MLS Inquest 2012: Portland Timbers

Will there be more empty promises in Portland?

2012 MLS Inquest: Portland Timbers

Record: 8-16-10

Points: 34

Final Position: 8th, Western Conference

Player of the Year: Darlington Nagbe

Nagbe represents what is right, or at least can be right, with the Portland Timbers.  He was the only consistent bright spot for the club this year and scored some really great goals.  Unfortunately he has often lacked the tools that need to be around him to really take it up to the next level, and Portland seemed to struggle to get the ball to his feet at times over the course of the season.  He's also very durable, logging a team high 2,777 minutes in league play.  He was second on the team with 6 goals scored.   The upside for Portland is that he's only going to get better.

Flop of the Year: Kris Boyd

This is a no brainer choice for me.  Boyd's signing as a DP was hailed by Portland fans and league watchers alike in the preseason, largely citing his excellent goal scoring record in the Scottish Premier League.  Some people, like myself, rained on this parade.  First off, the SPL is not that great outside of Rangers vs Celtic, well and now just Celtic, and Boyd's production fell off extensively once he left Scotland.  He did end up leading the team with 7 league goals, but never seemed to be favored after John Spencer was sacked mid-season.  Meanwhile, Boyd's most memorable moment in a Timbers' kit to date was missing a penalty kick in the US Open Cup against Cal FC, who would wind up knocking the Timbers out of that competition.  

The Good:

Portland did seem to find a bit of form late in the season, pulling 13 points out of their last 10 games to lift them off the bottom of the Western Conference table.  In the process, they claimed the Cascadia Cup late on, clinching the hardware with a victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on October 21.  Much of this was due to the emergence of Bright Dike, who eclipsed both Boyd and Danny Mwanaga as an attacker in Portland's lineup down the stretch.

The Bad:

Road form, or lack thereof, continued to hamper the Timbers in their second season in Major League Soccer.  Seven of their eight wins came at Jeld-Wen field, where they claimed the scalps of Seattle Sounders, Sporting Kansas City, and the San Jose Earthquakes, to name a few.  The road was a different story though, as they didn't collect all three points on their travels until that October 21 win at Vancouver.  Meanwhile, they only managed 10 goals on the road all year, while conceding 35.

The Ugly:\

To say it was a trying time for the Timbers front office and coaching ranks this year was a bit of an understatement.  Head coach John Spencer was sacked in the middle of the season and replaced by technical director Gavin Wilkinson.  Results did not improve, and resulted in the Timbers Army showing up to home matches with tifo that very pointedly expressed their displeasure:

The Verdict:

The Timbers announced that they had hired Akron boss and former US U-23 coach Caleb Porter to take over the head coaching job next year.  While Porter has been a whiz at the college level, the pro and international games is are a very different beast, as was illustrated by Porter's group failing to even qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, widely regarded as a national humiliation.  Time will tell if he can adapt to the MLS version of the game, but I remain skeptical, especially if he still has this package of personnel.  However, the club has shown willingness to spend some money, see: Kris Boyd.  If they can use their resources wisely, they can improve, but they have a long way to go to catch up with the top 5 or 6 in the Western Conference,  Plus, they have to be able to pick up more points on the road.