Previously we left Chepiga having taken charge of MLS side, the Portland Timbers. Rather surprisingly, he found himself indebted to a strangely familiar Russian woman, he knew as Natasha, and now he had two seasons to bring success to Portland or risk being handed back to the Russians. To top it off his old adversary Ángel Bastardo was managing Inter Miami, eager to block Chepiga’s path to success for his own reasons.
If Chepiga was to complete his mission he needed the help of a trusted and talented comrade. A comrade with experience of the ways of the East and of the West.
Mentals …
Hristo enjoyed a relatively successful stint in MLS with Chicago Fire, where he won the Lamar Hunt Cup, and D.C. United between 2000 and 2003. His knowledge of the league rules and structure would certainly give Chepiga an advantage over other new managers in the league. A quick look at the board expectations showed what success would look like for Chepiga.
CONCACAF Champions League Quarter Final; the semi finals of the Conference play-offs and a top six finish in the Supporters’ Shield. With the flair and vision of Stoichkov, coupled with a hefty dose of Russian dogma, Chepiga thought he could perhaps pull this whole thing off and finally be free to live out his days in peace.
Pre-Set Party!
The two comrades settled in for the evening and opened a bottle of Slivovice sent by a good friend from Czechoslovakia. They spent a very merry first evening reviewing the first team squad. At around 6.00am, Stoichkov suggested three styles of play that he believed the Timbers could employ.
1. Gegenpress
2. Tiki-Taka
3. Control Possession
Gegenpress was no longer fashionable ‘according to SI’ so Chepiga ruled that out immediately. Tiki-Taka interested him until he read some of the team instructions. Much shorter passing, much lower tempo, work ball into box zzzzzz no thanks, he would likely fall asleep during those games. Option three was Control Possession which offered someway of a halfway house.
Chepiga, as ever, concentrated on the attributes of the men at his disposal. He studied each of them intently and identified four who he believed would be critical to the Timbers this season. His aim was to match them to the tactical style suggested by Stoichkov.
Diego Valeri - 34 year old Portland legend. He joined the Timbers back in 2013 from Lanús. I envisage him occupying a playmaking role behind the main striker. I’ll be starting him as an advanced playmaker but haven’t ruled out using him as an Enganché or a simple attacking midfielder.
Yimmi Chará - 30 year old wide player who hails from Cali in Colombia. With excellent dribbling, flair, vision and pace I will be using him as either an inverted winger or inside forward from the left hand side. Personally over the last few FM’s I have struggled to get much out of the inside forward role so will most likely start him as an inverted winger.
Sebastián Blanco - 32 year old and one of Portland’s Designated players who is currently injured for 5 months, so we won’t see him in action until the second half of the season. In real life upon his return from injury Blanco took the place of Valeri behind the main striker, and I think I could rotate them both in that role later in the season. I also think Blanco could fulfill a role wide on the right. Perhaps as a wide playmaker, or even a winger as he has some pace and crossing ability. Time will tell.
Claudio Bravo - 23 left wing back. At the start of the save he is our only natural left back. In real life he has now been capped by Argentina and I am hopeful he will develop into a major attacking threat for us by overlapping Yimmi Chará on the left hand side. He has decent physicals and the trait of gets forward whenever possible; which I like. Although early crosses may be an issue, or they may actually work out well, something else to watch out for.
The Formation
After analyzing the squad a 4231 seemed the most logical formation and the Timbers headed into pre-season with the following Tactic. I have since given it the sexy name of “The Space Rocket” as it has a habit of producing Heat Maps that resemble a space rocket taking off. This appears to be caused by our central defenders knocking the ball sideways to one another, and back to the ‘keeper for long periods. While this doesn’t generate excitement, results have been good (which we will come to later) and the football adequate, so we are sticking with it for now.
Chepiga’s initial thoughts on his best XI and tactical approach
Give us a Waive(r)!
The Portland Timbers start the 2021 season with a number of long term injuries to key players. Two Designated players are out, Sebanstián Blanco who we have already mentioned is out for 5 months, and Polish striker Jaroslaw Niezgoda is out for 10 months. Andy Polo, another high earner, is out for a year. Niezgoda and Polo would not even be registered for the upcoming season and Chepiga would later terminate Polo’s contract completely. This has left the roster very light in terms of depth and without much room in the salary cap. So when the Waiver draft came up we were very interested in a number of players. I felt we needed more quality up front and certainly needed a left back. Our reserve goalkeeper was also on a high wage and was taking up an International slot so I did not register him leaving us more than a little exposed.
Everyone thought the first battle between Chepiga and Bastardo would be on the pitch but that wasn’t the case as both wanted to sign Bobby Wood in the waiver draft. Claims were put in, but in the end Bobby came to Portland, why wouldn’t he? (Turns out MLS decides who gets the player based on the clubs position in the draft system, but let’s not ruin the narrative!)
Bobby fuckin Wood
I’m hopeful Bobby can provide competition for places across the wide areas and up front. He has already chipped in with 7 goals in 15 starts at a goal every 200 minutes which is reasonable. He would be a definite starter up front were it not for the form of Felipe Mora who is currently sitting with 14 goals from 19 starts at a goal every 124 minutes and leading the stream’s ‘MLS goal race’.
I also managed to get a Left Back and a Goalkeeper, both American, both on minimum wages, so by the time registration was complete I was happy enough with the roster.
Early Season Results
Our campaign started early with CONCACACACAF games against two times champions Olimpia from Honduras before MLS even started. FMGrasshopper accused me of being over dramatic by stating the board wanted us to make the CONCACAF champions league Quarter Final, given that the competition starts in the last sixteen! I still don’t think my run to the semi-finals, where we play Columbus Crew, has been adequately acknowledged on stream.
It’s tough representing MLS
In any event, we brushed Olimpia aside 4-1 on aggregate with Felipe Mora getting three of them, before a strong performance in Toronto gave us a 2-0 lead going into the home leg of our Quarter Final. We eventually managed to see this out despite throwing away a two goal lead on the night, going through 4-2 on aggregate. Up next is an all American clash against Columbus Crew in the semi-finals. The winner will face the winner of an all Mexican semi final between Cruz Azul and América in what will surely be a very tough encounter.
Our quick start in the CONCACAF didn’t quite carry onto our league campaign. A 0-0 draw with Vancouver and a poor defeat to Houston lead to a slight change in the forward line. Felip Mora moving from a Deep Lying Forward on Attack to an Advanced Forward. From there we never looked back really, we went unbeaten for 10 league games and progressed to the semi finals of the Lamar Hunt Cup. By the end of July we were secure in the playoffs sitting second in the Western conference six points behind Sporting Kansas City. Our play was efficient rather than exciting and we were surprisingly solid in defense. My love for Bosnian Ball playing defender, Dario Zuparic was growing with each ‘passing’ stream.
Coming Next
During August we have two massive semis. First in the Lamar Hunt Cup against LA Galaxy, and then a two legged affair in the CONCACAF Champions League against Columbus Crew. With eight games during August, and a mounting injury list it will be a challenge to manage the roster as quality is lacking outside the top 14 players or so. Between August and September we also have seven away games on the spin. Then in October Chepiga and Bastardo will face off once again, this time inside Providence Park as the Portland Timbers host Inter Miami in an East Coast / West Coast rap battle. Fingers crossed we then have a post season to play during November and December - let’s wait and see!
The MLS Save
I have really enjoyed the save so far and streaming has added to that. Neither FMGrasshopper or I are in it for the hits or views and we just sit and chat our way through the game as if we were sitting with some friends. Diaper chat at 9pm is probably the highlight of each evening to be honest. If you fancy coming along we stream Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8pm to around 10pm or shortly after at www.twitch.tv/FM_Grasshopper
If you fancy a save in MLS but aren’t sure about some of the rules I have started a bite-sized guide which you can read here, and I will be adding to this in the coming weeks.
All that remains is for me to wish everyone a nice break, I hope you all get to spend some time with those closest to you and make special memories. Things will be a bit different for us this year but I am holding onto all the great Christmas memories I have with Dad to get me through.
The MLS save returns on Tuesday 4 January 2022 and it would be great to see some of you there.
Over and out