PORTLAND, Ore. -- It didn’t take long for the Portland Timbers to feel the absence of their injured players, including Darlington Nagbe, on Wednesday night. In fact, it took exactly three minutes and two seconds for FC Dallas to punish Portland.
Midfielder Ned Grabavoy, who slotted in for Nagbe in the only lineup change from coach Caleb Porter’s previous starting group, made a dangerous back pass to Jack Jewsbury. FC Dallas pounced, and Michael Barrios finished coolly one-on one en route to a 3-1 win at Providence Park.
The message was clear: the injury-ravaged Timbers were in for a very long night.
"We’ve got two days to sort it out and I’ve got to look at everything: lineup, system, personnel,” Porter said. "We can’t overreact, obviously it’s one game, but the pattern of us giving up goals needs to change.
That performance in the first half is not something that’s going to happen again on my watch and I apologize to the fans.”
The Timbers have a quick turnaround hosting San Jose on Saturday, but a string of injuries has left Porter with few options for rotation.
In addition to missing Nagbe, it appears the Timbers may again be without defender Liam Ridgewell (hamstring), defender Andy Thoma (knee), midfielder Ben Zemanski (groin pull) and winger Dairon Asprilla (foot).
That’s a lot of talent on the bench, but Porter said injuries were not an excuse.
"It doesn’t matter. We have to figure it out," he said. "We have to manage it. No one cares about the excuses. It’s all about getting results and getting the job done. You build your team to have depth, to manage injuries, and you never like it when it happens, but it’s happened.”
Injuries have made life difficult for the Timbers though. The MLS Cup-winning Timbers' form late last season was sparked, in part, by a formation change that left Diego Chara handling defensive midfield duties on his own. But the recent rash of injuries has forced Porter lately to add some defensive cover in the form of Jewsbury, who struggled on Wednesday.
Now, Porter needs to figure out how to fix the team’s mistakes for their third match in a week, but the performance Wednesday gives him little to work with.
"When you make mistakes and give up goals, it’s impossible to win games and it’s impossible to judge who played well in the front because when you’re down 3-0, the game’s over," he said. "To be honest with you, I felt bad for some of the guys because they gave everything they had from start to finish but the mistakes meant we were never in the game."
