Well the first game is in the books and MNUFC comes away with the best possible result. No serious injuries, a good test against an opponent that potentially will be competing for one of the last playoff spots, and the win on the road. For everyone keeping track at home that 3 points and the Loons are at the top of the Western Conference.
Providence Park is a tough place to play. The Timber Army brings the noise and it being the home opener I imagine it only added to the sense of excitement. The Loons started out slow. Much of the first 15 minutes was spent fending off the Timber’s attacks. The defensive core looked good though. The Loons are returning much of that defensive core and it showed. New keeper Tyler Miller seemed to mesh well with the backline and even contributed to the third goal of the Loons with a deep ball to Luis Amarilla.
Early on in the match it seemed to me that the midfield was hesitant to connect and control. It really wasn’t until the second half that the Loons started to look comfortable on the pitch. This perception was further illuminated by looking at the percentages of ball possession. Overall the Loons maintained a 42.5% ball possession. You can check these charts out yourself on the MNUFC recap article. I really like looking at the five-minute intervals on possession. It lays out just how much ball control the Timbers maintained. I was particularly interested to see how much control the Timbers held during the 15 minute mark and 35 minute mark at over 70% of possession during those periods. The highest the Loons ever had was during the 70th minute at 57.9%. This leads me to believe a few things. One, as many soccer fans know, time of possession doesn’t necessary mean much about who wins a match. It does indicate an overall strategy. The Loons were far more successful having the Timbers come onto their half of the field, making defensive plays, clearing the ball and quickly counterattacking.
The Loon’s goals demonstrated this. Molino’s opportunistic goal was great and seemed to open the play of the Loons up. While Finlay seemed to be quiet throughout during the early part of the game the three goals all flowed through him. Two of them directly came from his efforts in chasing down balls and making plays happen.
You can watch all of the Loons’ goals in the recap here. Look at the replay of Molino’s first goal. It comes on a counterattacking play. The ball is pushed ahead for Finlay to chase down. He collects the ball down the right side and sends a service to the center to Lod. Portland’s keeper Clark does well to stop the initial attack, but thankfully Molino follows the play and takes the rebound in for a goal. However all of the goals start with the Loons’ defensive and two with Finlay chasing down a counterattacking ball.
The Loons’ second goal looks similar to the first. Again the Loons are counterattacking and again it’s Finlay using speed to come down the right side of the pitch. This time it’s Luis Amarilla who runs parallel to Finlay. Amarilla drifts out wide left and the defender loses him for an instant. Finlay’s cross is perfect and all Amarilla has to do is finish (I know finishing is hard, but appreciate the proper service from Finlay here) which he does with a flourish. It’s another great goal coming from Finlay’s run. This goal depresses the Timbers just enough to open up an opportunity for MNUFC’s third goal.
Less than two minutes later the Loons have taken advantage of the Timbers momentary let down and are now attacking with numbers. The ball is in a dangerous location in front of the net. Finlay again has the ball, pops it over his head and finds the foot of Molino ready to put it away for the 3-1 lead. How did the ball get to the center? That’s right a counterattack. This came from a long ball to Amarilla who holds it up and is able to find Molino and then Finlay in the center.
As for the Timbers, Valeri’s penalty kick was painful. Defenders need to know where they are standing and adjust to how the ref is calling the game. The Loons were physical and were called for it throughout the match, but it’s hard to criticize the effort in the box during this moment especially when taking the game in as a whole when so many of the goal scoring opportunities came out of the back through counterattacking opportunities.
So what does this all mean going forward? Well it’s still too small of a sample size to say whether this is what the Loons will look like all year or if this was a just a sound strategy to defeat a Portland team that prefers to hold possession. Overall this was a solid game. It wasn’t perfect, but it was effective and had some quite a bit of beauty. Counterattacking soccer can be very exciting to watch and is beautiful soccer in its own right. So good match fellas. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this great effort this Saturday.
12th Loon 