What a magical night! In the Army, it felt like matches from the distant past. But amid the gritty play and joyful comeback, I want to point out that the Timbers had 11 corners and on nearly every one the taller Loons headed the ball away. It's baffling why the FO has allowed the team to become perhaps the shortest in the league.
Great piece, Jeremy! Way to capture the night. How often in life do things go the way you want them to? It's tough to say goodbye to Dairon after so many important goals and moments that he has added to Timbers' lore. As he showed last night, what a player to have. He just owned the right side! If we ever played three in the back, he'd be a good wingback.
Johnathan - oh my - he just had an off night. His last goal was amazing though. It was really instinctual and his run was perfect to knife in there and get a touch. He's a true goal scorer like you say.
I'd say Evander took the team on his back tonight and really got it rolling. When he toyed with Caden Clark one time I just had to laugh. He's amazing. A few times I wanted him to rip a shot as he drove toward goal, but he passed. Too bad his shot at the very end didn't go in so he could pad his stats a little.
Great job Moreno on that shot - that was a jaw dropper. He seems to pop up all over the place, and makes it difficult for the defense to predict where he will be.
Sorry to see McGraw get hurt like that. He is a warrior. I'm not sure what happened on Minnesota's second goal - a miscue between McGraw and Chara. I mean, why is Chara heading that backward? Did he think McGraw was positioned further back? We can talk lightly of this mistake because we won, but those are the kind of mistakes that will lose you games against better teams.
We won't see Crepeau this week - at least for Thursday's match, and I can't imagine if Canada lost on Friday that he would come in and play Sunday, so we have Pantemis for the next two. If he keeps playing well and the team keeps winning, Phil has a tough decision to make. If it were me, I'd keep going Pantemis until the team loses. He made a couple of really good saves in the first half - one was a kick save that was really great. This guy is good and the team is getting results.
Fifth in the standings! But, there is little margin between fifth and ninth, so they have to keep grinding. I hope they stay hot heading into Leagues Cup, and I would love to see them make a run there. This is a lot of fun to watch this team.
I'm not worried about the attack. Rodriguez and Mora are allowed to have off nights. It's pretty annoying when they have an off night on the same night. But even their off wasn't too bad in this case. I'm very encouraged to see Moreno and Antony continuing to improve. Evander Evander'd. I love the idea that he can still get better but I don't want to get silly.
I'm also very pleased with Bravo and especially Mosquera putting in good defensive shifts. When Mosquera gets that attack/defend balance down...oh boy. Well, we'll have to sell him. I'm very happy for Zuparic. I like him. It seems like he had a really off year in 2023 but if I had any thoughts or possible explanations for that at the time I don't remember now. McGraw was better then and may be returning to form now. I don't think any of our CBs is quite what I want or what we ultimately need but at least the tactics might be adjusting to their limitations a bit. But. We still shipped 2 goals to a very depleted Minnesota. I'm not sure what to blame for that. I can't see that well from my spot in the north end and probably wouldn't remember whatever I thought in the moment anyway. Did McGraw keep someone on side for one of the goals? Anyway, I still consider defense an area of opportunity.
I've been very critical of Neville and haven't been especially optimistic. I've always appreciated the bravery and creativity of his subs, though I sometimes don't get what he has in mind at first. Seeing Chara at centerback for a spell when McGraw had to come off was a bit alarming but Mosquera was probably the only other choice at the time and I guess I'd take Chara's judgment and technique over Mosquera's size? I still don't think I entirely understand what Neville means by "mentality" or agree with his ratios of how much different aspects play in determining victory but his anecdote about team camaraderie clarifies things somewhat. There's more going on than just mentality and it annoys me that things keep getting reduced to that. Whatever.
I'm not current on the latest goings-on with LA, LAFC, and SLC but get the sense that they're not fully formed and yet still hold some advantages over us. I expect at least the LA teams to improve in the summer transfer window. SLC is more of a mystery to me. I don't expect Colorado to spend any money and they'll probably weaken as the season goes on, but someone else (Morrisonic?) once compared the trajectories of our respective coaches so I perhaps they might be a pretty good benchmark to judge Phil against in some ways at least. I can't shake the feeling that the Western Conference is just kind of bad, that we've been performing well against struggling teams, and that we still have some big weaknesses. But it's been a hell of a lot of fun not losing, scoring goals, and even winning lately, so I'm trying to enjoy that rather than dread when the other shoe is going to drop. If we continue to win and eventually overcome some undeniably good teams, I may need someone to explain how it happened without reference to mentality.
Fuck you Jeremy. And I say that in the kindest way possible. I cried last night at the assist and goal.
And now I sit in the stands at Soldier Field, after a four hour drive, waiting for the Rolling Stones (Thanks so much to VetTix!), and instead of listening to Lainey Wilson open, I'm getting all choked up again reading your report.
What a game and what a magnificent script. I was so full of joy watching our lads do what it looks like they're starting to believe they can do on a weekly basis.
When we were in Denver we had season tickets to the Rapids for a couple of years (one of the conditions was that they move us to the away section when the Timbers came to town). The Rapids were not good, but we did regularly see good performances from Clint Irwin.
What a magical night! In the Army, it felt like matches from the distant past. But amid the gritty play and joyful comeback, I want to point out that the Timbers had 11 corners and on nearly every one the taller Loons headed the ball away. It's baffling why the FO has allowed the team to become perhaps the shortest in the league.
Great piece, Jeremy! Way to capture the night. How often in life do things go the way you want them to? It's tough to say goodbye to Dairon after so many important goals and moments that he has added to Timbers' lore. As he showed last night, what a player to have. He just owned the right side! If we ever played three in the back, he'd be a good wingback.
Johnathan - oh my - he just had an off night. His last goal was amazing though. It was really instinctual and his run was perfect to knife in there and get a touch. He's a true goal scorer like you say.
I'd say Evander took the team on his back tonight and really got it rolling. When he toyed with Caden Clark one time I just had to laugh. He's amazing. A few times I wanted him to rip a shot as he drove toward goal, but he passed. Too bad his shot at the very end didn't go in so he could pad his stats a little.
Great job Moreno on that shot - that was a jaw dropper. He seems to pop up all over the place, and makes it difficult for the defense to predict where he will be.
Sorry to see McGraw get hurt like that. He is a warrior. I'm not sure what happened on Minnesota's second goal - a miscue between McGraw and Chara. I mean, why is Chara heading that backward? Did he think McGraw was positioned further back? We can talk lightly of this mistake because we won, but those are the kind of mistakes that will lose you games against better teams.
We won't see Crepeau this week - at least for Thursday's match, and I can't imagine if Canada lost on Friday that he would come in and play Sunday, so we have Pantemis for the next two. If he keeps playing well and the team keeps winning, Phil has a tough decision to make. If it were me, I'd keep going Pantemis until the team loses. He made a couple of really good saves in the first half - one was a kick save that was really great. This guy is good and the team is getting results.
Fifth in the standings! But, there is little margin between fifth and ninth, so they have to keep grinding. I hope they stay hot heading into Leagues Cup, and I would love to see them make a run there. This is a lot of fun to watch this team.
I'm not worried about the attack. Rodriguez and Mora are allowed to have off nights. It's pretty annoying when they have an off night on the same night. But even their off wasn't too bad in this case. I'm very encouraged to see Moreno and Antony continuing to improve. Evander Evander'd. I love the idea that he can still get better but I don't want to get silly.
I'm also very pleased with Bravo and especially Mosquera putting in good defensive shifts. When Mosquera gets that attack/defend balance down...oh boy. Well, we'll have to sell him. I'm very happy for Zuparic. I like him. It seems like he had a really off year in 2023 but if I had any thoughts or possible explanations for that at the time I don't remember now. McGraw was better then and may be returning to form now. I don't think any of our CBs is quite what I want or what we ultimately need but at least the tactics might be adjusting to their limitations a bit. But. We still shipped 2 goals to a very depleted Minnesota. I'm not sure what to blame for that. I can't see that well from my spot in the north end and probably wouldn't remember whatever I thought in the moment anyway. Did McGraw keep someone on side for one of the goals? Anyway, I still consider defense an area of opportunity.
I've been very critical of Neville and haven't been especially optimistic. I've always appreciated the bravery and creativity of his subs, though I sometimes don't get what he has in mind at first. Seeing Chara at centerback for a spell when McGraw had to come off was a bit alarming but Mosquera was probably the only other choice at the time and I guess I'd take Chara's judgment and technique over Mosquera's size? I still don't think I entirely understand what Neville means by "mentality" or agree with his ratios of how much different aspects play in determining victory but his anecdote about team camaraderie clarifies things somewhat. There's more going on than just mentality and it annoys me that things keep getting reduced to that. Whatever.
I'm not current on the latest goings-on with LA, LAFC, and SLC but get the sense that they're not fully formed and yet still hold some advantages over us. I expect at least the LA teams to improve in the summer transfer window. SLC is more of a mystery to me. I don't expect Colorado to spend any money and they'll probably weaken as the season goes on, but someone else (Morrisonic?) once compared the trajectories of our respective coaches so I perhaps they might be a pretty good benchmark to judge Phil against in some ways at least. I can't shake the feeling that the Western Conference is just kind of bad, that we've been performing well against struggling teams, and that we still have some big weaknesses. But it's been a hell of a lot of fun not losing, scoring goals, and even winning lately, so I'm trying to enjoy that rather than dread when the other shoe is going to drop. If we continue to win and eventually overcome some undeniably good teams, I may need someone to explain how it happened without reference to mentality.
Fuck you Jeremy. And I say that in the kindest way possible. I cried last night at the assist and goal.
And now I sit in the stands at Soldier Field, after a four hour drive, waiting for the Rolling Stones (Thanks so much to VetTix!), and instead of listening to Lainey Wilson open, I'm getting all choked up again reading your report.
What a game and what a magnificent script. I was so full of joy watching our lads do what it looks like they're starting to believe they can do on a weekly basis.
When we were in Denver we had season tickets to the Rapids for a couple of years (one of the conditions was that they move us to the away section when the Timbers came to town). The Rapids were not good, but we did regularly see good performances from Clint Irwin.
Thank you for another great write-up.