If you’re looking for a point of distinction between the Portland Timbers of last year and the version we’ll see Sunday, consider the depth chart, one should prove one of the deepest in Major League Soccer.
Learning the lessons of last year’s Audi MLS Cup Playoff disappointment (and reaping the rewards of the Darlington Nagbe trade), general manager Gavin Wilkinson has given his new head coach, Giovanni Savarese, at least two viable options at almost every position. If the same injury plague that derailed the team’s 2017 infects this year’s squad, a second set of viable options is ready to step up.
Who, exactly, makes up that second set (as opposed to the first) is something that will be revealed over the coming weeks. With so many options, Savarese can afford to make competition a constant.
Position by position, here’s how the 2018 Timbers breakdown:
Goalkeepers
Some of the position battles people have focused on from the outside are more speculative than real. Goalkeeper is not one of those. There has been a battle throughout preseason between the `keeper who ended last season in goal and the player who started it.
Battle may actually be too strong of a word, though, especially since Jeff Attinella and Jake Gleeson have rarely been healthy at the same time this preseason. A leg injury and illness hampered Gleeson toward the beginning of camp, while Attinella has been dealing with a leg problem of his own as the season approaches. Gleeson may end up starting the season opener, but that won’t necessarily mean the competition Is over.
Along with Kendall McIntosh – the third-choice who will continue to see time with T2 – Portland’s goalkeepers have been asked to play a little differently this preseason with Savarese intent on deploying a higher defensive line. That demands his goalkeepers be more active in the field game as well as more aggressive controlling the space between the center backs and goal.
Whichever keeper adapts best to Savarese’s new approach will likely edge ahead in the race. To date, that race has been too close to call.
Fullbacks
This may be the deepest part of the squad, with the Timbers depth chart having two viable, starting-caliber options at both fullback positions.
On the left, Lithuanian international Vytas begins his second full season in Portland as the team’s first choice, although a hamstring injury looks likely to keep him out of the season opener. That ailment will give Portland fans another look at Marco Farfan, the 19-year-old Timbers Academy product who impressed in six appearances during his debut season. Out of high school and ready for his first full campaign, Farfan should continue his apprenticeship through the season, with Vytas remaining a key part of the Timbers’ 2018 hopes.
At right back, Alvas Powell is coming off career highs in goals (two) and assists (three) despite playing his fewest minutes since 2014. The Jamaican international will likely improve on last year’s 1690 minutes and 19 starts, but on the occasion he’s out of the lineup, Zarek Valentin is more than capable of deputizing. With 35 starts since 2016, Valentin has proved to be one of the team’s more valuable bench options, and coming off a three-assist season of his own, the 26-year-old proved capable of contributing in both halves of the field.
Centerbacks
Injuries to Liam Ridgewell over the last two seasons has made center back depth a priority for the Timbers. In response, the team has completed two key acquisitions over the last year, one of which arrived last summer.
With 13 games under his MLS belt, Larrys Mabiala is far better acquainted with the realities of his new league. He’ll enter the season as the partner to Ridgewell’s right, but on the occasion either needs rest, Costa Rican import Julio Cascante will enter. The 24-year-old, acquired this offseason with Targeted Allocation Money, should fit well next to either of the veteran starters.
Farther down the depth chart, New Zealand international Bill Tuiloma will push for more time with the first team; Lawrence Olum remains an option, even if his presence will often be required in midfield; and Gambian defender Modou Jadama joins the team after a season with the Tulsa Roughnecks (USL), where he moved after starting his professional career for Chilean powerhouse Colo-Colo.
Central midfield
Diego Chara is still a question mark for the season opener, but when he returns, Portland will have its first-choice midfield in place. Alongside Costa Rican international David Guzmán, Chara forms the midfield tandem that served the Timbers so well during their 2017 season.
With Guzmán likely to miss time for this summer’s 2018 FIFA World Cup, though, midfield depth is all the more important. Even beyond Olum, the team has a number of options.
Perhaps most exciting is Cristhian Paredes, the 19-year-old Paraguayan who has been brought in from Club América. A standout for his country at youth levels, Paredes can play in either a holding or a box-to-box role, with his ability to have an impact in the penalty area already evident during the Timbers’ preseason.
Andrés Flores is also a new face in the middle, having come west with his former New York Cosmos manager, Savarese. Though he can also play an attacking role (having scored 10 times in his 83 appearances in the NASL), Flores joins the likes of Olum and Bill Tuiloma as deep midfield options.
Attacking midfield
The No. 10 is Diego Valeri’s role. Everybody knows that, and everybody knows how important the league’s Most Valuable Player is to the Timbers’ hopes. Though any loss of the team’s best talent would be a significant blow, Portland has a number of players capable of stepping into his spot.
Perhaps most surprising of those names is Jack Barmby, who Timbers fans likely know as a late-match, wide option. This preseason, though, Barmby has been used almost exclusively through the middle, taking up the position underneath the striker. It’s a more natural role for him, Barmby says, and under the new boss, the 23-year-old is getting his shot.
Eryk Williamson, too, is another new name on the roster. The University of Maryland product had his Homegrown rights acquired in January from D.C. United. Still only 20 years old, Williamson has trained with the first team all preseason, leaving the U.S. youth international fully aware of what Savarese wants in the creator’s role.
The other options in Valeri’s spot sit elsewhere on the depth chart. If needed, Sebastián Blanco could slip in from wide, or Flores can be moved into the attacking role. That role in this team, though, is Valeri’s, who will remain a focal point of the Timbers’ approach.
Wings
On one flank is certainty – an incumbent who may take on an expanded role. On the other is the type of competition that the Timbers’ new depth is all about.
That’s where, on the right, Dairon Asprilla and Andy Polo are battling for playing time. Asprilla, entering his fourth season in Portland, has played with the first group for much of the preseason, and during that time, he’s added a blistering level of pace the team. Polo, however, is a promising and high-profile acquisition from Liga MX, one who could be in line to join Peru in Russia this summer for World Cup action. In Portland’s final preseason game, the 23-year-old got the nod in Savarese’s starting XI.
Then there’s the other flank, and Sebastián Blanco. Entering his second year in Portland, the Argentine attacker could see a slightly expanded role, with the departure of Nagbe making him an even more important part of the Timbers’ transition game. After posting eight goals and eight assists in his MLS debut, Blanco appears in line for an even more productive campaign, with his year’s experience combining with additional responsibility to make him more crucial to the Timbers’ hopes.
Farther down the depth chart, Victor Arboleda could prove a terror coming off the bench late in matches, with preseason opponents already subject to a player who could be the quickest in MLS. Barmby, also, could be an option in wide spaces, as could Williamson, who has experience playing on the right of midfield.
Forwards
Fanendo Adi has 51 goals in 112 appearances throughout his Timbers tenure, and five months removed from his 27th birthday, the Nigerian No. 9 is in the prime of his career. He enters the season as the team’s first option up top, but he’s not the only forward capable of carrying a starters’ load.
To the extent preseason proves anything, Samuel Armenteros showed as much during his time in Arizona. In three games, the Sweden international scored four times, took home the Mobile Mini Sun Cup Golden Boot trophy, and hinted his learning curve in Major League Soccer will be a smooth one. Coming off a standout 2016-17 in the Netherlands – with a disappointing Serie A sojourn in between – Armenteros could prove the most impactful of Wilkinson’s TAM additions.
Polo, too, could see time at forward, especially if Savarese gets use out of the two-striker look we occasionally saw in Tucson. Should that approach take hold, there will be even more opportunities for two of the team’s most promising young talents: Jeremy Ebobisse and Foster Langsdorf.
Ebobisse, the fourth pick in the 2017 MLS SuperDraft, impressed in limited minutes last season, scoring one goal and setting up three others in his 317 minutes. Also capable of playing wide, Ebobisse should see his playing time increase as he becomes further integrated into the first-team squad.
Langsdorf, a Timbers Academy product, is coming off his third-straight national title at Stanford, where he ended his collegiate career as the program’s all-time leader in goals (37) and points (86). A two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year, Langsdorf returns the club as a Homegrown Player, albeit one that will have to scratch for playing time in a tremendously deep squad.
