One clean sheet. Just one.
One shutout across an entire season. That is the Portland Timbers’ MLS total this year. Add 39 goals conceded, third worst in the Western Conference, and the picture is not subtle.
On Thursday the club acted. Portland brought in defender Joel Waterman from Chicago Fire, and the 30-year-old Canadian is available Saturday night when Minnesota United visit.
“I’m really excited for this new chapter here, and I hope we can win trophies,” Waterman said.
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151 MLS games in the legs
What Portland are buying is mileage. Waterman is into his seventh season in the league, five and a half years at CF Montreal and a little over a year in Chicago. His MLS total sits at 151 appearances, 142 of them starts. Canada took him to the 2022 and 2026 World Cups.
Head coach Marti Cifuentes is not hiding from any of it. “The stats are there for everyone to see,” he said of that solitary clean sheet. “We need to start games better because we tend to begin slowly. We need to give the ball away less. When you look at the data, we lose possession quite a bit.”
Portland (8-10-4, 28 points) sit joint 10th in a West that is packed tight. One win, two defeats and a draw from their last four, including a 2-1 home loss to Austin FC last weekend.
Minnesota arrive with eight goals in two matches
The timing is rough. Minnesota United (7-7-8, 29 points) are ninth, the last side inside the virtual playoff places, and they are scoring for fun. Eight goals in two outings: 5-1 in San Jose on August 22, then a 3-3 home draw with Orlando City last Saturday.
That draw stung the Loons. Two down, then three goals in five second-half minutes, then an Orlando equaliser in stoppage time. “An incredible comeback in such a short space of time,” Cameron Knowles said. “Then the frustration of not seeing it out in the final three minutes and not coming away with all three points.”
One question mark travels with the visitors. First-choice goalkeeper Drake Callender took a concussion against Orlando and is in protocol, so Alec Smir looks set for a fifth MLS start. Minnesota won the reverse fixture 2-0 at home on April 18.
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