Main League Soccer shrewdly scheduled a Cascadia Cup conflict a couple of hours after Sunday’s World Cup closing, and Seattle confirmed why it’s the finest group within the league proper now.
BY
Blake Thomsen
Posted
July 14, 2014
12:39 PM
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IT WASN’T A VINTAGE Timbers-Sounders basic, however the bitter Northwest rivals nonetheless mixed to placed on an excellent present in entrance of a usually raucous Seattle crowd. The Sounders struggled to get going within the first half, however a much-improved second half efficiency gave the house group the 2-0 win it totally deserved.
Let’s check out the way it all went down from a tactical standpoint.
SOUNDERS LINEUP
Obafemi Martins wasn’t fairly match sufficient to play greater than a half, so Seattle was robbed of its deadly Martins-Clint Dempsey pairing from the beginning. Sigi Schmid opted for one thing of a real 4-4-2, with a basic goal man/withdrawn ahead setup in Chad Barrett and Dempsey up high. Martins got here on for Barrett within the 51st minute and vastly modified the sport, serving to swing a then comparatively even contest closely in Seattle’s favor.
TIMBERS LINEUP
Caleb Porter’s 4-2-3-1 hinted at loads of attacking promise, with the large Nigerian Fanendo Adi on the tip of the speark in entrance of the trio of Diego Valeri, Darlington Nagbe, and former Sounder Steve Zakuani. However this setup proved way more defensive—and much much less potent—than the 4-3-3 that Portland used away to the Galaxy final weekend.
SLEEPY FIRST HALF
The primary half was, to be candid, a little bit of a snoozefest. Every group’s midfield considerably canceled the opposite out, and neither aspect had many good scoring probabilities because of this.
Barrett labored onerous however didn’t hyperlink up nicely with Dempsey, who didn’t get his typical share of touches close to the purpose, diminishing his effectiveness. Seattle’s different returning World Cup star—DeAndre Yedlin—additionally didn’t make a lot of an affect, hardly seeing the ball in the kind of large areas the place he was so harmful in Brazil.
The Timbers deserve credit score for defending resolutely within the first 45 minutes, which contributed to Seattle’s restricted offensive affect. Offensively, nonetheless, the guests left a lot to be desired.
What appeared like an attacking 4-2-3-1 from Portland at kickoff proved to be extra of a defensive 4-4-1-1, which persistently defended with two banks of 4. That meant that Adi didn’t have almost sufficient assist up entrance as a goal man—Nagbe didn’t present a lot assist in an unnatural No. 10 position, and large midfielders Zakuani and Valeri had been even farther away.
Adi may have helped his trigger by being extra unpredictable and dynamic along with his motion. As a substitute, he tried to determine his “post-up” sport from the primary minute, which performs way more towards his strengths. It’s not a nasty technique when he has assist from onrushing attacking midfielders, as he does when Portland is at its finest. However the assist by no means materialized within the first half on Sunday. And to be trustworthy, it didn’t get a lot better within the second half, both.
That is clearly an exaggerated graphic, nevertheless it usually felt a bit of like this from a Timbers standpoint.
START OF SECOND HALF
After halftime, Portland got here out in the identical defensive setup because it did within the first half. This proved efficient for 5 minutes, or till Seattle introduced on the fit-again Martins. The Nigerian’s introduction utterly modified the sport, as Seattle burst to life from an attacking standpoint.
Martins immediately did a a lot better job of dropping deep to obtain the ball than Barrett did, which proved to be the lacking hyperlink towards the bunkered-in Portland protection. With Martins occupying defenders farther out with intelligent motion (in addition to high quality distribution), Dempsey was capable of finding rather more house nearer to the purpose. It’s within the pocket within the heart of the attacking third the place Dempsey is most harmful, and he immediately discovered himself there with rising frequency.
Dempsey’s extra superior place helped Seattle preserve appreciable territorial dominance, as a lot of the second half was performed deep in Portland’s half. This, together with Portland’s lack of risk on the counterattack, invited large midfielders Marco Pappa and Lamar Neagle—in addition to Yedlin—to get larger up the sphere.
These three whipped in a sequence of harmful crosses from the flanks and likewise managed a number of efforts at purpose. Seattle’s dominance regularly wore the Timbers down, and the Sounders lastly broke the impasse by means of Clint Dempsey’s opportunistic end within the 71st minute. Donovan Ricketts produced a genuinely absurd double save, nevertheless it finally wasn’t sufficient to cease Deuce from scoring a trademark scrappy purpose.
FINAL 20 MINUTES
After staying in two banks of 4 for nearly 75 minutes, the Timbers had been compelled to interrupt out of its shell and attempt to take the sport to Seattle following Dempsey’s opener. However the group by no means appeared able to doing that towards a powerful Seattle protection, anchored by Osvaldo Alonso in midfield and Chad Marshall on the again line.
The Timbers struggled to create scoring probabilities—Gaston Fernandez’s outrageous, against-the-run-of-play lengthy shot off the submit apart—and to make issues worse, the large numbers Porter threw ahead left big gaps to take advantage of on the counter.
The Sounders narrowly missed out on a couple of promising probabilities—due to extra heroics from Ricketts—however finally the dam broke, and Seattle sealed the sport by way of a composed Pappa effort. Search for a couple of issues within the beneath video:
The large house left by Portland’s protection.
The intelligent close to submit motion from Martins and Dempsey, which drew all of Portland’s remaining defenders, leaving Pappa large open and with sufficient time to submit his new ASN 100 poll earlier than his cool end.
FINAL VERDICT
This sport performed out as one may anticipate when the first-place group within the convention hosts the eighth-place group. Much better groups than Portland have already got and can proceed to fall at CenturyLink Subject, nevertheless it have to be stated that the Timbers closing quarter-hour was notably disappointing. The aspect by no means actually appeared a risk to equalize, which is, after all, removed from ultimate. However worse nonetheless was the convenience with which they allowed the Sounders by means of on purpose many times. On one other night time—or with a much less in-form keeper—this might have gotten out of hand late, maybe even 4-0 or 5-0 in favor of Seattle.
What did you consider the match? Inform us beneath.
Blake Thomsen is an ASN contributing editor. Comply with him on Twitter.
