Five Concerns heading into the 2008 Season

By: Bob Kellett | April 13th, 2008

It is hard to deny that the Portland Timbers have had a very good offseason. The team has been able to retain most of the key pieces from the successful 2007 squad, while bringing in a World Cup goal scorer and a forward with significant MLS experience. The ownership has show that it is committed to winning. Ticket sales are up. Fan excitement is through the roof. And yet, I feel uneasy. It is part of my nature to worry. I worry about everything, including the state of my beloved Timbers. Here are five concerns I have ahead of the season opener on Thursday.

In no particular order:

1. Can Burse/James replace Wicks? – If you think back to this time last year you will recall that many people, myself included, were calling for Bayard Elfvin to start ahead of Josh Wicks. That didn’t turn out to be the case and as you know Wicks went on to have a record breaking year that led to a contract with the LA Galaxy. His absence is huge. Ray Burse is said to have talent but up to this point in his career he hasn’t proven it on a consistent basis. Jordan James has succeeded at a lower level but he was largely brought in here to back up Wicks. With Burse on loan from FC Dallas, we are likely to see both guys in goal at various points during the season. This has me nervous

2. Where are those 15 points going to come from? – The Timbers played the California Victory five times last season and came away with five victories. In the other 23 games, the Timbers had nine wins. The seasons where the Timbers have had the most success have been when they have beaten up on one team – think Calgary and Edmonton. The bottom teams are better this year and with a balanced schedule Portland won’t have the advantage of playing the worst team more times than everyone else.

3. Can the team overachieve again? – Gavin Wilkinson was named coach of the year last year and he should have been. He took a team that wasn’t the most talented in the league and had them fight and scrap their way to a second place finish. The team has added some skillful players in Takayuki Suzuki and Chris Brown, but it is still a side that is going to have to outwork its opponents. At what point does this stop happening? At what point do the coaches words start to fall on deaf ears?

4. Will we win on the new turf? – The Timbers went undefeated at PGE Park at 2007. You can chalk that up to playing in front of a rabid supporters group and to a coach that focused his team on getting points at home, but it is also hard to deny that the crap turf didn’t have something to do with it. The Timbers players had the advantage of knowing the odd bounces and of being used to the pace of the plastic. Sure it took a toll on their bodies and there are many advantages to having a new surface, but for those 90 minutes a night at PGE Park they had an advantage because of concrete. They won’t in 2008.

5. Will we get enough goals up front? – I though the same thing last year and it turned out that the goal scoring game from a variety of positions. That might be the case again this season, but I am still concerned about whether Suzuki and Brown will put the ball in the net enough times. Both have a ton of skill and will set up their teammates, but neither is a flat out goal scorer. Will that come back to haunt us?