When Ben Zemanski crumpled to the turf at Providence Park on Sunday night Timbers faithful in attendance and watching the live stream collectively gasped. With Will Johnson still recovering from a broken leg and looking like he’ll miss at least the first month of the MLS season, the loss of Ben Zemanski, who filled in more than capably when Johnson went down at the end of the 2014 season, would be a major blow. With the announcement that Zemanski suffered a torn ACL in a preseason game that certainly could not be called a friendly, Portland fans are left wondering, “What now?”
A week ago things looked bright for the Timbers as they prepared to open the 2015 season. Zemanski looked great in Tucson and with Gaston Fernandez filling in for Diego Valeri in the playmaker role, the Timbers looked set to improve on their poor start to 2014. Zemanski’s injury makes the picture is much cloudier.
The question of “what now?” is not a question of who will replace Zemanski in the Portland midfield. Jack Jewsbury will almost certainly step in for Zemanski for the time being. The question is what does it mean for the start to the Timbers season.
With Zemanski stepping in there was arguably little drop off from a lineup that included Will Johnson. Zemanski may not be quite at the level Johnson is, particularly going forward, but he’s an able replacement and arguably a better defensive midfielder. While Jewsbury is a versatile player and a good depth option at a number of positions, he is not the guy a team wants to rely on as a regular starting central midfielder anymore. He did play that role for Portland prior to the arrival of Will Johnson, so he should be comfortable there and should have good chemistry with midfield partner Diego Chara, which will be important, but the quality isn’t the same, and should anything happen to either Chara or Jewsbury the Timbers could be in serious trouble.
Behind Jewsbury on the depth chart are second-year player George Fochive, who was a 2014 third-round draft pick and made 12 appearances while on loan for the Sacramento Republic last year, and rookie first-round draft pick Nick Besler. While Porter and the front office seem high on both players, Porter made it clear neither will really be contending for starting minutes at least early in the season.
Asked about replacing Zemanski in the lineup, Porter said:
“Jack looks very good and looks very comfortable. Guys know him. Guys like him. He’s a good player. That’s the safest option, no doubt about it…Maybe a Besler or Fochive do so well (that we put them in the starting lineup), but I don’t see that happening. Not in the first couple games. That would be more of a risk.”
Both Fochive and Besler could get a chance to stake their claim to the temporary backup spot more firmly in Wednesday’s match against the Chicago Fire. Portland takes on the Fire in their second of three matches in the Simple Invitational. It had been expected that they would field a mostly reserve lineup until Porter announced Tuesday that he would be pairing Darlington Nagbe and Fanendo Adi for 45 minutes and Gaston Fernandez and Maxi Urruti for another 45 minutes.
It’s possible that the Timbers will still field a mostly reserve lineup, but the fact that Porter seems to be experimenting with attacking options suggests this game will not just be about ordering the depth chart behind the first eleven. With Dairon Asprilla likely to get extended minutes, it’s possible this will be a chance to see Nagbe centrally, in the play-maker role. While his scoring was down significantly in 2014 from 2013, his assists and chances created were up significantly, and moving him centrally could get Nagbe even more involved in the Portland attack.
After Sunday’s game Porter sounded pleased with the defense, but lamented the fact that Portland failed to make their chances count when they dominated play early. Tinkering with the attacking options could be just tinkering, or it could be a sign of concern about the attack and trying to jump start it to avoid another slow start to the season. It is also possible that Porter just wants to see where different players can fit in and how they work together as he has previously done with players like Michael Harrington and Jack Jewsbury at outside back in recent seasons.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on twitter- @ericwalcott. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld – and “liking” our Facebook page.
Have you tuned into Last Word On Sports Radio? LWOS is pleased to bring you 24/7 sports radio to your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. What are you waiting for?
Feel free to discuss this and other footy related articles with thousands at r/football.
Main Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images
