Eight Portland Timbers players made it onto the 2015 AT&T MLS All-Star ballot this year: Adam Kwarasey, Liam Ridgewell, Alvas Powell, Nat Borchers, Diego Chara, Darlington Nagbe, Diego Valeri, and Fanendo Adi. All have an opportunity to be part of the MLS All-Star team that will host the Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on July 29.
Along with voting online on the ballot above, fans can vote on Twitter and Facebook by including the players first and last name (with or without a space) and the hashtag #MLSAllStar.
In this series, Timbers.com takes a look at each positional area and makes the case for each candidate within. We're now on to our Timbers forward on the ballot: Fanendo Adi.
Adam Kwarasey
Timbers goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey projects a sense of calmness behind his back line. He's always ready to come off of his line to clear the ball out of danger.
Through the first 18 games of the 2015 regular season, Kwarasey has led the Timbers defense to seven shutouts, a mark tied for third best in the league. Those seven shutouts also mean that Kwarasey has earned a shutout in nearly 40 percent of his MLS appearances.
But don't let Kwarasey's preternatural calmness fool you. He's equally capable of making the jaw-dropping save, as the Seattle Sounders witnessed in their recent loss to the Timbers in the U.S. Open Cup.
Knowing that they have Kwarasey waiting behind them has emboldened the entire Timbers defenders.
“We can play out from the back a little bit more, but when we need to go long [Kwarasey's] a good kicker of the ball,” Ridgewell told MLSsoccer.com earlier this season. “So it’s very good to have him behind us, and it breeds confidence in me and Nat [Borchers] as well. It works well for us.”
Timbers head coach Caleb Porter has also praised his goalkeeper, singling out Kwarasey's experience and poise.
Kwarasey, Adam [POR]
VOTE: Adam Kwarasey for MLS All-Star Game
“He’s very comfy, and he’s not casual – there’s a difference," Porter said. "You can be comfortable but sometimes casual, and he really looks like a guy who’s played a lot of games and he has. He’s in his prime right now … and I think you see that in his presence, his confidence.”
Kwarasey hadn't been asked to make the spectacular save over the first few games of the season, but in mid-April, against New York City FC, Kwarasey came up huge at the end of the match, preserving the team's 1-0 road win and earning himself MLS Save of the Week honors for this spectacular stop on forward Khiry Shelton:
Capable of making the big saves, an excellent distributor of the ball, and a calm organizer behind the defense, Adam Kwarasey is a big reason why the Timbers possess one of the top defensive units in MLS.
