Midseason Report Card: The Forwards

By: Bob Kellett | June 15th, 2008

With the Timbers nearly halfway through their 2008 USL First Division campaign and with the team enjoying a two-week break between games, what better way to pass the time than to hand out some grades? Today’s recipients are the forwards.

Chris Brown
A Portland native, Chris Brown returned to his hometown with the mandate to score goals, something the forwards struggled to do last season. He is well on his way to achieving that mandate. Brown has four regular season goals, as well as a goal in the US Open Cup and the exhibition game against Juventus Primavera to his credit. He is fourth in the league in goals scored and he leads the league with 36 shots. A physical, often bruising player, Brown has brought veteran leadership to the Timbers. My only criticism of him is that he sometimes disappears for long stretches during games. One thing to keep an eye on in the second half of the season is his stamina. This is an aging player who has suffered his share of injuries over the years. Will he be able to survive the heavy load of minutes the Timbers need from him?

Grade: A-

Takayuki Suzuki
When he was announced back in March, Takayuki Suzuki was called the biggest signing in club history. Has he played like the biggest signing in club history? Not to this point. A player with excellent skills and a distinguished resume, Suzuki has scored one goal in 1,067 minutes on the pitch. During that time he has taken exactly 12 shots. That pencils out to one shot every 89 minutes. That is remarkable even for a player who has a reputation for being a defensive-minded forward. In addition to not adding much punch up top, Suzuki has gone extended periods where he has been ineffective with the ball at his feet and it is clear that he doesn’t react well to the physical style of play in this league. I can’t help but think he is a skilled player playing in the wrong system and in the wrong league. To his credit, he is a hard working player who often leaves it all on the pitch. The biggest signing ever? He still has 16 games to live up to the hype.

Grade: C

Chris Bagley
One reason that Brown and Suzuki were brought in during the offseason was to bolster an attack that didn’t get much production from its forwards in 2007. Chris Bagley was part of that production problem. A hard working target forward without much in the way of foot speed, Bagley’s game is about where it was last season. He has a hard time creating scoring opportunities on his own. He doesn’t have a speedy player like Bryan Jordan to play off of. He is the type of player that is hard to dislike because of his effort, but with just two goals in 1,935 minutes over the past two seasons, it might be time to ask whether or not he has what it takes to cut it at the USL-1 level.

Grade: B-

Benjamin Totori
It is unfair to expect a young player from halfway around the world whose highest level of competition has been the New Zealand domestic league to come in and have an immediate impact. Unfortunately for Benjamin Totori, he is exactly the type of player this Timbers squad needs to do just that. In the 64 minutes he played before spraining his knee, Totori showed tremendous bursts of speed, something that has been painfully lacking this season. Whether those bursts of speed will translate to goals once he returns to fitness remains to be seen, but Totori certainly will have an opportunity to make an impact.

Grade: Incomplete

Overall
The weakest part of the 2007 Timbers has only been marginally better in 2008. The forwards have combined for six goals and two assists — underwhelming numbers for a club that dished out some dough to bring in Brown and Suzuki. The blame doesn’t squarely rest on the forwards, of course. It is hard to score goals when the service isn’t there and when there isn’t support from the midfield. It is also asking a lot for aging, slow players to succeed in a system that all too often boils down to a game of kick and chase. Totori is still a wild card. As we saw during the two games when Bryan Jordan was on loan, a speedy player will hide some of the flaws we’ve seen in Brown, Suzuki and Bagley. The fact that Bryan Jordan might be brought back on another loan is an indication that the offseason moves have not worked out as planned, at least not to this point.

Overall grade: B-

Your grades for the forwards?