We previously left the Timbers on the brink of two cup finals, the US Open Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League. Pleased to say we toppled our opponents in both semi finals to set up the first cup finals of this save.
Throughout the season my tactic has evolved and by looking at my line up and tactics for each cup final we can see how this gradual metamorphosis into something new came about. By the end of the season you would be forgiven for not realising that I started the season with a pre-set tactic, as shown below.
Our starting tactic, a preset from FM.
LAMAR HUNT - US OPEN CUP
The Lamar Hunt Cup was the first trophy to be played for in the MLS Save, we traveled to Washington DC to face DC United. Due to international call ups we were without a number of our roster for this game (this wouldn’t be the last time). It meant a reshuffle in personnel for us but our tactic remained largely as seen above, although there had been some small adjustments. Having started the season using a Deep Lying Forward on attack we changed after match-day two, following a draw with Vancouver and a loss to Houston, to an Advanced Forward. This proved very successful as we won seven of our next eight matches and progressed to the semi finals of the CONCACAF Champions League and the Lamar Hunt Cup. It was around this time that SI released a patch to the Match Engine, I immediately felt my advanced forward was less effective. In response to this I tried using a Pressing Forward as I like to have some pressure on the opposition defense. I have always struggled to get much out of the number 10 position and this was also causing me a headache around this time. Sometimes the playmaking roles in this position attract too much of the ball, in a congested space, so in order to alleviate that we changed to a simple Attacking Midfielder on support. I had yet to make any changes to the Team instructions, so really we headed into the final with DC United with largely the same tactic as we started the season with.
It was typically Breezy in Washington on the day and 20,002 spectators packed into Audi Field. With a makeshift Center-Back pairing of Zac McGraw and central midfielder Cristhian Paredes I was very proud of the team’s performance to come away with a 2-0 win, with goals from Renzo Zambrano and Dairon Asprilla, who was filling in as a striker. For once the stats showed we were under pressure for large parts of the game and Goalkeeper Steve Clark took home the MVP award. Some may say it was lucky but I prefer to look to the determination within the squad to get a result, despite many of our top players being absent.
Beautiful counter corner goal to secure the first trophy of the save!
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Results after the Lamar Hunt Cup victory were mixed, as were our performances. I felt our play had become a little stale and a lot of our possession was low risk, with not enough penetration. We also become susceptible to counter attacks and this culminated in a 2-0 home loss to Vancouver in October. A game we dominated in terms of Shots, XG, and possession, however, we were undone by two long balls over the top of our high defensive line. We also failed to create any meaningful chances with all that possession.
After this game I decided to make a few tweaks to our tactic as we entered the final phase of the season. I dropped the defensive line, and the higher line of engagement, to cut out the balls over the top and keep us compact. In an attempt to make our passing more incisive I increased our mentality to Positive, I felt fine to do this having already dropped the defensive line, although I would still keep an eye on it.
I dispensed with the Inverted Winger on the left. We weren’t really getting enough runners into the box to provide a consistent goal threat so it made sense to switch to an Inside Forward on attack. Yimmi Chará and Bobby Wood both could fulfill this role perfectly for me.
Line up vs CF América the biggest game in Timbers history!
So, by the time we played CF América in the CONCACAF Champions League final our tactic was starting to look a little different from the pre-set we started with. It was a breezy day again in Portland when CF América came to town. I was ready for a really tough match having listened to @FM_Grasshopper go on about how good Mexican sides are for the last few months. I need not have worried as we routed the Mexicans 4-0. Two goals for Inside Forward Yimmi Chará and one each for Dairon Asprilla and Felipe Mora, who had been restored to an Advnaced Forward role for this game, completed a stunning victory.
After the loss to Vancouver which brought about our changes, we won eight straight games which included the above 4-0 win in the CONCACAF Champions League final, a 4-2 victory on the last day of regular season against Austin which handed us the Western Conference Title. Important victories over Colorado Rapids (penalties) and the Seattle Sounders (4-0) in the MLS playoffs took us to the last cup final of this post, the MLS Cup final. During this time we also traveled to Japan to compete in the Club World Cup, as reigning CONCACAF champions, it seemed this trip was too much for Diego Valeri who decided to retire from Soccerball whilst in Japan; thanks SI. We won a tense Quarter final 2-1 against Al-Ahly of Egypt. So our next defeat wasn’t until we met Chelsea in the semi-final of the Club World Cup, and can you really even call it a defeat? We eventually succumbed 3-2 After Extra Time, losing out to a 118 minute corner hackz goal from Antonio Rudiger. I think the Timbers were the real winners and the streets will never forget Felipe Mora’s chip against Mendy.
Lovely run of results after the 2-0 loss to Vancouver
Western Conference Champions baby!
MLS CUP FINAL
So we come to the last final of the season and it is the big one, the MLS Cup final, against none other than Ángel Bastardo’s Inter Miami. Chepiga versus Bastardo in the showcase match, both managers proving why MLS had gone to such trouble to acquire them in the first place. Unrivaled success was theirs but there was no Libertad here though. Both men remained trapped, completely reliant upon the untrustworthy Americans to keep the Bears and the Snakes from the door. Neither man was free, both were prisoners to the MLS system. Like Maximus and Sparticus before them, these two gladiators would not fight for someone else's amusement. This showcase would be a damp squid as both men met in the tunnel and agreed a non aggression pact. The game would go ahead but it would be 11 v 11* with no input from the beasts on the sidelines. The players were the winners and losers, not Chepiga or Bastardo.
The 11 men trusted to bring home the MLS Cup
The wind was gusting in Fort Lauderdale as the two teams kicked off. Since our last cup final, only minor changes to the tactic had been made. We removed lower tempo to again try and increase our penetration and we switched from a Ball-Winning Midfielder on defend to a simple Central Midfielder on defend. I felt this switch would help us retain our shape better in defensive transitions, something which I think teams were starting to exploit. It also allowed me to release my right wing back, who would start most games on attack in the run in. Portland were on the attack from the outset, breaking the deadlock after only 3 minutes as Yimmi Chará latched onto a lovely Blanco through ball and finished empathically past Nick Marsmann.
It’s a wonder day!
The rest of the game continued in much the same vain as Miami’s 4-4-2 struggled to gain a foothold in the game against Chepiga’s superior 4-2-3-1. Indeed Miami goaltender Nick Marsmann would take home the MVP award, the Miami Ultras were really looking forward to seeing what he could offer the team next season. As the clocked ticked towards 90 minutes the boys in Pink thought they had a late equalizer as Pizarro slotted home from close range after good work from Higuaín. The jubilation would prove short lived however, as the linesman raised his flag indicating there had been a felony offside offence in the build up, and the goal was ruled out. Chepiga had completed the season with three trophies, success had been brought to the streets of Portland a year ahead of schedule. **
Tactical Evolution
So there you have it Season one is “in the books”. If you look at the tactics employed at the very start of the season and compare them to what we finished with you can see they are different, but we got there by making small adjustments along the way by reacting to issues we saw within the games. I started out with a preset tactic “Control Possession” and I sometimes feel people are afraid to use these presets, or are afraid to admit to using them, but they are a great starting point for any tactic. Once you start to tweak things it only takes a season or two for the tactic to become bespoke for your side.
Looking ahead to the second, and final, season in MLS I have decided to switch things up and try to use a back three. I felt a lot of our highlights were becoming predictable and the goals we scored we pretty similar. Having won everything in season one, Chepiga would want to turn on the style in season two.
In my next post I will discuss my recruitment strategy and how I developed an effective back three tactic…hopefully.
Notes
* Due to the MLS Cup final being rescheduled to accommodate my participation in the Club World Cup, the MLS Cup final took place AFTER the Charlotte expansion draft. Ahead of this draft FMGrasshopper and I had to ‘register’ twelve players to protect from being drafted by Charlotte. The result of this was, FM believed we only had twelve players registered for the MLS Cup final. See FMGrasshopper’s bug report HERE. Thankfully we were both affected but it was slightly frustrating that we couldn’t really test each others squads in the showpiece final.
** You can take the man out of Russia but you can’t take Russia out of the man, this is Chepiga’s double speak match report. Unfortunately Portland actually lost the MLS Cup Final 1-0 to a late Pizarro goal, well done to FMGrasshoppper.
Thanks for making it this far. Don’t forget the MLS Save is being streamed live on Twitch over at www.twitch.tv/fm_grasshopper every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8pm. It would be great to see you there as we enter the final few months of the save.
Over and out
FMEadster!