Portland Timbers player ratings

by Niall McCusker

After holding Real Salt Lake scoreless quite easily in the opener the LA Galaxy would be a sterner test for the Timbers revamped defense. Hard work and direct play from the first whistle gave Portland a deserved halftime lead, but Galaxy came out for the second half like the league champions they are and dominated large parts of the game. Zardes finally equalized after he and Husidic had missed several good chances.

To his credit Porter went for the win in the last ten minutes playing with two strikers and a second Adi goal looked to have clinched the game but for ex-Timber Alan Gordon to convert a corner in stoppage time forcing a 2-2 tie.

Both Portland goals, in particular the first, showed any reluctant purists that direct football can have moments of absolute quality. But it also demonstrated that when you give good teams the ball they will hurt you and so if you cede possession that defense better live up to its billing.

Here are the individual ratings:

Adam Larsen Kwarasey 6: Like last week he actually didn’t have a lot of saves to make, but this time it was thanks to the profligacy of Zardes and Husidic who seemed content to target members of the Timbers Army with their shots. For the most part he looked to be communicating well with his defenders and played his part in the opening goal, catching an LA cross and quickly releasing to Chara to initiate the counter-attack.



But something broke down between him and Borchers for LA’s first goal, it certainly looked like one of them could have challenged Zardes or the ball (or preferably both if one is ‘old-school’).

Alvas Powell 5.5: It was a mixed night for Powell as is often the case for young players. He started confidently with a nice bit of skill to pull the ball around a pressuring player in the sixth second and contained Villarreal quite well in the first half. The second was tougher as LA looked to attack his flank, but even overloaded it looked like he should have done more to cut out the cross that led to the Galaxy opener.

He is good in the air and that allowed him to tuck in beside his center backs when needed, he kept going hard for the full ninety and started to drive forward more as Portland sought their second goal.

Nat Borchers 5.5: He did a lot of things right, including his excellent block on Keane’s first half shot, but had quite a tough afternoon marking Zardes. The cross for LA’s first goal deserves a lot of credit but it seemed like he either needed to attack the ball or keep a closer eye on his man. More games should improve the communication with his keeper, but the standard of attacker in the league is improving all the time and he will need to show a little more veteran guile to steady the center of the Timbers’ defense.

Liam Ridgewell 6.5: Ridgewell broke forward in the sixth minute and lofted a nice ball into the box. He is the guy who Portland look to distribute from the back and he may go too long, too often for some tastes but if that’s the tactic he’s being told to implement one can’t really blame the player. As well as balls to Adi he switched it up with some nice delivery to the wings, including the pass to Nagbe that led to Portland’s second goal.

One dodgy header off his top-knot aside it was a solid outing from the Englishman, Robbie Keane was anonymous for the most part.

Jorge Villafana 5.5: On a last chance corner for LA. Borchers is on Gonzales, Ridgewell is marking Zardes, Powell is taking care of Leonardo, all making good sense so far…… Then we have Villafana matched up with Alan Gordon. It seems unfair to downgrade him for that, blaming Jorge there is like blaming a gazelle for getting eaten by a lion. Nature has a natural order and Villafana marking Gordon at a last ditch set-piece is not part of that order.

Meanwhile Fanendo Adi was patrolling his ‘zone’ on the six yard line, he did a solid job, the zone remained scoreless as Gordon wheeled off to celebrate.

Not to belabor the point, but somewhere in the inner sanctum of the Portland locker room there is going to be a board (I hope) and on that board will be the day’s assignments for defending set-pieces. Was there a plan for the likely event of Alan Gordon coming off the bench?

Anyway, other than being manhandled for the last goal, Villafana did decently, he doesn’t seem to get forward as much when Portland play more directly but he did have one nice cut-back from the end line and as always worked well with Wallace.

Jack Jewsbury 6.5: After being rightly praised for his excellent set-piece delivery last week his service in this game was quite unreliable. There was a strong wind but while it didn’t seem to affect the game too much, he may have trying to compensate for that. Unleashed one powerful first half shot and should have been found by Wallace at the edge of the box for another in the second half but mainly he stayed back and played as expected, simply and effectively.

Diego Chara 6.5: Just back from injury he was visibly annoyed at being on the end of a couple of early, hard fouls from Husidic. Referee Grajeda kept the card in his pocket as is his style. But miraculously his word in the ear of the players did seem to calm the game down after a chippy first twenty minutes.

When Keane pulled back from the striker role to hide in midfield he was usually picked up by Chara, handling withdrawn strikers was not a strong point for Portland early last season, so having it sorted out is a good sign for them. He sold Asprilla short on one first half pass that led to Keane’s shot but overall a steady return to the starting eleven. With this game under his belt can we expect to see him driving forward more in future?

Dairon Asprilla 5 (off in 55′): After a good pre-season he still looks like he has not adjusted to the faster speed of regular season games, his passing and dribbling skills were slightly off. But while technically he needs to adjust, tactically he is doing the right things and his development will be key to Porter’s new direct ideas.

Speed scares defenders as can be seen by the 2 yards Rogers was giving him on Adi’s opening goal, the action came down the opposite flank, but it looked like Rogers focusing on Asprilla and forgetting to look across at his center-back’s position was what kept Adi onside. Rogers became much busier in attack after he was substituted, so even though he didn’t have a great game his presence still influenced it.

Darlington Nagbe 8.5: This was the best game from Nagbe in quite some time, he was on point from the second minute, breaking up the right wing to set up Adi. His heel-flick to spring Wallace on the left wing to set-up the opening goal was a thing of beauty. Tried to work with Fernandez to hold more possession for Portland toward the end of the game, but it was his direct attacking that stood out, as a great run and assist for Adi’s second testified. This is the Nagbe that Portland fans would like to see every week and while he can hold the ball up when needed the more direct style should suit him.

Fernando Adi 9: The second minute miscue aside, when he should have worked the keeper or found Wallace behind him, this was a powerful ninety minutes from Adi. He atoned for the early miss quickly, a nice diagonal run through the center backs to pick up Wallace’s through-ball left him still with plenty to do on the finish, but he opened his body and confidently curled it into the far corner. From then on the confidence was flowing, at the start of the second half he combined strength with subtlety as a nice back-heel set Wallace free in the box.

He continued to challenge for every ball, showing good stamina as Porter left him in for the full game in search of a second goal. When his chance came he a took a touch, composed himself and cheekily finished through a defender’s legs. It may have been the winner if he’d been assigned to mark Alan Gordon and not a zone for the last corner.

Rodney Wallace 7 (off in 82′): almost found some joy early, chasing down long balls as the LA keeper hesitated. His assist for Adi was fairly straight-forward but well measured. Some of his passes could have been a little sharper on the night and he seemed to tire as the second half wore on – less possession will do that – but a decent game.

Gaston Fernandez 6 (on in 55′): Porter talked after the game about diversity in the attack. They showed that they had the direct part down, especially for the goal – Kwarasey, Chara, Nagbe, Wallace to Adi, five passes, one end of the field to the other in 10 seconds for a goal. But getting back to being able to possess the ball for lengthy periods especially when ahead and then mixing in direct attacking at appropriate times should be the next step in their tactical development.

Fernandez should be the key to this tempo setting but in this game it didn’t work out that way. LA scored ten minutes after he came in so any inclination Portland had to slow down the play went out the window, the match closed at a pretty frenetic pace and that is not La Gata’s game. A skilful but slight player, in MLS he can still be effective, but sometimes he looks like a ballerina that somehow ended up in a mosh-pit. His quick free-kick, disguised nicely while picking himself up from one foul, almost sneaked Wallace though on goal and was a reminder of the kind of clever thinking that has made him a great player. Though whether he can become a great MLS player is still up for debate.

Maxi Urruti: again not really time to give him a proper rating, he will not be best pleased about getting only ten minutes to showcase his talent for the second game in a row. Perhaps he could have been brought in a little earlier, but he did help raise the energy level for Portland to push toward the second goal. It was refreshing to see him replace someone other than Adi as the Timbers fielded two out and out strikers – a rare occurrence.