The struggling Portland Timbers could be adding reinforcements as soon as Tuesday, with an attacking Designated Player the goal for Caleb Porter’s team.
Portland has continued its 2013 pattern of tying games, but hasn’t found the wins to go with them.
Sunday’s last-gasp equalizer was just their 13th goal of the season, and the Timbers are in last place in the Western Conference.
Here are general manager Gavin Wilkinson’s comments, from MLSSoccer.com:
“We’ve got quite a sizable sum to spend that’s being allowed to us to use to develop this group,” Wilkinson said in a Monday phone interview on the heels of his return from a two-week European scouting trip. “The system that we play in, which the 4-2-3-1 or a modified 4-3-3, we need someone up top who can occupy defenders and with occupying defenders also stretch the field.”
Wilkinson said his scouting trip took him to Norway, Spain and Denmark, which included taking in 16 games and “many, many meetings.” He said the team’s sluggish start to the season, just one win through 10 games, didn’t precipitate the trip and is standard operating procedure for looking at possible acquisitions during summer transfer windows. But there’s no question the product on the field has left a lot to be desired.
So who could be on the horizon for the Timbers faithful? Well, it’s Nigerian striker Fanendo Adi, on loan with an option to purchase.
Adi has played twice for the Nigeria U-23 squad and has three goals in nine matches for the Lions after coming to the club in 2013 from Trencin in Slovakia, where he scored thrice in the UEFA Europa League in matches against Astra Plo and IFK. Overall this season he’s struck 13 times in 20 matches across Slovakia and Denmark.
As seen in this video of his debut goal for Copenhagen, Adi is a big body who has posted up at least once in his life:
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