First they were down. And then they were up. And then they were down again. And then they were way, way up again. And then finally they went so far down that they ended up in hell, on the wrong side of a 5-0 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs thrashing that led to a locker room blow-up and a potential offseason overhaul.
It was a hell of a year for the Portland Timbers. Let’s dive in:
I’d like to offer a mea culpa to Portland head coach Phil Neville and my co-worker Bradley Wright-Phillips. Early on in the season, Neville called Evander “the best No. 10 in the league” – I’m granting him the courtesy of assuming the “besides Messi” part was left unsaid – and BWP said the Brazilian was “MVP quality.” And I scoffed. Almost everyone did.
They were both probably right. I don’t think any No. 10 in MLS was actually better than Evander, who put up 15g/19a this year. So check that box for Phil. And in most seasons, in which the MLS player pool was composed strictly of mortals, 15g/19a would be MVP quality. Inarguably. So check that box for Bradley.
Evander is, in short, the type of player you pay big for, then build around for a half-decade or more, putting up MVP-esque numbers and powering one of the league's most prolific attacks. He was the successor to Diego Valeri.
The problem is, Evander’s the one who blew his top after the Whitecaps thrashing, and did so both in the locker room and on social media where everyone could see it. This has come in the midst of some pretty public – and reportedly kind of contentious – contract negotiations.
And suddenly it’s become somewhat difficult for some at the club to imagine building around Evander for the next half-decade. Or even, I’d wager, for 2025.
In the immediate aftermath of the Wild Card loss at Providence Park, talk on social media was about the Timbers needing to invest more in their defense. The issue is they’ve already done that:
- Miguel Araujo, Dario Zuparic, Kamal Miller, Juan Mosquera and Claudio Bravo are TAM players.
- So was veteran d-mid Diego Chara, while fellow d-mid David Ayala occupied a U22 Initiative slot.
- Cristhian Paredes, who’s third on the d-mid depth chart, had a significant cap hit.
- Goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, signed as a free agent in the offseason, was close to a max cap hit.
This is not a front office that has skimped on the defensive side of the ball. I would argue that fit – it’s hard to play both Mosquera and Bravo in the same backline – was more of an issue, as was defense from the front (DP winger Jonathan Rodríguez put up excellent numbers in his first year, but doesn’t add much against the ball, while Evander’s defense came and went, and then whoever the right winger was had to constantly cover for Mosquera’s overlaps).
Most of all, the reason Portland gave up 56 goals in the regular season and five more in 90 brutal postseason minutes, was their structure. Let’s read that last sentence from the above blurb again:
“...winger Jonathan Rodríguez … doesn’t add much against the ball, while Evander’s defense came and went, and then whoever the right winger was had to constantly cover for Mosquera’s overlaps.”
Close your eyes and picture that for a minute. Where does that attacking group funnel opposing build-ups to? Where do they want to win the ball back? When are they hard to play through? How do they compensate for Mosquera camping out in the attacking third?
I don’t have answers to any of the above. The Timbers were a spread-out and vulnerable team any time they didn’t have the ball, and weren’t great at winning it back once they’d lost it. It’s a combo Vancouver beat them to death with.
- Evander (AM): They’ve got to figure out how to make nice with him. He’s too talented to let go of unless they get absolutely blown away by an offer.
- David Ayala (DM): Finally healthy, and finally looked like Chara’s heir apparent.
- Santiago Moreno (RW): One of the best chance-creation wingers in the league, and the only one in the attacking quartet whose defensive effort was consistent.
- Jonathan Rodríguez (LW): Can Neville get Rodríguez to buy in, both in terms of effort and positional discipline, next season?
- Kamal Miller (LB/LCB): Ended up shuffling in and out of the lineup at both spots. I don’t get it.
It all starts with the Evander decision. I don’t think you can do anything significant until/unless you figure out what the answer is there. Anything else would be putting the cart before the horse.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be thinking about the rest of it, and it’s clear that they are: Our guy Tommy Scoops has already reported they’re going to be using the 2 DP/4 U22 + $2 million GAM model for 2025, which makes sense given the current state of the roster.
And to put a fine point on it, the current state of the roster is “lots of fairly talented, fairly expensive players who don’t seem to work together as a coherent whole.”
When that’s the case, it usually portends major offseason changes. We’ll see if that’s what the winter has in store for this group.
