Times are good for Portland Timbers coach Caleb Porter.
Already a hero to the Timbers Army, he is on the cusp of emulating the record of perhaps the greatest coach in Portland MLS history.
After the weekend’s match in Vancouver, Porter’s win record with the club stands at 26 wins from 72 league games, a fantastic win percentage of 36.11%.
He still has some way to travel though to equal the legend, John Spencer.
Spencer’s achievements are already etched in Timbers’ folklore with 11 wins in his first season, a win percentage of 32.35%.
Porter has already equaled that. With 14 wins from 34 games in 2013 plus another 12 the following year, Porter now stands on 26 wins from 72 games or 36.11%.
But it would be unfair to ignore the advantages of Spencer’s tenure. By 2012 when he didn’t have all the advantages of being an expansion coach with superb players only reluctantly released by other clubs, his numbers dipped leaving an overall record of 16 wins from 51 or 31.317%.
Spencer did win 36% of a Cascadia Cup though securing 4 of the 11 points that won them the trophy in 2012.
Porter though is not far from that level of greatness. If he manages just five (more) wins this season, his win percentage will eclipse Spencer’s and finish at 30.392%. With six wins, he will equal Spencer’s achievement of 31.317%.
Now to be fair to Porter, he did not have all the advantages Spencer had, such as having Gavin Wilkinson’s wise counsel always in his ear without even having to ask for it.
Wilkinson also provided help by having private morale boosting discussions with players which allowed Spencer to focus more time on the remaining players knowing that Wilkinson had already imparted someone’s instructions to the other players.
Porter has no such luxury. He inherited a group of players who already knew each other and he is expected to do the job of head coach all by himself.
Nevertheless, there is cause for optimism that he can get the six wins this year to equal Spencer’s win percentage and stake his place in Timbers folklore.
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