The way Caleb Porter saw things, it was time to pick a backline and stick with it.
Easier said than done, taking into consideration a season full of defensive headaches.
But in their 3-0 victory Saturday over the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Timbers head coach trotted out the same back four for the fourth straight game. And the center-back pairing of Liam Ridgewell and Pa Modou Kah, left back Jorge Villafana and right back Alvas Powell rewarded Porter’s faith with their second clean sheet in four tries.
Sure, both came against the goal-shy Whitecaps. And yes, in the other two games they allowed a combined five goals.
But Porter called Saturday’s defensive performance his team’s best of the season, and he’s banking on those four for a strong finish in their final five games starting Saturday on the road against Toronto FC.
“At that stage in the season, you’ve got to go with what you’ve got,” Porter said Wednesday at the team facility before the Timbers departed Thursday for Toronto, where they’ll train Friday. “And the evidence I had to go on in previous games, that’s the back four I felt would give us the best chance. For me, we are who are we are. For me it was going with the group that I felt had shown me that they were going to be the group that we could rely on.”
The decision came at the expense of Argentine center back Norberto Paparatto, who after being in and out of the lineup following his offseason acquisition had started three straight games along the Designated Player Ridgewell in early August while Kah worked his way back from an injury. Former outside back starters Michael Harrington and Jack Jewsbury, mainstays for the first three-quarters of the season and Portland’s run last year to the Western Conference regular season championship, have also been supplanted.
The fact of the matter was, whatever combination Porter was using wasn’t getting it done most of the season. Portland has been at or near the bottom of the defense rankings – they’re currently third worst in the Western Conference with 48 goals allowed.
“It’s like a recipe, right?” Porter said. “You get the wrong ingredients and it doesn’t taste too good. And that game, it just left me with a good taste in my mouth. I think we had the right ingredients.”
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Porter was not only talking about the backline but his entire lineup, which was the same for both Vancouver wins. Porter said, baring any uncontrollable circumstances, that’s the group he’ll stick with for their playoff chase.
As for the defense, Porter and his players said it was just a matter of coming together.
“Communication is the key,” Kah said. “In soccer, especially on the backline, you need to have that communication. And the communication between me and [Ridgewell] is clear.”
Even after their struggles, in a 2-2 draw Sept. 13 against Colorado and 3-3 result Sept. 7 against San Jose, Porter said it wasn’t hard resisting another change. He said those four have the perfect combination of speed, technical ability and intelligence.
“All the little things that go into it,” he said.
Plus, Porter said his defense wasn’t getting overrun against San Jose and Colorado, just being hurt by silly mistakes.
“I think they were probably just mistakes because they didn’t break us down that easy,” said Villafana, who came to Portland in an offseason trade. “It was just mistakes, and those are the things you work on in training and I think we’ve been pretty good the last games and we just keep working on the mistakes.”
And with Villafana and Powell more apt to get forward than veterans Jewsbury and Harrington, Porter said in the last Vancouver game especially, they struck the right balance between attacking and defending.
“They’ve gained some confidence, they’ve gained some chemistry,” Porter said. “We haven’t been able to, like I said in the past, get into a groove, and we’re in a groove with this lineup. And I think this lineup does have the right dimensions.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
