BEAVERTON, Ore. – It’s not as if the Portland Timbers will be accused of employing “Bennyball” anytime soon.
But the Timbers have certainly shown signs of the pragmatic style taken to a new level by D.C. United and head coach Ben Olsen of late.
Portland conceded a bulk of the possession to the Chicago Fire – at home, no less – in a 1-0 victory last weekend. And that was the same formula used in a scoreless away draw against the San Jose Earthquakes two weeks ago.
That’s likely to be the case again in the Timbers’ next outing, Saturday at Real Salt Lake (10 pm ET; MLS LIVE), a place that hasn’t been historically kind to Portland – who have just one win in six league matches at Rio Tinto Stadium.
“I’ve learned that in this league, most teams at home are going to try to push the game, so it’s important that we threaten them and make them defend, but also we need to be realistic that they’re going to have some of the ball,” Timbers head coach Caleb Porter said Friday from the team training facility before departing for Utah. “They get a lot of numbers forward, they play very aggressively at home, like almost every team in the league.”
Prior to that, the Timbers had been outscored 14-2 in their previous four road matches in all competitions. Portland lost 2-0 at Rio Tinto on July 1 in a US Open Cup match during that stretch.
“These last few games away games we let in quite a few goals before we had the clean sheets,” center back Liam Ridgewell said. “It’s been a bit emphasis on keeping the clean sheet, for us as a back four and back six it’s been important all year.”
The Timbers, however, have still been dangerous going forward – in a bit different way than D.C. were in their 1-0 win over Montreal in which they got off just one shot. Portland fired off 15 shots (five on goal against San Jose – missing out on goals through a missed penalty kick and shot off the crossbar – and 15 again (three on goal) against Chicago.
“The last two games have been positive results, coming off some results that weren’t what we wanted, so we feel like we’re starting to gain some momentum again,” Porter said.
One player who could help with Portland’s counterattacking style is Lucas Melano, who has three substitute appearances since he was signed last month. Porter said he’s getting closer to the fitness level required for a “high-level” 60 minutes.
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In his 72 minutes so far, Melano has proven to be quite dangerous, firing off eight shots.
“We didn’t want to put him and let him try to fight through it, we want to make sure he’s 100-percent ready,” Porter said.
Melano, who Porter said can play at any of the four attacking spots in Portland’s 4-2-3-1 formation, could slot in at striker with starter Fanendo Adi uncertain for RSL. Porter said Adi picked up a “knock or strain” against Chicago and has been limited in training all week.
It was undecided Friday midday as to whether Adi would travel to Salt Lake.
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
