Draft With Us

Portland Timbers

Welcome to the Portland Timbers team page. Here you will find out about everything going on about the Portland Timbers.

Portland Timbers 2016 Season Preview

Posted By: Chris Ransom on 2/23/2016

Fanendo Adi led Portland with 16 goals in 2015. Five of those goals were game-winning goals and 3 were scored in penalty kicks. Lucas Milano and Gaston Fernandez return at forward. Portland also added Syracuse forward Ben Polk with their first round pick in the 2016 MLS Draft and Robert Morris forward Nico Brett with one of their second round pick.

The Portland Timbers have one of the best offenses in the entire MLS. Their offense is led by Diego Valeri who led the Timbers with 11 goals and 14 assists. Valeri may be the best midfielder in the entire MLS now that Landon Donovan retired.

Diego Valeri is a striker and a playmaker at midfielder. Valeri had 11 goals and 14 assists in 2014. Valeri only had 8 assists in 2015, but he led the Timbers in assists. Portland has solid play at the wing. Steve Zakuni, Maximiliano Urruti, and Will Johnson are all gone at left wing. Midfielder Rodney Wallace is also gone. Maybe Ned Grabavoy the Free Agent, the Timbers got from New York City F.C. will play left wing Darlington Ngabe will remain at right wing. Defensive midfielder Diego Chara is back as well.

Chris Klute can be an effective left back when healthy. He only played 6 games for Columbus Crew S.C. last year. Zarek Valentine will replace Jeanderson at right back.

Portland is loaded at center back once again. Nat Borchers and Liam Ridgewell start at center back. Jack Jewsberry and Jermaine Taylor are excellent backup center backs for depth.

Nick Besler and Andy Thoma will serve as a backup defensive midfielder and backup left back once again in year two. Anthony Manning and 2016 draft pick Trevor Morley will compete for the backup right back job, but one could be a third string center back.

Adam Kwarasey had 80 saves in 2015. 2016 third round draft pick Wade Hamilton will serve as his backup.

Prediction: The Portland Timbers have a lot of starters back. Chris Klute and Zarek Valentine have to start every game at fullback. There is enough offensive depth for Portland to repeat, but I'm gonna say the Timbers don't repeat. They may get the 1 seed and home field, but someone will beat them. I think that the two best teams to do this are Vancouver and Sporting Kansas City as those three teams are all complete at every starting position.

Sporting Kansas City had injuries at center back, but when healthy they are capable of defeating Portland, and to make matters worse they went to a 14 round penalty kick shootout even without those star players on defense, so the Timbers didn't see Sporting Kansas City's best plus they now have Brad Evans from the Houston Dynamo.

After those two teams you have to look at the obvious teams. F.C. Dallas, the Los Angeles Galaxy, and the Seattle Sounders. I'm not sold on F.C. Dallas at striker, the Galaxy never found a midfielder to replace Landon Donovan, and Seattle parted ways with Chad Barrett and traded Marco Pappa. The Sounders also ignored defense after losing those two.

I'm gonna say Portland gets back to the Western Conference Finals and loses to Vancouver as both MLS teams entered the league in 2011. Columbus Crew S.C. goes back to the 2016 MLS Cup to face the Vancouver Whitecaps. These teams met twice in 2015 with a 2-2 tie, Vancouver winning 1-0 and the third game getting postponed due to excessive rain that day. Vancouver and Columbus are pretty evenly matched, so I'll take Vancouver over Columbus, but Portland will be the team that Vancouver will have to get through otherwise we could get New York Red Bulls VS Porltand, because I don't see a rematch between Columbus and Portland, rematches are bad for ratings unless its a classic like the New England Revolution and the Los Angeles Galaxy.

This was by far and away the toughest team to evaluate so far. Because they were on the bubble of a playoff appearance last year with no defensive identity. Now they have that, so they could get the five seed. We will either see Caleb Porter coach this squad to the playoffs, or the Timbers head coach may finally get axed.

I will say Portland is on the outside looking in. Why do I get the feeling that Caleb Porter gets axed.

Eastern Conference


Chicago Fire	Columbus Crew S.C.	D.C. United	Montreal Impact	New England Revolution	New York City F.C.	New York Red Bulls	Orlando City S.C.	Philadelphia Union	Toronto F.C.

Western Conference


Colorado Rapids	F.C. Dallas	Houston Dynamo	Los Angeles Galaxy	Portland Timbers	Real Salt Lake	San Jose Earthquakes	Seattle Sounders	Sporting Kansas City	Vancouver Whitecaps