BEAVERTON, Ore. – A big aspect of the Portland Timbers current run of form has been their utilization of depth – especially in the attack.
The mixing and matching of previous reserves such as Gaston Fernandez and Maximiliano Urruti, coupled with the returns of midfielders Diego Valeri and Will Johnson, have led to results that speak for themselves: six wins in their last seven league matches.
The backline has undergone some, more subtle, changes as well.
For the first 12 games of the season, the defense was a constant of center backs Liam Ridgewell and Nat Borchers, right back Alvas Powell and left back Jorge Villafana. But starting with the Timbers’ May 27 match against D.C. United, the 1-0 win that ended a two-game losing streak and started their current run, head coach Caleb Porter brought center back Norberto Paparatto into the mix.
Since then, Paparatto has started five matches across all competitions, and all five have been Portland wins. Heading into their Saturday road match against the Philadelphia Union, the backline is in line for more changes as second-year pro Taylor Peay will start for Powell, who’s away at the Gold Cup with the Jamaican national team, Porter said this week.
“We work together day in and day out, so the gaffer changes everybody and puts everybody together and we learn different traits of everybody,” Ridgewell said. “Obviously in a perfect world, it’d be great to keep the same back four if you keep winning and keep getting clean sheets, that’d be great, but it’s football and sometimes that doesn’t happen, so you have to rotate the squad. And we’re coping with it and as long as we keep coping with it and talking we’ll be fine.”
Paparatto’s inclusion in the rotation perhaps started out of necessity as the Timbers navigated a busy stretch of the schedule. But the Argentine, who made 13 appearances last year after his offseason acquisition, has forced himself into the conversation since with his quality play, Porter said. In his four starts, the Timbers have allowed just two goals.
“Really pleased, really happy for him,” Porter said of Paparatto. “I like every player on this team, all of them the same, so it’s great to see guys like him who step in when they haven’t been playing and do well because he feels good and he looks good, and now I’ve got players that I trust.”
Porter said he’s especially pleased considering the 31-year-old veteran of the Argentine and Mexican top flight didn’t see the field for the first three months of the season after an up-and-down first year in the league. For Paparatto, he said it was just a matter of being ready to take advantage of the situation.
“On a personal level, I think it cost me a little more to adapt to this league,” Paparatto said through a translator. “There are a lot of talented players, particularly on the offensive end of things here in MLS, so as a defender I think it took me a little bit to adapt. But this year I feel I’ve adapted well. I think I’m not committing the same mistakes that I may have last year, and I think as a whole the team has a really good understanding and really good chemistry this year.”
That chemistry will be put to the test once again as Peay makes his first MLS start. Peay has seen just four minutes of first-team action, late in Portland’s 2-0 win over the Houston Dynamo on June 20, after spending most of his time with the team’s USL affiliate, Timbers 2.
He also started and played the full 90 in the Timbers’ 2-0 US Open Cup loss to Real Salt Lake on July 1.
“I like when I get the chance to play young players, but I only play young players when they’re ready,” Porter said. “He’s had to earn it. Like I said, he hasn’t just been given this by default. I don’t go into games and just throw young players in just to show that I play young players; they have to earn it here.”
Porter said it would have been “easy” to slot in veteran Jack Jewsbury, who played right back almost all of 2013 and part of 2014 before Powell took over as the starter.
“But that would be a bit short-sighted,” Porter said.
Porter said Jewsbury is “comfortable” in the midfield rotation, his more natural position, and that Peay, a more athletic player who can get forward, fits Porter’s right-back mold better.
“This is his time to step up,” Porter said of Peay. “He’s a young player, and he’s had a couple of years here to get his feet wet, and now he’ll have the opportunity to step in and show that he can get the job done in a first-team league game.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
