BEAVERTON, Ore. – For Portland Timbers head coach Caleb Porter, this year's week-long Simple Invitational, which kicks off on Sunday for Portland against the NASL's Minnesota United FC (5pm PT, TICKETS) and includes games against MLS sides Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Chicago Fire, will provide the final testing ground ahead of the opening game of 2016 MLS regular season against Columbus Crew SC on March 6.
“I want to see a performance that looks closer and closer to what we'll need to win the game on March 6,” Porter told the media at the adidas Timbers Training Center on Friday. “This is the next step. Physically, we'll be playing guys more minutes.”
“I want to see good defending, team defending,” Porter added. “I want to see good attacking, team attacking. I want to see chances created. I want to see goals scored. I want to see a clean sheet. I want to see a win...That's it.”
While Porter believes that his first choice line-up is largely set for the opener against Columbus, fullback Chris Klute's recovery from injury means that the battle for the starting left back position is still wide open.
Porter said that he will experiment with several different players in the spot throughout the Simple Invitational. Specifically, Porter mentioned that there are four players he might start, including defenders Liam Ridgewell, Jermaine Taylor, Andy Thoma and Zarek Valentin.
Though Ridgewell has played center back through most of his time with the Timbers, he played left back extensively in the English Premier League and Championship prior to coming to Portland.
Taylor, too, has shown versatility along the back line throughout his professional career, having started at left back both for the Jamaican National Team and for the Houston Dynamo.
Ridgewell, who re-joined the team Friday after an offseason loan with English Championship side Brighton & Hove Albion, says that he's ready to play wherever the coach wants to play him, even if that means a temporary switch to his old position at left back.
“Sometimes injuries occur and you've got to try and do something different,” he said. “Hopefully I can play at center half and play there for most of the season, but if the need's massive then obviously I can go to left back.”
Even as coach Porter explores his options along the back four, he sounds especially bullish about his attacking options this season.
“Because we're effective on the right, left, and center channel, it opens up everybody,” Porter said. “You maybe solve one thing, but we open you up another way. That's kind of the philosophy behind our attack...we're going to try to work you wide. If you solve that, then we'll work you up the middle. If you solve that, then we'll throw a back wide and get you there.
“We get all those dimensions working then we're a real tough team to stop and at the end of the year that's what we had going.”
Whatever happens in the Simple Invitational, though, Porter is convinced that his team is not only ready for its opening game but up to the challenge of a strong season.
“We kept the core,” he said. “We lost some guys, but really I think the signs I'm seeing are that we can even be a notch better this year in terms of our overall attacking play.”
