How good has the Portland Timbers' 5-0-0 start at home been? Well, not quite historic, but pretty impressive nonetheless.
MLS Week 10, Review: Portland Timbers Off To Impressive Start
With five wins in their first five matches at Jeld-Wen Field, the Timbers are off to the best start for a first-year team in the post-shootout era.
The five straight home wins to start their MLS history is the longest since the Los Angeles Galaxy won seven straight in 1996, which of course was the first year of MLS. It's also the longest home win streak at any point in the season for an expansion team since 1998 when the Chicago Fire won seven straight at home. Put another way, the Timbers' five-game home win streak is the longest for a first-year team team during the post-shootout era. The all-time record for most consecutive home wins is 10 games by the 2002 San Jose Earthquakes. (Thanks to MLS's Rick Lawes for tracking all this down.)
The Timbers’ latest victory wasn’t exactly their most impressive, 1-0 over the Crew on which the lone goal probably should have been whistled dead for offsides. But credit them for continuing to find ways to get results at home. They’ve shown they can win shootouts -- their first two home games featured 11 goals -- and they’ve shown they can win low-scoring affairs -- each of their last three wins have been 1-0.
Equally impressive is the quality of teams the Timbers have been beating. Of their five victims, only the Chicago Fire would miss the playoffs if the season ended today. They are the only MLS team to beat Real Salt Lake this year, they are the last team to beat FC Dallas (back on April 17) and they beat a Philadelphia Union team that came in with just one loss and two goals allowed through their first six matches.
While it seems a little trite to suggest that the fans deserve much of the credit for this start, and coach John Spencer has made it clear that his players are the ones doing the real work, it does seem like the atmosphere has helped. The Timbers have yet to thoroughly dominate any of their home opponents, and have actually been out-possessed in all five of their home matches. Against the Crew, the Timbers were actually out shot (11-10), out possessed (53-47) and won only 47 percent of the aerial duels. None of those numbers mean the Timbers are actually being outplayed, but it does seem to suggest there’s some kind of unquantifiable element at play. That element might just be the people chanting, singing and waving flags.
"The home opener was something special," Timbers forward Kenny Cooper said after Saturday's match. "I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything like that. It’s just been (there) week after week, every time there’s a home game they just continue to bring the same energy and I think it’s really a privilege for us to be able to play in front of them. Hopefully, we’re making them happy with these home wins and hopefully we can get some more."
Rather than show a standard highlight, check out this video that attempts to capture the gameday experience in Portland. (H/T The Offside)
PTFC Perfect from Juliet Zulu on Vimeo.
Galaxy keep piling up results
This was billed as Cup-or-bust season for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Roughly a third into the season, it’s going pretty much according to plan.
With their 1-0 "road" victory over Chivas USA in the so-called SuperClasico, the Galaxy sit at a MLS-best 23 points. Even taking into account their league-high 13 matches played, they have the second best points per match (1.77) and are tied for the second best goal difference (+6). In the 10 matches since losing 4-1 to RSL, they've claimed 19 points, lost just once and posted a +11 goal-difference. Clearly, something is working.
No small part of that success must be attributed to the Designated Player trio of David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Juan Pablo Angel. The three stars have combined for 10 goals and eight assists, or roughly 54 percent of the Galaxy's offensive production. Donovan currently leads the league in goals scored, while Beckham is tied for the assists lead.
Beckham has been especially deadly on set pieces where he has picked up five assists and scored his one goal. One of those assists came against the Goats when his free kick was headed in by Chad Barrett, who himself is enjoying a decent start to the season. Barrett now has three goals and three assists, which put him on pace for a career year.
Snake-bitten in Seattle
Qwest Field is quickly becoming a house of horrors for Sporting Kansas City. A year ago, they looked poised for a 0-0 tie before Mike Fucito scored his first career goal, in stoppage-time, to steal away all three points. On Saturday, it was Jeff Parke essentially doing the same thing.
With the score tied 0-0, the Sounders were awarded a somewhat controversial corner kick. Although the ball did appear to go over the end line and the assistant referee did signal for a corner, it was a very close call and Sounders midfielder Roger Levesque actually threw in the ball. Referee Geoff Gamble, though, whistled that dead and called for the corner. That gave Parke the opportunity to score his first MLS goal since 2004, a header to the far post that skipped past goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen.
For Sporting, it was their sixth straight loss and extended their winless streak to seven matches. They have two more matches to play on the road before finally playing their first home match of the season on June 9. At the start of the season, 10 points was seen as the bare minimum they could afford to claim during this opening stretch of games in order to still feel like they had a reasonable chance at the playoffs. At four points through eight, they’ll need to win at Colorado and Toronto to hit that mark.
Union break the seal
No one has doubted the quality of the Union's defense. Only one team has allowed fewer than their seven goals against, and goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon would probably be in the running if there were a third-of-the-season MVP. What has been more of an open question is their ability to score.
The Union entered Saturday's match with just six goals scored through nine matches and had failed to score more than one goal in any game. That all changed when Carlos Ruiz scored what surely has to be considered a Goal of the Year contender.
With the Union tied 1-1 in the 75th minute, Ruiz lined up a free kick from about 30 yards out. Ruiz’s shot hit the wall and came back out to him. Ruiz then volleyed a shot from nearly 40 yards out that hit off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal.
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