You're Only As Good as Your Guys on the Ball. Jack Jewsbury, Jeremy Hall and Rodney Wallace are three of our players who epitomize the state of the team currently. Jewsbury has no business captaining an MLS side. He's a fairly capable CM who can tackle and defend but can't score or distribute, and has hardly shown an ounce of creativity so far. His set pieces are borderline-atrocious but I think have been unfairly maligned. When I watched live on Saturday it seemed like almost every corner ball he put in play was too low or high and right at the goalkeeper. Sure enough, on review at least one corner to Ryan Pore in the early first half looked like it was flicked low by design. This obviously isn't a defense of Jewsbury's play per se, but he isn't the sole reason we're at the bottom of the table.
In an odd way Wallace and Hall have been almost exactly as advertised, at least if the advertisements in question were the ones by the skeptics who wondered what the hell Gavin and John were doing. Two games is an extremely limited sample and they will hopefully bounce back, but so far they've been an utter disappointment. For a duo that was defended from such skepticism by claims that when put together, they would make the Timbers left side a team strength, they've played like the exact sort of disposable, Goldy-esque talent that makes people hate MLS. This is a pretty harsh assessment, but Hall and Wallace have looked downright cumbersome together. On one play early in the second half, Hall brought the ball close to goal and misread a charging Wallace. Hall put the ball well off him, which caused Wallace to punt the ball wide onto the left outside of the net. Of course, this set up another Jewsbury-certified milquetoast corner kick that Stefan Frei grabbed and beautifully punt to Martina for Toronto's second goal.
Wallace followed up his "Omar Cummings? Who?" moments last week in Commerce City with a bit of lazy defending and poor communication in the 14' that facilitated Toronto's first goal. As Goldy assisted Steve Purdy on Maicon Santos just outside the six yard box, he lazily assumed Wallace had his man Javier Martina covered. Wallace let Martina get three steps ahead of him, and Martina charged and dutifully put Santos' ball past Adin Brown for what turned out to be the decisive goal.
When You Get a Man Advantage, Use It. Timbers played up a man for the last eight-plus minutes after Mikael Yourassowsky was busted for time-wasting and received his second yellow card. You'd be forgiven for noticing a difference in the play for the ensuing eight minutes, and it was hard to blame Silvio Petresceu for blowing his whistle with about thirty seconds still seemingly on the stoppage time clock. Saved by the bell, indeed.
HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC PLAYER RATINGS
Adin Brown. 6.0. Again, Brown made some energetic stops, and again he was burned by his defense for an easy first half goal. He was surprisingly pulled at halftime for young Jake Gleeson. According to John Strong on Twitter, Brown likely will be out a couple a couple of weeks after "tweaking" his hamstring. Like with injury-prone Marcus Camby, anyone claiming a "Portland injury curse" by pointing to Brown's latest physical dilemma is an idiot. Brown missed most of the last couple of years with various ailments, and is no spring chicken. Get well soon, Portland needs the depth.
Jake Gleeson. 6.5. He made a great one-on-one stop and had a couple of terrific plays. He got burned for being out of position on Martina's second goal, but that one was a cracker. Also, Brown's injury likely means he'll be seeing a lot time on the field for Timbers the next few weeks. I'm excited to see him play and think he's done a tremendous job making the jump straight from the U23 ranks to MLS.
Steve Purdy. 6.0. He was torched on a lazy pass intercepted by Santos early in the first half on a play that easily could have yielded a goal. All in all though, he remains our top player on the back line, and we're lucky to have him. El Salvador's loss was our gain this weekend, as he stuck around for Timbers before heading off to Jamaica for the international friendly.
Eric Brunner. 6.0. Stronger than the guys on the left side of the defense, but not by a whole hell of a lot.
Kevin Goldthwaithe. 4.5. He played physically, took a couple of hard shots and had a couple of well timed punts out of danger. About the rest of his game, the less said the better. He is a total liability at this point, and if Futty Danso doesn't get a look in the next few weeks, it better be because he's playing for The Gambia full time.
Rodney Wallace. 5.0. As detailed above, Wallace followed up his nightmare in Colorado with another poor effort. My hope is that the reason he seems constantly out of position is related to spacing issues as the team gels. Still, he's been horrendous. He was caught out of position and burned badly by Santos for Toronto's last goal. The demoralized look on Jake Gleeson's face as he stared at Wallace after the goal kind of sums up how his play's left most Timbers fans feeling.
Ryan Pore. 6.0. He looked better on the left, and Spencer has to be begging him to step up and stop deferring. He had a great look early in the first half from the top of the box, one of Timbers best looks all game, and passed it up to try to hook up with Kenny Cooper for a header. To quote a great philosopher of sport: Shoot the J! Shoot it!
Pore had a beautiful interception in the 50' that set up Jeremy Hall's great look at a goal. As he gets more comfortable in MLS, I still anticipate big things. Sal Zizzo came on in the last half hour for Pore, but passed poorly and to tell the truth I didn't notice Zizzo's play much.
Peter Lowry 5.5. Like Jewsbury, Lowry hasn't yet played to expectations. The lingering impression is his awful out-of-bounds attempt to connect with a wide open Wallace as time expired.
Jack Jewsbury 5.0. His set pieces were borderline embarrassing and it's almost impossible to point to any meaningful play he helped set up. He's our captain, and that about sums the state of the team up.
Jeremy Hall. 6.0. Hall had a couple of spectacular looks but failed to find net. His passing was improved. After the looks he's had the last two weeks, it's hard to believe he apparently hasn't scored a goal in two years in the league. One of those little facts that should temper expectations.
Jorge Perlaza. 5.5. It may just be my stereotyping of undersized Colombian forwards but he reminds me a little of Flounder Fredy Montero when he first entered the league. He's adjusting to the more physical style of play, and looks tentative and under-utilized. He had a decent opportunity for a header that he missed, and another one in the 70' that he sent right at Stefan Frei. Brian Umony came on for Perlaza in the last twenty minutes.
Kenny Cooper. 6.5. He can't do it all. The lack of fluid attack means he plays with his back to the goal a good amount of time, trying to make it happen himself. I can't wait to see him play off Darlington Nagbe when he doesn't have to be the only source for offense.
(Top photo credit: Javier Martina after scoring his first goal. The Canadian Press, Chris Young.)
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