SAN JOSE, Calif. – The Portland Timbers will use the upcoming international break to not only rest and recuperate, but also, perhaps, to rethink.
Coach Caleb Porter ran out an unchanged lineup to face the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday, hoping to see a similar performance from the same 11 players who so thoroughly dismantled Orlando City SC a week earlier.
Instead, the Timbers simply weren’t good enough in a first half where San Jose was able to build an early lead and gain the confidence to eventually see out a 2-1 victory.
“We need to rest well, obviously, reset a bit, get this behind us,” Porter said after the game. “We need to figure out our best lineup, as well, because obviously we’ve been winning with a certain lineup; today, the personnel was not the best, across the board.”
Porter made clear the problem areas with a double substitution in the 54th minute, removing mistake-prone Roy Miller at left back and ineffective Dairon Asprilla on the right wing in favor of Vytas and David Guzman.
“Ultimately, I went with that because we played really well with that lineup,” Porter said. “Obviously, when you don’t get the lineup [right] the next time, you’re going to get second-guessed. I take that, no problem. But in the end, I’m not going to change a team that won 3-0 and had our best game of the year.”
Porter also was adamant in his opinion that the opening 45 minutes were not representative of the form the Timbers had shown in going on a 6-2-2 burst coming into Avaya Stadium.
“That first half was an outlier, so I’m not going to read into it too much,” Porter said. “We’re going to keep a steady hand. We’re not going to panic because we had one bad half. Because it happens. And good thing it happened know and not in the playoffs. … You can’t let one bad half get in the way of all the good stuff we’ve been doing.”
One key ingredient that was missing in San Jose was a goal or two from star Diego Valeri. The Argentinean’s unearthly, record-shattering run of nine straight MLS games with a goal finally came to an end against the Quakes, helping to seal Portland’s fate.
Valeri enjoyed a couple of quality chances early on; he pushed a shot over the crossbar from close range on four minutes after an attempted clearance went wrong from Quakes center back Victor Bernardez and pulled another drive just wide of the post in the 24th. The Golden Boot hopeful was kept off the board thereafter, however, not recording a shot in the second half.
“When you’re scoring like he has been, eventually, it’s going to run out,” Porter said. “It’s the law of averages, you know? It was going to happen at some point. He wasn’t going to score for 30 straight games in a row. Today wasn’t his day.”
Yet the Timbers almost secured a point with a late flurry. Porter’s changes – combined with San Jose’s retrenchment following Danny Hoesen’s tally in the 49th minute – put Portland more in command during the latter stages.
Darren Mattocks put the ball in the net with an 83rd-minute backheel but was judged – erroneously, in Porter’s opinion – to be offside. And Sebastian Blanco gave Portland life in the 87th minute when he stroked in a goal from a pullback by Darlington Nagbe.
“At the end of the day, we have enough guys that can get goals from anywhere,” right back Zarek Valentin said. “Blanco can score, Darren can score, obviously [Guzman] and [Nagbe] are capable of putting goals in. So I don’t think we’re necessarily relying on one person. We have a deep enough squad that we’ve had a lot of guys step up this year.”
One of the biggest variables that Porter will have to watch heading into the final two games and a likely postseason appearance is the availability of forward Fanendo Adi. The Nigerian international has 51 goals in 112 appearances since joining Portland in 2014, including 10 this season, but hasn’t played since Aug. 6 due to recurring hamstring troubles.
“We’re clearly good with him in there, but he’s been out nine games,” Porter said. “Will he be back with this break? We’ll see.”
