by Matt Hoffman @mhoff
The Timbers found the missing piece for their championship aspirations when they sent allocation money to Real Salt Lake City in exchange for defender Nat Borchers. Borchers solidified a defensive corps that was hardly more effective than stinky cheese in 2014. Only the Houston Dynamo and the Montreal Impact (teams which combined 35 losses in a 34 game MLS season!), allowed more than goals than Portland did that season.
Borchers and his thick red beard have been as synonymous with Portland’s success as hipsters with thick beards of their own at the food carts at 10th and Alder. In 2016 Borchers has started in 21 of 22 games for the Timbers. The season-ending (likely career-ending) injury that Borchers sustained on Saturday against the Los Angeles Galaxy is merely the latest set-back to a campaign that seems to nearly mirror the near Sisyphean struggle of Leslie Knope trying to get to that ice rink podium.
No, the 2016 season has not been Wang Chung covering Blur levels of bad, but Timbers fans might feel a certain kinship with Ron Swanson holding a urinating three-legged dog whilst standing on a sheet of slippery ice.
In order to succeed in Major League Soccer, talent is helpful but what you really must have is luck. For instance, consider the travel and logistical demands, particularly in the Western Conference. Six (out of seven total) Western Conference teams have one or fewer home losses.
Portland is not one of those six teams. Fifteen teams have at least one road win.
Again, the Timbers fail to make the cut.
The Timbers have lost points at home, they now need to find a way to make up those points on the road. If you need to make up some ground on the road, that starts and ends with defense.
It might be difficult to remember that prior to Liam Ridgewell coming on board during the Summer of 2014 and Borchers joining in the ensuing December, the centerback position has been a bit of a hot mess under Caleb Porter:
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There was Mikael Silvestre’s back pass that resulted in a goal in his first game. Pa Moudah Kah’s propensity to be ejected in a match’s opening minutes was another. Hanyer Mosquera was the rare Colombian who wanted to return to Colombia.
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Prospects such as Bryan Gallego and Andrew Jean-Baptiste failed to blossom.
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Centerback holes were plugged by playing guys like Jack Jewsbury and Ben Zemanski out of place.
Amobi Okugo is expected to pair with Jermaine Taylor going against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday. (Ridgewell, who is nursing a calf injury, is barred from playing because he is not appearing in the MLS All-Star Game). Neither player was with the team last year and Okugo only has been with the team since late May.
Zarek Valentin got his first goal for the Timbers against the Galaxy on Saturday.
The two played well against the Galaxy in limited minutes on Saturday, but remember the context: LA had scored twice in the opening 15 minutes and there was little urgency among the Galaxy to find a third goal.
The rumor mill is rife that Steven Taylor (not that Steven Taylor) is coming to the Timbers rescue. After all he was a guest of distinction at Saturday’s match. News outlets like The Guardian and ESPN are declaring it as a done deal. It’s entirely likely that, even if the Taylor signing is imminent, that Taylor won’t take to the field until after the August 7 match against Sporting.
If other words are to believed, the Timbers are not done shopping even after picking up Taylor.
In the meantime, with Vytautas “Vetas” Andriuskevicius expected to take over at left back, Zarek Valentin can provide useful minutes as both the left back and center-back positions.
Depth will be tested in August but such is life in Major League Soccer where, to paraphrase Brett Anderson, some things are more important than ability. Namely depth, luck, and geography.
The Timbers have always been wise on salary cap matters enabling the team cap flexibility for emergencies which this would certainly be quantified as such. The important thing is, even with the latest bout of attrition, the title is still there for the taking for the Timbers. What we can say for sure is thatBorchers will be saluting the team and the Timbers Army, only this time from the sidelines
MLS
Portland
