All of the sudden, after six sputtering performances to begin the Giovani Savarese era, the Portland Timbers put it all together on a fabulous spring Sunday afternoon at Providence Park — and, in the process, walloped MLS's best team in fairly spectacular fashion.
The Timbers shut out previously-undefeated New York City FC for the first time in 21 games, leading for over an hour, and scoring in each of the game's three half hour intervals.
It was a head-turning win in head-turning fashion: Portland conceded 75 percent possession, completed just 250 passes, and absolutely dominated the game from start to finish. They were impenetrable defensively, imperious going forward, and focused throughout.
It was the afternoon of Savarese's young MLS journey, and a hugely significant building block for a Timbers team that is beginning to look like the side that won the Western Conference and was primed for a deep playoff run less than a year ago.
From the opening whistle of this game, the writing was on the wall for the visitors.
Less than three minutes in, Sebastian Blanco sprung onto an errant cross-field pass and went racing towards goal only to fire over the bar. He'd have another tremendous look two minutes later when he broke unmarked towards the back post, but hit Andre Flores' cross wide.
By the time Valeri saw a shot turned off the line by Alexander Callens, it could have been 3-0. The only surprise when Portland finally took the lead midway through the first half was the manner by which they did it.
The buildup again came down Portland's righthand side, with Alvas Powell involved, before Flores flighted a deep cross that Blanco leapt over Anton Tinnerholm to send looping towards the far corner of the goal where neither NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson nor center back Alexander Callens could make a play on it.
The ball dropped into the side netting like a teardrop, and the Timbers had the lead.
New York was characteristically dominating possession — they had almost 80 percent in the first half — but finding it nearly impossible to play between the Timbers' lines and generate any traction in the attacking half of the field.
Patrick Vieira's decision to rest Jesus Medina and Yangel Herrera may have contributed to the languidness that marked NYCFC's first half, but the Timbers were well organized and committed defensively. With their final third more or less sealed off, they were just lying in wait for turnovers, then blitzing forward.
Ten minutes before halftime, Blanco and Diego Chara took the ball off of Rondey Wallace and broke out in four against three. The ball went wide to Diego Valeri, he hammered it across, Johnson couldn't get more than a fingertip to it, and Fanendo Adi buried it on the doorstep to make it 2-0.
Despite Vieira's pleas to his team to play with more urgency, and despite his introduction of the league's joint assists-leader Medina, the second half brought more of the same. NYCFC building out of the back, and running into roadblocks further up the field.
20 minutes after the restart, it'd be a set piece that'd put the game. Valeri swung in a Timbers corner, and Larrys Mabiala went right up the gut and planted a free header into the corner to make a three-goal game.
Crucially, even with the game out of sight for New York City, the Timbers didn't let up. Jeff Attinella was sharp in his first start of the season in place of Jake Gleeson, and the Timbers' backline — led, for the first time since March 10, by Liam Ridgewell — hardly put a foot wrong.
Ridgewell, with every eye on him, played an excellent game. He was active and alert throughout, organizing and distributing with confidence, and made several terrific plays in space — including a late stand-up tackle on an onrushing David Villa — to cap a performance that must have felt awfully good.
Ridgewell might still be in exile had Bill Tuiloma not sprained his knee in training midweek, but it sure was good to see the chastened defender back in the fold after a month he termed "the worst in my Timbers career." Portland now won 17 of his last 19 home starts with a +33 goal difference.
In total, with Ridgewell directing traffic and Adi amongst the goals, this was as close as we've yet seen these Timbers get to the team that they were last year under Caleb Porter — low defensive blocks, willing to cede defensive and middle third possession, and absolutely lethal on the counter.
"I don't think we saw too [many] different tactics today," Ridgewell, rather pointedly, said in response to a question about building with the new coaching staff after the game. "We've been doing that ever since I've been here."
It's taken Savarese a few months to figure it out, but the Timbers, when healthy, were the real thing last year. They're not built to high press — clearly — but in their comfort zone tactically on Sunday, they blasted the best team in the league. The game was never close.
Savarese gets much of the credit for that. He's adapted to the players he has, and he's adapted from week-to-week to get the most out of them. Had Porter himself not learned that lesson, the Timbers' MLS Cup would never have happened.
Vieira credited Portland's preparedness in this game, and a few of the smaller personnel decisions that Savarese made — like his deployment of Flores as a sort of hybrid winger, allowing Powell to bomb forward — paid dividends.
Ideally, the Timbers wouldn't concede 75 percent possession at home. But no one anywhere will ever argue with winning 3-0, and certainly not against the best team in the league. This might be as comprehensively as we see NYCFC get beat all season.
By the same token, this Timbers look won't work in every game. But these last two weeks have been crucial for Savarese in that they've got players bought in. The confidence carried over from the Minnesota win and built on Sunday were evident: for the first time this year, Portland played with some swagger.
It was, against the league leaders, a beautiful sight.
