BEAVERTON, Ore. – Who could blame Caleb Porter for showing a measure of frustration after the Portland Timbers fell in a 2-1 defeat at rival Seattle Sounders last weekend?
Not only did he feel there were officiating deficiencies, but the fiery head coach had also watched a very familiar theme play out once again: the Timbers creating chances at will, outplaying their opponent for large stretches of the match only to come out holding the short end of the stick.
The Timbers outshot Seattle 20-6 (6-3 on goal) but fell behind 2-0 at halftime thanks to a defensive blunder and a penalty kick. A Jack Jewsbury goal on a corner kick would be the only chance Portland could convert.
It was a microcosm of a season-long finishing catastrophe.
They lead the league with 379 shots in 27 games, are tied for fourth with 127 shots on goal but are tied for 18th in the 20-team league with just 27 goals.
This is all after finishing third in MLS in goals in Porter’s first two seasons at the helm.
“It’s all about the player in that moment, there’s nothing more you can do but put them in position,” Porter said this week at the team’s training facility ahead of a weekend off before playing host to Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday. “And you train finishing, every coach in the league trains finishing every single week. You prepare your team so that you hopefully get a lot of shots, which is what we’re doing. You prepare your team to hopefully prevent the other team from getting shots, which is what we’re doing.”
The fact that it was Jewsbury, a defensive midfielder, who scored also signified a worrying trend for the Timbers. After Fanendo Adi, who leads the team with 10 goals, two defenders, Jewsbury and center back Nat Borchers, are part of a three-way tie for second on the team with three goals apiece. Reserve striker Maximiliano Urruti also has three.
Their scoring leader from the last two seasons, attacking midfielder Diego Valeri, has just two goals after missing the first two months of the season recovering from an ACL injury.
“In all honesty, I think what’s been missing is a bit of luck,” said Lucas Melano, Portland’s newly signed Designated Player forward who has a goal in six appearances, through a translator. “If it’s not to the 'keeper’s merit, sometimes it’s a little bit of luck on the final shot that we’ve been missing. We just need to keep working. We’re creating goalscoring situations, we’re creating our opportunities, and I think once the luck comes on our side they’ll start all going in a lot more.”
To a certain extent, Porter feels the same way.
He said after the Seattle match that there’s really not much he’d want to change – aside from the lack of quality on the final touch, of course. It was, by all accounts, an impressive display of attacking force by the Timbers at a stadium where they’ve never won in the regular season.
It was also another example of Porter adjusting his strategy based on matchups. In other matches, especially on the road, he has deployed a more compact, defensive game plan while looking to counter.
It’s all resulted in chances, but very few goals.
“We felt in that game it was a good game to go toe to toe,” Porter said. “And we felt, frankly, that they’d have more than they did, but like I always tell my team going into every game we’re going to prepare to have the ball, to push the game, to be up the field and we’re also going to prepare if that doesn’t happen so we’re not surprised or vulnerable, either way.
“…From a coaching standpoint, I’m always thinking about why we didn’t’ win and what needs to change, and I don’t think a lot needs to change for us going into the next game to win.”
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Adi said such a dominating performance translates into a lot of confidence, even if it didn’t result in a win. He said that confidence now needs to carry over into their finishing.
“Sometimes in the game the finishing doesn’t seem right, but you know when you’re playing very well the chances will come and the finishing will come at the right time,” Adi said. “… In the game against Seattle, the way we prepared for that game and the mentality for that game was really, really high, so I just think we need to maintain that.
“All we needed to do was put the ball in the back of the net, and that’s just what we lacked in the game.”
Porter also shrugged off the idea that Portland have yet to get into a goal-scoring groove due to a good bit of flux in the lineup. The Timbers were without Valeri and captain Will Johnson for the early part of the season due to serious injuries, and they’re both still working their way back to top form.
And in July they added Melano, who has played as a striker and on the left wing, while parting ways with Gaston Fernandez, who had two goals and two assists in 21 appearances (six starts).
“We’ll score,” Porter insisted. “We’ll score goals. Top three last two years, we’ve generated chances, we’re tops in the league this year in shots. Everybody asks the question are you concerned, but my experience tells me that when you get chances like we’ve been getting, when you put your players in position to score, eventually you score.
“So I’m confident starting Wednesday that we’ll do better, that we’ll score goals.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
