By Niall McCusker

After conceding 12 goals in their last three road games the Timbers will take some solace in keeping a clean sheet, but they really should have taken all 3 points home.

San Jose enjoyed a lively started to the game with Wondolowski forcing a good save from Kwarasey after six minutes. The visitors failed to generate any meaningful chances in the first half as their attacking fulcrum, Valeri, continued to search for his best form and repeatedly turned the ball over.

After a poor match for the first hour Portland got some control late in the second half and their pressure earned a deserved penalty, which in a low quality game of few chances they needed to capitalize on. They didn’t do so and a nil-nil draw was a perhaps predictable outcome for two sides who had been struggling to find their offense spark for the previous month.

Meanwhile the man who had been at the center of Portland’s most productive offensive displays this season was not in the game day squad – the reason for this became apparent the next day when news of Gaston Fernandez’s move back to Argentina was confirmed. As the business end of the season approaches a return to game-winning ways for Valeri or an immediate impact from Portland’s new DP Melano will be required for that move not to seem badly timed.

Here are the individual ratings:

Adam Larsen Kwarasey 7.5: When a fractured Portland offside line allowed Wondolowski an early 1 vs 1 chance the keeper came off his line quickly and spread himself well for the save. After that San Jose’s attack did not threaten him much, he made a nice catch (yes catch not punch) for a second half corner and had good, solid game.

Alvas Powell 6 (off at HT): Salinas crosses a nice ball and Wondo has made a nice living from sneaky runs into the box. But San Jose’s early chance was still a major breakdown of the Timbers defensive line. When a winger penetrates toward the end and cuts back onto his other foot or passes the ball back up the line that is a cue for the defense to step up as a unit. Similarly with San Jose’s deep throw in the 6th minute, when it went back up the line Ridgewell immediately pushes out to the 18 yard line, Villafana follows his lead – Wondo is between them a yard offside. Nicely done – except for the fact that at the other side of the box Powell and also Borchers did not follow that step out and played the striker onside. This situation is consistently trained for but perhaps they need the George Graham style ropes* to get them moving as a unit.

Modern full-backs tuck in close to the center backs, but when playing against a winger with the crossing ability of Salinas he should not be allowed time to cross the ball. San Jose pressured Powell’s side but after a few early blips he got some good tackles in and seemed to have matters mainly under control.

He had to be taken off at halftime with some kind of back issue, but it doesn’t appear to be anything major.

Nat Borchers 7: Maybe he didn’t step out because he saw where Powell was and knew it was too late. Either way by this stage he and Ridgewell should be seamlessly on the same page and both should be moving in unison and prompting the full-backs when needed. San Jose didn’t offer much threat, but Borchers stayed tight to Amerikwa and didn’t give him any chance to get into the game. He should probably have scored from a free header at the corner just before halftime, but a solid if easy game.

Liam Ridgewell 7: Yes I am going to continue to completely belabor my point about offside – having been at the club a year now it isn’t enough that he does the correct thing himself – all his defenders need to be on the same page as him. As the defender with the most high level experience in the league every day at training should be a valuable clinic for the other defenders (preferably one were they all have to address him as guv’nor)

Jorge Villafana 7: Cato didn’t cause him any problems and after a conservative first half he started to push forward more in the second were he and Wallace helped the Timbers mount their most successful spell of pressure.

Will Johnson 6.5: Given the need to focus on defense for this game it is understandable that he did not get forward much, but perhaps the Timbers defensive midfielders showed San Jose a little too much respect? Johnson was well positioned to cover any San Jose counter attacks and a lack of a possession platform on which to build pressure was as much on the attacking midfielders inability to hold the ball as in was on the Johnson/Chara axis. The Canadian needs to take on the penalty kicking job again now that Valeri has missed one.

Diego Chara 7: The Colombian tracked San Jose runners from deep well and launched a few Portland counter attacks himself in the second half. For the Chicago game it would be good to have him pushed up a little higher as the midfielders sitting so deep is solid, but depends on the full-backs to generate offensive danger, which they have not been doing of late.

Darlington Nagbe 6.5: A mixed game from Nagbe, he had his usual few dangerous runs and in the second half held the ball better and allowed Portland’s attack to build some momentum. But in the first half he a couple of dangerous giveaways in his own half and he and Valeri failed to link meaningfully with each other.

Diego Valeri 6: He did play a couple of nice balls wide to Wallace, but his first half was mainly notable for uncharacteristic giveaways and heavy touches. He seems like a player who is his own worst critic and feels the expectation of the team on him to produce something special, but maybe he needs to simplify his game a little for now instead of trying to force it. He did cause the turnover which released Adi for his shot and won himself a penalty, so even not at 100% he can contribute, he just needs others to step-up while he finds his way back.

Rodney Wallace (off on 80′) 6.5: The left winger had Portland’s first shot on the edge of the box after ten minutes but saw it blocked – Portland could really use him returning to his sneaky goal-scoring ways right about now. After keeping their wing on lock-down for most of the game, he and Villafana ventured forward late. Wallace produced a few decent crosses, most notably to Melano after 70 minutes.

Fanendo Adi (off on 65′) 7: This was another game were the Nigerian looked really good but only in brief moments due to lack of support. He got a couple of shots off that he had to make for himself and hit a very nice effort off the post when released by Valeri. He looked to have a lot more left in the tank when withdrawn on 65 minutes.

Substitutes:

Taylor Peay (on at HT) 6: San Jose had gone after Powell’s wing all of the first half and surely would have looked to double down on that attacking strategy when they saw Peay come in. But Portland started to play better and protected the youngster well, he wasn’t noticed much and that is all he needed to achieve.

Lucas Melano (on in 66′) 6: Do the Timbers have a definite idea of were they want to play this guy? Brought in against Dallas on the right side he switched to the left and in this game came in up top and moved back to the left when Urruti came in. There is no harm in looking at him in different areas and selecting where to utilize him based on which other players are in form, but a reflection on Fernandez’s first few months cautions against making it more difficult for a new player to settle in without a defined role.

In this game he got on the end of nice Wallace cross and saw his effort saved. Given that San Jose left-back Francis had been on a yellow card since the 15th minute (which the Timbers never sought to target) it might have been interesting to see Melano go in and get at him with pace as an orthodox right winger.

Maxi Urruti (on in 80′): Even after the missed penalty Portland retained some attacking momentum, but Urruti didn’t really find his way into the game.

* while coaching at Arsenal George Graham was rumored to tie the back-line (the epic one of Winterburn, Adams, Keown and Dixon) together on ropes to encourage movement as a unit. In training that is – would be a tad illegal during games.