Winless Timbers host unbeaten Dallas. Will parity prevail over form?

By Matt Hoffman

Since Caleb Porter came to the Rose City, scoring has seldom been an issue. But this season, unlike Porter’s first two seasons in Goose Hollow, Porter doesn’t have the luxury of having maestro Diego Valeri’s incredible mixture of speed, vision, and technique on hand at the beginning of the season.

It’s not a surprise that the Timbers offense hasn’t been firing without Valeri. Valeri led the team in goals and assists in 2014. Yet few forecasted that four games into the season the Timbers would have mustered three goals and twice be held scoreless.

On Saturday Porter went looking for a spark. In trying to break the mold, Porter temporarily shuttered the team’s more traditional 4-3-3 formation in favor of a 4-4-2.

More surprisingly, the striking duo was Fanendo Adi paired up top with Maximiliano Urruti on Saturday against Vancouver.

Urruti and Adi are more accustomed to replacing one another than playing alongside each other and it showed. As my esteemed colleague points out, there was much between the duo that could be improved upon.

Sometimes things things with good intentions end up turning out very badly. However, there was a logic in it, another sign of Porter’s evolution from a systems-coach to a pragmatic one.

And, for the most part, it worked. The Timbers offense was lively. The Timbers generated 15 shots, five on target and got their third goal of the season.

The formation change allowed Darlington Nagbe to slide back out right as more of an inverted winger.

“[Nagbe]’s been playing well, but I thought this was maybe his best game,” Porter said speaking to the media on Tuesday following practice. “He was able to float inside, in between the layers, and find space. He’s hard to pick up when he plays that way.”

Against Vancouver Nagbe had 65 “accurate” passes while completing 29 passes in the final third..

The Timbers had the better possession against Vancouver. Not only holding the ball but completing 88% of their passes, including completing 77% of their passes in the final third. The Timbers defense meanwhile kept Octavio Rivero in check holding the Uruguayan to one solitary shot while frustrating him enough to commit three fouls.

These statistics, while pleasant, can’t mask the fact that in soccer only one statistic truly matters and that was the one stat where the Timbers came up short last week.

Dallas is off to a blistering start. Dispensing these sorts of boasts this early in the season is like leading the Hood-to-Coast before you’ve even entered Sandy, but Dallas is by all counts the top team in the league right now.

Only Vancouver has as many wins (3). Dallas is averaging over a goal-a-game and yet their defense has been solid conceding only one goal.

Only Philadelphia has been called offside more than F.C. Dallas. They are quick and will try to get behind the Timbers defenders early and often. Earnshaw provided a textbook lesson on how to beat the offside trap. Despite the upgrade at the centerback position, the Timbers don’t want either halfback getting into a footrace with the Dallas strike corps.

Intriguingly Dallas is first in both goals and assists, but 12th in the league in shots taken. The takeaway: Despite their youth, F.C. Dallas has the patience to wait for the good shot.

The team speed is frightening and surely something to be accounted for, as can be attested by the fact that Dallas is among the league leaders in fouls suffered.

Despite the early season accolades, one thing F.C. Dallas fans did not want to see last week was Mauro Diaz on the sidelines in street clothes. Diaz wasn’t participating in training on Tuesday and Wednesday, which puts him in jeopardy of missing the Portland game as well.

It’s no coincidence that Dallas’ form rose and fell on the health of Diaz last year. Diaz is the dynamic Number 10 that makes Dallas run. And in that regard, Portland can relate.