Apologies to everybody for being so grim and grumpy in my pregame post. If you’d been faced with the prospect of sitting in a room listening to people chew on each other for three hours you’d be grumpy too. In any case, my expectations with regard to our performance against San Jose were certainly exceeded. But, and this is a pretty crucial issue, although we took a point in the road from a side that is probably the best in the league right now, we once again failed to win. Up two goals with 20 minutes to go, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t close the deal. The game really changed when Wondolowski came on, and that’s not surprising given that he’s one of the stars of this league. We were under the kosh for a lot of the later stages of the match, and it wasn’t totally surprising that we conceded given the lack of counter-pressure that we were able to exert. Still, I suppose that I owe the readers a bit of positive thinking, so let’s remember that we’ve taken four out of a possible six points from these guys this season.
Anyway, here are the individual assessments:
23. Joe Bendik: He kept a clean sheet for longer than the 15 seconds he managed in his previous appearance (substituting for Ricketts) or the four or so minutes the time before that (substituting for Perkins after the face-kicking in Montreal). Actually, I thought he did pretty well in most respects. He might have done slightly better on the first goal. The second came from an open header from about six yards in front of goal, and when you give something like that up bad things are going to happen. For his part, Bendik was solid. 6
14. Steven Smith: Just back from a disciplinary suspension, this was one of those nights when he mostly had what was required, including the presence of mind not to give Chris Wondolowski the box on the ears that his irritating conduct merited. He probably ought to have closed down on Wondolowski with a bit more alacrity in the build up to the first goal, but it was a play that developed very quickly and the Quakes attacker made very good use of a brief window of opportunity. 6
12. David Horst: I rode him pretty hard early in the season when, as he came back from injury, he didn’t look particularly fit and seemed to have trouble finding the pace of the game. I’m happy to say that he has rounded into form quite well and is now providing the leadership at the back that Brunner never quite seemed to manage. He was imperious in defense, coping well with the multifaceted attack that the Quakes brought to bear. 7
30. Lovel Palmer: I’m tempted to just write “adequate” and leave it at that. In fact, adequacy is a noticeable improvement in quality over his form for much of the season and that in itself merits comment. I think every fan of the Timbers must have felt serious qualms when they saw his name on the team sheet, but he did the business and stayed goal side all night. On the whole, not bad. 5
33. Hanyer Mosquera: He didn’t really have a bad game, although he played an alarmingly large number of aimless balls up the park, but it’s hard to get past his contribution to the tying goal. He certainly couldn’t have just let the ball go, but heading it where he did played Wondolowski onside. I’ve looked at that play a lot and I’m not at all sure there was anything else he could have done, given the height and pace of the ball, but it was unfortunate. 5
6. Darlington Nagbe: Another excellent performance from Nagbe. His pace and aggression were used to good effect and acted as a gravitational force that created space for other players on the pitch. He didn’t directly contribute to Mwanga’s brace, but his active play opened space and was an environmental factor in our offensive production. 7
8. Frank Songo’o: I think that Songo’o was just not fit early in the season. He is now and he has really blossomed in the last couple of months. It was clear from the off that he had great technique. Now, having achieved real match fitness, he is able to let his physical qualities tell as well. He is a powerful guy and he really hassled the Quakes in midfield to excellent effect. 6
13. Jack Jewsbury: The absence of Chará was always going to put more pressure on Jewsbury. He actually coped pretty well. The Quakes are fast and relentless, and they put a lot of pressure on us in the middle third of the pitch. Jewsbury did a good job of reading play and getting into position to blunt the force of San Jose’s onslaught. 6
22. Rodney Wallace: Remember what I said about Lovel Palmer? Well, RodWal is kind of Lovel light, i.e. he has underwhelmed for most of the season but hasn’t really quite plumbed the depths that Palmer did in some of his less memorable moments. I will say this for the guy: he’s one of those players about whom one can say that whatever was got from him on any given night was 100% of what he had. In this instance, that was not actually that bad. He ran hard and had some good moments (especially in the build up to Mwanga’s opener). He gets a better than average grade for a better than average performance. 6
9. Kris Boyd: Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. 4
10. Danny Mwanga: Man of the Match. You could almost leave it at that. But I won’t. I think we’ve all wanted to see what he was capable of, and his performance made a pretty sound argument that he should get more time on the pitch. He used his strength and power to good effect, and his run onto the ball for the first goal was beautiful to watch. His second was power and class combined. The more he plays in what remains of the season, the better I’ll like it. 9
15. Kosuke Kimura: On most nights I’d prefer to see him in there, especially when the alternative is Lovel Palmer. He was sent on late to try to stabilize the situation but didn’t really have the desired effect. He put too many aimless balls up the pitch. I understand that a defender just has to clear the ball some times, but it looked to me on a number of occasions that he should have played the ball more thoughtfully to keep it from being rammed back down our throats immediately. 5
19. Bright Dike: Brought on when Boyd got crocked, his performance was an illustration of a player who has excelled his own talents working his way back to the mean. He could have sealed the deal with the Quakes keeper caught off his line, but fluffed the chance. Overall, he looked like a b-grade version of Mwanga. 4
5. Eric Brunner: It was nice to see him back on the pitch after a long absence due to concussion. He was sent on late to bolster the defense, and didn’t do anything particularly bad. It just seemed like the Timbers had resigned themselves to just humping the ball up the park and trying to wait out the result, for which Brunner cannot be blamed. 5
Ok, that’s that, but I do want to leave readers with this thought. How might this match have turned out differently if Portland had been more aggressive in the second half of the match?
Magadh