PORTLAND, Ore. – There was a lot not to like about the Portland Timbers defense heading into the month of August.
With the season two-thirds gone, Portland had been on the wrong end of some whopping scorelines: a 4-1 loss to FC Dallas on July 25, a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of the Philadelphia Union on July 11 and a 5-0 loss to LA Galaxy on June 24.
And head coach Caleb Porter knew something had to change.
Over the past two games – culminating with a 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Friday night, the Timbers’ first victory in their last four matches – something did change. Coupled with a scoreless draw last weekend against the San Jose Earthquakes, Portland now have two straight clean sheets to up their league-leading total to 10.
And Porter said that believing that aspect of his team is sewed up heading into the season’s final stretch is huge for his club’s playoff chances.
“First and foremost we wanted to be organized defensively and not be reckless, trying to go and win the game and score goals, and sometimes we’ve been reckless looking to do that,” Porter said in his postgame comments. “But I thought when the ball turned over we looked very compact and organized.”
Friday’s match on a steamy night at Providence Park is certainly not how things usually go down at the Timbers’ cozy home grounds, with Portland often pushing the game buoyed by their famously raucous crowd.
On this night, however, they were conservative on defense, conceding 55 percent of the possession to a Fire team that sits in last place in the Eastern Conference. That’s not to say they pinched their goal, outshooting the Fire 15-13 (3-2 in shots on goal).
Especially after the Timbers scored, three minutes after the halftime break on a Fanendo Adi goal set up first by a Diego Valeri cross after Will Johnson switched play on a perfectly placed long ball, the counter attack really opened up and resulted a number of dangerous chances for a second in the dying minutes.
“We just got back to basics,” Timbers center back Liam Ridgewell said. “Obviously in the last couple of weeks we thought the goals that were going in the last three games wasn’t good enough. So we re-clamped down on that one, and it’s good obviously to get the last two clean sheets from the last two games.”
Porter pointed to the importance a “bunkering” style of play can have in pressure-packed, late-season games. It’s already paying off, with their last two results moving them into fourth place in the Western Conference.
“We’re going to find goals,” Porter said. “We’ve got attacking players that can score goals, and with the way we play we’re going to get in good spots to score goals. But sometimes you’re not going to score two, three, four goals, sometimes it’s going to be one. If we win every game 1-0, no one is going to remember the scoreline, they’re going to remember the points and where we finish in the table.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
