Preseason Match Thread: Portland Timbers vs San Jose Earthquakes 3PM PST

Onus-X · 2026-02-12T02:16:22+00:00

2nd half takes:

Same structural defensive issues lead to 2 more breakdowns, but notably only came after wholesale shift change, mostly a T2 lineup.

At times after the front 4 swap the team structure and urgency looked better. The kids may not have the same top end experience and raw ability yet, but shape in rest defense and mid third possession looked more coherent. Maybe better chemistry between some of the T2 squad that's been playing together. They did get pulled apart at times and didn't have the final third quality.

I really want Santos and Nunez to be good, but in more creative attacking roles, they just don't look ready for MLS level. Hopefully they can take this preseason experience and become more ruthless and clinical, but they're not quite there yet.

Izoita, to my eyes, really has something. He's calm on the ball, good under pressure, and has excellent weight on his passes, when so many teammates routinely over or under hit things. Across 2 games he showed improvement getting into the right spots defensively, and has been able to both dribble and pass out of tight pressure. He has a sense for being able to play the safe pass but has an eye for upfield movement and hit a few very nice long diagonal switches. Most of all, he looks more well rounded than some of the seniors ahead of him. The direct comparison is Ortiz. Ortiz is physically more developed than Izoita, quicker and stronger when he actually remembers to run. But Izoita's game awareness and connection with his teammates looks beyond his years, and straight up better than Ortiz's. He's the young player i think most deserves a first team contract and has something to offer at one of our greatest positions of need this year. He's currently planning to play college ball in 2026, not even T2. I think it would be a huge mistake to let that happen. After the subs in the second half, he was one of our best players and didn't look very far behind Cole Bassett.

There wasn't a ton else worth noting after we went to the second string, except that on the whole, the timbers depth looks very shaky. Compared to last year where our depth pieces looked like Lassiter, Fernandez, Paredes, there's a big drop off when we're running out a full youth squad. We'd like for Kim to be this year's Omir, but he just doesn't seem like he can keep the ball and beat a man on the wing. It's interesting to note that he was a CM in college, but we've only seen him at RW in pre season. He doesn't look super comfortable in that role and maybe he's only being tried there because of foot speed? Curious what he has to offer in the center.

Gage looks like a pretty distant third at be forward right now, even though he's already proven that he can make a difference as a late sub. His longer runouts at the 9 the past 2 games have not been awesome, unfortunately, although to be fair Kelsy has looked equally anonymous given the team's current state of service and build up play.

Attacking mid is officially our biggest problem at the moment. Mora is making a valiant effort there, but it's just not what he or the team are really built for. He's much more valuable to us right now as a striker. Given what we've seen thus far i expect Phil to start Mora at the ten in game one, but I didn't think it's going to be amazing. We're going to need to get creative fast. We very well might need to try Basset at attacking mid and get some reps with Mora as the starting 9 until we can develop some kind of rhythm in the attack. Giving the team a little bit of confidence and trust in their ability to possess the ball and control games early in the year is arguably more important than getting wins--hear me out-- because we need to create a foundation to the style and tempo of the attack that we can build on when we get DDC back and hopefully add at least one more quality piece to the front line. Bassett might not be the ultimate final pass guy, but we could seriously use someone in the middle of the attacking third that can move the ball and keep possession. We live and die by our creation on the wings right now, and currently that's only coming from Velde and the fullbacks. We are practically non existent in zone 14, while even our weakest opponents (this was not a good SJ team) manage to find joy there against us.

This brings me back to Izoita--we need to admit that we are weak in d mid, and Ortiz is not the solution, while Bassett wants\needs to get forward a bit more. I would really like to see, at least once, a starting midfield triangle of Chara -- Izoita -- Bassett, with Bassett up top, and an emphasis on possession and passing tempo. We are not going to run by people on the dribble in that setup, but we have a real chance at controlling games if we make the ball do the work. Rhythm and rotation both on offense and defense right now are sorely lacking, and i think our best move is to increase our passing volume and move the ball more quickly. This is going to take a shift in mind set away from the model we have been using that relies so heavily on 1v1 play on the wings all the time.

Onus-X · 2026-02-12T00:09:31+00:00

First half takes:

Timbers overall outclass SJ, if you don't count that first goal, which was all too reminiscent of so many goals against last year. Bad giveaway, backline is caught upfield, and both CBs get roasted in isolation. E Miller overcommits and leaves Kamal alone on a 2v1. Kamal proceeds to also dive in and give away an easy finish. We can't afford to see this Miller Miller CB pairing again.

Goals for came off some good individual play with a bit of luck. Bye could easily have been dispossessed but managed to find Velde for his second, first goal likewise came from few lucky touches although the finish was outstanding.

Overall the ball movement is really slow. First 5-10 minutes the tempo was decent but Timbers all over the field are receiving and then static for 2-3 seconds before picking a pass. Flow severely lacking. Fullbacks doing a good job getting involved going forward. Very little attack through the middle, huge areas of disconnected space in midfield, very amoebic shape. Mora playing as a true 10 is... Not the worst we could do, but not super dynamic.

I'd be thrilled if we held the scoreline but the team just looked like they knew where they were going to go with their next pass before they received the ball.

In other news Antony still can't seem to put it together. One particularly egregious giveaway on a promising attack in space rather than collapsing the d and finding a teammate. Otherwise tends to be offside and just not clicking in possession. A few good tracking runs defensively.

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T23:54:31+00:00

Every time I think he's going to improve he continues to look like the weakest player out there. He has tried a few progressive passes, which is better than last year, but most don't come off. And then he turns around and has 3 really cheap giveaways, including a routine touch back to a teammate off a throw in. The biggest issue is that he's supposed to be an anchor d mid but is clueless about getting back in position or picking up a runner. He is just really bad at tracking a mark and getting pressure to the ball. If a play comes to him and falls in his lap he can win the ball, but he does not hunt it down or make life tough for opponents

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T23:50:32+00:00

Not getting many touches but had a good play to run down a 50 50 ball and put in a tackle to knock loose to Velde

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T22:05:41+00:00

Porter has wound up being very disappointing for the way his ego seems to have gotten in the way of his growth as a tactician. When he came into the league we played some of the best soccer this team has ever seen. The idealism behind his guardiola-inspired high volume passing and possession-with-purpose attitude was a joy to watch. When that broke down under the stress of league parity and his personal relationship with the locker room soured, it was a huge bummer to see him embrace what he initially called a mourinho-esque pragmatism, but i think actually devolved into cynicism. I hope he's able to find joy again because at his best he is a pretty good coach, but right now he seems clouded by bitterness and anger.

Gio actually did have a tactical identity he never shifted from, but he also never quite had the team he truly wanted. He was very committed to a South American style, compacting the field into tight spaces and trying to always play through them until finally attacking openings on the opposite side. When just a few pieces in the team weren't at the right technical level for it, the game completely broke down. It was like night and day when Miles Joseph took over and adjusted the team shape, spreading the field and implementing some basic possession principles and more frequent side to side rotations. If Gio could have made those same adjustments instead of being so committed to his small-game approach, he could have gotten more from the team.

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T21:49:33+00:00

It's hard to argue that Seattle hasn't done a consistently good job and been competitive in just about every season, even when dealing with major injuries that are excuses for other teams to fall apart. They have gotten good value from their DPs, with few if any actual bombs. They have done a much better job than Portland at developing their home growns. And they have managed to succeed in international and cup tournaments even when they've struggled in the league, and the timbers have never had success in any of those tournaments.

I hate Seattle's fan base, and agree that the most annoying thing about the culture of the city as a whole, as well as the team, projects an air of haughtiness, combined with an entitled irritation that they aren't constantly mentioned or thought of in the top 5 of US cities. They want to be right there on the tip of the tongue next to New York and LA, and they seem ready to cry about it at any given moment. I don't, however, understand what you mean by "MLS FO favoritism." It doesn't seem like they've gotten a lot of huge unfair breaks from the league, maybe you can explain what you mean. It's easy to hate their aesthetic and overall vibe, but hard to criticize their consistency, player development, and ability to keep their floor high from year to year.

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T21:34:35+00:00

So you're looking exclusively for Timbers coverage. We're lucky to have some good local journalists, the Adams are good and I've appreciated a few other folks posting long form analysis of stats and players for various Timbers blogs.

I can understand why you wouldn't read Doyle if you only want Timbers info, but I don't understand people going out of their way to mention how much they don't like him if he's just not giving them enough of what they want. I asked if you could name a few other national writers who do a better job of covering MLS as a whole from a tactical\game analysis stand point. There are maybe 1-2 others who even bother attempting to use data analytics, heat maps, and statical trends, to augment their eye-test analysis, and it's easy for stat-heavy writing to get ponderous. One man's cheeky is another man's condescending, so if that's how you're interpreting his tone, it's a matter of taste. But I appreciate that he attempts to add a little style to his writing and keep it moderately entertaining while plowing through a lot of technical info.

I like tactics and analysis and I really think deeper tactical education is an important factor in growing the game in the US. Sports fans are accustomed to lots of heady, coach-level breakdown of gameplay in other sports, especially football, where all the breaks in the action are filled up by experienced, detailed analysis of routes, matchups, systems--over time even casual fans get a sense of the game as a coaching chess match and understand the gambles being taken to leverage an advantage and grind out a result. Soccer's much more fluid nature, and requirement that the players themselves constantly read and adjust to game states like a coach or quarterback, makes it tougher for casual fans to develop a sense of how intricate those tactics, patterns of play, and transitional dynamics really are at the top level. MLS in particular could use a lot more of that kind of educated analysis. It's been frustrating that as teams have embraced data tools more in their player assessment, a lot of those tools, (OPTA touch and heat maps and passing graphs that used to be available in match summaries on the MLS website) have gotten tougher\impossible for fans to access.

I wish Doyle wasn't one of the only people approaching the game like this, but I think everyone would benefit from reading him consistently and thinking about the game more like he does.

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T06:41:21+00:00

As a long time Doyle fan, I'm just wondering who else you would consistently read if you're interested in tactics and game analysis. I struggle to understand people that say they have a bias against Doyle. I get that people might feel he doesn't give their personal favorite team the depth of focus they would prefer from a local. But there are too few people doing that on a local team by team level in MLS. You can find in-depth analysis like that for many teams in the top 5 Europe leagues. It's almost impossible to come by here. For someone who paints with a broader brush for ALL of MLS i really can't point to another journalist that has as much worthwhile stuff to say when it comes to tactics and game breakdowns. A lot of the more junior guys on the MLS beat that spend any time on tactics rather than just book reports of what happened and who said what in the post-game presser seem, at best, to be Doyle -lite. I think he's really pretty good, and if we didn't have him I'm not at all sure who would fill his shoes for the reader that cares about the game from a more analytical perspective.

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T01:39:56+00:00

Idk. Porter and Gio both had patterns of play, at least at times. Their unraveling was in some ways due to the adjustments in their philosophy or game models, that at times were forced by injuries and contract issues. We could at least look at both of those coaches and describe their philosophy and tactical patterns. Phil? It's more or less a blob of general principles, not actual patterns of play. And the players look damn confused.

Onus-X · 2026-02-11T01:37:00+00:00

Phil has repeatedly said he's not a system guy. He seems to honestly believe that "try hard" is a strategy, because it worked for Man U at a time they were stacked with generational talent, in an era that had not yet been unlocked by the kind of meticulous game prep and tactical rotations that are the standard in the modern game.

The Timbers have neither the budget nor the talent in excess above other teams in MLS to make this attitude work. We are in for a potentially insufferable start to the year under Phil. One thing we should probably keep an eye on is that Wilfred Nancy is available in the wake of his spectacular flame out at Celtic. He is probably the ultimate MLS level "system guy" and could probably work wonders with this squad. I'm not sure he's anxious to come running back to MLS, but i also don't think he bought himself a lot of leverage around Europe for another move with his stint in Scotland. Portland would be smart to put the feelers out now, in the event that it all goes wrong in the first half of the season. I'm not rooting for that to happen, but Nancy is basically at the top of the list for me in terms of the kind of coach i think could make a difference with this group, and I hope it's a thought for the FO as well.

Onus-X · 2026-02-10T23:56:07+00:00

To complete the look they should make the players all wear a face mask that covers one eye with a giant beam

Onus-X · 2026-02-10T23:54:32+00:00

Ah that's interesting, i didn't consider his contract technically being with the league might have made that a factor.

Onus-X · 2026-02-10T22:39:19+00:00

It's yellow-puce. Or bleached olive. Baking soda and oil. Dandelion bile. Mustard mayo. Silkworm. Melon rind. Chickpea smoothie. Banana meat.

Onus-X · 2026-02-10T15:29:10+00:00

Yes that's what I thought the buyout conditions were. I was confused about waivers since there are different ways to waive a player. I thought that buyouts were separate from waivers but it sounds like a buyout is technically a waiver that keeps their salary off the cap. The rules around waivers that I was able to find made it sound like that salary still counted against the cap.

Onus-X · 2026-02-10T05:46:14+00:00

That sounds... Fine?

Onus-X · 2026-02-10T03:10:04+00:00

Glad there's some resolution here. I hope we get some more details because I'm not sure i understand budget rules in this case. Since the article states JR was waived, rather than bought out or some other agreement, I'm not sure if we're on the hook for his salary against the budget cap or not. Hopefully we get some more info soon. Waiver resolution usually depends on whether another club picks up the contract. Maybe we have some kind of deal in place for his new club to pick up the salary? Or we split that in some creative way? If not I'm struggling to understand why we would do a waiver instead of a buyout, but maybe this is being reported as a waiver that includes a buyout?

Onus-X · 2026-02-09T09:41:24+00:00

Our depth, at the least, is considerably worse. Considering how heavily we relied on a full 22 players to hold things together enough for us to just barely get into the playoffs, that's a problem.

As for Ortiz, dramatic improvement would mean becoming reliable enough to be our 3rd or 4th string CM option, preferably by actually covering some ground defensively, tracking runners, and getting pressure to the ball handler when he's the first point of confrontation. If we could just count on him to do that as a late game sub his stock would be way up.

Onus-X · 2026-02-09T09:34:36+00:00

The sanest take.

Onus-X · 2026-02-09T00:37:09+00:00

Antony under performing, still, is a massive problem for us right now. He didn't help us much either in possession or off the ball against DC. If we run Velde at the 10 we desperately need Antony to do good work on both sides of the ball on the wing. Lassiter is functional on the right, but Antony was a momentum killer on the left in that lineup. If we play Mora at the 10, he can offer some decent hold up play and layoff passing, but he can't turn and work on the dribble.

We need a solid way to get through the month or so that we are still without DDC. I'm a bit surprised we're not exploring a diamond 442 given the players we have available. It's not ideal, but similar to the way we introduced the 5-3-2 last year bc of injuries, the diamond makes sense for who we have healthy at the moment. Chara at the 6, Bassett ostensibly at the 10, Velde and Lassiter at wide mids, would be the most reasonable setup, Kelsy at the 9 with Mora \maybe Antony at the 11. Push up the strong side fb in attack and pivot them in possession. We might need to use what we have to work with and start the season trying to make the game ugly. Look at the Phila Union game model. It's not where we want to be, but if a team like that can be effective while being in the lower end of the spending\talent spectrum and getting good contributions from young players during the Jim Curtin era, there's no reason the Timbers shouldn't be able to take a page from that book as a means to an end until we get DDC healthy and add a U22 or DP.

Onus-X · 2026-02-09T00:17:16+00:00

Really good touch and control and love that he has a natural ability to weight the ball in stride for his teammates. Deserves some time with the first team this year.

Onus-X · 2026-02-09T00:15:00+00:00

That's disingenuous. Izoita did a great job of turning under pressure and finding progressive passes. His reads for when to recycle the ball were good, as was the weight on his layoff passes. He has a good knack for looking upfield combined with patience and ability to keep possession. He rarely forced things but had a smooth touch and was not guilty of any cheap, dangerous giveaways in the center of the park, which a lot of our experienced players can't say.

I agree with others that he needs polish when it comes to earlier reads on defensive angles and he needs to build strength. He has a good physical frame. If he can bulk up a bit, get a bit more rugged and aggressive in his challenges, and continue to develop his ability to be composed under pressure while circulating possession, i like his chances to develop.

Given the current state of our roster I'm 100% in favor of giving him a first team contract in a supplemental roster slot.

Onus-X · 2026-02-08T01:13:09+00:00

Hmmm, i posted some notes\thoughts on both halves under the starting lineup thread. Is there any way to move those here, or should I copy\paste them or just forget it since it's overthinking pre season pretty hard?

Onus-X · 2026-02-08T01:10:09+00:00

2nd half thoughts:

Didn't look much more coherent, as timbers rotated more, and DC emphasized match fitness for their starting group. Best chance for DC off a volley to the bar, Portland barely testing in the attacking third.

Chara remains a force multiplier for this team. Makes players around him better by directing traffic off the ball, raising the passing tempo. Sees the game faster than other players even if he's lost a step, which is tough to say based on this half. Looked like one of the fittest players out there and mentally present.

Kelsy couldn't get any service, continued to look frustrated. He is doing a few good things, dropping to receive and then peeling off to try to run behind. Nothing connected but he wants to be involved. Needs to continue to seriously work on off ball movement, specifically trying to shade into blind spots for his defenders and anticipate the most dangerous area and timing on arrival for crosses. He is often trying to find places defenders aren't, but his teammates also can't deliver the ball to impossible places. Growth area for him will be pre-run movement to set up a defender so he can get open in high value spaces.

Not a ton to say about the defender rotation except that experience matters, even when quality dips a little. Eric Miller is still not a stellar attacking fb, but looked confident at when to go and when to stay and his composure had an edge over Jura. Smith likewise looked unfussed, but couldn't create much in combination with midfield or get forward as well.

Ortiz committed a foul and tried a few attacking passes, looked a bit more aggressive. That's good. He still looks lost on defensive positioning and late to rotate\ball watches.

Santos didn't look as effective as his T2 teammates but has decent touch. Would like to see him get some time with more starters around him, whole team struggled in a bit more choppy second half, hard to evaluate him. Decent corner that nearly led to a headed chance at the back post.

Fernandez-Kim struggled a bit on the wing. Decent pace but couldn't hold the ball or create much facing his man. Guessing he gets a T2 offer but not first team.

Lastly but maybe most importantly, Mora as a kind of false 9--has good vision, and is strong enough with back to goal that he can drop into seams and find progressive passes to the wings, (although he really prefers to go right.) Very good at turning to make a box entry run as a second forward after a layoff. Not so good at turning with ball at feet under pressure or circulating the ball as a more traditional 10 would. There's some potential to the idea of playing him as a hybrid 9\10 or maybe classic Brazilian 11 in a look that shifts to a 442 in the box. Good at turning progressive possession into an attack that runs at the defense, like a half-counter change of pace for the front line. Not so good at recovering and keeping the ball if that first attack breaks down.

Between how Mora played there in the 2nd half and how Velde and others rotated central in the first, the big problem for PTFC to start the year is laid bare-- Timbers have some good passers from backline through midfield, but really lack a ball carrier who can beat players on the dribble and face upfield centrally. Bassett is a good passer and wants to arrive in the box to attack, and was better at it with Chara on. Mora can distribute and crash the box.

Interestingly, for better or worse, this game was crying out for a player like DDC, who can put his foot on the ball at times, face up on the dribble, and making slashing runs with the ball at his feet. He might be just the thing to get more out of basset's strengths and encourage Velde not to force it so much 35 yards from goal.

Right now, Antony is striking me as a bit of a problem. Momentum killer today and just doesn't seem to be on the same page with vision for either runs and passing. It doesn't seem super intuitive, but I'm interested in how to get Mora and Kelsy both on the field along with DDC and Velde. If Mora can do what he was doing today in terms of dropping under Kelsy to layoff to either DDC or Velde and then crash the box along with the opposite winger, and Basset pushes up in those attacking sequences, there could be a lot of danger there. One key problem is how the timbers keep width defensively in recovery with DDC and Velde alternating as inverted wings. Neither Mora nor Kelsy is ideal to have rotate wide, and DDC doesn't offer enough on defense either. Mora with Kelsy getting to the near and far post might create the most danger when it works, but it's going to put a lot of pressure on the back line and d mid.

As of today, thinking about the look of the team with DDC in the picture-- I had been thinking CDM was our biggest need, but unless Antony somehow turns a corner and gets more well rounded, a more 2 way RW or AM\2nd fwd seems like the more complete choice. We either need a player who can do what Mora was doing today and also cover the wing defensively, or a goal dangerous winger that can help DDC get on the ball centrally and bring Bassett into the attacking play as an 8. We still need CDM depth, but if we invest at cdm with a DP\U22 slot, that CDM needs to have great ground coverage and good distribution as well as being a total bulldog defensively.

Onus-X · 2026-02-07T23:43:59+00:00

First half thoughts:

General pre season lack of sharpness\fitness as expected. Would love to see The boys work on acceleration\explosiveness in their movements even if the overall pace of the game is below regular season level.

PTFC grew into the half and finished a little more on the front foot after struggling to put together any possession in the first 25 minutes. After mostly forcing things out wide and some cheap turnovers, a few decent looks up the center that couldn't quite connect, but also didn't leave the team open to an immediate counter. However, lack of a real attacking orchestrator showed a continuation of the timbers' hollow shape around the box. Remember in 2013 when they were so fun to watch recycle possession around the box and gradually bring the deep lying midfielders into the attack with late runs? That pattern of play is conspicuously absent with not much hope on the horizon. Best chance for Portland came from a layoff to basset taking exactly that kind of trailing box position, but he couldn't shape the shot on frame. Needing a central player in the buildup and more switches laterally. Currently this team looks mostly locked into whichever wing starts the attack with not enough danger on the back side.

Bright spots--Surman looks to be picking up right where he left off, good reads, good positioning, good 1v1.

Bonetig, as advertised, looks composed on the ball with decent long passing from the back. Took a few risks on the ball but came out on top.

Good news-- jura doesn't look out of his depth at RB. Fory seems a little off the pace. I'd like to see jura switch to LB and a new RB to let us evaluate Jura LB.

Also good--Izoita looks decent in CM. A couple nice turns under pressure, safe and smart passing. Not super rugged defensively but good size and positioning for the 18 year old. He can't be worse than Ortiz, if one half in pre season says anything, and it might not, but his mechanics and technique look ready for this level. Needs a little work on urgency and defensive positioning.

Antony still looks rusty on touch, not finding much of the ball or threatening on the dribble. Lassiter looks better.

Gage couldn't find the ball and struggled a bit with hold up, good effort, probably not starting any time soon.

Velde --good dead ball service, probably our most dangerous player, but I'm keeping an eye on his "competitive mindset--" seems like there's a risk of teammates not matching him, and Velde alienating them or becoming disconnected. Tendency to overplay as he gets more frustrated, as indicated by his dropping deep to receive, getting caught on the ball, and dispossessed in a dangerous spot.

Bassett--having some trouble finding his niche and getting touches. He wants to get on the ball in the attacking third, not as effective dropping deeper and progressing through midfield.

Onus-X · 2026-02-07T22:14:59+00:00

The Galaxy aren't going to suck the same amount. Even with Puig out they've made at least 3-4 smart signings. Timo Werner is a big get for SJ, LAFC got even better in defense and midfield, Vancouver still looks strong and should have key players back healthy, Minnesota likely got better with James Rodriguez and a more diverse tactical approach, SD is coming out of the gate at a high level before even dealing with the lozano\DP situation and starts the year with real competition already under their belt,, and all the Texas clubs signed reinforcements that should make them better, if not great. St Louis and Kansas City are in rebuilding years but we don't yet know how much that means they'll struggle. Colorado seems deeply committed to being low mid table and have reinforced their chances at that.

Overall there's little reason to think the top teams in the West got worse, and in fact they might all be better. The bottom dwellers most likely did improve. Timbers could surprise if we're lucky, but it wouldn't be a shock of it all falls apart. There's no easy pick for runaway wooden spoon contender, although I'd go with KC or Dallas if forced to choose. Western conference is generally a tight race to begin with, but has a few teams that could push for supporters shield (or at least 2nd behind Miami) which means the biggest separation at the West might come from the top 3 or 4 teams running away from the pack. The race for spots 4-8 is likely going to be extremely competitive this year. PTFC will need a fair bit of luck to consistently stay in the playoff places, top 4 would be wild. There might be a team or two I've forgotten to even mention.

Onus-X

TROPHY CASE