ESPN, whom everyone has as the end all be all for all things soccer, (not really) released their Power Rankings today in preparation for the start of the MLS season. Your Portland Timbers, who merely won the Western Conference last year, has been designated 7th to start the season. I guess that’s an improvement on last years’ scouting, which projected the Timbers as the 9th best team in the MLS.
Of course, the Timbers aren’t without a few questions heading into the season, having lost the most successful coach in the team’s short history, as well as their most prominent player in Darlington Nagbe. His trade, as well as Darron Mattocks, left Timbers fans a little uneasy this season that there may not be enough help at the top. Enter international talents Samuel Armenteros (Sweden), Andy Polo (Peru) and now Darixon Vuelto of Honduras, and the Timbers faithful can breathe a sigh of relief. Polo and Armenteros have already shown flashes of what they bring during the preseason.
The pair should nicely compliment Maestro to start the season while the 20-year old Vuelto is brought up to speed. The new coaching hire, while it remains to be seen, also has pumped some hope in fans’ minds, especially with the way Portland concluded their preseason. The Timbers also bolstered their midfield by once again dipping into the Intl. market and snagging Cristhian Paredes, who looks to be a future succession for Diego Chara, as he enters the “drink now” phase of his career.
With a busy offseason behind us and preseason winding down, it’s time for Westmount Wine to give our top three predictions for the Army going into the 2018 campaign.
1.Timbers will repeat as Western Conference Champions with games still to play.
Look, we get it. Seattle’s the national media’s favorite team. They have a dangerous attack in Lodeiro, Dempsey, and Eikrem though it remains to be seen just how much they will miss U.S. national team forward Jordan Morris. The homegrown player’s torn ACL was recently diagnosed signaling the end of his season before it began. Not that they couldn’t be, but here at Westmount, we just don’t think the Sounders will be as dangerous as years passed and think the Timbers will once again shock the national media by winning the West. But to get even more specific, we see this being a five-point cushion.
2. Diego Valeri will take home a new MLS record this season.
And the record for most assists in a season goes to…
Last season, the league’s reigning MVP Diego Valeri broke the MLS record for most consecutive games with a goal. This year, with the new talent around him, we see Diego once again in the playmaking maestro position and we think he’ll find remarkable success in the process. While Carlos Valderrama’s 26 assists is a massive number and six assists more than the next closest guy, Valeri should draw a ton of attention from opposing teams next year in the attack half. While we expect his goal production to dip slightly, Maestro will be a creator for his teammates and that should scare the league silly.
3. Arthur Blank will suffer a similarly agonizing loss that he faced in Super Bowl 51 as the Portland Timbers will come from behind to best Darlington Nagbe and Atlanta FC and win the Anschutz Trophy.
We expect Atlanta to build on a promising inaugural season and be the surprise team to come out of the Eastern conference and beat Toronto. Where we’re getting a little crazy is in predicting that Atlanta will hold a first half lead in the cup final only to squander that lead and fall to the Timbers. We hold no animosity at all towards Arthur Blank. It reality, this has nothing to do with him. It’s just when you’re making bold predictions, sometimes you have to go for the headline grab. Look out for the “I told you so” post in December … #RCTID