Portland Timbers player ratings versus Montreal

By Niall McCusker

Portland picked up a valuable win last weekend in another game that could have easily have ended in a draw. But this time the Timbers took their chances and the Impact did not. In the first half Montreal had most of the ball, prompted by the excellent Ignacio Piatti, but the Timbers restricted them to set-piece opportunities which were generally well defended.

The visitors came out strongly in the second half and created some chances, eventually scoring from a Borcher’s header following a set-piece. The returning ‘maestro’ Diego Valeri doubled Portland’s lead shortly afterwards with an excellent curled finish. Almost immediately Montreal substitute Oduro pulled one back for the home team and it looked as though they had leveled when Jack McInerney headed into the net minutes later. However, the linesman spotted that he had also propelled his would be marker Jewsbury into the net with a two handed shove seconds earlier.

Another goal looked on the cards, but somehow the 2-1 scoreline held up as Portland squandered a series of chances on the counter and Montreal missed a couple of headers at the other end.

Here are the individual ratings:

Adam Larsen Kwarasey 7.5: He flapped at Montreal’s first corner getting no contact on the ball, but doing enough to distract the attacker – that was about his only mistake of the game. He was busier than in many recent encounters as Portland’s defense looked less comfortable than normal.

In the first half the home side looked to play in runners with chipped balls over the top, Kwarasey did well to catch one of these over McInerney on the half hour and caused some concern when he looked to land awkwardly. Soon after that he was alert to a sneaky Donadel shot to the near post on a free kick. In the second half he made a good initial save on Alexander’s shot and was helpless for the rebound, which landed right at Oduro’s feet.

The sometime Ghanaian international was fast off his line in injury time to collect the ball at Oduro’s feet as he slipped behind Borchers. Despite conceding a goal he was actually more impressive than for many of the clean sheets in which he had little or nothing to do.

Alvas Powell 7: Piatti did cause him some problems when he drifted out to his side, including the cross that led to the goal, but the Argentine caused havoc wherever he popped up and the right back could have used some more support at times.

Mostly busy in defense but did make one excellent forward run on 15 minutes, when he split 3 Impact players and cut in toward the edge of the box. He could have perhaps played in Adi, but good to see him take on his own shot, even if it wasn’t on target.

One bad header to straight to Piatti and a foul on the same player late on, for which he should have seen yellow, should not overshadow the good work. The top tackler in MLS this season, added a further 6 to his tally, mostly nice controlled steals, not desperate slides – many of these came near the end when Montreal were pushing hard.

Nat Borchers 8: Portland’s best player on the night, an error free defensive performance from which he took time out to score Portland’s opening goal – catapulting himself into second place on the Timbers scoring charts for this season, with a mighty two goals.

It would be remiss when mentioning Powell’s tackle count, not to recognize Borcher’s four blocked shots – most of which were goal bound. The only one he couldn’t make it to was the goal, were some might argue he could have stayed with Oduro, but sometimes rebounds just don’t go your way.

The defensive midfielders didn’t have their best game so Borchers was busy closing down runners that escaped their attention, Duka, Romero and McInerney were all handled well at various times.

Liam Ridgewell 6.5: The Londoner pushed up at the last minute to play McInerney offside in the 5th minute, but it looked too late to expect the rest of the defense to anticipate his intentions – luckily the ball in was a little long for the striker. Apart from that there were no mistakes as such from the defensive leader – but maybe he could have been a little busier? He likes to sit and be the last man while others get into the action, but a few times one feels he could have got himself involved more – like when Jewsbury was being out-jumped for Soumare’s late missed header or Oduro was free for another header in the box.

Jorge Villafana 6.5: Romero and Reo-Coker kept Villafana and Wallace on the back foot for large parts of the first half, but when the attention shifted to Powell’s wing he should have been able to press forward more often and give the Timbers an outlet.

Diego Chara 7: In the first half Chara and Jewsbury allowed the Montreal midfield too much room to operate, there was no platform to bring Portland into the game until almost halftime. The Colombian could perhaps have given Powell a little more help in the second half, when Duka, Piatti and later Miller were consistently overloading that side. But he still found the time to make some excellent blocks and tackles in the box, cutting out a dangerous cross from Romero early and halting Reo-Coker’s advance into the six yard box in the second half with authority. The timing and angle of his covering runs into the box is really something to behold.

On the offensive side, it was encouraging to see Portland score their first goal from a second phase cross after a corner – Chara measured the delivery right onto Ridgewell’s head, an under-rated aspect of his game.

Jack Jewsbury 6: The return of Diego Valeri should ignite Portland’s scoring, but it will also mean the defensive midfielders have to earn their keep more as he likes to make risky passes and stays higher than Nagbe would in that position. In the long run this is obviously a good thing, but Jewsbury and Chara looked out of sorts for the first forty minutes having to adjust their game. The Missourian got a couple of nice blocks on Ciman and Piatti in the second half as Montreal were trying shots from range. He was undone by the fresh legs of former Timber Eric Alexander in the lead up to Montreal’s goal, but although out-jumped late on by Soumare on a set-piece he may have done enough to stop him equalizing.

Darlington Nagbe 6.5: In the absence of Valeri, Nagbe was often the Timber’s main threat in attack – would he happily hand back the reins or seek to outshine the returning talisman? Nagbe being Nagbe, probably the former.

A quiet first half, like the rest of the Timbers, he came central but sat deep behind Valeri, didn’t work with his defensive midfielders to develop a foothold on the game for the visitors. A nice run 2 minutes from halftime suggested he would have profited by running at Donadel more often, keeping him on the back foot. At the beginning of the second half he forced a smart save from Bush with a long range effort.

There were encouraging signs for Portland’s offense as Nagbe started to work with Valeri, some nice interchange leading to the first in a series of dangerous corners. Another nicely slipped ball into Wallace also led to a good shot on goal. Nagbe faded out a little toward the end of the game – Portland will need him to come to the forefront in the coming games as Valeri makes his way back to full match fitness.

Diego Valeri (off in 72′) 7: If you ever feel the need to embarrass yourself in front of your friends while watching a game, then loudly chastising Porter for leaving Valeri in the game too long 20 seconds before he scores a beautiful goal is one way to go – still I stand by my point, at least in theory. In the first half the Argentine showed some signs of rust – a couple of errant passes and turnovers were to be expected. As the team raised their game in the second half, Valeri’s prompting passes became more like those of old.

The quality of the goal shows why Portland need him starting – but his team-mates will need to realize that he is not able to carry them on his back at this point in his recovery and step up, do the work and allow him to ease back into his role.

Rodney Wallace (off in 81′) 7: Reo-Coker is getting on a bit, but is still quite dangerous going forward – but Portland had been making plans for Nigel. Wallace tracked him well in the first half and the two had a good battle. In the second half the Costa Rican international started to find some room, a decent left footed effort forced a save from Bush and then there was the give and go with Valeri for his goal. It wasn’t exactly smooth, but Wallace worked hard in the tackle to poke the ball back for his second assist of the season. If all his colleagues were as clinical as Valeri he would have at least double that tally.

He could have capped a fine performance with a goal, but chose to try to cut onto his favored left foot when running on goal after a Montreal mistake when he could have got a shot away on his right.

Fanendo Adi (off in 87′) 5.5: The Nigerian had few chances to get involved in the game in the first half and was quiet in the second as well, despite his header being saved onto the bar to allow Borchers an easy rebound. His defensive effort deserves a mention, as he cleared three Montreal corners during the game – that can be enough to earn points in a tight game.

As the match opened up in the last ten minutes Adi finally got on the ball regularly, with a couple of good lay-offs and a nice give and go with Yartey. But he really should have rewarded Yartey’s run down the center minutes later with an early ball, instead he took an extra touch, which was heavy one allowing Soumare to whack him with a strong tackle. Perhaps that will encourage him to look up earlier next time.

Substitutes:

Dairon Asprilla (on in 72′) 5: The youngster’s speed seemed like the way to go when defending a lead, sit back nice and compact and allow his runs to keep Montreal honest. It didn’t quite work out that way as he was forced to help out with some defending on the right side. When he did get his chance on the right it was from an excellent Yartey switch – he needed to play the early ball to Urruti, but left it too late.

Ishmael Yartey 6: After receiving some criticism for his last two starting performances it was good to see him show well off the bench for ten minutes – rushing him into the starting eleven may not have helped him settle in. Yartey pushed up the center, giving Portland a good mix of speed and passing on the counter – he was the most impressive substitute on the night.

Maxi Urruti (on in 87′): Not on long enough for a rating, but did find the time to rob a defender nicely, bear down on goal and delay his shot long enough to get tackled. Adi, Asprilla and Urruti all should have made sure this game was iced for Portland – they should be thankful Montreal’s missed chances means theirs will largely escape scrutiny.

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