Ahead of the 2015 SuperDraft, MLSsoccer.com is breaking down each team's needs and potential draft targets. The Portland Timbers have already made some moves, but with the No. 5 pick have a chance to add a contributor.
When he was a college at Akron, Caleb Porter helped develop some of the best talent in the US program -- guys like DeAndre Yedlin, Wil Trapp and (hopefully someday soon) Darlington Nagbe. It was assumed that, once he got to Portland, Porter would bring some of that college knowhow to MLS and do an Arena- or Kinnear-esque job of raiding the draft.
It hasn't really worked out that way. Nagbe's continued to develop, but he's one of just two guys with college experience I'd expect to see in the Timbers starting lineup on opening day (Nat Borchers is the other), and the 18-man gameday roster could have as few as four.
This is my way of saying that nobody should expect whoever it is that comes off the board at No. 5 to be a bigtime contributor in 2015 -- not in MLS, anyway. The T2 USL Pro squad will be a repository of young talent, and once the rough edges have been smoothed down enough, then they'll get the call to the big leagues.
Timbers SuperDraft selections: #5 (1st round), #24, 32 & 34 (2nd round), #52 (3rd round)
Timbers Depth Chart: 25 players
Goalkeeper (3): Adam Larsen Kwarasey, Andrew Weber, Jake Gleeson
Left Back (2): Jeanderson, Jorge Villafana
Center Back (3): Liam Ridgewell, Nat Borchers, Norberto Paparatto
Right Back (3): Alvas Powell, Jack Jewsbury, Taylor Peay
Defensive Midfield (2): Ben Zemanski, George Fochive
Center Midfield (2): Diego Chara, Will Johnson
Attacking Midfield (3): Diego Valeri, Gaston Fernandez, Michael Nanchoff
Left Wing (2): Dairon Asprilla, Rodney Wallace
Right Wing (2): Darlington Nagbe, Schillo Tshuma
Forward (2): Fanendo Adi, Maximiliano Urruti
Primary Need: Center midfield
Zemanski runs around a lot, but he's a destroyer at heart and his first instinct is always to protect the back line. That's the reason Portland were better defensively once he stepped in for the injured Will Johnson late in the season, even though Johnson is -- by almost every measure -- a superior player. Sometimes the balance a team creates is more important than individual talent.
Johnson is likely to start the season on the shelf as he continues recovering from that broken leg, likely leaving Zemanski & Chara -- a box-to-box player like Johnson -- as the starting pair. Getting another No. 8 in the mix would not be a bad idea for a team that needs to win the midfield to make the system work.
Targets:Nick Besler (Notre Dame), Fatai Alashe (Michigan State), Dan Metzger (Maryland), Eric Bird (Virginia)
Secondary Need: Center back
Borchers, Ridgewell and Paparatto are all over 30, all playing on turf for a team that expects to win every competition they enter. Even if they sign another veteran, it would be good to come out of this draft with at least one talented, 20-something central defender to groom for a starting spot down the road.
Targets:Conor Donovan (NC State/GA), Axel Sjoberg (Marquette), Tim Parker (St. John's), Oumar Ballo (UMBC), Anthony Manning (St. Louis), Ramon Martin del Campo (UC-Davis), Aaron Simmons (UCLA)
SUPERDRAFT TEAM PREVIEWS
- Columbus Crew:Step by step, second time around for CCSC
- Colorado Rapids:Can Mile High Club find a contributor late?
- DC United: One more piece for one more step
- Houston Dynamo:One decade later, a new era begins
- LA Galaxy:Recalibrating a championship machine
- Montreal Impact:Building out after a promising stretch run
- New England Revolution:Suddenly great, but plenty of need
- New York City FC:Feeling kind of blue east of the Hudson
- New York Red Bulls:Another new era in Jersey
- Real Salt Lake: Not quite a rebuild in the high desert
- San Jose Earthquakes: Recapturing that Goonie magic
- Toronto FC: Trying to solve the eternal problem in Ontario
- Vancouver Whitecaps:A full roster for Cascadia kings
- New England Revolution:Suddenly great but plenty of need
- Phildelphia Union: Building around the core
- Seattle Sounders:Nothing glaring for Shield, USOC winners
- Sporting KC:Filling it all out after a mini-rebuild
- Chicago Fire:Endless questions in the Windy City
- Portland Timbers:Draft & stash with T2 up and running
- Orlando City:Is there a trade for No. 1 in the works?
