Let's start things off simply. No, there will not be any April Fool's Day jokes here. (I think.) Alright, just one: A penalty from a deliberate handball that was denying a goal-scoring opportunity without a card being shown. Now that we've got that out of the way, and we've all celebrated a quite legendary win last night against Portland Timbers — in for a penny, in for a pound (or a dime and a dollar, if you will) and all that — let's get to talking about it. I get the feeling we won't be able to stop for some time.
Where do we start? How about that lineup? I don't think we could have asked for a much stronger lineup to start the match, save, maybe, Espindola for Paulo Junior. It was with that lineup that we won the penalty to kick off scoring, so let's go after that first.
That handball. Oh, that handball. You know, I'm surprised. It was a clear handball — completely hand to ball, no sense of anything but — in the penalty box by the last defender. It was, I'd say, a denial of a goal-scoring opportunity, but Portland full back Rodney Wallace escaped without a card. At any rate, I suppose that's done and dusted and didn't come back to bite us, but it was a bit weird. I won't complain.
Saborio slotted that penalty home like you always knew he would, and until the 65th minute, you thought it might be the match-winner — or at least the match-drawer, though that sounds odd. Instead, we were treated to a flurry of goals right off the top shelf, with Darlington Nagbe hitting two (le sigh), Jonny Steele and a jinking run drawing things level, and Kyle "Oh Captain" Beckerman giving us the win.
Let's start with Nagbe's two goals, both very, very classy strikes. Getting past Kyle Beckerman is no mean feat, either, and it was perhaps impressive that he did so twice — though, of course, Kyle has been ever so slightly off-form. It was the manner of turnover that allowed them the chance that just boiled my blood, with two throw-ins taken into crowded areas, whereby Portland won the ball back, and we conceded in short order. It happened last season, it's happened this season, and I hope I don't have to see that again.
And those two late goals of ours? Dynamite. That run into the box from Jonny Steele, the awareness from Javier Morales, the ability of Will Johnson to just leave it on a silver platter, and the technical ability of Mr. Steele to get past the defenders and slot into the bottom-left-hand corner? There's little better.
Thankfully, of the little better there is, we still managed to get a piece of it right at the death last night. With time ticking away, we passed the ball sideways until it reached Chris Wingert — Kyle Beckerman ignoring the frantic urges to "SHOOT!" yelled at the television — who knocked it forward to Espindola. Fabian, dribbling to the edge of the box, spotted Beckerman, lifted a brilliant pass into the path of his run. Kyle, seeing Jonny Steele ready to pick that one up, gave him a little shout (or a big shout — I really don't know) and just like that, the ball was in the back of the net. I doubt there was ever a goal more fitting for "I hit the ball first time, and there it was in the back of the net."
It's the sort of win you don't expect to grab, and that we did shows great mental strength. We were right at the precipice of defeat, and out of seemingly nowhere, we reached out and grabbed onto three points. Now, I don't love that we left it late, and I hope we don't have to do that too often, but once in a while, it's invigorating in no small measure.
Oh, and a word for Nick Rimando: massive. What a goalkeeper. His saves were as vital as ever, he was awake, he was aware, and there was no chance of a mistake coming from him last night. Where would we be without him?
Let's move on to a couple tactical notes, but I'll cover these in-depth tomorrow once I've had a chance to deconstruct the win rather than simply being excited about it.
- Moving to a three-man back line once Jonny Steele came on for Tony Beltran in the 78th minute was a masterstroke by Jason Kreis. In the makeshift 3-5-2, Olave played wide right, Wingert wide left, and Borchers in the middle. It gave us a bit more in midfield, and with Saborio and Espindola keeping defenders on their toes, our midfielders got a lot more time on and off the ball. It paid off.
- Jason seemed to toy with an inverted box-to-box setup — akin to an inverted winger system, where a left-footed winger will play on the right side and vice versa, but different in that these were central midfielders used as such. Grabavoy on the left — perhaps out of necessity after Gil's lackluster game against Chivas — and, after substitutions, Will Johnson and Jonny Steele, both ostensibly better on the left, came in on the right side. It afforded them perhaps that extra little room to get a pass off, and in Jonny Steele's case, it gave him a chance to cut inside for that brilliant goal.
That's only a preview, so do check back tomorrow.
Today, though, let's bask in this win. We love you Salt Lake, we do!
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