I know it is only 3 games into the season and the sample size is way to small to draw any significant conclusions but I thought it would be nice to take a look at them anyways. First let's look at individual stats and then team stats.
Let's take a look at the goal keeper stats:
| # | POS | Player | GP | GS | MIN | SO | GA | SOG | SV | SV% | GAA | PG | PA | W | L | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | GK | Adin Brown | 2 | 2 | 135 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 0.667 | 2.67 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 20 | GK | Jake Gleeson | 2 | 1 | 135 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 13 | 0.867 | 1.33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
The biggest things that jumps out to me is the save percentage. Granted Brown was in the net for the Timbers first half meltdown against the current Colorado Rapids, the current MLS leaders, and had probably our weakest defensive line-up in from of him. What I really think this means is the fact that Gleeson has moved up the depth chart to be our back-up as Brown looks to be a step slower and just a little less athletic than Gleeson.
Now for the field players:
| # | POS | Player | GP | GS | MIN | G | GWG | A | SHT | SOG | OFF | PG | PA | FC | FS | YC | RC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | M | Kalif Alhassan | 2 | 1 | 114 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | D | Eric Brunner | 3 | 3 | 270 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | F | Kenny Cooper | 3 | 3 | 270 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | D | Kevin Goldthwaite | 2 | 2 | 135 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | D | Jeremy Hall | 3 | 3 | 246 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | D | David Horst | 2 | 1 | 135 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | M | Jack Jewsbury | 3 | 3 | 270 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | M | Peter Lowry | 2 | 2 | 135 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 14 | M | James Marcelin | 1 | 1 | 90 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | M | Adam Moffat | 1 | 0 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | F/M | Darlington Nagbe | 1 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | F | Jorge Perlaza | 3 | 3 | 208 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | M | Ryan Pore | 2 | 2 | 156 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | D | Steve Purdy | 3 | 3 | 270 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 26 | F | Brian Umony | 2 | 0 | 62 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 22 | D/M | Rodney Wallace | 3 | 3 | 246 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | M | Sal Zizzo | 1 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What really jumps out at me the amount of fouls suffered by Kenny Cooper, which is tied for the league lead. Also Cooper is tied for fourth in the league in shots on goal. However Jorge Perlaza has only 1 shot on goal and is being out shot by our left back Rodney Wallace. This is not good enough and not all the blame can be placed with Perlaza but the service to him needs to put him in better positions to take shots.
Both Perlaza and Cooper are tied for second in Offside calls going against them. What this tells me is that they are both being aggressive and trying to get behind the defense. It also tells me the Timbers are playing to direct, just like Grey Home points out, our outside back need to hit a diagonal ball which has a less chance of getting an offside call compared to a straight through ball. The Diagonal ball allows for a deeper run to be used by the attacking player, which is why offside is less likely to be called.
Team stats:
The first stat is probably the biggest reason why we have two losses and one tie:
| Team | GP | G | 1-15 | 16-30 | 31-45 | 46-60 | 61-75 | 76-90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timbers | 3 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The last team stat is something that I see as a positive and a negative and I left in the other 2 Cascadia teams as a comparison.
TEAM TOTAL SHOTS
| Team | W | L | T | 1st | 2nd/OT | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle Sounders | 0 | 2 | 2 | 39 | 25 | 64 |
| Vancouver Whitecaps | 1 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 24 | 49 |
| Portland Timbers | 0 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 17 | 34 |
TEAM TOTAL SHOTS AGAINST
| Team | W | L | T | 1st | 2nd/OT | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Timbers | 0 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 21 | 38 |
| Vancouver Whitecaps | 1 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 23 | 39 |
| Seattle Sounders | 0 | 2 | 2 | 26 | 19 | 45 |
The Timbers are getting shots but they are giving shots up too. You would like to see the ratio down to 1.5 to 1 instead of the 1 to 1 it is now.
Play-off odds:
Thanks to this amazing website we can see throughout the season the Timbers chances at the play-offs. Currently Portland has a 31.1% chance of making the play-offs. The biggest surprise probably would be the fact that out of the three Cascadia teams Vancouver is the only one currently making the play-offs with 57.6%. The Sounders are only at 27.7%.