Portland Timbers 2, Seattle Sounders 6

At no point as an analyst or writer covering the Portland Timbers have I EVER seen such a complete dismantling of a team.

Regardless of the two goals scored by Portland, they were organizationally, strategically, and tactically hammered…

Organizationally – Portland is a direct team – note that specific observation by Schmetzer before the half ended on Fox TV – they play direct….

What’s that mean? It translates to:

• They can’t possess with the intent to penetrate
• They can’t establish platforms of final third penetration with smooth, purposeful ball movement in the middle third
• They only ever think about playing the ball forward’
• They are predictable
• They are there to somewhat entertain with fanciful long balls or quick (basketball) fast breaks that raise the heartbeat for a few seconds only to be rewarded (maybe?) 5% of the time.
• FACT > Portland have the second lowest team possession in all of Major League Soccer – NEVER, EVER has Portland had such horrible control of the ball in its HISTORY – not EVEN JOHN SPENCER – the much maligned and oft embarrassed head coach should such little appreciation for controlling the ball through possession – and he HAD FAR LESS money to build his team.

Strategically – as a direct team you look to play the ball quickly and directly towards the opponents’ goal. ONE DIMENSIONAL – nothing STRATEGIC about that.

Tactically – Schmetzer lead his team just like many other coaches have against Savarese – FORCE Portland to have the ball and then counter on their mistakes…

I called out Savarese for playing ‘packing’ since he first got here – it’s time he moved on…

Enough said – my anger management at watching that HUMILIATING DEFEAT last night is somewhat pacified – but really, NOT…

#GioOUT.

Best, Chris