The Late Tackle 01 11 2017: A New Timber? Plus, a Tailored Combine/Superdraft Update

I can see San Jose from here...parts of Houston.

In news of the impossible, Patrice Bernier just picked up one more year with L’Impact Montreal.

Elsewhere, MLSSoccer.com’s The Kick Off topped the report of FC Dallas’ Ryan Hollingshead getting hit by a car with a playful “Ouch!”, and, surprisingly, FIFA took the “money-whore” option to expand the 2026 World Cup to include 48 teams.

Hmm…maybe MLS is changing world soccer…in bigger news…

Timbers Target A Winger

According to “sources,” the Portland Timbers have formally offered to take Sebastian Blanco off Argentinian club San Lorenzo’s hands. See usual disclosures (e.g., I don’t follow the Argentine league, therefore know nothing meaningful about this guy; I did, however, see Back Office Gavin ask another guy if he’s good for MLS, and the other guy said yes), but one phrase and some numbers in the article stand out:

“A creative midfielder capable of playing centrally or out wide, he has three goals and five assists in 11 appearances in the current Argentine Primera campaign and nine goals and eight assists in 78 appearances in all competitions in his two years with the club.”

The numbers lack a certain “pop,” so here’s to hoping that Blanco will get a little bump courtesy of the competitive quality between Argentina and MLS (does such a thing exist? Looked like it last time I watched Argentina regularly). I’m less hung up on that than caught between considering/ruing the possibilities of Blanco sharing the “3-bank” in a 4-2-3-1 with Darlington Nagbe, and Diego Valeri. The only real concern there comes with fitting all these guys’ approaches into something coherent; I mean, I see the interrupted phrase “capable of playing…out wide,” but, with Portland needing width badly as it does, that’s sort of a big deal. To reframe that, does Blanco prefer playing out wide, or is there a winger-to-be-named-later floating around out there?

Reserving judgment. For now, I’m happy to see a little (more) ambition, and will hope the whole thing ends in a "nice problem to have" scenario.

And what about new defenders, guys?

The Late Tackle 01 05 2017: On Roster Rebuilds, Youth, and The Bruce's Penultimate January Camp

Another day, another post, some trades, some U.S. Men’s National Team crap…

Leoardo, Roy. Roy, Leanardo

Whenever I felt bad about the Portland Timbers’ chances last year, I could look south, then a little east…no, more, where I’d see the Houston Dynamo. In those dark minutes (don’t like to dwell), I could tell myself, “hey, it could be worse, I could be a Dynamo fan.” These flashes of superiority lasted right up to the moment when Portland tripped over the same red, velvet rope as Houston, the one that keeps teams out of the playoffs.

Having heard whispers of a “total rebuild” down in Dynamo-land, seeing them add Leonardo from the Los Angeles Galaxy reads like going cheap on parts. So, in the context of “total rebuild,” I dug a little deeper, spotting two more names in the report on Leonardo, Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto. They’re both young, Honduran attackers, not exactly the hottest names in the transfer market, plus, how many young players come to MLS only to flame out? In search of where the there is here, I finally dragged my lazy ass over to the Dynamo’s current roster, where I found still more names: Adolfo Machado, Juan David Cabezas, even Eric Alexander, who might not be the best player MLS has ever seen, but he’s smart, reliable depth, and a gamer with the right people around him.

Even if you think Portland’s in a slightly shinier boat than Houston heading into 2017, the Dynamo appears well ahead and seeing, and addressing, the need for repairs. If this were just a case of weighing Leonardo as a pickup versus Portland’s latest, Roy Miller, it’d be one thing. Sure, every one of the Dynamo’s reinforcements might go bust, but I wouldn’t count on it. So, yeah, pick it up, Portland.