Quarterfinal Second Leg – Portland Timbers v. Vancouver Whitecaps

By: mao | October 9th, 2010

Portland Timbers enter Sunday’s quarterfinal second leg against Vancouver Whitecaps with a desperate situation. Having failed completely in defense in Thursday’s first leg, the Timbers enter the return leg with a two-goal deficit. As such, Portland will be forced to attack from the start, needing at least a 2-0 score line in their favor after 90 minutes.

Whatever the strategy from Thursday, Portland must employ the opposite. The defense was a shambles and however the intended use of Ryan Pore was drawn up, the Timbers failed utterly in execution. Pore will need to be much more involved, as he was in the final regular season game, and Bright Dike needs to not be a sole scoring option. Elsewhere, the Timbers need a much better performance from their midfield. Johan Claesson was ineffective and Rodrigo Lopez, his substitute, did very little to alter the game. This space cannot even begin to understand the defending, though it will suffice to say it was about as good as James Marcelin’s new hair color.

Unfortunately, Portland have very little chance of advancement at this point. Vancouver have had one of the best defensive records this season and the Timbers have only scored six goals in their five meetings this year. The prospects of putting three in without allowing any are hard to fathom, especially without the usual home-field advantage playing at PGE Park. With Sunday’s affair at Merlo Field, the Timbers will have to use every bit of luck they missed out on in May to escape a disastrous finish to the season once again.