As the Portland Timbers progressed through the recent MLS is Back Tournament, the media began focusing on one aspect of head coach Giovanni Savarese’s track record.
At his previous job with North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos, Savarese’s team reached four finals in five seasons, winning three times. The Cosmos also had success in the annual U.S. Open Cup, eliminating MLS teams from the competition three times during Savarese’s four tournaments in charge. Add Portland’s runs to the 2018 MLS Cup final and the 2019 U.S. Open Cup semifinal and Savarese’s record in knockout round competitions stands out.
“A tournament is very different than a regular season,” Savarese told The Athletic’s Matt Pentz during MiB. “You have to focus, and to make sure you understand exactly what is required. You can have a methodology. You can have a way of thinking. You also need to understand the players that you have, and the idiosyncrasy of the league and of the country you’re in ...
“But at the end of the day, you can have a plan, an idea, and a way of working, but you need to have a good group of people around you … I believe that we have a really special group.”
On Sunday at Providence Park, the Savarese’s “special group” will leave their knockout memories behind, resuming MLS’s 2020 regular season against the visiting Seattle Sounders FC (7pm PT, FS1). It’s the first of six games in Phase 1 of MLS’s return, with Portland currently scheduled to face Seattle, the San Jose Earthquakes, Real Salt Lake, LA Galaxy and Los Angeles FC in their region’s pod.
If MLS’s return goes well, Sunday’s will be the first of potentially a half-season worth of games – a schedule that would lead into the league’s postseason. Between then and now, Savarese’s team will have to adapt to a regular-season mode, even if the nature of schedule allows Portland to maintain a tournament feel.
“We're looking at this period of games, these six games, as a new tournament …,” Savarese explained. “Are we looking at these matches as if they're part of the season? Yes. It is, and we have to consider that. But we're looking at it more as a tournament of six matches, and [Sunday] is the first one that we have to play.”
Another place where Portland’s tournament coalesces with the new regular season is the standings. One of the unique quirks of MLS is Back’s format had the competition’s group-stage games count in the regular-season table. After posting a 2-0-1 record in that phase, Portland moved into third place in the Western Conference, augmenting the 1-1-0 mark they had in March, before the league’s COVID-19 hiatus, to sit only two points off first. Despite their sluggish start to the season, the Timbers are within reach of the top of their conference.
“We have to prove this MLS [is Back] tournament is something that we want to really build on,” central defender Larrys Mabiala said. “We showed a lot of improvement in many aspects of our game. We just want to build on that to keep moving forward, to even play better for the rest of the season.”
In the short term, the Timbers’ path looks like a relatively difficult one. None of the four teams that finished at the bottom of the West last season – (12th to ninth) Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Sporting Kansas City, the Houston Dynamo and Colorado Rapids – are in Portland’s regional group. Seattle, the league’s defending champions, is on the Timbers’ schedule twice. So is last year’s Supporters’ Shield winner (LAFC) as well as two other playoff teams. Even the Earthquakes, the group’s lowest finisher last season, was competitive throughout the 2019 season.
“This is our area,” Savarese said. “These are the teams that we have to play. They are very strong teams. It's nothing different … In the bubble, I would say [we had] one of the most difficult groups.
“It's about performing. This is what we have in front of us. This is what we have to do to overcome.”
The Timbers finished fifth and sixth in the West during Savarese’s first two seasons in charge, but after their strong MLS is Back group stage, the team has a chance to claim a better position ahead of this year’s postseason. If the theory of Savarese’s knockout round prowess is true, that position should be put to good use, especially if the MLS schedule allows Portland to stay in tournament mode.
