Portland Timbers vs Colorado Rapids Recap: Portland falls short again

by Ryan Gates on Jun 11, 2011 10:57 PM PDT

Quick Recap:

Portland finally showed some effort and looked like a better team than the previous two games. Despite the effort the quality was lacking around the goal and Colorado got lucky late to take 3 points. 1-0 Portland goes down.

First Half:

Portland looked really shaky in the first two minutes of the game but weathered those initial butterflies to get a dangerous free kick in the 4th minute and a corner off of that set-piece. Already you could see captain Jack Jewsbury make a concerted effort to play in front of Diego Chara filling the gap in between the mids and the forwards that has been lacking in previous games.

More After the Jump

The passing was crisp as Portland really worked the passing lanes which lead in the 8th minute to a beautiful through ball to Nagbe in the corner of the box, unfortunately his outside of the foot shot was right at the goalie. While Portland was pressing the Colorado Rapids looked to absorb the pressure and hit their target forward Conor Casey and get into the attack as quickly as they could. On occasion they looked dangerous but the pass just wasn't there.

Once Colorado was able to gain possession they looked dangerous at times playing through the middle of the park, especially in the 11th minute when a long range shot was struck which Troy Perkins was unable to coral which luckily bounced to Eric Brunner who cleared it away. The second corner resulting from that shot provided a goal scoring opportunity for Colorado that saw the header go just over the bar. On that same corner Kenny Cooper got hit in the head which drew blood. Cooper came back like a warrior with his head wrapped.

The next scoring opportunity came from the Portland Timbers as Kalif Alhassan dispossessed a Colorado player and immediately went on the attack, since no one closed him down he tried a cheeky chip of the keeper that went just over the bar. In the 30th minute Futty went down with what looked like a separated shoulder which brought in David Horst. Hopefully it is not too serious.

In the 35th minute Jorge Perlaza was put through by a great header from Chara but he just couldn't get the ball out from under his feet and pushed his shot wide. One minute later Colorado put a header on frame, but Perkins was in the right place at the right time and made the save. Portland had another great ball to Perlaza who cut it back to Darlington Nagbe in the box but his shot.

For the next 3 minutes Portland could just not get the ball past midfield. Once they did they were able to put some passes together and win a Corner kick in the 41st minute which was cleared for another corner. Portland had another chance this time with a header on frame from Cooper that the Colorado Goalie was able to save but not able to hold onto and a defender cleared the ball over the end line for a corner.

Stats: Portland with 7 shots and 4 Corners. Colorado with 9 shots and 5 corners.

Second Half:

Portland came out of the locker room with energy and that energy translated to a corner which resulted in a nice chance headed just over the bar by Cooper. The next 10 minutes Portland and Colorado went back and forth with no real chances until the 58th minute when Perlaza got a ball with his back to the goal and laid it off to Cooper but the keeper made a nice save to parry the ball past the post.

It was as if that shot energized the crowd and the players as the ball seemed to not leave that end of the field until the 60th minute but not before a long range shot from Chara went just wide of the goal. Again the game went to a back and forth in the middle of the pitch.

Portland again was able to spring Perlaza who got to the ball just before the Keeper but was too wide of the goal. He passed the ball into Cooper but was not able to get the shot off and it was then cleared. Once again the energy and thought were there not the quality.

From the 80th minute on it was as if the Rapids were running a full court press and not allowing Portland any time on the ball. It took a lot of energy to just get the ball up the field. Once they did they were able to get behind the defense with a great cross field ball. Just like in the 86th minute when a beautiful cross found the back post and a wide open Ryan Pore who hit his header wide of the goal.

As the game went on you could sense that one goal was probably all this game was going to produce. It turned out that feeling was correct. Just after John Spencer got thrown out of the game by the fourth official Colorado took a free kick. Apparently Troy Perkins' limit on amazing saves in a row is 2 because he couldn't get the third shot after stopping two shots.

Portland had one last chance as Ryan Pore was on the end of a great cross into the box but once again the ball sailed over the goal.

Observations:

Nagbe started to show the creativity that the Timbers need and he combined really well with Hall and Chara
The Service to Perlaza and Cooper to relieve pressure on the defense was ten times better tonight
Perlaza needs to put away at least 1 of those breakaways!
Cooper played a much better game tonight as a distributor but no one could get him that final ball
Effort was there, the thought process was there but once again the quality was lacking in front of the goal.
Is it anything to ask for consistency with the Reffing? There were so many plays called foul then not called a foul that the players on both sides were frustrated. (The Timbers did not lose this game cause of the Ref, just want to let you know)

Your thoughts?

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Comments

In all honesty I thought this was one of the better referreed games of the season so far

it wasn’t good, but it was at least consistently bad for both teams. As you say, the Timbers didn’t lose because of the ref, but it was still a sub-par performance from the officials.

And the Timbers didn’t deserve to win, anyway – they spurned several great chances, and they still can’t get the ball out of midfield in any sort of threatening way whatsoever. Kenny Cooper, hurt though he was today, is still awful. He got great service, but couldn’t do anything with it.

This game was way more frustrating than the DC game – in that game the Timbers always looked like they were going to lose. In this game, the Timbers tried to be the better team, but didn’t really get there.

by pdb on Jun 12, 2011 12:12 AM PDT reply actions

Really?

This was the best game they’ve played yet I thought.

The passing accuracy was far better. They had the better possession throughout (54% to 46% I believe).

I saw meaningful attacking runs which lead to almost goals in the run of play, something I haven’t seen since the FC Dallas game.

I think at this stage it’s simply easy to say the Timbers played like crap and move on, but really they got off some meaningful scoring chances and Pickens was just able to save them, like the Kenny Cooper shot that took a bounce. That was a fantastic save by Pickens and he’ll probably get nominated for Save of the Week for it.

The midfield was sending the ball forward in a meaningful way, I thought Nagbe, especially, had a great game.

And despite Futty going down early, I thought the defense did well to close things down and get the ball out of the final third. Improvement is still needed, but overall I saw an improvement last night, especially when compared to the god awful performance against DC United.

RCTID - Stumptown Footy
Moderator of /r/MLS

by Geoff Gibson on Jun 12, 2011 7:06 AM PDT up reply actions

It was a nice save by the Colo keeper

Agreed, Timbers looked like a team out there last night, some of the best I’ve seen from them this year. Could have easily ended 3-nil Timbers, didn’t. C’est la vie. Lot of season still to play… if Spencer keeps them improving like this, the goals and wins will come.

by jaychuck on Jun 12, 2011 9:34 AM PDT up reply actions

They moved the ball around a bit better but for all that passing they still didn't have a lot of cohesion

They played about 1000% better than they did against DC, but there were still far too many indecisive passes from the midfield. It seems like one of two things happened – either a midfielder had a great idea for a pass and passed but the forwards didn’t have the same idea and couldn’t get to the pass, or the forwards knew where they wanted to go and the midfield didn’t. There were some decent chances but the finishing was pretty dire.

It was a far better game than the DC game, and better than last week. Despite the tone of my post, I’m more encouraged about the team now than I was two weeks ago; I’m just frustrated because, unlike the DC game, this game was extremely winnable, and the Timbers didn’t grab it when they had the chance.

by pdb on Jun 12, 2011 9:45 AM PDT up reply actions

It was definitely a war between the keepers.

Perk and Pickens were fantastic all game long.

by Dustructo on Jun 12, 2011 11:50 AM PDT up reply actions

The team played better than last week,

they just can’t put the ball in the back of the net. The Midfield looked good, at least better than of late. I see why Nagbe is expected to be such an impact player, there were some flashes of great play by him.

It seemed that our final pass to a Forward was always ‘just’ off target, although one or two of those breakaways should have had a better shot. And KFC completely whiffing on that one shot….Uuuggghhh!!!!! That was freakin’ painful…

What are the odds that the Front Office will try to get another player (Defender?) before the trade deadline? The lack of depth in the back is scary. Doesn’t need to be a “big” signing, just someone with experience.

by HikinGDub on Jun 12, 2011 7:34 AM PDT reply actions

KFC is rapidly becoming an epithet rather than a term of endearment

by pdb on Jun 12, 2011 10:52 AM PDT up reply actions

Poor shooting and an improved Nagbe

Timbers need an hour a day shooting practice. They are leaning back and shooting high consistently. We need goals! Our forwards have to put it on frame – make the keeper make the save.
I thought Nagbe looked much better this game. In the past he seemed fragile and was being run over and disposessed. This game he was much tougher on the ball and fought to maintain possession, showed more confidence.

by JBSalem on Jun 12, 2011 11:00 AM PDT reply actions

Nagbe's getting stronger every game and it's great to see

If he keeps this up he will be a pretty dominant player by the end of the season.

by pdb on Jun 12, 2011 11:02 AM PDT up reply actions

I was much happier with our run of play

this game than before. Still shaky about the defense despite the great game, and especially so since it looks like Futty is going to miss extended time. Like JBSalem said, they’re leaning back and shooting high way too often, and it also never seems like there’s no one there to catch the rebound and knock it in. And the forwards, ESPECIALLY Perlaza, never seem to just make a go of it and shoot on the first or second touch inside the box. He pussyfoots around just enough to get 2-4 guys on him and then intentionally makes it a tough shot. Just kick the damn ball! This has been an ongoing problem all season.

I am much happier with the midfield this game than before and it created a lot of great opportunities. Would love to see a way to get 5 mids on there when we need a goal instead of subbing Nagbe for Zizzo. I get the part about rest since both of them have had injuries this season and we don’t want to wear either out but I’d love to see Alhassan, Zizzo, Nagbe, Jewbury, and Chara out there at the same time pressing forward. There could be some exciting stuff that would happen with that.

On the note about officiating, I didn’t have too much of a problem with it until the Jeremy Hall yellow (which you could actually very easily see him yell “FOR WHAT?!” along with everyone else at the bar, a touching moment) and it all just sort of went downhill after that. I don’t think it’s an excuse at all for losing, but that whole fiasco with Spencer being sent off was ridiculous. The game very easily could’ve been 3-nil Portland if Perlaza makes that wide open shot, Chara, Nagbe, Cooper and even freakin Ryan Pore all had excellent chances as well.

by vitaminx on Jun 12, 2011 1:18 PM PDT reply actions

We need a real deal striker, everything else about our team is decent enough at this point.

It just feels like our strikers cant create a shot (let alone finish a gift wrapped one) for themselves.

Our keeper is pretty awesome, to be honest I didnt want to like him when he reclaimed his starting spot, but he actually has been pretty impressive.

by tevisthe4th on Jun 12, 2011 11:52 PM PDT reply actions

This is probably true

Cooper and Perlaza do well enough as forwards but not as legitimate strikers. But, it seems like this is an MLS-wide problem. Lots of decent talent, few of which can put the ball in goal consistently.

by vitaminx on Jun 13, 2011 9:53 AM PDT up reply actions

One thing that stood out to me

is that it seemed that KFC and Perlaza were getting much better service in this match. They had many more opportunities than in matches past. They need to work on converting those opportunities, but they can do that if they get the chances.

I see that as a good sign out of this dark result.

Blazers win!

by The X-man on Jun 13, 2011 3:37 PM PDT reply actions