It’s not just that the Portland Timbers are playing on short rest on Wednesday night in San Jose, California against the Earthquakes (7:30pm PT, FOX 12 PLUS (KPDX)). Since play resumed in July with the MLS is Back Tournament, short rest has been a fact of life for Major League Soccer’s teams. Now, however, travel demands teams go beyond a Disney World resort, with turnarounds tighter than Orlando’s three- or four-day windows.
“It's not easy,” Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese said on Tuesday, two days after his team’s 3-0 home loss to Seattle Sounders FC. “The time is short, and there's the [need to give] the maximum information to the players about the last game and the game tomorrow.”
The last 20 minutes of Sunday’s game will need particular attention. Portland gave up the match’s only goals during that closing stretch. But the unique demands of the San Jose Earthquakes will require attention, too. Head coach Matías Almeyda employs a man-to-man defending scheme that’s both unique to MLS and, in terms of results, can make the opposition’s willingness to run into a make-or-break proposition.
“It’s always complicated to give out this information,” Savarese said, about the review and preview, “and [players’] recuperation is also important. We're working on this, too.”
Ah, yes. That recuperation. Sunday night to Wednesday night would be a tight turnaround under normal circumstances, but in Orlando, at least travel wouldn’t be involved. Time saved by foregoing flights can be spent recovering. It buys teams an extra day between matches.
Now, the realities of the road have returned, something that carries an added wrinkle for the Timbers. Sunday’s game was at Providence Park, on turf, and while familiarity with the surface may work in the Timbers’ favor, longer recovery times can be an issue. Combined with the short turnaround and the gameday travel to San Jose, and Savarese’s decisions have more layers than usual. Also in frame: The Timbers are schedules for a third game in seven days on Saturday when Real Salt Lake visits Providence Park.
“We're finalizing the final decisions that we have to make, and who's going to be starting the match, looking at the conditions of how the players finished the last match ...,” Savarese said on Tuesday. “There's good competition, there's players that can step on the field at any time, and [I have] trust in the players. Tomorrow, the decisions that we're going to make, and I'm sure 100 percent that the trust in the players will be there to get the three points.”
Dario Zuparic will be among Savarese’s options. The Croatian defender was unavailable for Sunday’s game but, according to Savarese, “is ready” for San Jose. “He’ll be traveling with us.”
Yimmi Chara, however, is a greater doubt. The Designated Player was also a miss for the Seattle match and, ahead of Wednesday’s game, carries a status with fewer assurances. According to Savarese, the Colombian winger will be ready “very soon.” A right-thigh injury leaves the Colombian’s official status as “questionable.”
Add in Dairon Asprilla’s season-ending injury, and you have the full scope of Portland’s ailments, and while no team wants to see one of their Designated Players on the injury list, the absence of two players is relatively normal. Injuries won’t be one of the Timbers’ major constraints, meaning the depth that helped the Timbers to their MLS is Back title can be fully leveraged at Avaya Stadium.
“Whoever is going to step on the field [can be trusted], as well as those that are going to be traveling, because now we travel with 20, not 23,” Saverese explained. “There's going to be some players staying home. Whoever is going to travel I’m sure is going to be there ready to be able to perform.”
Speculating who might be in the lineup feels thin without all the information at the Timbers athletic staff’s disposal, but we do have a tournament’s worth of decisions to fall back on. The players who were regularly coming off the bench first in Orlando, as well as on Sunday against the Sounders, seem to be next in line for starts, if preserving players is necessary.
Jaroslaw Niezgoda and Cristhian Paredes played Sunday and were a part of Tuesday’s pregame press conferences. Andy Polo has been a consistent, somewhat early substitute at both winger and in central midfield. Felipe Mora, a natural striker, has been able to provide minutes off the bench in wide positions. Tomás Conechny was a late, attacking substitute against Seattle, while Pablo Bonilla and Marco Farfan got starts at fullback during the tournament in Orlando.
To the extent rotating players will be necessary, those names seem most likely to step in. Even if that rotation doesn’t happen in San Jose, Savarese and his staff will face a similar set of questions on Saturday against RSL.
