BEAVERTON, Ore. — Six games into their first Major League Soccer season, the Portland Timbers lead the league in an unflattering statistic — goals against, with 13.
Most disturbing for coach John Spencer is the way one goal surrendered has a habit of quickly becoming two.
• Two goals minutes apart early in the season opener at Colorado.
• Two second-half goals 15 minutes apart for Chicago in the home opener, a 4-2 Portland win.
• Two goals three minutes apart in the late stages that game FC Dallas hope in a 3-2 Timbers; home victory.
• Two goals in the first eight minutes last Saturday at Los Angeles.
The breakdowns leading to the goals have varied, but the inability to recover poise after surrendering one goal is especially frustrating for Spencer.
Spencer said that if he were coaching against the Timbers, he’d be harping on a perceived mental weakness in Portland’s play.
“I’d be saying, ‘If you get one goal there’s a chance you get three,’” Spencer said.
Spencer said that perception that Portland can unravel is difficult for him to take.
The coach said inexperience in some positions and a lack of cohesion that comes from being a new team are contributing factors to the defensive breakdowns. Not that those are acceptable excuses.
“Obviously, (goals against) have come in patches where we’ve had little lulls. That could be a concentration issue,” midfielder Jack Jewsbury, the team captain, said. “That’s something that comes along as you play together more, and guys are still working on that.”
Goalkeeper Troy Perkins, an MLS veteran who made his Timbers debut in Saturday’s loss at Los Angeles, agreed.
“As a unit, we’re seeing all these different scenarios (together) for the first time,” Perkins said. “I don’t think it’s one recurring thing. I think it’s just a snowball effect of mini mistakes. It’s something that we’re working on and something we’re going to get better at.”
The Timbers defense will face perhaps its biggest test so far on Saturday, when unbeaten Real Salt Lake (4-0-0) comes to Jeld-Wen Field.
“(Real Salt Lake) have that mentality now about them that they can go anywhere and win games,” Spencer said. “They’re a shining light for that mentality. They’re relentless. They come at you. They never say die.”
It’s a confidence and determination that Spencer aspires to for his Timbers, something they must develop to halt the trend of allowing goals in quick succession.
“Every team in Major League Soccer concedes goals. Most teams around the world concede goals,” Spencer said. “We have to have the mentality that, yeah, we’re going to concede one, but we need to stay together, stay composed, not panic and get through the next 5-10 minutes after you concede and make sure we don’t concede again.”
Notes
• Today, Real Salt Lake carries the banner for MLS when it hosts the Mexican club champion Monterrey in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final (7 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel). A win by RSL would give MLS its third championship in the tournament for the best clubs in North and Central America. D.C. United in 1998 and the L.A. Galaxy in 2000 won the Champions Cup under a different format.
• The Timbers announced that the start time for the July 10 home match against Seattle will be 1 p.m. That game will be carried live on ESPN.
• The MLS is expected to announce today the punishment for Colorado’s Brian Mullen, whose reckless tackle on Friday broke the leg of Seattle’s Steve Zakuani.
