Timbers Add an Offensive Defender and a Defensive Forward

By: Bob Kellett | February 27th, 2009

On Thursday we learned that a pair of 32-year-old players will be on the 2009 Portland Timbers roster. The club officially announced the signing of defender David Hayes and owner Merritt Paulson mentioned on a radio program that Takayuki Suzuki will be returning for a second season in green and white. Even with my head buried in the sand I couldn’t escape the irony. The Timbers have landed an offensive defender and a defensive forward.

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).