BEAVERTON, Ore. – The book on Alvas Powell has been simple: extremely athletic, great going forward, needs to improve his defensive awareness.
Well, the Portland Timbers' young right back may have already figured out that last part. And that has the Timbers – and the Jamaican national team, for that matter – very excited.
It’s due to the fact that a Powell who can play defense, in addition to all the other eye-popping aspects of his game, is a player approaching elite status. In the Timbers’ 2-1 win Saturday over the Montreal Impact, Powell became the first MLS player since 2010 to record at least nine tackles, eight interceptions and seven recoveries in a single game.
He leads the league with 59 tackles, 12 more than anyone else, and is third with 41 interceptions, trailing veterans Jermaine Taylor and Jamison Olave. The tackles tell the story of an athletic kid who can defend in emergency situations; the interceptions tell the story of a kid who's gettting better at reading those situations before they become dangerous in the first place.
Not bad for a 20-year-old who, early last season, was unsure of his place with the team after being loaned out to USL affiliate Sacramento Republic.
“It’s amazing, his evolution as a player,” Timbers head coach Caleb Porter said after Tuesday’s training session at the team facility as they prepare for Saturday’s road matchup with the Houston Dynamo (8:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE). “As I talked about in the past, the biggest thing he needed to learn was that balance between attacking and defending and when he is defending being able to individually stop guys one-v-one, but also collectively figure out how you manage movement of a player and when you leave the line, when you stay in the line, when you step, when you drop.
“There’s a lot of little things that happen in a back four that take time to learn, and he just looks really, really comfortable right now defensively.”
Powell’s emergence as a key piece for Portland, after grabbing ahold of his place in the starting XI late last summer, has coincided with the Timbers’ evolution into a top defensive unit. In the 18 games in which Powell has started since returning to the lineup Aug. 30 of last season, Portland have allowed just 17 goals.
This season, Portland are tied for fourth for the league’s best goals against average at 0.90 goals per game.
“I think he’s been actually amazing, and I don’t just say that because he’s my teammate – I’ve played with a lot of outside backs and a lot of very good ones – and he’s been very good defensively,” Timbers center back Nat Borchers said. “He’s learning the game still obviously, but I think this year you’re already seeing his growth and his ability to take his attributes physically and also the smarts he’s been able to acquire just by playing games, and I think he’s been great for us.”
Of course, Powell can’t take all the credit for the Timbers’ defensive improvement, but he’s clearly an important part of the back four that includes Designated Player center back Liam Ridgewell, Borchers and left back Jorge Villafana.
“I think each game I’m getting better and better, so I’m just working on that because going forward I have that already, so I just need to get my defensive side more confident,” Powell said. “And I’m just going to keep working on that.”
Powell is also hitting his stride at a very opportune time.
He was just named to Jamaica's 30-man preliminary roster for the 2015 Copa América that will take place June 11-July 4 in Chile and will presumably play a big role in the Reggae Boyz' Gold Cup squad later this summer.
Displaying his now complete game on such a big stage could make Powell quite the hot commodity.
“It’s always a joy and a big moment to play for my country, and at a young age I think I play a big role in my national team because I’m young and I’m fast and I’m smart, and I think they're trying to build the Jamaica team with a lot of young players,” Powell said. “And I think I’m in the team so we can start getting better and better each game.”
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He said he’s still weighing how to divide his time between his international duties and with the Timbers, saying it will be tough to leave his club for such an extended period of time this summer.
“Eventually, I have to come to a decision on whether I’m going to stay or whether I’m going to go,” Powell said. “But I’m not going to turn my back on my country, and I’m not going to turn my back on my club. So it’s a tough decision to make.”
The fact that Powell is even in the situation is a good problem for the Timbers to have.
“He’s shutting guys down one-v-one,” Porter said. “He’s gone against some very good attacking players already in the first 10 games, and the way that he’s kind of playing in the back four, connected with the others – you know he’s athletic, you know he can run with guys – but for me the biggest maturity I’ve seen from him is his understanding tactically.”
