Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire returns to the Pacific Northwest, this time heading to Stumptown where the Portland Timbers host a St. Louis CITY SC side that’s in the middle of a reboot just a week and a half after dismissing head coach Olof Mellberg (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).
That reboot is currently being helmed by interim head coach David Critchley, who got things off to a good start with a late, dramatic – and very, very necessary – 2-1 home win over the San Jose Earthquakes last weekend. They played like a team with something to prove, which was a nice change from what they’d previously looked like under Mellberg.
With Portland, it’s not a reboot but an evolution. Head coach Phil Neville is still trying to find the right mix in the right formation with the right game model. There have been some ups and downs, and it feels like this group is still searching.
Portland Timbers
- The new kid on the block is DP No. 10 David Da Costa, who was brought in this winter to replace Evander. Da Costa’s been good on both sides of the ball, but hasn’t really looked like a game-breaker just yet.
- Antony has. The 23-year-old Brazilian winger was more of a rotation piece last year, but has come into his own as a dynamic, goal-dangerous threat both in the open field and off the dribble in tight spots.
- Is David Ayala as good as Neville says – i.e., the best central midfielder in the league? Sometimes you can see the argument, but you need more than "sometimes" with those kinds of expectations.
St. Louis CITY SC
- The unquestioned hero of St. Louis’ first two years was goalkeeper Roman Bürki. He missed a ton of time in the spring with a broken hand but is back now, and with his return should come more confidence from that backline.
- Also missing time was center back Henry Kessler, whose play in the middle of the backline was very good to start the season. Like Bürki, he’s back now, and he’s absolutely crucial if this team’s going to be effective on both sides of the ball.
- Under Mellberg, the job of midfield orchestration largely fell to Marcel Hartel. But in his first outing under Critchley, the German got shifted into his preferred role as a natural chance creator.
They spent most of April and May on the road, scratching and clawing to keep their heads above water – which they did – but mostly failing to build any sort of momentum. It was very much a grind.
That gave way to a stretch in which they’re mostly at home, playing in the friendly confines of Providence Park four times in five outings from May 28 to July 5. They already kicked off that stretch with a good result – last Wednesday’s 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids. We saw, in that game, more of Da Costa’s growth, as he’s started to do a lot of the No. 10 things that elevate the play of the guys around him, and some important rotation-related things are being figured out.
What I’m saying is everything seems to be aligning for the Timbers to build the momentum they’ve been craving for the past three months, and to start climbing the Western Conference standings. If they’re going to do it, this is the part of the schedule where it makes the most sense.
Mellberg made righting the defensive wrongs of the past few years his top priority, and even with Bürki injured – he really spent most of the past two years being superhuman – there was some improvement at the start of the season.
But that came at the cost of attacking productivity, and it all turned out to be a mirage anyway. By the time the calendar hit May, just cramming as many center backs as possible into the XI and putting numbers behind the ball was no longer enough. CITY were taking weekly beatings. Hartel, Cedric Teuchert and João Klauss were left to carry the attack and couldn’t, the midfield lacked direction without Eduard Löwen, and none of the wingbacks created any sort of meaningful width.
Add in a massive and honestly fairly damning reluctance to play young players (nobody under the age of 24 got on the field for St. Louis until Matchday 8, and we’re talking about a market here that produces as much local talent as anyone), and that was that.
Critchley reversed basically all of the above in his first outing last weekend – two center backs, overlapping fullbacks, attackers given freedom to attack, kids getting playing time, etc.
It wasn’t a masterpiece of a performance, but it sure felt like a good start. And the fans, both in the stadium and online, showed their approval.
Portland: Is the Jonathan Rodríguez era coming to an end?
Perhaps it already is?
Very, very quietly – at least from a national perspective – the Uruguayan DP has played just 149 minutes this season. A year ago, he scored 16 goals and added seven assists after arriving on a (depending on who you trust) $4-6 million transfer from LIGA MX powerhouse Club América.
Rodríguez's talent is unquestioned. It’s his knee that’s the issue.
So what happens next, with the transfer window set to open in less than a month? Rodríguez occupies one of the two DP spots at the Timbers’ disposal – they opted for the U22 model – and his contract is guaranteed through 2026.
If he’s not able to contribute in the short or medium term, which would be a real shame for everyone involved, can Portland maneuver to open the DP spot? Something to keep an eye on.
St. Louis: Can this group get back to being aggressive… defensively?
Think back to the St. Louis CITY (or the current Philadelphia Union) of Bradley Carnell.
What stood/stands out? Direct play that skips lines (go back and watch João Klauss’ opener last weekend against San Jose). Then, if the second ball or possession is lost, a collective intensity and aggression to hunt the ball down and win it back in advantageous spots to go again.
Basically, put the opponent under pressure closer to their own goal and goal-scoring opportunities follow. The metric often used to measure pressing intensity is PPDA (passes per defensive action).
Guess who’s talking about PPDA after one game in charge?
Under Mellberg, CITY were more “in a shell” than “breaking the other team’s shell.” I’m curious to see to what degree the group is asked or able to revert back to the old St. Louis under Critchley (and beyond).
Portland Timbers
Neville’s been somewhat flexible with the formation this year, coming out of the gates in a 3-4-2-1 – they struggled with their defensive triggers – then eventually moving into what’s been a much more natural 4-2-3-1 with Da Costa pulling the strings and the wingers stretching the field both vertically and horizontally. Still, though, the 3-4-2-1 club is in the bag and Neville’s been willing to play it when necessary.
The wingers stretching the field is most important because last year (and the year before, and the year before that) Portland’s fatal flaw was the recklessness with which they threw one or both fullbacks up on the overlap, fatally compromising their rest defense and overall team structure with shocking regularity.
That led to a lot of turnovers, which led to a lot of five-alarm fires for the central midfield to put out. Ayala and Diego Chara couldn’t handle all of them.
This year they’re keeping the fullbacks deeper and putting most of the responsibility for creating attacking width on the wingers. Not all, mind you; right back Juan Mosquera is still a weapon when he gets forward. They’re just asking him to be more selective about it (it’s a low bar).
Because of all this, they’ve been better at limiting opposing transition moments. It’s resulted in measurable year-over-year improvement.
Mostly, though, the 4-2-3-1 has allowed them to get the ball in good spots to punish teams in transition, no matter if the wingers have been wide or narrow:
This is who they are. They’re mid-table in possession but down near the bottom of the league in field tilt because they want to create that space to run into. Doing that suits Da Costa, Antony and center forwards Felipe Mora and Kevin Kelsy. It works pretty well for Santi Moreno, and it means Ayala and Chara (or Joao Ortiz lately, as Chara has missed time with a muscle strain) don’t have to do quite so much work.
It’s a simple plan, but quite effective.
St. Louis CITY SC
Similar, I think? Critchley scrapped Mellberg’s 3-4-2-1 for a 4-2-3-1 in his first outing, and his players were actually allowed to cross midfield, which was a nice change. Seriously, St. Louis increased their number of passes in the final third, from Mellberg’s last game to Critchley’s first, by almost 60%.
That’s an announcement, especially when combined with how CITY actually only played center backs at center back last weekend, instead of scattering them all over the backline and midfield. This team is going to attack more and they’re going to throw numbers forward to do it.
Basic stuff that's also necessary! And with Löwen’s return – he’s the midfield tempo-setter and organizer who makes everyone’s job easier – it should become progressively more effective.
What I don’t think it’ll be is overly complex. Critchley obviously didn’t get a preseason to work with the team, so it’d be difficult to install a Vancouver Whitecaps-esque system on the fly.
What I’d expect instead is something that has two keys:
- Löwen’s range of passing from deep central midfield, which puts everything from big switches, to balls over the top, to third-line passes into the half-spaces into play; and…
- Hartel’s ability to play the final ball from the left half-space.
In practice that means the left back (probably Jayden Reid) will play higher, getting forward on the overlap so Hartel has someone to combine with, and Teuchert (if healthy) will play underneath the 9 as a sort of raumdeuter.
He was so great at finding those spots last year:
This year, St. Louis mostly haven't pushed enough numbers forward to get opposing backlines scrambling like that.
We saw that start to change against the Quakes. My hunch is there’s more of it to come.
Plenty of rest since their last outing means this will be close to the Timbers’ best XI that Neville gets to put out. I’m including goalkeeper James Pantemis, who’s been out since April, but not DP attacker Jonathan Rodríguez (knee).
Gonna assume Teuchert is healthy and Kessler is good to go 90 minutes after his return. I could also see Critchley flip Célio Pompeu to the right wing after the left/right balance didn’t quite work last weekend.
