After starting the 2019 MLS season with one point from their first six games, the Portland Timbers, with the date of their long-awaited home opener finally edging into sight, appear to have righted the ship.
The Timbers fell behind Eastern Conference heavyweight Toronto FC early on Saturday afternoon at BMO Field, but they then came roaring back — with a stunning goal from Bill Tuiloma leveling the score, and Jeremy Ebobisse’s flying header clinching the club’s second victory of the season with 20 minutes to play.
All of the sudden, after such a nightmarish opening month-and-a-half, this Timbers team is starting to resemble the one that was so effective at the end of last season: confident to a man, compact defensively, ever-dangerous breaking forward.
The payoff? The Timbers have now won back-to-back road games for the first time since the fall of 2015, and are just three points off of the playoff red line with only three road matches to go before Providence Park re-opens to a slew of summer home games.
That’s the beauty of MLS for you. A couple of wins can change the complexion of a season a hurry. And the Timbers, just as they did around this time last year, are taking advantage.
Much of the credit goes to Giovani Savarese, who has engineered this recent revival in much the same way he engineered last season’s turnaround — with a pragmatic tactical turn and a handful of well-placed personnel changes.
The tactical turn, to a familiar 4-4-1-1 designed primarily to protect the team’s defensive shape, meant that the Timbers started this early kickoff in Toronto like a team perfectly comfortable with the way it was being asked to play.
Portland started the game on the front foot, before, with just fewer than 20 minutes played, thy were stung on a set piece. Erik Zavaleta met an out-swinging Alejandro Pozuelo corner with a header that was knocked down in traffic on the goalmouth, and Ontario native was on hand to poke it in.
It was a poor goal to concede, and Bill Tuiloma — making his sixth straight start at center back — who, having lost Zavaleta on the initial delivery, was chiefly responsible.
But in a matter of moments, the New Zealander would make up for it in sumptuous style on the other end of the field: meeting Diego Valeri’s corner at the penalty spot and lashing a first-time volley that flew into the back of the net before TFC goalkeeper Quentin Westberg could so much as take a step in its direction.
It was an extraordinary finish, just Tuiloma’s second-ever top-flight professional goal, and it set his team up well for the rest of the afternoon.
With Jozy Altidore nursing a hamstring injury and his backup Jordan Hamilton struggling to establish himself against the Timbers’ center backs, Toronto’s attack was largely toothless. The Timbers, meanwhile, were continuing to link up well in the attacking third.
Then, ten minutes past the hour mark, they’d take the lead for the first time. Sebastian Blanco combining well with Valeri down the left flank, got into a crossing position, and whipped a ball onto the cusp of the six-yard box that Ebobisse headed in to make the score 2-1.
Toronto stepped up the intensity of their forward movements in the final 20 minutes, but couldn’t figure out a way to break apart the Timbers’ defensive shell.
Their best chance came on an old-fashioned cross ten minutes from time when substitute Ayo Akinola peeled away from Jorge Moriera to get on the end of a dangerous ball from Pozuelo, but his stretching redirect sailed over the bar.
The Timbers could easily have added a climactic third goal, just as they did in Columbus a week ago when Cristhian Paredes played Diego Chara into the clear on a counter in the last minute of normal time, but the Colombian placed his low shot just wide.
It wouldn’t matter. Toronto never got another clean look — they’d finish the game with a paltry six shots in total — and the Timbers had a well-deserved three points locked away.
TFC coach Greg Vanney said afterwards that the Timbers were able to “control the game,” which is, of course, the kind of compliment they at no point received during the first six matches of the year. It was a textbook road performance: enterprising early, resolute late.
Parades, in particular, put in a performance that harkened back to his best days last spring. He covered all kinds of ground, took care of the ball when he needed to, should have had an assist, and, most impressively, piled up a Chara-esque 18 defensive actions.
Ebobisse too had a day to remember — going 90 minutes for the second time in three weeks, completing all 19 passes he attempted in the attacking half of the field, and, of course, scoring another emphatic game-winning goal.
Brian Fernandez or no, it’s going to be awfully tough to take Ebobisse out of the lineup the way he’s playing. But his development, as well as that of Paredes and Tuiloma’s, isn’t coincidental. If you give promising young players opportunities week in and week out, they’re going to get better.
In the past, the question for the Timbers was whether they could afford to give their young players minutes. This year, it’s more a question of whether they can afford not to give their young players minutes. Judging by the way the likes of David Guzman and Claude Dielna starting the season, the answer couldn’t be clearer.
Savarese, it would appear, has figured that out. It’s taken awhile, but the Timbers look like themselves once again.
