By Niall McCusker

Hands up who looked at the Timbers formation before the LA game and thought. “They’re gonna score five” (my hand is up).

Hands up who thought ‘they’ would be Portland (my hand is down).

Did the coaching staff sit up long into the night debating the merits of a formation switch to one defensive midfielder? Or when Jewsbury went down injured did they just think ‘what the heck’ and give it a try? Maybe they even reviewed player ratings against Vancouver back in May when we noted that:

“this Timbers offense needs help, if the defense is truly an upgrade from last season let them prove it without the

safety net of two conservative defensive midfielders.”

Whichever it was it has worked out amazingly well, with 3 points from one tricky fixture in Salt Lake and 3 more from a seemingly impossible away game in LA.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. When Diego Valeri’s comeback was interrupted in May by an ankle injury, forgotten man Gaston Fernandez came in and sparked Portland’s best run of form all season. After that the goals dried up again, but can this new look propel Portland not only into the play-offs, but on to some success there?

It is too early to say, other experiments like a 442 with Urruti and Adi up front together gave some promising early results (Dallas) before being exposed (Orlando). But it is at least a viable option.

After the midweek win at RSL the possibility of this 433 (or 4141, take your pick) formation being tried again in LA was discussed by pundits and fans. But most were thinking it was the worst match-up in the league to indulge in experimentation with a more open, attacking line-up. Surely pragmatism, the Caleb Porter watch-word for the season, would prevail, but it didn’t – and the Timbers did.

On MLS ExtraTime yesterday Porter said he had thought LA were another good team to run this formation against, in hindsight the merits of this argument were not at all far fetched, at least in theory.

The Timbers have gone to LA in the past, tried to defend, eke out a draw and got beaten – so why not have a go?

Portland learned against Orlando at the start of the season that a 442 is vulnerable to being bossed around by a team who has an extra player in midfield. Then given the look of LA’s middle – Gerrard and Juninho – both more into scoring than defending, why not use your extra midfielder in an advanced role, take a chance and put them on the back foot?

Because you are in LA and that would crazy.

It could have turned out that way – only the woodwork stopped the Galaxy from building a more commanding lead than 1-0 by half-time. Then the visitors came out playing very nicely in the second half, but after some early misses surely it was just a matter of time before LA picked them off on the counter?

That didn’t happen, it turned out that Gerrard and Juninho did indeed have little interest in defending, leaving a large gap between the Galaxy’s midfield and defense for the Timbers to exploit. When they got to the center of the LA defense Portland found that Leonardo and Gonzales also had surprisingly little interest in effective defending.

So the perfect storm ensued.

Nagbe and Valeri combining down the middle is nothing new – but to then have a winger on either side to look for is something new. Given the freedom to drive right at LA’s back line they did something that Portland had not done enough this year – box entries. It’s that simple, when you bring the ball into the penalty box – with some bodies in support – good things happen.

First: Valeri box entry pass to Melano, Valeri continues his run into the box, Adi is already there and Wallace is not far behind. Goal!

Second: Valeri box entry pass to Melano, short cross to Adi. Foul. PK. Goal!

Third: Wallace box entry pass to Adi. Great hold-up play, return ball, cross from Wallace, late run from Chara. Goal!

Portland actually had 5 players in the penalty box for that goal, apart from attacking set-pieces that is probably a season record. Too many times it is a cross from the wing (not one inside the box) with 1 or 2 targets battling against 4-5 defenders.

Fourth: Flick on header from Urruti, box entry run from Nagbe and a nice finish. Goal!

Fifth: Box entry? Why yes, yes it was. Villafana skipped right on in there, simple cut-back to Urruti. Goal!

Now most teams know the basics of the game, they defend this area called ‘the box’ and they do it better than LA did. They show opponents a little respect, the Galaxy did not and it cost them. Also the Timbers will not finish this clinically every game, but more box entries and more players following up will help turn the odds in their favor.

Sure Portland could have had better finishing in a few games this season, but the story is not as simple as: offensive bad, defense good. Midfield tactics are the link between those two parts of the game and it mostly ended up being 6 defending players and 4 offensive players (or 6.5 and 3.5 if you count where Nagbe often really plays). So giving the offense another player seems only fair and was absolutely needed.

This look for the Timbers is not going to be a tactical panacea, some day, some team will rip it a new one. But it wasn’t LA.