Timbers Win 0-0 In Seattle

No, Portland didn't leave with three points, but they sent their biggest rivals deeper into a tailspin. That's a win in my book.

0-0 is a scoreline that has never occurred in the Portland-Seattle rivalry since they joined MLS. One side should be celebrating it, and the other one should be absolutely disappointed.

Today’s Timbers lineup looked a little odd upon release. Juan David Mosquera was benched in favor of Eric Miller at right back. Jaroslaw Niezgoda also returned to the starting lineup, starting over Franck Boli at striker. One of these changes was a little weird. I didn’t think Franck Boli had lost his spot in the starting XI, but Niezgoda usually performs decently against Seattle. The other change answered a question I had been asking for a while: can both Claudio Bravo and Juan David Mosquera play fullback together and be solid enough defensively? 

Today’s match showed “manager Gio” at his best in terms of readiness. Dropping Juan Mosquera was a difficult decision. At times, he has looked like the best player on the pitch wearing a Timbers jersey. But for all he brings in attack, the defense just wasn’t there. Against a desperate and hungry Sounders team, Savarese knew that he had to make a serious adjustment to the backline to limit any chances the Sounders could create. And that back four worked wonders today. Seattle had 61% possession. They only created 3 chances. And they only managed 5 shots, with only ONE on target. That shot on target came from a corner kick, so not in an open play situation. Portland had Seattle locked down and unable to truly create dangerous opportunities, which is how the Sounders butter their bread. Chance creation for Seattle is almost effortless. As of publishing, they have the highest xG in MLS with 28.4. They have also created the most big chances in MLS with 30 total. Limiting the Sounders’ chances today was the most impressive thing that the Timbers accomplished. And it wasn’t just the backline that was so effective. Cristhian Paredes has been one of the heroes so far in 2023. Before he got injured, he was showing immense potential as a game-changing supersub. He performed that duty to full effect in our earlier meeting with the Sounders. Today, he was an eraser. He led the team with 4 successful tackles and was putting out every fire in his area. He also showed an incredible calmness under pressure. He’s my Man of the Match today. There was no one else on the pitch who was as impactful as Paredes today. Diego Chara got booked in the 7th minute, and used his trademark discipline to avoid putting himself in danger of getting sent off. With Chara’s semi-neutralization, Paredes stepped up. He continues to impress me more and more with each passing game. With Miller providing solidity on the right side of the backline, Claudio Bravo was uninhibited and brilliant today. His skill with the ball single-handedly works as both a clearance and a pass with the way he is able to dribble out of pressure. He also showed his recovery ability today, and even a healthy Jordan Morris wouldn’t have been able to get past him. Just an outstanding performance from him. Those two players were the standouts in the back, but Dario Zuparic and Zac McGraw didn’t put a single foot out of place either. Same with Eric Miller, who had a tough assignment with Leo Chu. Miller recognized that Chu was faster than him, so he countered with excellent positioning. Aljaz Ivacic only had one save to make, but he also claimed a few crosses and showed excellent control of his backline. Today was the Timbers’ third straight clean sheet at Lumen Field. The first one back in late 2021 came down to excellent goalkeeping from Steve Clark and a Timbers defense that never broke no matter how many dangerous balls Seattle could throw into the box. Last year, the Sounders went down a man early and the Timbers took full advantage while still nullifying Seattle’s most dangerous opportunities. Today, the Timbers shut them down in a way they haven’t been shut down in a very long time. In front of their own fans. Masterful work.

Of course, the final 0-0 score also indicated that the Timbers were unable to find a winner at Lumen Field. There are two major reasons for that. First of all, they were once again unable to quickly counter to take advantage of the opportunities their defense was giving them. And, finally, that ineptitude in the counter was not Evander’s fault. He had as good of a game you could have without registering a goal involvement. His mere presence on the field caused Seattle to swarm him with defenders to limit his passing lanes. The few times he did have space, he would respond by either trying to dribble to find a better spot or firing in a lethal ball. He had several of those balls today, including one that I’m going to get to later. He led all players with 4 chances created, which was more than the entire Sounders team managed in this match. On counters, he’s not going to drive at players with his dribbling. His passing is his best attribute, and he was constantly looking for runners around him to pass the ball to. Those runners either weren’t there or were marked by Seattle’s very good back four. With both Yeimar and Jackson Ragen playing deep, those opportunities weren’t going to come through the middle. Both Dairon Asprilla and Santiago Moreno weren’t making those runs out wide, and the few times they did the opposing fullbacks were able to catch up to them. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, rather Seattle’s good defensive structure. Niezgoda needed to come off the field by the 60th for the Timbers to have a chance at scoring. Boli’s short time on the pitch showed the energy Portland needed to succeed in those spots. But the attack still looked dangerous, especially on set pieces. Evander’s delivery is a weapon. The team is getting better and better playing with him.

Onto the opposition, because they will be furious with this result. Savarese outcoached Brian Schmetzer today. That is becoming a tradition at Lumen Field. In their last 8 matches at the monster truck venue, the Timbers have a record of 5-3-0. They are unbeaten at the ground of their biggest rival in a streak spanning several seasons. Credit must be given where credit is due. Adding in the 3 straight clean sheets is just the cherry on top of a well-deserved cake. 

I only have one more point to make about the silly little fishies. In the 57th minute of the match, Schmetzer subbed on Cristian Roldan. This was the first appearance for the USMNT benchwarmer since April 8th. He had been dealing with concussion symptoms for almost 2 months. In the postgame press conference, Schmetzer said that they instructed Roldan not to go for headers. Now, normally Seattle takes every opportunity to take the high ground, and they always feel morally superior for doing so. This is not me taking the moral high ground, but more concern for a player that I should feel absolutely no regard for. If any player across any sport is dealing with a head injury, and if the sport that they’re playing requires a lot of contact with the head, why are they playing in a game that could seriously injure them more? We saw this in the past NFL season with Tua Tagovailoa, and head injuries especially should not be messed with. I’m not saying that Schmetzer is endangering his players because his team is ass, but at the same time that’s exactly what I’m saying. I would expect a lot more from a team that is the pinnacle of MLS. Player safety should not be trifled with, no matter how big the game is.

I would also like to talk about the refereeing, just because I was in attendance today. Of course, the lack of in-stadium replays do no favors for in-person viewing, but I thought Allen Chapman did not do his job today. Given the unfortunate recent trend of referee abuse, I’m not saying he’s the reason we lost the match today. But there are definitely certain events that do warrant scrutiny. A dive is when a player embellishes a foul, and sometimes there isn’t even a foul. Joao Paolo actually jumped in the air for a dive today, and Chapman bought it. The result was a yellow card for Cristhian Paredes. The yellow card difference and the foul difference between the teams today was appalling. Since they are actual fish, the Sounders like to flop. Most often, Portland got penalized for Seattle dives. Oh well. That’s just PROReferees at their finest. However, there is one chance that definitely deserves a magnifying glass. In the second half, Dairon Asprilla was running to get his head on a perfect ball from Evander. It certainly looked from my angle (section 301, looking right down on the box) that Nouhou was tugging at Dairon’s jersey and was inhibiting his progress. That is an obvious case of DOGSO (denial of a goal-scoring opportunity) and should have been a penalty and a yellow card. Seattle is very good at using their positioning to shield the ball, but their physicality is not always clean. This was a surefire penalty and I can’t wait to go back and look at it again to see just how big of a missed call it was. Of course, the Timbers did have their opportunities, but that’s not just a badly placed handball. That’s a clear and obvious pen. There was no VAR check on the play. Horrific.

The Timbers now have a 5-game unbeaten streak against their biggest rivals. It’s not as pretty as a 5-game winning streak, but it’s still fantastic. Turning Lumen into a second home is a massive achievement in its own right. Of course, it’s still a soulless stadium. I would never want to call it home. But the Timbers are slowly turning it into a nice little vacation house. Brian Schmetzer might not be vacationing at the Club World Cup at any point in the near future again, but the Timbers will definitely continue to take business trips to their house in the middle of the SEA. And it looks like they will continue to return home satisfied.

As for the Timbers, they have once again shown up in a rivalry match. I expected this, but what really blew me away was Savarese absolutely nailing how to neutralize the most dangerous attack in the league. His decision to start Eric Miller was a difficult but correct choice. If Gio continues to put together the best team to neutralize an opponent every week, we can definitely continue to keep climbing the table. This is a matter of consistency, and not every player will be needed against every opponent. I don’t think a possible game-by-game approach will weaken the locker room. In second half stoppage time, Nathan Fogaca and Franck Boli got into a little argument after Nathan touched a pass after he was offside. Some were looking at that scuffle with a catastrophic lens. Gio touched on this in his postgame press conference, saying, “This is what we need, players who care… This, to me, shows that we want to win.” I agree with Gio’s assessment of this. Winning is still the most important thing to these players. And I believe Gio can get them to buy in to this approach. Picking up points is still the ultimate goal of this team. And with a summer transfer window still to come, today’s result once again proves that this season is nowhere close to finished.