—by Chris Rifer
It’s quiet. Too quiet.
After a frantic few days in the wake of the Expansion Draft the MLS has settled into the doldrums of the offseason. With the SuperDraft a month away and training camp another two weeks beyond that, the MLS offseason has entered the longest stretch of winter without a major event on the horizon. Stadium renovation webcam, oh how I miss you.
Across the league a few moves have been made, notably Omar Bravo and Erik Friberg setting sail for foreign shores. For the most part, however, we’ve settled into the offseason where the bulk of the rumors are highly speculative reports based on unnamed sources quoted in obscure foreign newspapers. Oh yeah, and Paris Saint-Germain is about to sign David Beckham to an 18-month $18.7 million deal.[1] Goodness gracious.
Portland’s imminent signing of Trencito Valencia seems to be temporarily on hold as his Independiente Santa Fe club has reached the semifinals of the Colombian playoffs, seeking their first title since 1975. After a 1-1 draw away at Once Caldas in the first leg, a Santa Fe win at home on Wednesday will likely set up a championship derby against fellow Bogota-based club Millonarios. Young Trencito seems to be a regular substitute for Santa Fe, although he didn’t feature in Sunday’s opening semifinal leg – likely because Santa Fe were trying to hold onto the draw after defender Hugo Acosta was sent off in the 76th minute.[2] I’m sure this is all fascinating stuff to you.
Diego Chara: The Rodney Dangerfield of MLS
This morning Soccer America came out with an apparently hastily assembled list of the best central midfielders in the league.[3] The good news: Jack Jewsbury is #1! The bad news: Diego Chara isn’t even on the list. Now, for those of us who rate Diego higher than we rate Jack, that’s a bit confounding. No offense to Captain Jack, who was my vote for Supporters’ Player of the Year,[4] but both the Captain’s vaunted position and Diego’s omission are serious head scratchers.[5]
This confirms a troubling trend I have noticed with Diego; he don’t get no respect! In response to questions when Diego was signed about his lack of score sheet production in Colombia, Gavin Wilkinson retorted that people had no idea the impact he had on the field that didn’t show up in the postgame report. Touché, Gavin.
He’s one of the most box-to-box midfielders I’ve seen at the MLS level; equally comfortable sidling up to stop opposing attackers as he is making aggressive central runs forward. It seemed the Timbers greatest success late in the season came when Diego made his presence felt the most. Early on, when Diego struggled on the road, the Timbers struggled on the road.[6] As he became more comfortable away from home, so did the Timbers, and the results started to come.
And yet, his impact seems to have gone largely unnoticed outside the Rose City. I expect an even better outing from Diego next year as he gets more comfortable with the Timbers and with the league. Hopefully by the end of the campaign he will be listed where he belongs – next to guys like Ozzie Alonso and Kyle Beckerman as an elite center midfielder.
Timbers Notes
The third kits were unveiled on Tuesday the 6th to widespread critical acclaim. Featuring a retro look inspired by a number of the NASL kits, the Timbers unveiled their alternate white kits at a ceremony featuring NASL Timber Mick Hoban along with current Timbers Darlington Nagbe and a tragically baby-faced David Horst. The reaction across the league was overwhelmingly positive, with the only seriously negative reaction coming from a heretofore unknown to me subgroup of supporters who have a very strong[7] hatred of all white kits.
Rod Wallace has been called up to the Costa Rican national team once again, starting in the Ticos’ draw with Cuba on Sunday. Wallace will likely stay with Costa Rica through their December 22nd fixture against Venezuela. The Timbers left back position is one of the most interesting for me this offseason. Word leaked out last week that the Timbers were looking at a left back trialist, suggesting to me that Jonathan Bornstein is not likely to be coming back to the States in the immediate future. It will be interesting to see if the Timbers can find a new left back that will fill the spot next year, or if they will again rely on either Rod or Chewy to anchor the flank. Based on late-season lineups, it seems like Spencer favors Rodney just a little bit more right now, but absent a new signee, I imagine the position will be open for competition in camp.
Finally, congratulations to Matt and Harper on their election to the 107ist Board, and also to Nando and Scott on their reelection! After reading through the forum threads and watching the recording of the Candidate Forum, I came away thoroughly impressed with everybody who had stepped up to run. Thank you to all the candidates, and good luck to our new Board members.
Onward, Rose City!
[1] And yet some appear shocked when you tell them European soccer faces serious financial challenges. Absolutely incredible.
[2] This is what I’m reduced to this time of year – writing about the Colombian club matches of a guy we think the Timbers are going to sign.
[3] It’s worth pointing out, in honesty, that David Beckham is not on any of Soccer America’s four top-10 midfielder lists. Beckham isn’t the best player in MLS, but he is definitely one of the top 40 midfielders. In fact, if I’m being truly honest, he is probably still top 10. Otherwise Paris Saint-Germain is about to make a colossal blunder. So the point is, take SA’s lists with a grain – no, perhaps better yet a boulder – of salt.
[4] Can we all agree to refer to this exclusively by its acronym, SPOTY? It’s rare you come across an acronym of that quality. For the record, I do think Jack deserves to be on the list, but #1 is probably a bit much. Also, while I think Diego is on the whole a better player than Jack, Jack’s efforts in keeping the Timbers afloat early going of the season were, to me, the single greatest contribution to the club this year. That’s why he gets my SPOTY (see, it rolls off the tongue) vote even if I think Diego is the better player.
[5] Two footnotes in one sentence! It’s clear SA relied heavily on players’ box score contributions in making this list. Jack, with 7 goals and 8 assists, shows fabulously on the score sheet – largely because of his set piece prowess. The problem with that is central midfielders’ contributions to the game are rarely quantified in the score sheet.
[6] In hindsight this has been the least talked about reason for the Timbers’ late-season improvement on the road. Early on Diego was little short of awful away from Jeld-Wen, probably because he was adjusting to the demands of MLS travel.
[7] Some may say irrationally strong.
