T2 play begins tonight. Photo courtesy of Diego Diaz.
by Matt Hoffman
The quest to find the right pieces to solidify a title-winning club begins in earnest this weekend as Timbers 2 head to Missouri to play the Swope Park(5:30pm PST; Live stream available at www.Timbers2.com).
Swope Park Rangers is one of six new USL clubs that are entering play in 2016. The USL side for Sporting Kansas City, SPR replaces former SKC affiliate Oklahoma City Energy, who remain coached by former Sporting goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen. Orlando City also was a former affiliate of Sporting.
Barring a possible playoff match-up, this will be the first of two meetings between the two squads. Intriguingly–and barring said playoff meeting–Swope Park will not be playing in Portland this season. The second match between the two teams will be played at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian, Idaho this June.
In Year One, Timbers 2 started off smartly with big wins, including a late game-winner over the then-reigning champions Sacramento Republic. The hot run of form could not last as an extended cold streak doomed T2 to an 8th place finish.
Andrew Gregor, an assistant last year under Jay Vidovich, returns thought this time in the capacity of the team’s Head Coach. Besides his time with T2 last year, Gregor has experience coaching the Timbers U16 and U18 teams.
Besides replacing a coach, T2 will seek to fill the shoes of captain Blair Gavin who returned to his home state of Arizona. Likely candidates to wear the armband are goalkeeper Jake Gleeson, defender Anthony Manning, midfielder Nick Besler. Also on the short list last year’s rookie of the year Kharlton Belmar, whose play last year earned him a trip to Arizona to open preseason camp with the first team.
A shortened off-season meant most of the first team’s off-season acquisitions came from within MLS. T2 was bound by no such restrictions as several new players hail from Nigeria, Colombia, Belgium, Guatemala, Bulgaria, Jamaica, and Cameroon.
Regardless of the background, youth caps, or programs they played at before coming to the Rose City, Gregor’s comments have had one consistent theme:
“One of the objectives for this season was to bring in younger players we we can affect their development,”
In speaking to the media on October 14th, 2014 press conference announcing the creation of T2, Wilkinson referenced Miguel Ibarra. Ibarra was a UC-Irvine product drafted by the Timbers who were unable to keep the player on their roster. Ibarra went to Minnesota where he appeared on Jurgen Klinsmann’s radar and earning multiple caps for the USMNT.
Ironically, it was Ibarra who was reportedly targeted by the Timbers to replace Rodney Wallace earlier this spring.
With T2, Gregor will work with players to “develop in our system” hopefully procuring long-term roles with the first team, instead of finding success in other clubs. Joining Gregor as an assistant is Shannon Murray. Poached from Seattle, Murray spent the last two years as an academy coach with the Sounders.
Following Saturday’s fixture, T2 will have a three match home stand against Whitecaps 2 (Saturday, April 2), Rio Grande Valley FC (Houston Dynamo; April 8), and Sacramento (April 17) at Merlo Field, on the University of Portland campus.
