PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Timbers are about to face a hyperactive, high-intensity defense as the San Jose Earthquakes bring their man-marking system to Providence Park on Decision Day presented by AT&T (4 pm ET | ESPN – Full TV and streaming info).
But when it comes to Timbers home games, teams like San Jose have not been the norm.
Teams have often found success against Portland by bunkering down defensively, making it difficult for them to get inside the penalty box and produce quality shots. Instead of earning three points in games where they’ve dominated possession and shots taken, the Timbers have often come away with only one point, and sometimes none.
“I think we had too many problems this year in that situation,” midfielder Sebastian Blanco said.
“It has been very, very frustrating because we thought we were ready to face this kind of opposition,” defender Larrys Mabiala noted. “Obviously, we showed that we were not very ready.”
The problems dealing with bunkering teams started against Colorado and Orlando, who played the Timbers to frustrating draws by making it impossible to get good shots. Against D.C. United on Sept. 15, Portland enjoyed 67.3 percent of the possession and had 23 shots to United’s seven. They ended up losing that game 1-0.
Games like the one against D.C. show that Portland have been able to generate opportunities. It’s just a matter of finishing those chances.
“Maybe we didn’t read it perfectly the first time, but it’s something that we’ve adapted to throughout the year, gotten better in moments,” Timbers forward Jeremy Ebobisse said. “And I think our improvement in that has been overshadowed by perhaps some of the missed chances that we’ve had in the attack through a few of the games.”
Catching teams on the counterattack is one way to create chances and score goals. The Timbers feel comfortable in those situations, but it just hasn’t always translated.
“We can obviously get the ball and get them on the counter, but this didn’t happen,” Mabiala said. “We have to deal with the opposition we had and their position was to bunker just in front of their 18-yard box, and we tried to do our best, but we just couldn’t find the goal.”
For now, opponents parking the bus isn’t Portland’s top problem. Their focus is on their game against San Jose, a meeting of two teams in desperate need of a win to qualify for the Audi 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs.
“I don’t expect San Jose to come out and sit back into their own goal,” Ebobisse said. “I think that they’re a team that believes in themselves and believes in their quality defensively and offensively, so we’ll handle whatever they throw at us.”
