PORTLAND, Ore. – A little less than a year ago, the Portland Timbers not only had to cope with their elimination from the MLS Cup Playoffs after a run to the Western Conference finals, but also the loss Rodney Wallace.
The winger, who had enjoyed a breakout season, tore his ACL in the second leg of their series with Real Salt Lake and didn’t return, in a full capacity, until nearly midway through this season.
Now, the Timbers are having to deal with the same scenario after star playmaker Diego Valeri suffered a torn ACL in their season finale Oct. 25, a 2-0 win over FC Dallas. Valeri, who turned in yet another stellar season in his second year in Portland with 11 goals and 14 assists – both single-season Timbers records – underwent surgery Monday in Portland and is expected to miss at least five months, the team announced Tuesday.
“It’s a big blow,” Timbers head coach Caleb Porter told media last week in his final press conference of the season. “I mean, it is. I’m not going to lie; it’s a big blow. I’d love to be going into the season and pretty much you could guess the starting lineup, for the most part, give or take one or two.”
Wallace’s absence early this season was cited by Porter as one reason for the team’s slow start, as the Timbers collected just five points from their first eight games. Porter said the “silver lining” in Valeri’s situation is the fact that it happened nearly a month earlier in the year than Wallace’s did, meaning he’ll return sooner.
“Again, the start of the season can’t be what it was this year,” Porter said. “So we need to make sure we hit the ground running and we continue with what we have and a big part of that is managing Valeri being out.”
To do that, Porter will have several options to deal with a Valeri-less start to 2015.
Oftentimes this year, fellow Argentine Gastón Fernández manned the attacking midfielder role, as has winger Darlington Nagbe at different points of his four-year career with the Timbers.
Another option, Porter said, would be acquiring another player.
“He was a big part of our success at the end of the year,” Porter said of Valeri. “He’s a big player. He’s our best player. So that is definitely something we’re going to have to sort out.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
