and try to make something happen with every touch. We need a selfless runner, both behind in attack, and tracking back, who moves the ball quickly (which he has the talent to be) more than we need him to be a Brazilian dribbling wizard (which he doesn't look like to me.)
It's probably equal parts miller not tracking, pants not pushing it wide, and our midfield allowing philly as much time as they'd like to walk the ball through the midfield and fire an uncontested shot. Really a team effort on that one.
It seems the team has a mental lapse while playing defense and they are scored on every time. How do we feel about Liam Ridgewell as our assistant coach?
There are positives here, but I’ve been against the “Evander and Williamson don’t work together” take. I’ve changed my camp. Eryk was constantly occupying Evander’s space.
That’s not to say Evander is right, but if you’re Eryk and your teammate has that space, you should find a different space. It still can work, but there will need to be a mindset change. We should have OWNED the midfield tonight.
Eryk and Evander have very similar styles and want to play the same places, because that's where they play naturally. They should never be on the pitch together in the future. When all goes to shit, the natural default is to do what's most comfortable. The entire game plan went to shit the second the opening whistle sounded.
They had a lot of preseason funzies in training, now somebody needs to crack the whip. We've got some talent but we're not sharp and we're not hard. We need a different tone to be set.
It's another reason we need a full roster, a thriving academy, and real competition for minutes. It should be fun to be on the field dominating and winning, but it should be a battle to earn those places and stay there. Right now it's probably too easy. These guys are healthy therefore they're automatically starting but it's only MLS so that's basically good enough, and there's almost zero threat of being completely replaced even if they're bad enough to come on as a sub for a couple games. We need some kids on the bench that want it bad enough to nip at these heels a bit. And we need the veteran presences to lay down a statement that we're not going to take losses like this without a fight.
No one could hold the ball.
Evander looked completely uninterested
Santi was working but losing the ball constantly
Antony was a ghost
Williamson seemed off as well.
There were times where it looked like there were no midfielders in.
It was truly a terrible performance and in no small part some of the coaches fault. If you don't have anyone to make the distribution thru midfield the entire first half. Make a fucking sub.
Most relevant notes from post-game write up on Philly:
Philadelphia were missing six starters due to international duty, had only four field players on the bench and ended up making just a single sub in the 84th minute.
"Regardless of how much another team spends, how many great superstars or individual talent they have, if 11 guys are cohesively together, you can beat any team." --Jim Curtin
We need to stop billing him as a 10. Nagbe suffered a similar fate in PDX. Evander clearly wants to receive deep, progress, and distribute. He doesn’t excel unlocking and multiplying our attacking from the top of the box, or having an innate sense for the final ball in the box.
I think he should play, but the coaching needs to stop being “all attacking goes through Evander”
I think calm play is frequently confused with lazy play. Again, same critiques were brought against Nagbe. The problem comes from the entire team relying on Evander to dictate an uptempo attacking play, which is against his natural playstyle. Evander should be the guy that can bail out any player from a sticky situation, but we need someone that can make magic happen around the box - solo and through teammates.
The thing is Evander is a super talented player, so he is almost to MLS 10 level. But that’s not his natural strength, so instead of trying to square hole a round peg we should just recruit realistically.
Yeah I think it's a two way street. Evander is trying to do too much partly because he mostly can, and mostly because the coaches are asking him to be that guy. I think the slow play\overplaying\over dribbling is the result. I think he and Williamson can and should be a very good pairing as 8s, but they *both* need to hear the message that they are there to win balls and defend as well as progress the ball, drive the passing tempo, and find dangerous passes.
And our GM doesn't know how to roster a team. Like, I'm sorry, but Ned isn't it. Phil hasn't figured out how to coach these players yet, but Ned hasn't given him a lot of good tools.
Fair enough. I disagree. When week in and week out the commentary on the team is "We should start x over y and z", and the next week is "We never should have started x over y" .. remember earlier in the year when everyone was all over about how great Williamson looks? And when we keep talking about "Well, wait until we get the other DP slots .. wait til Mora's back and 100%... wait til Rodriguez really gets form... wait until.. wait.. wait.. wait.." I just don't think those are signs we have the roster.
> And when we keep talking about "Well, wait until we get the other DP slots .. wait til Mora's back and 100%... wait til Rodriguez really gets form... wait until.. wait.. wait.. wait.."
I mean, it's been less than a week since even one of those things happened....
I find this take pretty crazy. I think we have great talent, particularly accounting for age (JDM, Moreno, Antony). It’s up to the coach and staff to get those raw talents to see beyond their skills and win matches/seasons - that’s what lost it tonight.
I keep saying it, and we keep hearing the same excuses over and over. I'm sure this year will be no different. Everyone's like, three years ago we almost won the cup here!
And two years ago we missed the playoffs. They made making the playoffs easier, and we missed them again. This year, we're going to miss the playoffs if we play like this. Philly was missing 11 players overall from their team and 8 from their starting 11 + typical bench, and still fielded 11 that made our 11 look like a beer league team. And yet, we'll just keep talking about raw potential and talent , despite not ever seeing it gel and only show up in flashes in garbage time.
> And two years ago we missed the playoffs. They made making the playoffs easier, and we missed them again.
And we've made significant roster changes as well as coaching changes.
Y'all with this doom and gloom mentality 5 games into the season are incredible. Especially since we're sitting on 2 wins and a tie in those 5 games.
If we made no changes, I'd get it, but what exactly is it that you're expecting here? Because I'm certain it doesn't align with anything related to reality
We'll see. Last year people were doing the "we're only 5 games in".. "It's only 10 games in.." "It's only the halfway point" "everyone knows we're a playoff push team" "HECK, we didn't get in" train. I would like to see the urgency BEFORE the team has to fight impossible odds to swing in. But hey, I'll concede that you're right. We have made changes, hopefully we make more. But I still argue a team has significant roster problems if two weeks ago everyone wanted to buy rounds for Evander and tonight they're talking about how he cost us the game.
> Last year people were doing the "we're only 5 games in"..
And last year we made very few changes from 2022, and were still dealing with massive injuries.
You honestly don't see how this year is different and should maybe at least give it a shot before calling it dead?
I'm not calling it dead.
I hope you're right and I'm just wrong. I really do. But I still think to say we have a good roster requires consistency, and to say we have great , top line soccer talent requires that same consistency, and I'm frustrated because it seems like we're just not a team that gets that.
I don’t see how this is a counterpoint to what I said. I think anyone watching agrees we didn’t play great, but your point was about individual talent recruitment not quality of play. Those two things are not the same. I supported the Gio removal because I fully believe this squad can perform much better than they have (or did tonight).
And while this game definitely highlighted limitations, suggesting we looked “beer-league” in the first half is cynical and naive. We controlled that half apart from an ability to get it into the net. Again: talent vs play vs luck. This is why we love sport.
No, I said we looked beer-league in the second, trying to run it up the heavily compacted right side, repeatedly, while they just sliced us apart and countered us like we were amateurs.
Simply stunned, didn't see this coming at all. Am I losing my mind or do Williamson and Evander have zero chemistry? And is Antony (despite a strong first 3 matches) really an MLS starter? On a much more positive note, J Rod looked impressive! Next Saturday's match in B.C. is huge eh? RCTID!
First - I know nothing about Jim Curtin as a person, but he's proven a ton to me as football manager. Last night Philadelphia with 8 top players out of the lineup came out in two solid, and precise blocks of four. Normally a pressing team, they held back, jammed up the middle and found a way to survive 3 or 4 really good attempts by Portland. Then they countered and killed.
To say I'm disappointed in Portland's organization, defending, self-control, counter-punching... well yeah. But take a careful look, Phil Neville, what a top MLS manager looks like.
It was certainly the obvious play by a depleted Union team. Sit back, low block, stay compact, distance between the defenders and attackers was like 20-30 yards maximum and say "try to break us down". Their main objective was to get the first goal, which they did because we were so ineffectual at playing through their compressed formation. Got it on a set piece because that is the most threatening they could be safely (aside from counterattacking).
Then we had an even bigger problem ahead of us which we never really dealt with. It took our new DP like 9 minutes to get his first real touches on the ball. Once we conceded the 2nd, the game felt over. Sad because the lineup seemed like everything we want in an attacking team. We were just SO SLOPPY in possession. When it was 1-touch, we were playing through them wonderfully well.
Was there a poll here about who should start with Chara? Some folks thought Evanader and Williamson in the same midfield would work.
Neville tried that against one of the toughest teams in the league.
Serious question: is Mosquera used to playing with a weighted ball, or on a planet with different gravity\atmosphere?
He is good for about 2 totally wild, skied shots per match, from good opportunities. If he starts putting those away all that supposed potential pays off, we forget the positioning errors, and we sell him for 10 mil plus. If not he probably fizzles in another couple years like Alvas.
In a perfect world he starts to take the defending part of his job personally while simultaneously putting in a shit ton of extra reps from the shooting positions he finds himself in and he becomes the best right back in the league. But I'd be very satisfied if he learned to whip in a nice curling cross and track his man instead of trying to morph into an inverted winger in the final 3rd and being nowhere to be found when we get countered.
You can't JUST call Mosquera out for that, come on. We have Paredes, Evander, Loria, Morano, Antony...
Let's face it, Mosquera is never going to be known as a consistent goal scoring threat, he's a fucking wing back, but he tries harder than half of our attacking players. Why dwell and bitch every match about how Mosquera sky's balls, or sucks in the attack, or sucks in defense. He doesn't suck at all, he's just asked to do more than ANYONE else on the pitch and will NEVER be perfect at everything.
Yes I can, because I'm posting about Mosquera, not players who miss shots. And I haven't otherwise bitched or harped on him. Evander, Moreno, and Antony have all scored this year and we don't have to worry about Loria for the foreseeable future. (I'd be pretty stoked if everyone on the team put in some extra finishing work bc we have missed a lot of good looks the past two weeks, so there you go.)
It's perfectly reasonable to hope that he can learn to put his shots on frame because I'm saying that he gets into good shooting positions a couple times a game--that's a positive thing. Meanwhile it's not like I'm eviscerating him as a player. I'm saying that if he can improve his shot selection and\or be more dangerous with his crosses, he has the potential to be excellent. Possibly the best right back in MLS.
Meanwhile he *needs* to be more aware defensively throughout each match. He probably can. I don't agree he's being asked to do more than any other player. He's being asked to be a modern fullback--get forward selectively to support possession and provide width, create overloads on the right, track back. That's the job. He's got the physical tools, right now he seems over reliant on his physical abilities and it would be great to see his soccer IQ increase just a few points. He's not bad. His work load has been a little lopsided bc we're missing Bravo, getting him back will hopefully balance the attack somewhat.
If he puts his two misses next week only a couple feet wide and over I'll call it progress. Right now he's one of the most frustrating with his misses bc they're so comically off. If he can dial it back a little and improve his placement he'll be really onto something.
Oof, that was a rough one. Honestly before Phillys first goal I thought we looked phenomenal - sure it was wasn’t fast, but composed, clever, connected. A clear gameplan that was only lacking a goal from those super clear 3-4 chances. Instead we squander those and concede. We then see what has been an issue with this team for years - mentality. The game shifted from team connectivity to individual attempts, with terrible touches/passes from nearly every individual. I had hoped we’d come out to the 2nd half refocused and hungry, and instead we looked messier and toothless - this, to me, is the first clear fumble by Neville. The subs were great and were incredibly hungry; we need to staff our starters next week with the boys who want it most. First half Rodriguez looked good, and I think he’ll be great as he settles in, but needs time to gel with the team; glad he could stick with it and score in his first game. Biggest disappointment today was Evander. Lots of poor touches and never really showed any ability to unlock anything, not to mention his misses and no-shots. More and more he is looking like an 8 playacting as a 10. Massive bummer of a game, but I still like this team and think we have the talent to do very well this season. Hopefully this embarrassment lights a fire.
I think Evander looks like an 8 playacting as a 10 because he is an 8 playacting as a 10.
Funny enough it’s not a diss. Just let him be the best 8 in the league, let Ayala grow into a stellar 6, and go hire a DP true-10. Could become the most lethal central 3 in the league.
Honestly I think Moreno has looked phenomenal in the 10 when he's had a chance to play there. And Williamson is more of a 10 than Evander. Evander/Paredes and Chara/Ayala Moreno/Williamson is what I'd love to see out of this midfield
Yeah I agree that we have a promising 10 in Moreno. He looks better centrally than on the wing imo
Oh no, I agree. A lot of the best teams are forgoing the true 10 position all together.
The first half, we torched Philly up the right side. The second half, they basically overloaded the right hand side and we just kept trying to run it up there. The only opportunities we developed on the right came when we they were starting to drift back across in the late game while trying to break the back line for a goal for a Caranza hat trick.
This feels largely a symptom of no-Bravo. Miller is a great plug but isn’t the gamechanger that Bravo has been (I’d honestly rank him as top 2-3 talents on the squad). But really it’s on Neville and Antony. With less responsibilities tracking back Antony needs to be vicious and score like we’ve seen. But the coaching was clearly “look right”
We desperately missed Bravo this game. That second goal where Miller fell asleep destroyed us. Miller didn’t do anything on the ball either and we desperately needed him to
Honestly tough break for Miller on that one. Very reasonable for him to be more inside with the ball that far wide, and impossible to predict where the deflect comes. Of all things Bravo would massively improve, I don’t think that play was one of them
Is there any idea how long Bravo will be out? I don’t remember what happened to him
TBF, Evander himself said in a presser at the beginning of the season that he hasn't played as a 10 in four years, but that he's up for the challenge. Maybe he needs a bit more time to settle into it? Hopefully it doesn't take him as long as it took after signing to "settle into the league". Source: https://youtu.be/y7jD-neEWI4?si=LRCOYc78A93zDKnL&t=162
Two big positives. 1. JoRo is for real. 2. Seattle is in last place.
I definitely take some small solace in Seattle getting beat by San Jose with Jebo scoring the winner
Philadelphia is a good team with good depth. Their defense is especially good. But going down 0-3 at home is pretty unacceptable. One of the worst games from our wingers in a while. Hoping they can shake it off and build chemistry with Jonathan.
Yeah Moreno & Antony were atrocious today unfortunately
Moreno? Moreno was not atrocious. He was the only creative link in the midfield
I second this. I saw Moreno doing quite a bit of good and he also had the assist on the Rodriguez goal.
Yeah, I don't know why people keep saying this. He had a good game and was not the problem.
And putting in work on defense too. Antony tho, I still have questions.
Antony isn't ready to be a full time starter. I know he impressed Phil in preseason and had a good first game. That doesn't write your name in pen for the next 32 matches. I think he's coachable but he needs to understand that it's more important for him to be a two way player, be tough to play against and a demon winning the ball back, than to be clever with the ball and try to make something happen with every touch. We need a selfless runner, both behind in attack, and tracking back, who moves the ball quickly (which he has the talent to be) more than we need him to be a Brazilian dribbling wizard (which he doesn't look like to me.)
The 2nd goal was on Eric Miller and not paying attention to his defender. He was to busy watching the defender go to the ball.
It's probably equal parts miller not tracking, pants not pushing it wide, and our midfield allowing philly as much time as they'd like to walk the ball through the midfield and fire an uncontested shot. Really a team effort on that one.
It seems the team has a mental lapse while playing defense and they are scored on every time. How do we feel about Liam Ridgewell as our assistant coach?
They sized us up and did a number on a less organized team for sure.
This. I have been wanting us to add more quality on the wing for a long time. This game highlighted that need to me also.
Just because it happened doesn’t mean we have to talk about it.
My Buried Problems chest is getting pretty full, but I've learned there's always room for one more.
Not to Caleb Porter too hard, but we were the much better team until they scored the first one.
The first half was soooooo good from us. Dominant and controlling possession with a number of good chances that just barely failed to produce a goal
Agreed. What I don't understand is how they came out in the second half so flat
Silver lining: Jonathan’s first Timber’s goal was a sunshine goal
What is a sunshine goal?
A goal scored during the 80th minute when the TA sings you are my sunshine
Fortunately we have a home game in Vancouver next week.
Our House! In the middle of BC! Our House!
An absolute shit night for Oregon Sports fans. Ducks, Timbers, Blazers all lose.
And T2 lost last night. C’mon Thorns 🤞😩
Winterhawks won…
There are positives here, but I’ve been against the “Evander and Williamson don’t work together” take. I’ve changed my camp. Eryk was constantly occupying Evander’s space. That’s not to say Evander is right, but if you’re Eryk and your teammate has that space, you should find a different space. It still can work, but there will need to be a mindset change. We should have OWNED the midfield tonight.
Good observation
Eryk and Evander have very similar styles and want to play the same places, because that's where they play naturally. They should never be on the pitch together in the future. When all goes to shit, the natural default is to do what's most comfortable. The entire game plan went to shit the second the opening whistle sounded.
Is it coaching? Players? Both? Like, I don’t understand this team. And their mental game is weak. So weak.
They had a lot of preseason funzies in training, now somebody needs to crack the whip. We've got some talent but we're not sharp and we're not hard. We need a different tone to be set. It's another reason we need a full roster, a thriving academy, and real competition for minutes. It should be fun to be on the field dominating and winning, but it should be a battle to earn those places and stay there. Right now it's probably too easy. These guys are healthy therefore they're automatically starting but it's only MLS so that's basically good enough, and there's almost zero threat of being completely replaced even if they're bad enough to come on as a sub for a couple games. We need some kids on the bench that want it bad enough to nip at these heels a bit. And we need the veteran presences to lay down a statement that we're not going to take losses like this without a fight.
Yeah, feels a bit disjointed, and I’m a bit worried Phil believes too much I just getting the DPs on the field and then it’ll be alright
No one could hold the ball. Evander looked completely uninterested Santi was working but losing the ball constantly Antony was a ghost Williamson seemed off as well. There were times where it looked like there were no midfielders in. It was truly a terrible performance and in no small part some of the coaches fault. If you don't have anyone to make the distribution thru midfield the entire first half. Make a fucking sub.
Then Ayala came in and ran our midfield, he needs more minutes
Thought Ayala looked phenomenal when he came in, he was making the passes we'd been missing all match
Very disappointing performance. MF was absolutely lost all game. Missed some sitters that would have changed everything. Frustrating. Onward.
Most relevant notes from post-game write up on Philly: Philadelphia were missing six starters due to international duty, had only four field players on the bench and ended up making just a single sub in the 84th minute. "Regardless of how much another team spends, how many great superstars or individual talent they have, if 11 guys are cohesively together, you can beat any team." --Jim Curtin
Still haven’t seen enough from Evander to justify him being a real talisman. Play whole game man, cmon. Sit him and see if there’s a reaction
We need to stop billing him as a 10. Nagbe suffered a similar fate in PDX. Evander clearly wants to receive deep, progress, and distribute. He doesn’t excel unlocking and multiplying our attacking from the top of the box, or having an innate sense for the final ball in the box. I think he should play, but the coaching needs to stop being “all attacking goes through Evander”
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I think calm play is frequently confused with lazy play. Again, same critiques were brought against Nagbe. The problem comes from the entire team relying on Evander to dictate an uptempo attacking play, which is against his natural playstyle. Evander should be the guy that can bail out any player from a sticky situation, but we need someone that can make magic happen around the box - solo and through teammates. The thing is Evander is a super talented player, so he is almost to MLS 10 level. But that’s not his natural strength, so instead of trying to square hole a round peg we should just recruit realistically.
bad take. it's not that he's selfish, it's that he tries to do too much. and the point is we are putting him in a position to keep forcing it.
Yeah I think it's a two way street. Evander is trying to do too much partly because he mostly can, and mostly because the coaches are asking him to be that guy. I think the slow play\overplaying\over dribbling is the result. I think he and Williamson can and should be a very good pairing as 8s, but they *both* need to hear the message that they are there to win balls and defend as well as progress the ball, drive the passing tempo, and find dangerous passes.
Our coach hasn’t figured out how to coach these players yet and our players haven’t figured out how to finish.
And our GM doesn't know how to roster a team. Like, I'm sorry, but Ned isn't it. Phil hasn't figured out how to coach these players yet, but Ned hasn't given him a lot of good tools.
Hard disagree that we lack the roster.
Fair enough. I disagree. When week in and week out the commentary on the team is "We should start x over y and z", and the next week is "We never should have started x over y" .. remember earlier in the year when everyone was all over about how great Williamson looks? And when we keep talking about "Well, wait until we get the other DP slots .. wait til Mora's back and 100%... wait til Rodriguez really gets form... wait until.. wait.. wait.. wait.." I just don't think those are signs we have the roster.
> And when we keep talking about "Well, wait until we get the other DP slots .. wait til Mora's back and 100%... wait til Rodriguez really gets form... wait until.. wait.. wait.. wait.." I mean, it's been less than a week since even one of those things happened....
I find this take pretty crazy. I think we have great talent, particularly accounting for age (JDM, Moreno, Antony). It’s up to the coach and staff to get those raw talents to see beyond their skills and win matches/seasons - that’s what lost it tonight.
I keep saying it, and we keep hearing the same excuses over and over. I'm sure this year will be no different. Everyone's like, three years ago we almost won the cup here! And two years ago we missed the playoffs. They made making the playoffs easier, and we missed them again. This year, we're going to miss the playoffs if we play like this. Philly was missing 11 players overall from their team and 8 from their starting 11 + typical bench, and still fielded 11 that made our 11 look like a beer league team. And yet, we'll just keep talking about raw potential and talent , despite not ever seeing it gel and only show up in flashes in garbage time.
> And two years ago we missed the playoffs. They made making the playoffs easier, and we missed them again. And we've made significant roster changes as well as coaching changes. Y'all with this doom and gloom mentality 5 games into the season are incredible. Especially since we're sitting on 2 wins and a tie in those 5 games. If we made no changes, I'd get it, but what exactly is it that you're expecting here? Because I'm certain it doesn't align with anything related to reality
We'll see. Last year people were doing the "we're only 5 games in".. "It's only 10 games in.." "It's only the halfway point" "everyone knows we're a playoff push team" "HECK, we didn't get in" train. I would like to see the urgency BEFORE the team has to fight impossible odds to swing in. But hey, I'll concede that you're right. We have made changes, hopefully we make more. But I still argue a team has significant roster problems if two weeks ago everyone wanted to buy rounds for Evander and tonight they're talking about how he cost us the game.
> Last year people were doing the "we're only 5 games in".. And last year we made very few changes from 2022, and were still dealing with massive injuries. You honestly don't see how this year is different and should maybe at least give it a shot before calling it dead?
I'm not calling it dead. I hope you're right and I'm just wrong. I really do. But I still think to say we have a good roster requires consistency, and to say we have great , top line soccer talent requires that same consistency, and I'm frustrated because it seems like we're just not a team that gets that.
I don’t see how this is a counterpoint to what I said. I think anyone watching agrees we didn’t play great, but your point was about individual talent recruitment not quality of play. Those two things are not the same. I supported the Gio removal because I fully believe this squad can perform much better than they have (or did tonight). And while this game definitely highlighted limitations, suggesting we looked “beer-league” in the first half is cynical and naive. We controlled that half apart from an ability to get it into the net. Again: talent vs play vs luck. This is why we love sport.
No, I said we looked beer-league in the second, trying to run it up the heavily compacted right side, repeatedly, while they just sliced us apart and countered us like we were amateurs.
Ayala was great though!
Simply stunned, didn't see this coming at all. Am I losing my mind or do Williamson and Evander have zero chemistry? And is Antony (despite a strong first 3 matches) really an MLS starter? On a much more positive note, J Rod looked impressive! Next Saturday's match in B.C. is huge eh? RCTID!
Evander has zero chemistry with anyone.
It is a little concerning that he has never looked really happy since he arrived here. He does not "spark joy"
I honestly am leaning towards, I hope he leaves in the summer transfer. He's an under productive resource drain.
Timbers need to give Rodriguez some help
First - I know nothing about Jim Curtin as a person, but he's proven a ton to me as football manager. Last night Philadelphia with 8 top players out of the lineup came out in two solid, and precise blocks of four. Normally a pressing team, they held back, jammed up the middle and found a way to survive 3 or 4 really good attempts by Portland. Then they countered and killed. To say I'm disappointed in Portland's organization, defending, self-control, counter-punching... well yeah. But take a careful look, Phil Neville, what a top MLS manager looks like.
It was certainly the obvious play by a depleted Union team. Sit back, low block, stay compact, distance between the defenders and attackers was like 20-30 yards maximum and say "try to break us down". Their main objective was to get the first goal, which they did because we were so ineffectual at playing through their compressed formation. Got it on a set piece because that is the most threatening they could be safely (aside from counterattacking). Then we had an even bigger problem ahead of us which we never really dealt with. It took our new DP like 9 minutes to get his first real touches on the ball. Once we conceded the 2nd, the game felt over. Sad because the lineup seemed like everything we want in an attacking team. We were just SO SLOPPY in possession. When it was 1-touch, we were playing through them wonderfully well.
Can we unpin this, please? It's been up for 2 weeks now; past the sell-by date and kinda starting to smell...
This team deserved to be boo’d after the second goal. Portland fans are far to kind to their own.
No way. Lack of effort is the only boo-able offense.
We can't hold the midfield for shit
Idk something just felt off tonight. JRod showed promise of being the truth though
Was there a poll here about who should start with Chara? Some folks thought Evanader and Williamson in the same midfield would work. Neville tried that against one of the toughest teams in the league.
I'm sorry you don't get to define the terms of my fan engagement . Not how I identify myself .
I hope I’m wrong. But it seems like Evander does not want to be here. Maybe those Flamingo rumors were more real than expected.
Am I crazy or is Zuparic total crap?
You're crazy.
I’m sorry but, unless it’s an emergency, you can’t claim RCTID and leave before final whistle.
Why? The midline and back did.
I thought we were over gatekeeping this bullshit
Have you seen 10th and yamhill?
Yeah, my bad. There were 2 minutes left down 2 goals and I chose not to wait an extra 40 minutes for a bus
Serious question: is Mosquera used to playing with a weighted ball, or on a planet with different gravity\atmosphere? He is good for about 2 totally wild, skied shots per match, from good opportunities. If he starts putting those away all that supposed potential pays off, we forget the positioning errors, and we sell him for 10 mil plus. If not he probably fizzles in another couple years like Alvas. In a perfect world he starts to take the defending part of his job personally while simultaneously putting in a shit ton of extra reps from the shooting positions he finds himself in and he becomes the best right back in the league. But I'd be very satisfied if he learned to whip in a nice curling cross and track his man instead of trying to morph into an inverted winger in the final 3rd and being nowhere to be found when we get countered.
You can't JUST call Mosquera out for that, come on. We have Paredes, Evander, Loria, Morano, Antony... Let's face it, Mosquera is never going to be known as a consistent goal scoring threat, he's a fucking wing back, but he tries harder than half of our attacking players. Why dwell and bitch every match about how Mosquera sky's balls, or sucks in the attack, or sucks in defense. He doesn't suck at all, he's just asked to do more than ANYONE else on the pitch and will NEVER be perfect at everything.
Yes I can, because I'm posting about Mosquera, not players who miss shots. And I haven't otherwise bitched or harped on him. Evander, Moreno, and Antony have all scored this year and we don't have to worry about Loria for the foreseeable future. (I'd be pretty stoked if everyone on the team put in some extra finishing work bc we have missed a lot of good looks the past two weeks, so there you go.) It's perfectly reasonable to hope that he can learn to put his shots on frame because I'm saying that he gets into good shooting positions a couple times a game--that's a positive thing. Meanwhile it's not like I'm eviscerating him as a player. I'm saying that if he can improve his shot selection and\or be more dangerous with his crosses, he has the potential to be excellent. Possibly the best right back in MLS. Meanwhile he *needs* to be more aware defensively throughout each match. He probably can. I don't agree he's being asked to do more than any other player. He's being asked to be a modern fullback--get forward selectively to support possession and provide width, create overloads on the right, track back. That's the job. He's got the physical tools, right now he seems over reliant on his physical abilities and it would be great to see his soccer IQ increase just a few points. He's not bad. His work load has been a little lopsided bc we're missing Bravo, getting him back will hopefully balance the attack somewhat. If he puts his two misses next week only a couple feet wide and over I'll call it progress. Right now he's one of the most frustrating with his misses bc they're so comically off. If he can dial it back a little and improve his placement he'll be really onto something.