PORTLAND, Ore. – It’s rare that a head coach is so explicit with their game plan, even after a match. But there may have been something in Saturday’s initial 30 minutes – a stalemate of patience between the Portland Timbers and Philadelphia Union – that compelled Giovanni Savarese to speak up when talking to the press after the night’s 3-0 victory – something that told him to reveal what, over that initial half-hour, his team was trying to do.
“They have fast players in the wings,” Savarese said, when asked why he again chose a three-center-back, no-winger lineup.