Enough with those scoreless draws, already

By: Bob Kellett | May 19th, 2008

How to explain it? Three nil-nil draws in the past four games. Even with inferior players up front in 2007 the Timbers weren’t shutout three times in four games. With the addition of Chris Brown and Takayuki Suzuki this wasn’t supposed to happen. If you look at the statistics, in the first three games Brown and Suzuki combined for 21 shots and three goals. And, of course, three wins. In the past four games they have combined for 10 shots and one goal. And no wins. As a wise man once said, you can’t score if you don’t shoot (unless the other team gives up an own goal or boots the ball off your backside into the goal or…).

One difference I have noticed is that Brown is playing with his back to the goal less often than he did the first few games. For whatever reason the team has gone away from playing off Brown as a target and instead have been relying on long balls to two forwards who don’t exactly have breakaway speed. Those sharp little give and goes we saw against Minnesota have largely disappeared. Brown is an excellent passer and he has very good control in tight situations. I’d like to see him in a position where he can feed his midfielders and Suzuki more often.

And about the midfield
The build up on the attack continues to break down in the midfield. I don’t have a Ph.D in coaching but my eyes tell me that there never seems to be enough room in the midfield. Gregor and Higgins play on top of one another when they are paired. The outside guys, with the exception of Little against Puerto Rico, have been playing too inside. And Suzuki and Brown have added to the congestion by coming back to try to receive balls. Better spacing, more east-west passing, and simple passes from foot to foot.

Josh who?
We were all pretty bummed when Josh Wicks took his 14 shutouts and moved on to the LA Galaxy, but this hasn’t hurt the Timbers at all. Even if Ray Burse isn’t the keeper Wicks is (a matter up for debate), this defense is just as stingy as it was last year. Maybe even more so. With five shutouts in seven games, Burse is on pace for 20 shutouts this season. That would shatter the mark Wicks set. This backline has only given up 21 goals in the last 35 regular season games. That is remarkable.

Looking ahead
After a week in which Gavin Wilkinson will reintroduce his guys to offensive football during practice and a week in which we will hopefully see the arrival of a player with breakaway speed, Benjamin Totori, the Timbers face a very good Vancouver team on Saturday. The Whitecaps have played four 1-0 games and have only yielded one goal all season. They’ve also only scored three goals. They will be playing their third game in six days and play in Seattle the night before. Not exactly a scenario for the two teams to play a high scoring game. On Monday, the club faces Miami in a game they simply must win. Miami is a bad team and if the Timbers are serious about challenging for the title they must earn three points at home against the Blues.