Player Grades: Timbers 2-1 Atlanta United

On Saturday, the Portland Timbers won 2-1 in another important victory against Atlanta United. Both of the Timbers goals came through two excellent penalties from Dairon Asprilla and Santiago Moreno.

Here’s my breakdown of how the Timbers’ players performed as they once again remained in the crucial 7th position in the Western Conference, above the playoff line.

Aljaz Ivacic (GK) - 2.9

Ivacic wasn’t involved much at all in this game, which is the major reason why he received a low rating. The Slovenian completed five of seven passes, including only one of three long passes. Atlanta were unable to generate many chances at goal, so Ivacic consequently didn’t have many saves to make and his conceded goal was hard to save as well. So Ivacic didn’t have that poor of a performance when he had his chances. However, he also didn’t impact the game much.

Timbers backline trends (I included Moreno in the frontline trends, based on his previous games):

Santiago Moreno (RWB/RW) 7.1

Apart from his passing, where he only ranked in the 19th percentile, Moreno had a solid overall performance and displayed a lot of good qualities in the final third. The Colombian ranked in the 46th percentile for his total actions, 57th percentile for his playmaking, 42nd percentile for his defending, and the 83rd percentile for his dribbling. Additionally, Moreno scored a penalty and recorded one shot assist, one through ball, three carries into the penalty area, four shot-creating actions and one goal-creating action, so he had quite the performance in the final third.

Bill Tuiloma (RB/CB) - 4.6

Apart from his defending (where he wasn’t required to deal with too much), Tuiloma had a pretty solid performance. He came in the 35th percentile for his total actions, 56th percentile for his passing, 57th percentile for his aerials, 26th percentile for his defending, and 67th percentile for his carrying. As you can see, although Tuiloma didn’t have a great defensive performance, he made up for it by playing a sizable role in the buildup through his passing and carrying.

Dario Zuparic (CB) - 3.5

Playing as the middle man in the back three, Zuparic has struggled to accumulate actions and influence the match on the ball. This can be seen through Zuparic’s total actions grade in only the 27th percentile. Consequently, this lack of on and some off-ball actions negatively influenced Zuparic’s other grades as he ranked in the 33rd percentile for his passing, 37th percentile for his aerials, 47th percentile for his defense, and just the 17th percentile for his carrying.

Zac McGraw (CB) - 4.7

Like most of the other center backs, McGraw struggled to accumulate defensive actions in this match as he ranked in the 37th percentile for his defensive grade. However, apart from his carrying (27th percentile), McGraw turned in a solid performance for the Timbers, ranking in the 47th percentile for his total actions, 48th percentile for his passing, and the 72nd percentile for his aerials.

Claudio Bravo (LB) - 6.6

Bravo had a very well-rounded performance as he ranked above the 50th percentile for all of his major categories. Specifically, Bravo landed in the 55th percentile for his total actions, 57th percentile for his passing, 54th percentile for his playmaking, 53rd percentile for his defense, and the 63rd percentile for his dribbling. Adding onto his performance, Bravo recorded one shot assist, three progressive runs, one carry into the penalty area and one shot-creating action.

Diego Chara (CDM) - 5.0

Diego had a bit of a shaky performance as he didn’t perform well defensively (20th percentile), had alright total actions (43rd percentile) and offensive (42nd percentile) grades, and had a pretty solid passing grade in the 57th percentile. However, Chara’s shot and goal-creating action (he drew the penalty which led to the Moreno goal) added a significant boost to his overall grade.

Cristhian Paredes (CM) - 4.4

Paredes also had a shaky overall performance as he underperformed in his passing (28th percentile) and offensive (40th percentile) grades, but he partially made up for it with solid total actions and defensive grades in the 50th percentile.

Timbers frontline trends:

Yimmi Chara (RAM) - 4.3

Yimmi had another performance which was all over the place. He performed well in his pressing and total actions, slightly underperformed in his passing and playmaking, and struggled in his dribbling and offensive grades.

Dairon Asprilla (ST) - 6.8

In addition to his decisive penalty that put the game out of reach for Atlanta, Asprilla had a solid overall performance. He ranked in the 45th percentile for his total actions, 48th percentile for his shooting, 41st percentile for his passing, 61st percentile for his dribbling, 79th percentile for his aerials, and the 60th percentile for his pressing. Asprilla also suffered three fouls and recorded four carries into the penalty area and one progressive run. With this string of solid-to-good performances at the nine position, I would expect Asprilla to continue to start for the Timbers in that position moving forward.

Sebastian Blanco (LAM) - 4.5

Like Yimmi, Blanco also struggled to maintain consistency throughout this match. He ranked above-average in just one of his categories: pressing, which was in the 64th percentile. He came in marginally below-average for his playmaking (49th percentile) and passing (45th percentile), and ranked well below-average for his total actions (39th percentile), dribbling (23rd percentile), and offensive (24th percentile) grades. While his overall performance was slightly worse than Yimmi’s, Blanco’s contributions in the final third (one shot, one carry into the penalty area, one progressive run, and one foul suffered) added a slight boost to his grade.

Substitutes:

Jaroslaw Niezgoda () - N/A

Marvin Loria () - N/A

David Ayala () - N/A

These players aren’t graded because I currently do not have a grading system that will fairly evaluate players who have under 20 total actions, compared to the rest of the team, who played most of the game.