Team Focus: Portland Timbers And The Caleb Porter Effect

Such is the appetite for football in Portland, the moniker ‘Soccer City USA’ is a common expression in the Pacific Northwest. However, since making their MLS debut four years ago, the Portland Timbers have yet to match the city’s desire for the sport with results on the field, until the appointment of Caleb Porter as head coach this season.

Spending less than one season as a professional coach before this year, Porter’s accomplishment at MLS level has come as something of a surprise to everyone, besides those who have worked under him before - former college players of his have taken to Twitter en masse to make a collection assertion of ‘we told you so.’

Despite his high stock as a college coach, taking charge of the USA Under 23 national team for a year, Porter was an imaginative appointment by the Timbers. Some questioned whether the jump up to MLS would demand too much of the 38-year-old. The results since have been undeniably impressive.

Last week’s hulking 3-0 win over the Colorado Rapids marked the Timbers’ 15th straight MLS game without defeat, making Porter the manager with the longest unbeaten streak by a rookie coach in the league’s history. Now Portland have the outright MLS record unbeaten steak in history (19) in their sights.

However, Porter hasn’t just brought results to Jeld-Wen Field, but a dynamic and attractive style of play that has revitalised many of the raw talents previous coach John Spencer couldn’t successfully motivate.

No player epitomises the shift in approach at Portland under Porter than Rodney Wallace. The Costa Rican has made more assists (5) than any other Timbers player this season, putting him at fifth in the overall MLS assists chart as well.

Wallace has been most commonly used by Porter as a forward on the left side of the field, stretching the play and exploiting the space left by transition in between the lines. This is illustrated in the way Portland focuses most of its play down the left side, 39% of it to be precise.

The acquisition of Will Johnson from Real Salt Lake has given the Timbers a stable midfield platform, forming an understanding with Diego Chara, a perennial underperformer under Spencer, and Diego Valeri, on loan from Argentinean side Lanus.

In terms of average share of possession per game Portland boast the second highest rate in MLS - behind only Real Salt Lake - with an average of 56.2% of the ball. However, no other team is as prudent with the ball as the Timbers, maintaining the highest pass success rate in MLS, with 80.1% of their passes reaching their destination.

These possession figures are impressive, but even more notable is how Porter has used the short game to get the best out of his team, with an astonishing 83% of the passes made by the Timbers this season falling into the category of short passes.

If the style of play Porter professes can be compared to ‘tiki-taka’ then Johnson and Chara are the all-important central midfield pivots, with both players occupying the upper echelons of the MLS passing charts - making an average of 53.9 and 54.7 passes per game respectively.

And if Portland can be said to offer a style of play as close to ‘tiki-taka’ as MLS provides, they also suffer from a familiar Spanish problem - a lack of a true centre forward. But in Frederic Piquionne and Ryan Johnson, they have two athletic, mobile pivot points across the frontline, even if they lack prolificacy in front of goal; of the Timbers’ top five scorers only one - Ryan Johnson - is a forward. The Timbers’ system sees midfield frequently interchange with attack and subsequently puts more of an attacking emphasis on the former, with Will Johnson Portland’s top scorer so far this season, finding the net six times.

Porter’s system focuses primarily on the pockets of space in front of the opposition back four, illustrated by where the majority of goals, assists and key passes per game come from, although Ryan Johnson sits in second in the Timbers’ assists table, with four for the season.

With the exception of Chara, Portland’s five best key passers all play in the attacking midfield position - Valeri at 1.9 per game, Darlington Nagbe at 1.5 and Kalif Alhassan and Wallace at 1.1. 

But perhaps Porter’s biggest influence on the Timbers has been how he has communicated what he expects of each player, giving them clear responsibilities and a function within the team.

For instance, while Chara once considered himself as something of an all-action, do-it-all presence in the centre of midfield under Spencer, now his role is clear; to shield the back four and recycle the ball from a deep position.

This clearer, more distinguished role is illustrated by Chara’s position at the top of the Timbers’ tackles per game chart, making an average of 3.8 challenges per game, alongside midfield partner Will Johnson on 2.6 per game.

Of course, Portland are a long way short of being Barcelona and ‘tiki-taka’ hasn’t found itself a new home at Jeld-Wen Field, but considering their dismal display in MLS last season, Porter’s impact on the Timbers has been profound.

Whether Porter can adapt his system to play-off football later in the year remains an unanswered question, but up until this season his ability at MLS level had been scrutinised. His response has been fairly emphatic.