cascadia cup

Battles in the North

Posted on: May 18th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 5 Comments

 

This is going to be a bit of an odds and sods type of column in preparation for our away match later today against Vancouver. Before getting down to the more substantive content, I thought I would just return for a moment to something I mused about a couple of weeks ago. What makes football so fascinating (at least for me anyway) is its blend of simplicity and complexity. It can be a very simple game. Pass the ball and move, play with conviction, and David can beat Goliath on any day of the week. But it also is a game of myriad complexities. We come into this match in what is, for us, a novel situation. A competitive away match on the heels of hammering a team that we were expected to hammer.

If memory serves (and regular readers of this blog will know that it doesn’t always), the last time we won 3-0 was our shockingly unexpected battering of the L.A. Gals in August 2011. [See reader comment below for the correction that we actually beat the Revs by a similar score six weeks later] At this point that feels as historically distant as the Battle of Gettysburg. And, let it be said, that was not a match that we went into with any expectation of getting the sort of result that we did. We are now in undiscovered country. In this new land we are expected to do the business against clubs of lesser quality. Having done so, we now have to put aside any feeling of accomplishment and approach the 90 minutes tonight at BC Place as if it were the only match of the season. Only in this way can we maintain the kind of focus that it is going to take to get us where we really want to go.

On to more concrete matters. Pa-Modou Kah is in the house. And by in the house I mean he has got his visa issues sorted out, arrived in Portland, and started training with the squad. He’s only been about for a day and a half, but CP says he expects Kah to make “a big impact with the club.” While he’ll be on the bench for the match against Vancouver, the team want to be careful to bring him along at a reasonable pace:

We have to be smart with how we acclimate him...He’s not been with the group. He’s going to take a bit of time to get his fitness up to speed. He’s been working on his own, but he hasn’t played in a competitive game in almost a month. So we have to be smart with how we integrate him in the group, but he’s going to be a nice addition to the backline.

It’s too early to tell how this will turn out, but the signs are promising. He’s 32, which for a center half is not too long in the tooth. He made 189 appearances for Roda JC in the Dutch Evedivisie, so he’s seen football at a pretty high tempo, even if his last couple of season have been spent in lesser leagues in the Middle East.

Ok, so clearly we won’t be seeing him tonight, but this match should give him the opportunity to see just how electric the atmosphere can get in this league. We should have a pretty decent traveling contingent up in B.C., and that should give the atmosphere an added edge. The match itself presents the prospect of a intriguing battle in midfield between our resident hard men, Johnson and Chará, and the Caps’ similarly hardnosed duo of Reo-Coker and Gershon Koffie. Vancouver is coming off a grueling match in midweek against the Montreal Impact, while we’ve had a week to recover while savoring our well deserved spanking of Chivas. If I had to predict, I would guess that the physical hangover of a tough match in the eastern time zone will be an issue. Teams tend to play better in their home park, but midweek matches tend to leave teams leggy. The Timbers are the kind of team that demand an energetic response in midfield. Granted, the Caps are a counterpunching side, but they’ve been playing a bit more aggressively in midfield of late, and I would expect them to want to be aggressive on their own patch. This could work well for us.

Much as they should be well up for it due to the implications of the Cascadia Cup®, they also have a couple of other irons in the fire that might prove distracting. Thus the following quote in this week’s MLS preview in the Guardian:

A lucky win against LA may have papered over cracks in the squad, but a winning gamble in Montreal is distraction enough from our generally poor league form. A visit from Portland should bring it back into sharp focus.
No matter, though. A smart if dull draw in Montreal has us back in the final of the Canadian Championship for the Voyageurs Cup. A home win (and our home record is still quite good) means a cup. I'll gladly sacrifice a loss to Portland if it means a better chance at the cup.

I suspect that the team itself will probably be rather less distracted than their supporters, but it’s an interesting sidelight nonetheless. They’ve looked pretty good in their last couple of matches, but their overall form this season hasn’t been terribly strong, I seem to recall that there were rumblings as recently as a few of weeks about the need to fire Martin Rennie. It’s getting to the time in the season when the supporters will be getting nervous that the team only one point out of the divisional cellar.

It would be so very nice if we could do the business in the Cascadia Cup© early this year and let the other sides chase us. Too, this is a week in which we can make up some of the ground on Dallas, who will have to cope with a visit from the slime green horde for up north. Much as I would like to see the Flounders lose any and all matches, their getting at home would not be the worst outcome for us just at the moment.

That’s my bit for this morning. I’ll be back on Farcebook this afternoon with news, notes, and tunes for those of you not making the trip up to BC. Come on the lads!

Magadh

bring on the cascadia cup…

Posted on: May 17th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 3 Comments

 

even though porter continually insists that one game does not make or break a season, we all know that every game is important for the overall standings come october. and we all know that tomorrow's match has more meaning than simply 3 points--it is the second of the 6 game process required to defend what is ours. imagesCAZPH5JWin defense of the cascadia cup, the timbers have already drawn with seattle and now take on the unpredictable vancouver whitecaps. obviously the word unpredictable conjures up more thoughts than simply "we do not know which team will show up." but in the case of vancouver that is exactly what we get--we do not know.

the whitecaps are likely one of the most athletic sides in the mls. they have speed and strength, and more speed and more strength. camillo zanvezzo and darron mattocks are two of the scariest players i have observed in the mls. yet, even with offensive weapons like those two players, they are one of the more boring sides to suffer. they may have athleticism but they do not have an identity or direction. this is a plight with which many of the timbers faithful can sympathize--as we know, the pursuit of athleticism over style and system left the club in a shambles last season. i expect the caps to suffer a great deal of what the timbers suffered through.

their greatest deficiency is their defense. where most clubs employ a backline of four players who tend to work in unison, the caps have four players who tend to work as four separate parts. occasionally they do find a shape but it is limited in its effectiveness. against real salt lake, the caps defensive indiscipline was easily exploited. luis gil's goal in the 47 minute was textbook counterattacking that involved 3 players--rimando, plata, and gil. because the caps do not hold an overall shape they left gaps in their overall defensive positioning the size of fjords, which were easily and repeatedly exploited. in this case, rimando sent a low driving pass out to an unmarked joao plata who drove on goal. plata let loose a cross that was handled poorly not just by cannon, but also by o'brien. it was an easy goal, similar to the recent scorcher by the rod wall.

the second rsl goal was a great description of how to exploit the caps when they do find their defensive shape. fact: superior ball movement turns the caps defense upon itself. in several games it seems the caps have opted to employ a defensive parallelogram. rather than a basic backline schematic or a team defense concept, they have defenders stationed haphazardly about the pitch. their lack of rigidity and shape often sees them converge upon themselves rather than holding a line. that is what happened in the second rsl goal and is certainly instructive for the timbers when developing a plan of attack. here are some highlights (you'll be grateful they are available because you will not have to suffer the full 90 minutes):

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0Pqgrtu3o?feature=player_detailpage]

in all fairness, the caps have the ability to open up any side, even defensively savvy clubs like the galaxy, but they do miss the leadership in the back offered by jay demerit. he has always been a strong competitor, composed at either end of the pitch. while the timbers should have no problems dispatching the caps, it is a lucky occurrence they face the caps without their talisman. so, back to opening up sides...offensively, the caps tend to resort to a combination of long ball and width in efforts to exploit their obvious and deadliest asset--speed. or perhaps that is all they are capable of doing, but i doubt the inclusion of the absent kenny miller would really assist their efforts to score. regardless, they like to get behind defenses and have proven to be adept at the effort with nigel reo-coker lofting balls forward to fry king, darron mattocks. oddly, in their last mls match against the galaxy they benefited from direct attacks against some lazy defending rather than long balls.

aside from identity, the great difference between the two cascadia clubs is the midfield. for the timbers, last year's midfield was a was a tactical disaster with uncomplimentary parts, incapable of doing more than making the next pass (even that seemed difficult at times). it was a great contributor to that often sited negative goal differential, perhaps the greatest contributor. this year is different. the parts compliment each other, the players understand their roles, and the team works in unity to retain the ball which promotes the attack. there is an identity. in no small part, and you can make what puns you need to from that, the captain and diego chara ensured the timbers midfield is one of the most active and profitable in the mls. surprisingly, chara, a player often known more for his chippy fouls than for his incisive passing and ingenuity has really come into his own with the addition of will johnson as his midfield partner. they get each other and they get how to play within the system. i could further expound on the subject of midfield dominance but i merely wanted to highlight this piece, which i thought was excellent.

in other relevant news, kah pow has started training with the first team. watch out batman.

alright, it is friday and the sun is out and we have a match to look forward to. enjoy.

sunshine

 

 

where did our timbers go…

Posted on: March 20th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 3 Comments

 

while international football may help some weather away the interlull between club football and more club football, for me it has the same attraction of smothering myself in honey and sitting on a fresh pile of fire ants. i can think of few things that are less interesting or less enjoyable than a world cup qualifier. perhaps an international friendly? and so begin the long days and nights, waiting for the timbers to return. i feel like a vulture sitting at the edge of a dying man's bed, hoping that something happens in beaverton during the interlull. and so things have happened--under the radar, mind you, but they have happened.

but more on that later. often during the interlull i will rewatch matches to see if i could will the results to change. but as hard as my mind melds with 2008, eduardo's leg is still broken in half by some birmingham neanderthal, who now stocks groceries at tesco, and diego chara still made that "pass" to ben zemanski. Ryan Johnsonafter re-watching the opening leg of the nine-legged cascadia cup, i realized one very disturbing point. no, not that sigi schmid is morbidly obese. but that by returning/adding jewsbury to the starting eleven reduced the number of players willing to take shots to 3--ryan johnson, diego valeri, and, on occasions, darlington nagbe. it does not take einstein's brain to identify why there was a reduction in shots on goal, or why the penetration into the final third was limited in comparison to other matches. the midfield was packed with three players known more for their dedication to the prevention of shots than to either the creation of or execution of anything that could sorely resemble an offensive opportunity. for some teams, 13 attempts on goal is a good game, but over the last few matches we have come to expect the timbers to pepper the opposition's goal. against the sounders, the timbers had two legitimate shots on goal. i point you to my earlier observation for an explanation of that statistic.

the thing is, the timbers have not been playing poorly. in fact, the overall statistics of the last three games suggests they dominated play and possession. what has cost them most is an issue of growing pains and the naive mistakes associated with developing an understanding between players. sure, playing a formation that includes a player whose singular purpose is to patrol the space in front of the back four does seem to be the ideal solution to some of the defensive frailties exposed in the first couple of matches. however, so does eliminating the back passes to a sleeping keeper, or the failure to lead a rightback on an overlap, or a pass to an onrushing central midfielder who just happens to play for the opposition.

of the 6 goals scored against the timbers this season, 4 of the 6 were due to costly personal errors. the other 2 were positional errors. all were errors that had the individual players at fault been even just an inkling more positionally aware the timbers might very well be sitting on 9 points. so, yes, the addition of a designated defensive midfielder does theoretically reduce the number of chances the opposition may see on goal, but it does not reduce the number of dumb mistakes that has led to the timbers current point total.

yesterday, following practice, porter spent time discussing the balance of the side. his comments were interesting, but some of the more salient points were made by the 20-year-old, central defender, andrew jean-baptiste. while acknowledging the need for continued playing time with his backfour partners, he was quick to focus on the reduction of personal errors:

And so far it’s been going well. It’s on the right track; it’s not like something where we have to go back to the chalkboard. We know what we’re capable of and we know why we’re getting scored on. It’s these moments, these counter attacks, these set pieces, and as soon as we cut that out teams are not going to have those chances.

if it has not become clear to you by now, the fact our starting rightsided, central defender from last season has taken an indefinite leave to return to colombia should only suggest that ajb is now the prefered partner in central defense. it is unfortunate that things have resulted in mosquera's return to colombia for personal reasons, but the reality is his type of play really did not jive with porter's system and philosophy. he is a lumper and a brute, without much ball finesse. players of his ilk have their purpose in football but they do not belong in a possession based system that requires touch and communication with teammates. which brings me to the other concerns surrounding mosco--much of what i have heard is that he has made limited efforts in developing the one skill that coalesces the defense: communication. i am not suggesting that he is mute, only that he has a less than adequate understanding of the prolific vernacular of american football. i was not shocked to read of this move--a young kid in portland, oregon, who speaks limited english and requires an interpreter to pick up the ladies will sooner or later become homesick. now, viewing it as it is, this situation presents a great opportunity to syphon some of the remaining talent from the xenophobic chivas usa. it's too bad ryan smith is not still there, but dan kennedy sure is.

but before we become too glum, if there is one thing i am certain it is that porter has a plan in place to use that empty spot. whether it is now or in the future, when that international spot becomes available i look to porter filling it with some needed influential talent.

sunshine

one game, one goal, one point: timbers return with some cascadia spoils…

Posted on: March 17th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com No Comments

 

yesterday, the timbers took to the rug that spreads the clink in seattle. it was not the easiest of games to watch--neither side were willing to give the other much room to attack, which resulted in nearly 90 minutes of midfield battles. but, in the end, respect was earned. as much as i could not care any less of what michael gspurning has to say in his evaluation of the timbers as a club, his comments last night were complementary and indicative of the new optimism and respect surrounding caleb porter's side.

To be honest with all of our rivalry, Portland is a way better team than last year.

looking at the formation and the team selection, it was clear the timber's goal was to get a point--and a point they did earn. 12436084-essay

they may have earned more had porter not over thought his tactics and put jack jewsbury into the starting eleven. but he did. consequently, the shuffling left some players questioning what to do. and that is not because captain emeritus played exceptionally well, or that he bossed the side, or that he did anything that would suggest he was playing--he did not. the issue is that he had less than 35 total minutes on the ball in pre-season and did not have time to develop the partnerships with players who have. i am not suggesting that jack had anything to do with the goal--we all know that is not case and it would be unfair to hang that on him. no, the issue is that his inclusion in the side, while it may have seemed an appropriate solution to defensive requirements attached to playing away against an offensive side like the sounders, disrupted the flow and understanding between the developing partnership of will johnson and diego chara.

it was bound to happen, and it had little coincidence that his worst game in a timbers kit came when jack was introduced to the formation. but diego chara was awful. in all fairness, he is not a winger. but he is a footballer, and he has played in the link up position long enough to understand how to ease the transition from the back to the attack. whether he suffered from some mental barrier or ptsd from long nights spent with captain emeritus on the losing end of games like last night's, he did little to assist the side.

whether or not it is the final frontier, the game is about space. too often it seemed the players were miles away from each other on the right flank. chara had the tendency to drift into the center of the pitch, leaving the duties of covering zakuani to rest solely on zemanski. that is not to suggest zemanski did not get forward, he did and he did more often than his counterpart--mikey mo money. the difficulty was combining the impetus to get forward with the necessary overlap play assisted by chara. tactically, it was the correct decision to target burch on the sounders left flank--he is anything but positionally aware. however, the formation's emphasis on defense meant that diego valeri was shifted to the right side of the attack. he seemed isolated at times and was often profligate in possession. indeed, turning the ball over seemed to be his forte last night--in addition to being tackled for a loss 32 times, he made 24 unsuccessful passes, last night. those numbers account for over half of his involvements. which suggest a couple of things: first, he was targeted. and, second, he was given limited support from his midfield counterparts. there were several occasions chara stood motionless as valeri looked for an outlet pass only to be cut down by alonzo or andy rose.

in order for this system to be deadly players must move off the ball. that goes without saying for any modern system, but possession football is singularly reliant on player movement and the options positive movement creates. nothing anchors the play more than a congested midfield. while valeri was being hacked and ineffective on the right, little to no help was provided on the left. nagbe had effectively withdrawn from the attacking front and settled in as the left-wing or even the left-sided midfielder, spending the majority of his play straddling the midfield line. he rarely got forward into the attacking final third, which allowed the sounders to focus on valeri and chara.

it was a shame the timbers chose not focus on the left side of attack, because that approach created the earliest and best chances on goal. including a superb low curling shot by diego valeri that required an equally superb save from michael gspurning.

even though play rarely ventured from the right-side to the left, and notwithstanding with the congested midfield, the timbers possession numbers were still superior. they held the ball for 55% of the time, which is no small feat against a midfield generaled by a little-ball-of-hate like ozzy alonso. he earned his yellow card last night, and, looking at some of the subsequent challenges he put on valeri and company, i am surprised he remained on the pitch. well, not really. these are the heady days of mls officiating and we will leave it at that.

the sounders goal came against the run of play and was wholly preventable. it started from a diego chara gift and was finished when eddie johnson got goal side of andrew jean-baptiste. neither moment in that sequence should have occurred. i am uncertain what chara was thinking, but i have seen him make the sort of pass that lead to the turnover while enforcing the midfield with will johnson. the difference from those passes and this pass is that he was not enforcing the midfield, nor was he looking to switch play, but rather he was looking to play on zemanski. this pass suggested the naiveté, or over thinking (depending on how charitable you care to be), the formational changes were. a traditional right-sided midfielder would have done one of two things in that situation: either push forward and create space to allow zemanski overlap, or lead zemanski with a pass to the touchline. chara did neither. it was a regrettable turnover and lead to an undeserved goal.

the next 77 minutes of the match saw the timbers attempt to put crosses into the seattle 18 yard box stuffed with large men dressed in fluorescent puke, willing to put masculine challenges on any timber who got near the ball. i am going to avoid the hurtado/ryan johnson penalty controversy--it could have gone either way depending on your interpretation of the rules (i have seen many more challenges like that go unpenalized in better leagues with better officiating). still, the continued lack of protection for the timbers ranckles my brain. which made the equalizing goal that much more sweet.

many of you may know that there are two players i do not rate on this side: kalif and the rod wall. i am sure much of my opinion of the rod wall's abilities are associated with the dax mccartey trade, but, overall, i find him to be the equivalent of a headless chicken. somehow, porter has determined wallace is a late midfield option. and he was last night, rarely putting a foot wrong in the 10 minutes he played when coming on for the ineffective nagbe. but, most importantly, it was his aerial abilities that helped salvage the day. rodwall.1.1 andrew jean-baptiste who was instructed by eddie johnson on how a powerful center forward can turn a centerback in 6's and 7's, made up for his error that lead to johnson's goal. in the late minutes of the game, he fired into the sounders 18 yard box a looping, curling cross that found its mark--the rod wall. the rod wall worked his way between hurtado, yedlin, and alonso to meet the ball and redirect past gspurning and into the upper left corner. that was that. and the game ended as i had expected it to end--even.

so i return to gspurning's comment. regardless of the fact the timbers have taken only 2 points for 9, they have shown the type of heart lacking in last year's side. a year ago, if the timbers found themselves down 1-nil at the 90 minute they simply would have packed in their boots and shrugged their shoulders. not this year and certainly not last night. the balance will be found as the players become more comfortable with playing this system. i expect to see them hit their stride come may.

sunshine

the march to securing the cascadia cup begins…

Posted on: March 16th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com No Comments

 

imagesCAZPH5JW

well, the first leg of the now 9 legged demon that is the cascadia cup is here and it begins up north. it is also the first game in defense of our silverware. aside from the obvious attraction to playing your local rivals, this match proves to be a true barometer of the progress the timbers have made in the off-season.

both teams have seen some significant changes in their roster from last season. the timbers have also employed a new system. both clubs have taken on the montreal impact, and both clubs have suffered a similar result--though, overall, the timbers did fare better statistically. and, of course, the timbers were able to break down a very stingy impact defense to score a wonder goal. now, the trick is to translate the positive moments of the last 20 minutes of that game into a cracker of a match, today.

if we want to look at how today might fall out, we have the pre-season to consider. both teams met early in the pre-season, where the timbers fared relatively well on a short, compact pitch. they controlled possession, as much as possession can be controlled in a pre-season match by a side who had played together for 3 weeks, and they forced marcus hahnemann to make a few good saves early on. disappointingly, the timbers lost bright dike in this game and would have to rely on the enormous head of mikael silvestre to set them apart from northern scum. as we know from the timbers past, pre-season heroics, the pre-season championship means very little in determining the team's abilities. the key to this comparison is that for 60 minutes or so both teams played with essentially the same line-ups that will match up today. and it remained a stalemate. which is where i see today's result ending.

as we do, we have invited our fishy friend to give us a brief look into the happenings of the sounders. like the timbers, this is a side that has gone through some post-season changes that certainly have an effect on the season. and, surprisingly, anfield 89 addresses those concerns with a humility unlike most of his compatriots in bule. so, her hs is:

.....

Its derby time which means sunshine’s and Mags have allotted me 0s and 1s on their most excellent blog. I have been tasked with discussing the 2013 Sounders and how they stack up against Tommy Carcetti’s--I’m sorry--Caleb Porter’s new look Timbers.

The Sounder’s principle tasks for 2013 are replacing Freddy Montero’s goals and Jeff Parke’s defensive acumen. Results to date suggest we have been more successful in the later than at the former.

Parke’s departure to his hometown club, the Philadelphia Union, paved the way for the addition of Djimi Traore from Marseille. Traore has struck up a reasonably good partnership with Jhon Kennedy Hurtado. He’s also responsible for a thunder-bastard of a goal against Tigres. The CBs are bracketed on the right by majestically quaffed rookie Deandre Yedlin and Sounders stalwart, Leo Gonzalez. While Yedlin is a rookie, I expect Porter will target Leo due to his unfortunate tendency to sally forth while neglecting his defensive duties.

The Sounders haven’t been setting the world on fire offensively. We went nearly 235 minutes without scoring a goal before Yedlin potted against Tigers. The arrival of Obafemi Martins from Levante should improve the attack, but the deal was completed too late for him to feature today. That means Eddie Johnson will lead the line with support from Sammy “Donuts” Ochoa. If Rosales can go, I expect to see him start on the right with former Porter product, Steve Zakuani starting on the left. The Sounders like to attack from the wings and we should see Rosales and Zakuani take on the fullbacks to create space for either an overlap or cross into the box. Portland still hasn’t settled in the middle of their defense so Johnson will look to get amongst them early and often, supported by runs from the midfield.

Osvaldo Alonso and Andy Rose look to feature in the middle of the park. Alonso will have the less than enviable task of marshaling Diego Valeri. That match up could be a tasty one. I’d look for Ozzie to man mark Valeri with Rose playing a bit higher up.

I think both sides will go for it, with the Timbers looking to press high up the pitch and the Sounders looking to get the ball wide in order to exploit the Timbers fullbacks. I’m sure this will be a pulsating encounter, but I expect the Sounders will do just enough to leave with all 3 points.

Anfield89

......

in other relevant news: evidently, hanyer mosquera and jack jewsbury are back to health and available for porter to select. there was some discussion that perhaps the two would immediately slot into the starting eleven. i could not think of a worse idea than perhaps starting rodney wallace and lovell palmer at the back. look, as much as people agree hanyer mosquera is a good central defender, he is not a central defender who understands the nuances of porter's system of play. not to mention he has had less than 60 minutes total on the ball in competitive, match type situations. introducing him into a match of this significance would be a capitulation before the team ever took the field. as for jack. well, he has had even less time on the ball in the pre-season and is coming back from a leg issue. i cannot see him playing a significant role in the game. you may disagree, but if the purpose of playing football is to win, putting in two players, who have had no time to gel with a team still working on the necessary consistency to make them a real force in the game as well as a league, would be a gavin type error.

we will be back tomorrow with what will hopefully be a positive post.

sunshine

The Calm before the Storm

Posted on: March 15th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com No Comments

 

The argument about attendance figures at the bottom of yesterday’s post made me laugh. sunshine and I know Anfield 89 from the old neighborhood (his handle gives you some clue about what the connection is). Anfield has always sort of liked to mess with sunshine, and of course it continues here. Anyway, the whole thing is pretty much irrelevant. I mean, the population of the Seattle metro area is about half again as great as that of Portland, so it does make a certain amount of sense that they would have more people around because the draw from a larger pool and play in an NFL stadium. They’ve also had more success recently than we have. I will be interested to see what their attendance figures looked like after they have a couple of down years, but in any case this is for me akin to arguing about who has cooler uniforms. Yawn.

Tomorrow night we get some comparative data that actually mean something. Seattle played their first decent match of the year at midweek, so this is going to be a big test for us. One hopes that Porter and Co. have taken the time this week to sort out the defensive problems that have (once again) blighted the early part of our season. Our performance so far has been, if possible, even more worrisome than it was last term, as it has comprised both mental errors and systemic problems. This is something that needs to get sorted out quickly. We are not the kind of team that is going to be able to dig itself a big hole and then climb out. We haven’t shown so far that we know how to win matches, and since we really didn’t show that during the entirety of last season, there is not as much difference (that is to say progress) from where we were five months ago.

Given the magnitude of the upcoming match, it’s been strangely quiet in terms of news in the last couple of days. I must admit to feeling a bit of relief that there hasn’t been a lot of player talk about the match in the media. They need to focus on preparation. We all know it’s a big game. I don’t think that there is much in terms of talk that could pump things up any further, and the fact of the matter is that everyone knows the score. They are a team with a lot of resources and a large and unpleasant fan base. We are a team that conceded three stupid goals to the Energy Drinks and then followed it up with a disturbingly mediocre performance against Montreal. From the perspective of the players, talk is cheap and actions have to speak now.

One thing that I do look forward to is seeing how this team plays on a more spacious pitch than they have so far this season. The field down in Tucson was miniscule. Even though the surface at the JW has been expanded, it is still relatively small by league standards. The small dimensions permitted (or perhaps more properly facilitated) Montreal’s strategy of packing back and playing swarm defense. Which is not to say that this was the only reason behind their victory. The spaces were clearly big enough for them to make effective runs into our box from midfield and they certainly didn’t help us clear our defensive area effectively. The CLink is ten yards longer and four yards wider. It is far and away the biggest pitch that we’ve played on since Porter took over. It seems to me that there are a couple of ways that this could go. From the glass half empty perspective, it’s not like we’ve done an outstanding job of covering the field defensively so far this season. More space it going to really test our defenders’ ability to play together and to maintain their shape. On the other hand, it’s going to be harder for our opponents to shut down our passing game than it might be in a more confined space. With a bit more room to operate, I could see Valeri being a lot more effective than he was the other night.

From an offensive perspective, a lot of this will come down to whether or not we actually play our system from the opening whistle. It looked very much as if we did not when we played Montreal. Their tactic of packing back and swarming in defense seemed to befuddle us. If you watch the tape you can hear Will Johnson urging the other guys in midfield to make the right pass and to stay in system. When confronted with the swarms of defenders that Montreal threw at us, it took our guys an unfortunately long time to figure out how to change the equation. It really wasn’t until the latter stages of the second half that we (and by “we” here I mean our players) recognized that we needed to be quicker about shifting the ball from side to side to create space for our passing game. Once we did, we looked a lot more dangerous.

The thing that makes one a bit nervous going into this match is that we have taken so long to get ourselves sorted out in the two matches so far. Each game presented different tactical challenges, and of course we are still in the early days of implementing a new system. Still, we need to figure out how to get it right sooner. We’ve had to try to play the comeback game in both of our matches so far, and the results have not been that great. Not as bad as they might have been, mind you, but one point from six is not the sort of return that we are looking for. One point from nine would really be getting things off on the wrong foot.

This is our first road game of the year, and as such I’m going to be importuning those of you who watch your Farcebook pages with news, music, and other blab starting about 90 minute before game time. Be seeing you then.

Magadh

in the year 2022…

Posted on: February 28th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com No Comments

 

he is a smarmy character. he is a slick rick. he is a smooth operator.

articulate even with a foot in his mouth--he is the soccer don.

thedon2

yesterday he gave us all some insight into the state of la liga nostra. no matter where you fall on the side of the Cascadia cup scandal (hopefully you fall on the side of the right--the side of the victims of a hostile takeover), you have to admit he has a vision of where to take the league. he and his minions, capos, and consigliere, want to improve and increase its relevance. in a speech that rivaled robert de niro's portrayal of al capone's baseball speech, the don regaled the interested with ideas and hopes and dreams for the league in years to come.

in his state of the state of la liga nostra, the don described the 10 point plan for prosperity and taking la liga nostra into 2022. he first emphasized their efforts into growing the competition by discussing the designated player status, choosing to use players like chris wondolowski and landon donavan as examples of the success of that player status and what they mean for the league.

the example of wondoloski was apposite to his next point that a league will only sustain itself when it can create its own offspring. and though he insisted the partnership with the usl was purely technical, there was a sense he was not being entirely forthright when discussing the opportunities for teams to enter the league from other, rivaling leagues, say, the nasl. but that does not diminish the partnership and the idea that players who play actually improve, regardless of whether they play in the usl or the nasl. as observers of the league, we really cannot complain about anyone's desire to increase the league's quality of play. the only way to make this league viable (not that it will ever rival England, France, Germany, Italy) is by increasing the quality and making the league attractive to the homegrown players and to players in other countries, not just colombia.

the don claimed he wants to see the league become a league of destination. the thing is, aside from the young players from third world countries, the league is a league of destination--it is an all expense paid vacation for players of better pedigree. but the don's goal is to take efforts that will make it a sport esteemed more for the play than for the retirement package offered to geriatric europeans.

in order to improve the quality of play he would also have to increase the quality officiating. even though he was reluctant to publicly accept the quality of officiating is drastically poor, i would suggest the goals he introduced yesterday were a mea culpa of sorts. the introduction of a required training course that occurs 18 times over the course of the season for 3 days at a shot certainly implies he understands the need for improvement. it is an encouraging step towards improving the quality of officiating. the full-time officials that will suffer through 18 rounds of 3 day trainings will review tape, determine what and where to improve, work with their trainers to get those humungous guns for the gun shows that look so sexy on the pitch snyderas well as assist them with pressing the nob on the spray can.

all of this moves towards the announcement of the new rules protecting those idiots in bright yellow shirts rolled up like snyder from one day at a time. the new laws announced yesterday prohibit anyone but the team captain and the coach from confronting any individual official on the pitch, after the game, in the hall, in the bathroom, at lunch at mcdonald's, or even while they sleep. as much as many of us would love to give a towel party to the gentlemen with tickets to the gun show guns, we simply cannot and neither can the people more directly affected by  their acts of lunacy.

the don then jumped into the financial outlook. let's face it, everything about running a league comes down to money. the soccer don was very clear that the foundations for increasing the funds have been installed, which do include the officious and scandalous use of hostile takeover methods to appropriate marketing tools that simply do not belong to him. putting the cascadia cup aside for the time being, the don was clear that growth of the league requires a measured approach to the increase of spending within and by the league's teams as a whole. he was particularly concerned with increasing the financial resource base for the league before loosening the purse strings. indeed, he outright stated that spending too much money by certain owners could damage the viability of the league. In other words, the primera ligue of spain is a load of horseshit with only 2 teams legitimately vying for titles and major league soccer is wary of becoming such a disaster. this is an important acknowledgment and does show some vision based on reviewing the imbalances within spain, scotland, italy—holding the financial powerhouses at bay can actually contribute to the development of the fan base. let’s face it, unless you are Chicago cubs fan, no one likes losers. when the money flows so do the players. releasing the purse strings of those owners who are blessed with financial superiority could see a competitive  imbalance comparable with that of spain and scotland. that would be devastating for any club still trying to develop a fan base in a sport that already suffers a stigma as being less than athletic. blame assholes like jim rome and 80% of the staff of espn sportcenter, and, by all means available, blame colin cowherd. but if the quality of play diminishes due to two powerhouse-team league we will see the league lose supporters. and that means money. the goal is to increase the league in a financially responsible way. i get that. a noticeable imbalance in quality will not result in attracting new supporters, it will result in the same derision cast upon leagues like the scotish premier league or la liga.

putting aside all of the rancor and disdain many of us have or still direct towards the man, we have to admit he has done something that was not easy to do in a country obsessed with overweight men running around in tights and medieval headgear. I like a good joust, but I would not suggest those anachronistic recreationists give a farthing about soccer. as much as i would like to avoid the word given the shameless use of it yesterday, the league is relevant. i would like to believe the fans made the league relevant. but the supporters alone could not increase the reach of the league to the previously uninterested and unbothered fan the way the league has. they have sought through marketing, league, and development partnerships to create a product that will eventually rival the increasingly poor product of the american big four.

whether looking to increase the financial revenue or to increasing the development of youth and the academy system, he has laid a ground work for major league soccer to prosper and sustain itself in the future.

i would be remiss if i did not discuss the question we were all unable to hear thanks to either a bad connection or simply that it was asked by a spastic from the northern scum--what about the cascadia cup? his answer:

We did not go about this process right. We believed the Cascadia cup could be protected better if we registered the trademark. We should have made phone calls.

uh, you think? but then he continued. he discussed how the resolution would be jointly beneficial and satisfy mutual goals.

satisfy mutual goals?

here is the goal: leave it alone and return it to the people who created the cup long before you even heard of the teams. simples. before this man and his team of minions made a hostile take over, the cup was there for one goal and one goal only--to brag. how can he protect those rights? how can bragging benefit anyone in the mls aside from being a showcase for the mls rivalry week. i think he has confused a couple of sports with each other--easy to do given one has appropriated a name that describes nothing involved with the on-field actions--and that confusion has found a desire to make money. this all comes down to money and increasing the interest in the league. as he made clear when discussing the league's adherence to a playoff centered finale--the ratings are at their highest. the league simply wants to leverage a collective and organic idea into college game day with lee corso.

as good as many of the ideas are, though not all that progressive, they do all focus on the theory that the bottom line is the bottom line. the don is not going to do anything to disrupt the increase of revenue for the league. do not expect that to change. and, to be fair, if the cascadia cup was not a sore thumb issue of the march to soccer in america, i would say that is his fiduciary duty--to protect the league from failure.

sunshine.