Losers of four straight games, not 72 hours removed from a devastating defeat against Seattle, the Portland Timbers retook the field at Providence Park wearied but in desperate need of a win against Toronto FC.
For more than an hour, that victory did not appear to be on the horizon. The Timbers struggled, just as they did last week and the week before, to create clean chances and find an all-important first gaol. The tension was quickly mounting.
And then, in one decisive play, the seal was broken. A Diego Chara goal — his first of the season, his first, in fact, in his last 46 MLS starts — gave the Timbers their first lead since the beginning of the month and changed the complexion of the team and game.
From there, it was relatively smooth sailing. The Timbers got the three points they had to have, and, now, will head into the fall on a positive note.
To get there, in keeping with the theme of the late summer, they had to labor.
Without the services of a host of starters including Sebastian Giovinco, Victor Vazquez, Jonathan Osorio, Drew Moor, and Gregory Van Der Wiel, Toronto manager Greg Vanney lined his team up in an unorthodox 5-2-3 — with midfielder and captain Michael Bradley at the heart of central defense.
It was a system designed primarily to frustrate the Timbers, much as Vancouver and Seattle had in the club’s previous two home games, and, in the first half, it worked as intended.
The Timbers, perhaps feeling the effects of their excursions on Sunday, weren’t sharp. They combined well at times in midfield, but their opening period was punctuated by sloppy giveaways and ugly spacing in the attacking phase of the game.
Diego Valeri was swarmed every time he touched the ball. Samuel Armenteros, finding Bradley too quick to outmaneuver and too strong to bully, had been completely nullified. The crowd at Providence Park was notably quiet, nearly restless. If anything, their team’s struggles appeared to be worsening.
In anything, the makeshift Reds looked like the more organized, dangerous team. By isolating their two wide forwards against the Timbers’ fullbacks and pushing their wingbacks into the attack, they were holding the ball and frequently getting numbers up in wide areas. They just didn’t have the talent to capitalize.
The first half ended without stoppage time, scoreless, Toronto content enough, and the Timbers facing a serious test of their patience and will.
Their response was, in a way, predictable. Backs to the wall, pressing for their first goal in five halves, the Timbers reverted to what’s worked this year: sitting back, conceding possession, inviting Toronto forward, and looking to hit them on the counter.
And, sure enough, the chances started to come. The Timbers had a flurry of good looks shortly after the restart, with Sebastian Blanco heavily involved — first forcing a save out of Clint Irwin on the end of a long solo run, and then, minutes later, firing over the bar after breaking down two defenders in the box.
Then, finally, just after the hour mark, the Timbers put it all together. Zarek Valentin received the ball near the midfield stripe, looked up, and cut out two lines of Toronto defenders with a through pass for Blanco, streaking into the box.
Blanco collected the ball, took a touch, and slid it across to the back post — where Chara, again deployed largely as a left winger, broke past Nick Hagglund, and tapped it in.
It was a beautiful move, born equally of Valentin’s intelligence and quality in possession, Blanco’s relentlessness and directness, and Chara’s unerring engine and unmistakable instinct for finding the ball, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
With his team now trailing, and set up so regressively, Vanney had to make alterations.
Five minutes after the goal, he did. He upgraded his left back, Ashtone Morgan replacing Ryan Telfair, and added another center back in Eriq Zavaleta in order to move Bradley into midfield.
The latter move was most important. Toronto was in desperate need of a chance creator, and Bradley was the only player in their traveling party capable of stepping into the role. If TFC was to get the equalizer, he was going to have to be involved.
Several times in the next 15 minutes, as Toronto controlled a lion’s share of possession, Bradley nearly played the killer pass, trying most to link up with Jozy Altidore. But the best chance he ultimately set up was for Jay Chapman, and Chapman’s resulting shot was easily turned away by Jeff Attinella.
And then, after spending 80-plus minutes as the one of the best players on the field, Bradley would be caught out on the game’s last decisive play.
As Toronto cycled possession back to Irwin, Bradley retreated, facing his goalkeeper, in order to pick up possession and restart his team’s attack.
The problem was that David Guzmán had read Bradley’s movement, and was running towards him even before the ball left Irwin’s foot. Bradley never heard him coming, and Irwin saw him too late. Guzmán swiped the ball, was clean through on goal, and finished simply — low and hard into the lefthand corner.
That was it. It was an open question whether Toronto had one goal in them on this night, and a certainty that they didn’t have two.
There was only one big chance left, and it fell to, of all people, Lucas Melano — who, in his second Timbers debut off the bench, made a hard run into the penalty area and was rewarded with a gorgeous feed from Valeri. His shot was saved, but it was a promising end to a satisfying night.
It wasn’t a great performance — the Timbers were handily out-possessed and at times outplayed by an extremely weak Toronto team — but it hardly mattered. Given the short rest, this was never going to be especially pretty.
The Timbers needed this game. At home, given their losing streak, given the opponent, and given the upcoming schedule, they needed to win. And that’s what they did.
Enough players made enough plays. Guzmán surely did, in a for go-for-broke fashion that is a reminder of his unique upside among the Timbers’ holding midfield options. So did Valentin, and Blanco, and Chara, all in styles inimitably their own.
They weren’t the only notable contributors. Larrys Mabiala was exceptionally good in his return from injury, while it’s surely worth noting at this point that the Timbers have conceded just one goal in Liam Ridgewell’s last five full outings. Jorge Villafaña, making his first start back, wasn’t bad either.
The Timbers still have to improve. They still have to figure out how to consistently generate offense with possession. Tonight’s is the kind of win that will allow them to do just that, the kind that will keep them in the hunt while they see whether they can turn themselves into a top-shelf contender.
It is, in short, the kind of win that sets up bigger wins — in a season that still has a long way to go.
