Maxime Crépeau and the Portland Timbers are looking to get back on track
"It feels like death in a way."
BEAVERTON — Phil Neville didn’t lose often as a player.
Manchester United won the Premier League title in six of the 11 seasons Neville spent with the club — in some years showing such dominance that anything other than victory became a jarring break from the norm.
On Thursday, Neville wasn’t about to compare this Timbers team, which snapped a seven-game unbeaten streak on Saturday with a 4-1 loss to San Jose, to one of soccer’s greatest dynasties
But he did say Portland’s training facility had a particular feeling to it in the days after the loss.
“It reminded me of when I was at Man United. When you’re not used to losing games, it feels like death in a way,” Neville said on Thursday. “We’ve been on this good run and winning became a habit and winning became a really good sensation and feeling.
“And that [loss] really stuck with us.”
In retrospect, Portland felt due for a misstep. The Timbers went into San Jose for their fourth road match in five games, played with a roster missing Jonathan Rodriguez, Diego Chara, Jimer Fory and James Pantemis, and had shown some troubling regression defensively after such a strong start to the season.
San Jose took advantage, quickly, and it stung for a Portland side that had been off to its best 10-game start in club history.
Bumps like that will come, especially with such a young squad, Neville said. The key is in the response.
On Tuesday, the Timbers got a bit of that feeling back with a 3-2 win over Tacoma in the Open Cup Round of 32. While David Da Costa, Santiago Moreno, David Ayala, Antony, Jonathan Rodriguez, Diego Chara, Jimer Fory, James Pantemis, Finn Surman, Kamal Miller and Felipe Mora got the night off, Neville did play Kevin Kelsy, Ariel Lassiter, Ian Smith, Cristhian Paredes and Dario Zuparic the entire 90 minutes. And while the Timbers took the scenic route to victory — Tacoma’s goals in the 48th and 50th minutes turned the game on its head — Neville was pleased that they finally got there.
He also wanted the focus to be better.
“I think in the last couple of games, we’ve seem to have been hit with a sucker punch. One ball goes in — then another one. So it compounds our mistake,” Neville said. “That is a little bit of inexperience. That is a little bit of naivety. And as a group, I still feel like this group is learning while playing — learning because we’re a new team, learning because we’re sending out a lot of young players. We’re sending out some of the youngest starting elevens in Portland history. So along the way there’s going to be some bumps and some bruises.”
In terms of actual injuries, the Timbers will go into Saturday’s match against Sporting Kansas City somewhat healthy. Chara and Rodriguez are expected to be back and available, while Neville said the Timbers will still be without Fory and Pantemis.
It’ll be the second consecutive MLS game Pantemis has missed, a circumstance that Neville said has given Crépeau a whale of an opportunity.