The Perfect Pair

The 2024 Portland Timbers have played 28 games across all competitions so far this season. Head coach Phil Neville has been able to figure out a first-choice team for most positions. Evander starts at the 10, Juan Mosquera starts at right back, Jonathan Rodriguez on the left wing, Felipe Mora up top, and Santiago Moreno on the right wing. With so much consistency in the front line, the Portland Timbers have been one of the highest-scoring teams in the league. The players who are paid to get goal contributions have been doing exactly that. But the Timbers’ main Achilles’ heel has been their defense. That defense (particularly at center back and defensive midfield) has been largely inconsistent. Both positions have four players competing for two starting roles. Defensive midfield is a little more settled, but center back has been rife with absences and inconsistency. That’s pretty odd when all four center backs (Kamal Miller, Dario Zuparic, Miguel Araujo, and Zac McGraw) are all starting-quality. In those 28 games, the Timbers have used 8 different center back combinations. Six of those in a back four, and two of them in a back three. The back three was an interesting experiment, and I still think that it would be effective. But a switch to a back three would cause one of the Timbers’ best four attackers (Evander, Rodriguez, Mora, or Moreno) to be dropped from the starting XI or force Evander into the double pivot. It seems silly for the team to switch to the back three at this point in the season, but it could become an in-game tactical shift during future matches. But this article isn’t about what the Timbers could do at halftime or in the second half. As the Timbers enter the final lap of their MLS campaign, figuring out their best center back partnership is a massive issue to solve.