FRISCO, Texas-The Portland Timbers successes (and failures) can be nearly be pinpointed with one single question: was Portland able to get wide?
Width, or rather lack of it, was among the culprits Timbers head coach Caleb Porter reckoned following the Timbers two defeats. The Timbers lack of production from the wings but an issue they targeted in the off-season with the DP singing of Sebastian Blanco and the analytic think tank that placed Darlington Nagbe on the left.
Without the ability to pull the game out to the right, teams can stack the middle so as to resemble SE Park Avenue. Seriously, who drives down those streets? Tourists? If your GPS is leading you through there, you need to disable masochist mode. But I digress.
Saturday’s conundrum is Portland will be facing its sternest test of the season and they’ll be doing so without Diego Valeri. Valeri is a perennial MVP candidate and is off to one of his finest starts of his career. This is not just homer talk, the stats back me up on this. His loss will be felt, but someone will have to move out of position to cover for him. Then you’ll have two field positions in which your top player is out.
Road trips to Texas have seldom been kind to Portland, and this one is looking no different.
The obvious choices to fill Valeri’s shoes is to shift Nagbe or Blanco over and place Jack Barmby or Dairon Asprilla in. But if Porter really wanted to toy with FC Dallas, I have an idea I’ve wanted to kick around. Before signing Blanco, Porter mentioned David Guzman as capable of playing the ten. Amobi Okugo and Diego Chara would play back, and it would look like a defensive styled 4-3-3.
Would it be attractive? No. But at a venue where the Timbers have a history of allowing four or more goals on different occasions, it might be worth a shot.
FC Dallas
Portland
