Timbers arrive ahead of three-year plan

3-0-0 Portland kicks off Wilkinson’s second season with a bang

By steve brandon

The Portland Tribune, Apr 29, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

L.E. BASKOW / TRIBUNE PHOTO

Veteran forward Takayuki Suzuki had a goal and an assist for the Timbers against Seattle on Saturday.

A couple of months ago, General Manager and coach Gavin Wilkinson laid out his plan for making the Portland Timbers even more of a force.

“It’s a three-year cycle,” said Wilkinson, who took over the helm before last season. “The first year, we wanted to make sure we were capable of defending and absorbing a lot of pressure; to do well in this league, you’ve got to concede very few goals.

“The second stage is to find more attacking players.

“Then, in the third year, you start to put the icing on the cake.”

Year 2 is only three games old, but if anything, Wilkinson’s team seems ahead of cycle.

Last year, according to plan, the defense led the way. Portland allowed a league-low 18 goals in 28 regular-season games.

On Saturday, showing their more potent attack, the Timbers sent defending league champion Seattle home a 2-0 loser.

The Timbers climbed to 3-0-0. Seattle, which has been favored to repeat, fell to 0-1-1.

The Sounders may have thrown more punches Saturday, outshooting Portland 17-12 and piling up a 13-6 edge in corner kicks – but it was the Timbers who landed the telling blows.

If Portland made a statement with the victory, Wilkinson says this was it: “It shows we’ve got a little bit of depth.”

The Timbers started three players –defender Tim Karalexis and midfielders Tom Poltl and Miguel Guante –who were on the bench for the kickoff two nights earlier against Minnesota. Karalexis and Poltl helped Portland absorb Seattle’s high-caliber attack, and the slippery quick Guante made a matador-like move and a well-struck shot that gave the Timbers a 2-0 margin in the 76th minute.

“They’re a strong team,” says Seattle midfield star Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar, a former Timber. “They take pride in playing strong defense. Their style is not really to entertain, but they work hard and try to take advantage of their chances and then buckle down defensively.”

The Seattle game was new Portland goalie Ray Burse’s coming-out party. It was the first game in which he was tested. He passed.

After seeing limited action for Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas, Burse is excited to be on the field for every game as a loan player with Portland.

“I love it,” he says. “That’s the reason I play soccer. … In Dallas, things weren’t going my way. I’m here to get the games in, keep playing well and get back to the form I was in last season.”

As for Seattle’s thrusts: “I didn’t really feel the pressure,” Burse says. “I felt like I was on top of my game, so the pressure was actually on their forwards to beat me.”

Meanwhile, the Timbers are scoring and threatening more often, just as Wilkinson hoped they would in their second year.

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