Over the course of their now 11-game unbeaten streak, a streak stretching back to the beginning of April, the Portland Timbers have racked up their share of impressive results: home wins over New York City and LAFC, a point taken from Atlanta, three last weekend from Seattle.
On Saturday night, back at Providence Park aiming for a third win in three months over the last-place San Jose Earthquakes, they just needed to show up and take care of business.
And while they didn’t make it the simplest of closeouts, the Timbers did indeed get the job done. Two goals from an effervescent Samuel Armenteros and one stupendous save from Jeff Attinella were enough to secure a 2-1 victory that keeps the points piling up and the good times rolling.
The game was, in fact, never as close as the final scoreline indicated. Giovani Savarese set the Timbers up in the same 4-4-2 diamond they used to such good effect at CenturyLink Field last weekend, and, from the first minute, the Timbers had a stranglehold on the game.
Larrys Mabiala sent an open header wide after just two minutes, but it’d be the other player who found the scoresheet against the Sounders, Samuel Armenteros, who would open the scoring just nine minutes later.
Lawrence Olum stepped in to win the ball in central midfield and found the Swede, who hit Valeri and took off — receiving the ball back as he broke into the box. His first touch was immaculate, sending him past Jimmy Ockford, and his second found the near side of the net past a poorly positioned Andrew Tarbell.
It was a terrible start for the ‘Quakes, and, as if they didn’t have enough problems, two of their starts promptly exited with injuries: left back Kevin Partida was lifted after 23 minutes before leading scorer Danny Hoesen had to be withdrawn, suffering from a migraine, ten minutes later.
The Timbers dominance continued through the first half hour, with Armenteros forcing Tarbell into action at his near post after being set up by a surging Alvas Powell, and while they lolled slightly to end the half, the Armenteros show would continue when he sent a bicycle kick inches wide just before the break.
Minutes after it, he’d score his second goal with a flourish.
Eight minutes into the second half, Attinella caught an overcooked cross from the veteran Shea Salinas, on for the felled Partida, rolled the ball quickly out to Sebastian Blanco, and watched his team tear forward.
Blanco hit Valeri, who slid the ball through the middle for Armenteros, and the striker went to work — dragging the attentive San Jose center backs wide while turning his back to goal in order to shield the ball, and then, in an instant, firing past an unsuspecting Tarbell on the half turn.
It was, in its way, a quite spectacular goal — scored by a player who is a half step quicker and a half second smarter than every defender who he has faced down over the last two months. Armenteros is playing at the kind of speed, with the kind of creativity, that would look good in a top playmaker, let alone pure goalscorer.
When he was lifted for Fanendo Adi with a quarter of an hour to go, Armenteros exited to one of the loudest ovations the Providence Park crowd has rained down on a player all season. He was an absolute joy to watch.
As for San Jose, well, there’s little left to say. It’s a second-rate franchise and a third-rate team, still winless in Portland, and pointless in their last five visits.
The ‘Quakes might have made a game of it had Attinella not made a stunning one-hand save on an equally stunning volley from substitute Quincy Amerikwa on the hour mark, but the goal they would get — made doggedly by Amerikwa for Florien Jungwirth with five minutes to go — was consolation only.
San Jose didn’t disappear in this game, to their credit, but their problems were both systemic and individual. They were overrun in central midfield and didn’t get nearly enough from their wingers on either side of the ball to compensate, and got zero help from a defense that looks overwhelmed week after week.
Mikael Stahre is a straight shooter, and his postgame remarks were simple enough. “We’ve now played them two times in the league and have lost both times,” he said. “For the moment they are a little better than us, that’s the reality.”
Can’t argue with that.
Savarese, in calling his own team’s performance very “optimistic,” had an equally compelling assessment.
Tasked with playing more proactively than they often have this season, the Timbers responded well. They were composed on the ball, stylishly so at times, and pinged around 565 passes with 58 percent possession while generating a 19 shots.
And, despite controlling play, despite the fact that they led for nearly 80 minutes, they still pounced — with relish — on the few they got opportunities to unleash the fire-and-brimstone counter attack that has no team over the last three months has been able to fully silence.
The game’s decisive goal was scored thanks to that counter, set up with no extraneous touches, no second looks, and no time wasted, just three passes up the field before being finished so cleverly by Armenteros. Valeri, deployed as a true playmaker in the diamond, now has five assists in the last two weeks.
It’s exciting stuff. The Timbers’ counter and defensive organization have made their season, but it’s this ability to play on the front foot, to create with the ball, that is making them an elite team before our eyes.
Their game-to-game focus, aided in no small part by the competition for places that Savarese has encouraged, isn’t hurting either. This team has hardly switched off for a moment since March, and they’ve been rewarded for it.
The Timbers have had great teams and great runs over the last handful of years, several of them each, in fact, but this one feels different. They’re not yet a finished product — and if they’re not yet the finished product, they’re going to feel right at home amongst the league’s very best come the fall.
