Football Season Guide

Portland Timbers

In


Dario Zuparic (def) Rijeka, Yimmi Chara (mid) Atletico Mineiro, Blake Bodily (mid) Homegrown, Jaroslaw Niezgoda (att) Legia Warsaw, Felipe Mora (att) Pumas UNAM

Out


Brian Fernandez (att), Zarek Valentin (def) Expansion Draft, Kendall McIntosh (gk), Modou Jadama (def), Foster Langsdorf (att), Claude Dielna (def)

After being hit by many injuries towards the end of the season the Timbers finally achieved to qualify to the playoffs but their journey ended soon as they were eliminated in the first round. In the offseason they added forwards Niezgoda from Poland and Mora from Mexico with the expectation to score a combined more than 20 goals this season and solve the scoring problem of the team. Coach Savarese stated that this season Portland will be a bit more aggressive and they will try to keep the ball more, dominating the possession. That was in any case how Savarese likes their team to play but till now he hadn't the roster to implement this style of playing and execute his vision. The only doubt about the Timbers this season is that their defensive line wasn't upgraded a lot and may seem vulnerable against the top teams of the league. With such defence though, the attacking line must score twice or three times per match something also difficult especially taking into account that last season Portland had also a 319-scoreless minutes run which was negative record for the franchise.

Target


Conference Semi Finals. The Timbers want partially to return to success and their coach Savarese to see his team playing with his preferred style. If he will find a way to fix the team defensively then playoffs could be ensured.