Tag Archives: robbie keane

No Goats, No Glory

Posted on July 18, 2012 | 5 Comments

I’ve just watched the Galaxy match, and I have to say that there is not enough beer in the world to make that ok. I suppose that between the two of us, sunshine and I have really beaten this thing to death, but I thought I would just give the carcass a final poke for good measure. I’ve watched Beckham’s first goal over and over and I would like to stake for the record my view that it was a direct result of the defensive system that Portland were playing.

Let’s break it down, shall we? The action starts when Donovan shifts the ball to Keane and makes a left to right diagonal run into the box. Keane slides it over to Beckham. At this point, Portland’s defensive set up is as follows. Jewsbury has stepped up to mark Keane. Palmer has marked Donovan’s run into the box. Smith has neutralized Jiménez on the right wing. Alexander has recently noticed that there is something going on that he needs to get involved in and has run back twenty yards into the vicinity of Beckham, but then dropped off him.

Beckham is left in a pocket of space in just the sort of place from which he has, historically, been most dangerous. You can see Palmer frantically gesturing to Alexander to close him down. At the same time, Horst starts a vain move forward that has no chance whatsoever of stopping the shot, but does create a lane for Donovan which could very easily have resulted in an open scoring chance. In the event, Beckham potted an easy opportunity and rendered the point moot.

After discussing the matter with sunshine, I think that there are two ways of looking at this. You could look at it and say that Palmer should have stepped up on Beckham. From the body language of the players, I think that this is what Jewsbury and Horst were expecting him to do. Another way to look at it, and this is the analysis that I favor, is that Alexander should have closed Beckham down. There were no other Galaxy attackers on that side of the pitch. Smith had Jiménez well in hand. But Alexander suffered a moment of confusion because, and I think this is the key point here, he’s just not used to playing this system. There is a horrible moment on the video where you can see Alexander realize what’s about to happen and take a couple Fred Flintsone steps in Beckham’s direction. In any case, the one guy who is not responsible for shutting down Beckham is Horst, and he must have had a real sinking feeling as he saw the seas part and Beckham line up an open shot from that kind of position. I think we all have some insight into that feeling.

At least the subsequent goals are a bit easier to analyze. Responsibility for goals 2, 3, and 4 lies with Kimura, Kimura, and (wait for it) Kimura. Ok, Kimura wasn’t responsible for the cross that led to the fourth one, but he did allow Keane to get goal side of him, resulting in the latter getting a tap in from something like two feet away.

Perhaps it’s all for the best that we let that particular horror show fade into the past. Tonight sees the Timbers away to Chivas. Whatever else might be the case, these guys are unlikely to put five past us. They’ve only tallied more than one goal in a game on two occasions this season. There’s an article by John Strong currently up on the Timbers website bearing the headline “The Immovable Object Versus the Irresistible Force”. With all due respect to Mr. Strong, I’m afraid that describing Portland’s offense as an irresistible force is a bit rich at this point. True, they did score three against the Gals, but that hardly reflected the team’s current run of form.

If you want my opinion (and I suppose you must since you’re now more than 600 words into this post), this would be an excellent opportunity for Portland to revert to the 4-4-2 formation that they have used for much of the season. The Timbers now have two fullbacks who are interested in getting up the pitch and giving the team some width. One positive that could be taken from the match against L.A. was that the Timbers did create a goal from the flanks. Not very deep on the flank, mind you, but nonetheless a ball put into the middle for Boyd to attack. This is the kind of thing that will allow Boyd and Mwanga to work together. Of course, the thing that would really allow them to work together is to actually get them on the field at the same time.

Chivas bear the informal moniker of “The Goats”. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that this refers to their stinginess in defense rather than too some collective propensity to eat old sweatsocks and other garbage. Their matches must really be a hoot, given that they’ve only managed to score 11 goals all season. Of course, they’ve only given up 18, which is second only to K.C., the current leaders of the Eastern Conference. Lest we become too enamored of our own prospects, they did manage a rare two goal haul against us at the JW back in April. That was, however, before we got the defensive problems that had dogged us early in the season sorted out. Now we’ve got different defensive problems, but I think that there is every reason to believe that we can put things right in this match.

The second half of the season is going to be important for several reasons. Obviously, the chances of making the playoffs look pretty remote at this point, but the capacity of professionals to keep fighting for this goal should give us some insight into what we’ve got on our hands here. Perhaps more importantly for the long term future of the club, this is now a chance for GW to show us exactly what sort of talent he has brought to the team. If they don’t manage to get it right in which as left of the season, the argument that this was a good group merely employed to poor effect by John Spencer rather loses some of its substance. It has been the view of this blog that the problems extend a bit further up (and down) the food chain. Now we’ll get to see that proposition put to the test.

Magadh

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Where the Player Ratings Should Be

Posted on July 17, 2012 | 4 Comments

I must admit this morning to being just the slightest bit unprepared. Due to professional commitments related to the need to prevent southern European economies from disengaging themselves from the German strangleho…I mean the Euro, I was out of position for Saturday night’s match and could only listen to it on radio. Normally, in such a situation, I would just rewatch it later on MLS Live. However, since last night the good people at MLSL have decided that what the fees that I have paid to them entitle me to watch as a series of white dots circles endlessly on a black screen. I suppose that this is meant to suggest that something is loading, but instead it is merely an illustration of the concept of purposiveness without purpose.

Of course, why should I be permitted to watch? I suspect that somewhere in the EULA for the MLSL service there is a rider clarifying that I’m paying for the chance that I might be able to watch the match, assuming the stars align properly and the pack of mental deficients in their technical department can step away from their all night session of internet porn and Doom 3 for long enough to upload the game footage onto the web. Next week, I’ll be slicing open a chicken and trying to determine whether I’ll have access to the games by analyzing the patterns of its entrails.

Anyway, long story short, I’m quite annoyed this morning.

And perhaps this is not the time to be mulling over the consequences and implications of a match that I was only able to listen to via the radio. But is what it is. Sunshine expects me to have a piece up in a matter of half an hour or so here, and since I don’t want to wake up some morning lying beside a horse’s head, it is incumbent upon me to come up with something vaguely resembling substantive content.

I suppose if I were to approach this match from a glass half full sort of perspective, I might start with the fact that we did score three goals, which is more than our usual tally, especially of late. On the other hand, getting lit up for five was not good. The nine minute period on which the team gave up four of those goals was, I think it’s far to say, the worst stretch of play that the JW has ever seen. In a way, I was glad that I was only listening and not watching, and even then it was really painful. Even from my vantage point (listening but unsighted so to speak) it was possible to discern some key facts.

Goal #1 was a typical David Beckham production. Once again, he was left with time and space to shape shot, and once again he made us pay. I say once again because this goal was, as near as I can tell, pretty much a carbon copy of the one that Beckham scored against us at the HDC in April.

Goal #2 was also vintage Beckham: a free kick from just outside the penalty area. Beckham is a past master at this, so of course it is very important when playing against Beckham equipped sides like the Gals that one avoid giving him opportunities such as this. This was right in Beckham’s wheelhouse, and I must admit that I was not surprised in the slightest when John Strong announced to the radio audience that it had gone in.

Having made sure that the members of the David Beckham Fan Club would have something to post on their message boards for the next week, Portland then preceded to continue their collective implosion by giving up two more goals in the next four minutes. As an aside, I really wonder if this has something to do with scoring first. I have come to dread the Timbers scoring early because it is so often the portent of unfortunate consequences. Usually, the conseqences aren’t quite this dire, but in all honesty I have to admit that although I was aggrieved at the way things turned out, I wasn’t shocked.

I still hope to watch the video of this match, although it will be the sports viewing equivalent of scarfing down a bowl of wormwood. Painful though it will be, I must admit that there are a couple of things about which I am curious. As the teams came out for the opening kickoff, John Strong pointed out that the Timbers were shaping up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. I really couldn’t believe my ears. Did I hear this correctly? Can the role that that ill conceived formation played I our humbling against FSL really have been so thoroughly lost on the people running things? I start to question my own sanity. Maybe the Timbers have been playing that formation all season and I simply haven’t noticed. No, that can’t be it.

As I said many times after the FSL debacle, this formation really doesn’t play to our strengths. One might have thought that it would have worked a little better in the friendly confines of the JW than it did below the western face of the Wasatch Range. Sadly, it did not. From the radio broadcast it was clear that the Gals had a lot of possession, which is precisely the thing that this particular formation is meant to address. And then of course there were the repeated scoring opportunities gifted to Beckham and to Keane (the latter is on the verge of replacing Tommy Smyth as my least favorite Irishman).

This result must really put paid to the idea that 4-2-3-1 can be a winning approach for this team. It didn’t work on the road, it didn’t work at home, and unfortunately there really isn’t anywhere else to play. I suppose what I find most shocking is that this formation has been implemented in the two matches since we brought in Kosuke Kimura. Am I alone in thinking that that would have been the time to rededicate ourselves to playing a real pro-style 4-4-2 with the fullbacks coming forward and contributing to the attack? Why this has not been tried is a mystery to me.

Ok, that’s probably about enough nattering about a match that I’ve only heard and not seen. I’ll be back tomorrow with a preview of the midweek match with Chivas.

Magadh

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plus ça change, moins ça change…so goes the “new” timbers

Posted on July 15, 2012 | 14 Comments

plus ça change! or for those of you who speak american: the more things change, the more they stay the same. but today, i consider the acceptance of my inherent tendency for dour behavior, awarded to me by my french heritage, not as disillusionment with the side but an understanding that things just are what they are. the timbers are not the galaxy–they do not have three exceptionally talented world-class designated players they can rely on to change the course of a game. what the timbers are is a side experiencing the pains of a sophomore campaign. and we should expect only results consistent with that definition.

last night, the timbers controlled possession, completed more passes with greater accuracy, and had more chances on goal than the galaxy. oh, and they scored 3 goals. yet they lacked a bit of luck necessary to make that perceived dominance on paper a reality on the pitch.

i did not expect gavin to work miracles this week. nor do i expect him to work miracles the remainder of the season. he is the general manager and the interim coach, working to create some stability in a side that knows only inconsistency. but from the moment i reviewed the starting eleven, i knew things had not changed. spencer’s boys were still guaranteed starting positions and wonky formations were employed. which is to say that if you keep doing things the same way, do not expect the results to be any different from before.

the match started out rather well. within 3 minutes the timbers had the lead off an early goal from kris boyd. our attack on the right had been fortified with the return of kalif alhassan. and quickly we were reminded of the difference his play on the right makes. kalif found the ball at his feet following an outswinging corner kick by steven smith. he did what ever boy dreams of doing–he kicked the ball into beckham’s grille. the ball took a wicked ricochete, eventually ending up with jewsbury. jewsbury rightly put the ball back to kalif, who stood beckham up and delivered the finest cross i have seen a timber deliver this season. he zipped a curled ball around beckham to boyd who turned on the ball to pot it past a flailing josh saunders.  1-0 the timbers.

the timbers then controlled possession for the next 15 minutes. they strung together some nice passes, but were wholly ineffective at penetrating the stolid galaxy defense. unfortunately, with all that possession the timbers concentration began to lapse. easy turnovers were made in a midfield geared more for defensive play than holding play. regardless of what the 80% pass completion stats suggest, many of their passes were easily intercepted by the galaxy.

we have seen time and time again, putting #facepalmer in the starting eleven only handicaps the side. if he is not running around like a headless chicken, he stands in awe, watching the opposing side’s designated players. he is a liability. and for 45 minutes last night he crippled the timbers midfield and defense.

i am an advocate for closing down players in the midfield, especially when they are on the ball and are known to have a great outside shot. i am an advocate for putting a solid tackle on a fella, or a shoulder to knock off the ball. i am also an advocate of playing some form, any form, of defense that disrupts the opposition’s flow and possession. so when landycakes flicked the ball back to hector jimenez and continued his run forward, i was perplexed to see #facepalmer follow him when the ball was still in possession of the galaxy midfield corps. he failed to chase a ball passed within 10 feet of his position. instead, he disregarded his duties as a defensive midfielder, which is to break up play, pointed to eric alexander, who was positioned  20 feet off david beckham, to close down the ball. without question, alexander should have instinctively moved towards beckham, but it was palmer’s failure to do what is expected of his position that lead to beckham’s jaw-dropping goal in the 20 minute.

david beckham impersonates david beckham better than any other person i know. probably better than any person he knows. beckham knows beckham and he strains to show the world that he is beckham, because, well, he is beckham. if the goal he scored against the timbers during the first game in la was not a lesson in the necessity to close him down, his goal last night certainly was. perhaps the reasons for closing him down were best defined in the arrogant stance he took after scoring that goal. if only to avoid that happening in the jw, close him down.

but wow. wow. that goal was beautiful. in fact it was so beautiful it was deadly. it eviscerated the timbers. after standing for a minute in a mixture of disbelief, admiration and amazement, i turned to my seat neighbor and said these words: the timbers will lose 4-1. if you do not believe me, he can tell you–he reads this blog. and sure enough, the timbers proceeded to give the game away.

five minutes after his first strike, david beckham again impersonated david beckham. in a build up to a free kick, landycakes took a tumble that should win him an academy award. i know as americans we should support american players. landycakes is an exception to that unwritten rule. he is a diver. a cheat. and an arrogant prick. as magadh wished gonorrhea on his neighbors, i would wish something similar on the hair club for men posterboy. his tumble was in response to a slight nudge by kosuke kimura. typical defending. but landycakes fell to the ground, crumpled up, and pretended to be hurt until the free kick was awarded. job done.

if there was something the timbers could do to prevent the first goal, there was nothing they could have done to prevent the second. it was a masterclass free kick curled around a suspect wall of bodies into the lower righthand corner of the goal. perkins made an attempt to grab it, but that ball was in the net the moment beckham kicked it.

seven minutes later a controversial penalty was awarded to the galaxy. stephens took a pass from todd dunivant and pushed the ball into the center of the box. kimura ran back to cover and collided with the gals midfielder. he did make contact and it was in the box, but stephens no longer had control of the ball. when contact was made, the ball was a good 7 feet away from stephens. kimura’s collision did not prevent stephens from a goal scoring opportunity–he did not have control of the ball. i guess we will have to ask the ref on that one. landycakes converted from the spot and the timbers were down 3-1.

one minute on and the galaxy made it 4-1. with possession and moving the ball on the leftside touchline, smith turned the ball over at midfield. a quick transition saw landycakes on the ball. horst attempted to intercept donovan, but was pushed to the ground by the midget. shockingly, no foul was called. perhaps it was because david horst is enormous and landycakes is, well, landycakes, but donovan bowled over horst in the same way kimura did that lead to the galaxy’s second goal. regardless, donovan slid in a superb cross to robby keane, who tapped in to put the galaxy up 4-1. as if i needed more reason to hate that ex-spud, keane, his goal celebration sealed my opinion of his as a douchebag. nothing gets my ire up like a cartwheel-summersault-spring-up-with-guns-ablazing celebration, and that it was performed by that ex-spud who shot his guns towards 112 made it even more unbearable.

if you were not at the match and you are reading this, you might think the play is now in minute 68. but you would be wrong–only 29 minutes had passed. yes, it was long.

but wait, there is more! somehow, somewhere, the timbers dug into a reserve of heart that we supporters failed to realize existed. 5 minutes following the escapade of douchebaggery, kimura pulled back a goal. boyd drilled a free kick from 20 yards out. it was low and fast, and admittedly difficult to handle. saunders bobbled and an on-rushing kimura latched onto the deflected ball to put the timbers back in the match. 4-2 into the half.

gavin did address his mistake at half time, replacing the ineffective palmer with brent richards. i like richards. i think he is an absolute talent that will be great for the timbers in the future. but for all his energy and drive, his youth was exploited last night. on the 64 minute, beckham placed a nice pass down the touchline to sean franklin who had moved inside and behind richards. richards made a poor stab at the pass, but it was for nought. franklin took the ball in stride and copied donovan’s cross to keane in the first half. 5-2 and keane had the audacity to perform that celebration a second time. did i mention i hope he loses a limb? just making that clear.

six minutes later another free kick is set up for boyd to take. his free kicks may not be the things of beauty and grace we might associate with beckham, pirlo, or henry, but last night they got the job done. with jewsbury standing over the ball, it was teed up for boyd to drill hard and low into the left corner of the net. saunders looked upset about the goal but there really was nothing he could do to prevent it from happening. 5-3 with 20 minutes remaining. too bad the timbers failed to capitalize on the switch of momentum. the only remarkable event to occur following that goal was alexander’s well placed professional foul on landycakes. well done eric!

there were several frustrating aspects of this match. first, the defense was a collective non-entity. i may give kimura a pass due to his commitment to the cause, but horst and mosquera were terrible. clearly they are not on the same page and unable to communicate with each other. on the left, smith was caught out too many times. most notable was the moment that lead to keane’s hateful first goal.

next, nagbe. enough said? yeah, he was yet again poor. which made the 90 minute substitution for zizzo so galling. that was a substitution that should have occurred 30 minutes earlier, but did not. the timbers were down 5-3 at 70 minutes, yet gavin kept darlington in the match. the only time a substitution at 90 minutes should be made is when the side is in the lead and wants to waste time.

overlooking those frustrations, i walked away from the jw with some pride in the team. down 4-1 in 28 minutes they had every reason to be dejected and look at their boots for the remainder of the match. instead, they picked themselves up and fought. kimura was instrumental with bringing the side back into the game. regardless of his emotional badge pounding moment, he attacked the gals when they were on the ball, he supported his teammates when necessary, and he was vocal. until kimura’s arrival, i had not seen one defensive player direct the offside trap. but there kimura was, motioning with his arms and his positioning, telling horst and mosquera where to be in relation to each other. that got me. i might have a man crush on our new acquisition.

in any event, this loss was not as difficult to stomach as the real salt lake debacle. the timbers tried despite the efforts of the officials to hand a game to the ambassadors of the mls. and that is all we as supporters can ask of them. sure, the more things change the less they change, but here i think our perspectives have.

enjoy your sunday. i am off to exploit the generosity of adidas…

sunshine.

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The Long Nightmare is Coming to an End (Maybe)

Posted on June 16, 2012 | 2 Comments

Some of you may have noticed that we have a Twitter feed (and a Farcebook page as well for that matter). Sunshine and I sort of split the duties as far as the other platforms go. Pretty much any time you see something turn up on The Axe’s FB page, it’s because I put it there. Likewise, with very few exceptions, any time you see a Tweet emit from the The Axe’s Twitter account, that’s sunshine. It’s funny to me that he actually tweets as often as he does, as he professes to hate it. I’m not surprised that he likes it though. It really limits the amount of back chat that he has to hear from others. Anyone who has watched the recent Avengers movie will know why this is a good thing.

So, the long nightmare of the international break is just about over. I suppose I should have expected that our match would not be on the first day that the season resumed. In any case, our match up tomorrow with the LA Gals has some intriguing dimensions.

The Gals are a weird team. How can they have all of that (expensive) talent and be running dead last in the Western Conference? Part of the problem can be summed up in one particular stat: they have a -6 goal difference. They are a team that is geared to go forward. The operative idea, at least for the last few years has been that the best defense is a good offense. In the course of winning three successive Western Conference championships, they have averaged a goal differential of +14. In the course of those three seasons, the Galaxy have averaged less one goal per game conceded. So far this season, they are conceding 1.6 goals per game and scoring just fractionally more than one per game. All of which is a long form way of saying that the Gals just haven’t been playing very good defense so far this term.

The Gals haven’t won in over a month (since 21 April to be exact). More promisingly, from our perspective, they haven’t kept a clean sheet all season. Lest our collective expectations get too elevated, we should probably all recall that this includes our match with them in 14 April when we scored first and then hemorrhaged three goals in the second half. Of course, that was at the end of the period when we were getting our defensive problems sorted out. The goals that Portland conceded late in that match were typical of the manqué defending that blighted the early part of the season. The Timbers have only conceded four goals in the six league matches since then. That may not seem that great, until you remember that we conceded nine in the first four matches.

The Gals have the feel of a team in crisis. I was a little surprised to read that David Beckham had signed a contract that included a 40% pay cut from his previous deal. Clearly, his skills are not what they were two or three years ago (to say nothing of what they were a decade ago), but it’s strange nonetheless. You can argue about exactly what he brings to this team at this point, but just imagine what they would be without him. He’s not as fast or as strong as he used to be, but he is still better than about 95% of the players in this league, and for LA he’s the straw that stirs the drink.

In any case, while the Gals will have Beckham’s services tomorrow, they will be without Robbie Keane, who will still be on duty with the (now eliminated) Republic of Ireland national team at the European Championships. Those who saw the match earlier this season will have painful memories of Keane burning Eric Brunner in the corner to set up the Gals first goal. I’m sure none of us want to see a repeat of that.

The Gals will be starting something of a makeshift lineup tomorrow. In addition to the Keane’s absence, they will also be without the services of Mike Magee, Hector Jimenez and Michael Stephens, who are all suspended. Edson Buddle, Adam Cristman, Andrew Boyens and Dan Keat, are all out with injuries. Taken together, that’s a lot of potential starters who will not be on scene. On the other hand, they will have the services of Landon Donovan. As the match earlier this season illustrated, Donovan doesn’t need a lot of help to create goals when he’s in the mood, especially when he’s given time and space to shape a shot.

Newly married Kris Boyd is back in Portland now and, if this report from the MLS website is to be believed, has been working well in training with the newly arrived Danny Mwanga. Of course, that and $2.50 will get you a cup of coffee. I mean, I suppose that this is a more promising headline than something like, “Boyd Nuts Mwanga With A Pint Glass At First Meeting,” or “Boyd Stubs Out Cigar In Mwanga’s Eye At Party.” Still, bringing someone new is the kind of thing that can shake people out of their ruts. The challenge for the Timbers is going to be to find a mode of attack that actually works. One might also hope that the guys on the team will take the implication of Perlaza’s departure: you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. Those who are the former will (or should be) moved along.

Perhaps the most important consideration is that this is the first opportunity for the team to put the humiliation of losing to Cal FC decisively behind them. The way that the Timbers come out for the match in LA well speak volumes about the underlying guts of this team. For professionals, a result like that has to be sickening, and rage inducing. Somebody has to be made to pay for it. Irrespective of their record, LA at home is always going to be a tough job. With the Sounders coming up on the horizon, the time to get things right is now.

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