After resurrecting a season very much on the brink with an unusual, almost unheard of six-point week last week, the Portland Timbers fall back into a familiar groove—pressure, injuries, absences, tough games, and, above all else, opportunity.
The New England Revolution—sans their two best players—come calling at Providence Park on Saturday night for Portland’s first weekend home game in over a month. This is the first legitimate opponent the Timbers have had to face since they bottomed out in Toronto two weeks ago. A win means Portland’s first MLS three-game winning streak.
The History
There isn’t much. Portland and New England drew 0-0 in one of the more forgettable home games of the Timbers’ landmark 2013 season on the Revs’ last trip to Portland, while last year it was that wonder-goal from Liam Ridgewell that cancelled out Charlie Davies’ opener and salvaged a draw for Portland in Foxborough.
The only real history between these two sides came in 2011, when Portland earned their first MLS point at New England with a 1-1 draw in the team’s third game. Later that year, the Timbers demolished the Revs — still coached by Steve Nichol at that point — 3-0 at Providence Park behind goals from Diego Chara, Kenny Cooper, and Darlington Nagbe.
This Saturday marks the only meeting of the year between Portland and New England. Neither team has a player that has ever played for the other team, but the relative quality of the two sides should make for an entertaining match.
The Tactics
Diego Valeri’s race to be fit for this game, it appears, will fall short. The Argentine wizard hasn’t resumed normal training since spraining his ankle in Toronto, so it appears as if Gaston Fernandez will reprise his role in the #10 spot.
Fernandez, along with his running-mate Maxi Urruti, has been the biggest factor salvaging Portland’s season with Valeri hurt, Fanendo Adi in shambles, and Darlington Nagbe still unable to find his best form. Fernandez and Urruti set each other up for the game-winner against DC United, and the opener against Colorado, and Caleb Porter should be comfortable going back to them in this game.
Will Johnson should be back in the starting lineup too after sitting out the Colorado match as part of his rehab. Johnson’s availability means that Jack Jewsbury—hero, legend, captain, man-of-the-people—will be retired to the bench, but Jewsbury will have plenty of game-time in the summer during the Gold Cup when he’ll presumably have to fill in for Johnson, who will be with Canada, and Alvas Powell, who will be with Jamaica.
The biggest spot of competition in the team appears to be on the wing, where Dairon Asprilla has been preferred to Rodney Wallace for two games running. Asprilla turned in his best performance for the Timbers against DC, but wasn’t quite at the races against Colorado—while Wallace was involved in the game-winning goal off the bench.
Jay Heaps’ Revs will be short-handed. Jermaine Jones is out injured, and even if he wasn’t injured, he would have been away with the US national team in Europe—which is where striker Juan Agudelo is. Other than that, New England is ready. The Revs will be looking for a big game from Lee Nguyen, who has been poor so far this year, while Agudelo’s absence makes room for young Daigo Fagundez to build on a strong performance last weekend against the LA Galaxy.
The biggest question tactically is whether Caleb Porter will have the Timbers sit-in, absorb pressure, and play on the counter as we saw frequently at the beginning of the season, or whether Portland will play with the kind of ambition that lets the match wide open. Let’s hope it’s the latter.
The Lineup
12 – Kwarasey
2 – Powell
24 – Ridgewell
7 – Borchers
19 – Villafaña
21 – Chara
4 – W. Johnson (C)
11 – Asprilla
6 – Nagbe
10 – Fernandez
37 – Urruti
The Pick
It’s a real shame that this game is being played without Valeri, Jones, and Agudelo. At their best, these are two of the most fun teams to watch in MLS. Hopefully Porter and the Timbers go for it, though they probably won’t have enough firepower against a bona fide playoff team to take all three points. 1-1 draw.
