Seitz is a promising young keeper — 22 years old and a frequent member of the U-23 U.S. national team. Is he better than Steve Cronin? Possibly. The timing of this is fascinating. Cronin came here to be the No. 1. Presumably Seitz is being loaned to get some minutes. Unless there is an injury involved with Cronin or Brian Visser this could get interesting.

Didn’t the front office say something earlier this year about only having players loaned for the entire season?

UPDATE from the club:

The Portland Timbers today announced the club has acquired goalkeeper Chris Seitz on loan from Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake as the result of a minor injury to starter Steve Cronin Wednesday. On loan through Saturday, Seitz will be available for the Timbers’ home opener Thursday against Carolina at PGE Park.

Cronin sustained a mild ankle injury during training Wednesday as the Timbers prepared for their two matches against the Carolina RailHawks this week at PGE Park. Cronin will be re-evaluated Friday and could return to the field as early as Saturday for the Timbers’ second match against the RailHawks.

Full Press Release

Below the jump is a list of the new players and where they last played. A couple things stand out. First, the Timbers have gone far and wide to bring in new blood. I don’t know who is doing the scouting but under Gavin Wilkinson this club certainly has expanded its talent-seeking net. Second, the fact that MLS scrapped its reserve league is having an impact. I can’t recall a year in which so many MLS players have been signed by the Timbers. There’s only one college kid and no PDL players.

By the way, if you want to follow Saturday night’s exhibition against San Jose there is a match tracker.

MLS
Steve Cronin – LA Galaxy
George Josten – Columbus Crew
Stephen Keel – Colorado Rapids
Alex Nimo – Real Salt Lake
Ryan Pore – Kansas City Wizards
Keith Savage – Chivas USA

USL
David Hayes – Atlanta Silverbacks
Brian Farber – Minnesota Thunder
Jason McLaughlin – Atlanta Silverbacks
Tony McManus – Atlanta Silverbacks

Foreign Country
Johan Claesson Gefle IF (Sweden)
Antou Jallow – IK Sirius (Sweden)
Mandjou Keita – DPMM FC (Brunei)
Dieumerci Vua – Catania (Italy)

College
Josh Cameron (Oregon State)

Plus, I get the impression his fiancée is a celebrity.

Steve, welcome to the Rose City. We hope you’ll like it here. Timbers supporters are the best anywhere–USL-1 or MSL. We have pretty good beers. And you’ll never have to pump your own gas!

Timbers Offsiders, are you excited by this signing? Who would you like to see back him up?

Hayes has been a solid player in USL for a number of years. He’s spent the past four seasons with the Atlanta Silverbacks, earning all-league honors and the 2007 Defender of the Year award. Hayes is pretty freaking fantastic on set pieces and he has one of the stronger shots in the league. Playing in an Atlanta system that regularly threw caution to the wind and saw its attack come from all parts of the field, Hayes showed that he could not only be a shut down defender but that he could also score a goal or two (or actually 12 the past four seasons). He is an excellent pickup for a team that will need a replacement for the departed Leonard Griffin at left back. The only question is whether Gavin Wilkinson will allow Hayes to push forward and play an offensive role, or whether the defensive-minded coach will reign him in.

Suzuki’s return is a surprise to me, but not a shocker. He was the highest profile Timbers player in 2008 and brought a lot of attention to the club. He was great for getting butts in the seats and for attracting some sponsorship money. He wasn’t so great on the pitch, however. There’s no question that Taka has ability and skill that is higher than what you’ll find in most players at the USL-1 level. That talent and skill did not translate to productivity last season. The Mighty Man from Japan he was not. One goal in 1,760 minutes is not the output you’d want from a player at the upper end of the pay scale. Beyond his inability to score, the thing that troubled me the most was his inability to handle the physical nature of the league. An unscientific study shows that of those 1,760 minutes he played, approximately 1,400 were spent on the ground or at yelling at the referee after being on the ground. The optimists out there think that Suzuki will do better with a better cast of players around him. I hope this is the case, but I remain unconvinced. I think the club could get more in return by signing proven USL players like Hayes (and Kenji Treschuk) than it will get from re-signing a skillful player who doesn’t have a defined position and who hasn’t shown that he can do much playing in this league (or any other).

* Steve Cronin was paid $75,000 by the LA Galaxy last season. There is no way that he’ll make anything near that with Portland this season. It will be interesting to read the details when his signing is announced. Could it be a loan where the clubs split his salary or will it be structured some other way? Either way the Timbers will likely end up paying more for the keepers this season then they did last year when MLS clubs picked up the paychecks for two of the four keepers.

* A Byron Alvarez sighting in the NISL (La Raza). Apparently he brought Steve Reese south of the border to carry his bags or play keeper or whatever it is Steve Reese does to always show up on a roster somewhere (Wikipedia).

* Mike Randolph was waived by the Galaxy. Remember how good he looked in a Timbers’ kit during that dismal Agnello year? Let’s fit him with a 2009 version ASAP (Soccer Insider).

* Heard some rumors that a former USL-1 Defender of the Year may be headed this way.

* Lotsa juicy stuff from the recent Timbers Army/Timbers front office pow wow. I have to say that I am especially excited about having a PDL squad. Last year we had a PDL team but they unfortunately played in USL-1. (Soccer City USA).

* Merritt Paulson working the halls in Salem (Oregonlive)

That exhibition game against Tigres was a tryout after all and Byron Alvarez evidently passed the test. The Portland Timbers announced Tuesday that they have signed the club’s all-time leading goal scorer for the final 11 games of the 2008 season. The irony being that Alvarez is being brought in to help save the season and perhaps the job of Gavin Wilkinson, the former teammate turned coach who didn’t re-sign him in 2006.

Of course, this signing isn’t about saving a team that has won just twice in the past 16 games nor is it about bailing out a team that has scored just 15 goals in 19 games. No, it is about adding depth. Seriously. Just ask the boss.

“Byron is an experienced player and adds more depth to our squad as we make our playoff run” said Gavin Wilkinson, Timbers head coach and general manager. “He is a proven goal-scorer in this league and we expect him to continue to help produce results like he did in our exhibition match against Tigres.”

I’m sure newly acquired forward Jamil Walker, who asked to be traded from the Carolina Railhawks due to lack of playing time, is happy about this additional depth at his position.

Alvarez is a fan favorite and you know what you are going to get when he shows up to play. He’ll put in the effort, he’ll be whistled for even more fouls than Takayuki Suzuki, and he might even have some goals left in his well-traveled, 29-year-old body. He might even add a little bit of life to a locker room that has seemed especially lifeless of late.

I don’t expect him to save the season, however. That’s asking too much. This team has too many shortcomings in too many areas for one guy to fix. It just seems like this entire season has been about players being brought in to provide a fix. It’s all been reactionary instead of tactical.

Maybe Alvarez is the piece that has been missing. I sure would love that to be the case. But at this point I don’t even know who he should be paired with at forward. Suzuki? Olum? Another player brought in 20 games into the season?

Help a blogger out and tell me how this is going to all play out.

Photo: Soccer City USA

The Rhinos have acquired Portland midfielder Andrew Gregor today via a three-way trade involving the Timbers, Rochester and Carolina RailHawks.

Rochester gets: Gregor, who was Portland’s team captain and has been a first-team all-league pick the past two years. The 32-year-old had eight goals and five assists last year (24 matches) and five goals and five assists (23) in 2006 for Seattle. .

Portland gets: Rhinos backup goalie Chase Harrison and Carolina forward Jamil Walker, a Rochester native who played at McQuaid.

Carolina gets: Rhinos backup forward Hamed Diallo, who was Rochester’s top scorer last year but hadn’t scored this season and hadn’t started since early May.

A shocking move midway through the season? You betcha. Getting rid of a hometown boy who has been a stellar, all-league player in the league for years is a bold move. It is also the right one. On a team that has struggled to maintain possession and to score goals, a 32-year-old midfielder who gives the ball away too often, doesn’t play defense, has little speed and has not been able to find consistency on set pieces is extra baggage that comes at a premium (at least by USL-1 standards) cost. It also sends the right message to the rest of the team. If you don’t perform, you don’t play. It sends the right message to the fans. The Timbers aren’t satisfied with being mediocre.

The trade also targets two areas where the Timbers have questions: forward and keeper. Harrison came on last season when Scot Vallow was injured for Rochester and did a decent job in goal for the Rhinos. Walker has not put up prolific numbers for Carolina, just one goal and one assist this season, but is an experienced forward who has 70 MLS games under his belt.

A fair trade? I see this one as being an addition through subtraction. Let’s face it, Gregor’s best days are behind him. His trade value ain’t that great. Sending Gregor on his way allows the Timbers to play Chris Brown in central midfield with Takayuki Suzuki paired with Walker/Chris Bagley/Benjamin Totori up top. It also gives the Timbers some backup if Brad Knighton is recalled to New England. I can’t help but wonder why Rochester would want Gregor when they already have an aging central midfielder in Ze Roberto. The Rhinos are going to surpass the Timbers as the slowest team in the league. If Carolina can get Diallo back in form, they might have gotten the best of this deal. That guy was solid for Rochester last year and was once a member of Ivory Coast’s national team.

From his MLS combine report:

Big frame with a good presence in the goal. Can make big saves.His technique is solid and he has the ability to make it at the next level.

I have to trust Timbers keeper coach Jim Brazeau on this one. It seems like Knighton is a bit of a stretch, but Brazeau has a pretty good track record identifying USL-1 level keepers. If nothing else, this guy is buried far enough down on the Revs’ depth chart that he won’t be called back this season.

My quick take on this: This was a fairly obvious move to make, especially since Portland has an established working relationship with LA. The Timbers have missed Jordan’s speed this season and with Totori dinged up they need someone who can stretch defenses. They also need an extra body during the jam packed schedule over the next week and a half. Is this a long-term solution? Nope. As we have learned from the Ray Burse situation loans are a far from perfect setup. Jordan could be called back to the Galaxy at any time. And even though he is familiar with the team, I think it is unrealistic to expect him to fire on all cylinders after only a couple days of training in Portland. Fortunately Jordan is the type of player who can overcome a lot with his athleticism but his timing might be off. It will also be interesting to see him play on something other than last year’s crap turf. He was a player who benefited from that turf’s pace. He also was a player who was excellent at drawing penalties in the box, something we haven’t seen at all this season.

My bet is that he will start on Thursday. Players loaned to the Timbers midway through a season almost always do.

GK: James
Def: S. Thompson, Knowles, J. Thompson, Griffin
Mid: Gregor, Poltl, Higgins
For: Brown, Bagley, Suzuki

I suspect this will be more defensive than it appears. Like the game in Seattle, Portland will probably have Bagley up top with Brown and Suzuki playing more withdrawn.