SoccerAmerica - Porter confirmed as Portland coach for 2013 08/29/2012

[MLS SPOTLIGHT] The Portland Timbers confirmed University of Akron coach Caleb Porter as their head coach for the 2013 season. "Put simply, I believe Caleb Porter is the best young soccer coaching mind in the country," said owner Merritt Paulson.

Porter will finish up the 2012 college season as the Zips' coach, just as he finished the 2011 campaign before taking charge of the U.S. U-23s.

Akron, winner of the 2010 national championship with a team that included Timbers star Darlington Nagbe, just kicked off the 2012 season with a 4-0 win over FGCU and is No. 2 in this week's Soccer America Top 25 rankings.

Gavin Wilkinson, the Timbers technical director, has been coaching the Timbers on an interim basis since John Spencer, the Timbers' first head coach, was fired.

Portland was 5-8-4 in 2012 under Spencer and 1-5-2 since Wilkinson took charge. Wilkinson had been the Timbers' head coach during their final season in the D2 Pro League.

4 comments

David Sirias

commented on: August 29, 2012 at 12:34 p.m.

I think Porter is a fantastic offensive minded coach. He understands 433 better than any coach under age 40 in America. He could be the Bill Walsh of MLS with the right personnel. But as demonstrated by the Olympic qualifying fiasco, he is not a defensive minded guru. His success or failure will depend on getting the right assistant to organize his defense, once he finds a back four and d-mids who are comfortable with the ball at their feet--a prerequisite to successful implementation of the modern 433

Luis paulo Oliveira

commented on: August 29, 2012 at 3:18 p.m.

Any good coach with a great group of players can look even better than just being a good coach. Any great coach with not so good group of players can look as horrible as it gets! Mr. Klinsmann is already here doing what? Oh, wow, they beat Mexico inside the Azteca for the first time in 100 years!!! USA goalie was the MVP of the game!!! Bring Mourinho, Guardiola, Mr. Ferguson, Parreira already came over, Dunga to see if they will do magic win anything big with the players they get...One of the USA biggest problem in soccer, everyone now think they should be where they truly don't belong!!! Coaches don't do magic!!!

Bill Anderson

commented on: August 29, 2012 at 6:49 p.m.

David, I watched the Olympic Qualifying on the CONCACAF feed. Although, you couldn't see everything that happened over the net, the failure to qualify was based on three goal keeping errors. The rest wasn't perfect, but it was good enough except for the keeper howlers.

David Sirias

commented on: August 29, 2012 at 8:06 p.m.

Not quibbling but, Hamid was hurt in the Friday game. He should have been pulled immediately. Then Porter starts Hamid in the Monday game even though Hamid was not 100%. Johnson should have started on, and if so, there likely is no olympics fiasco at the Monday game. Porter inherited a weak u-23 defense. No doubt. But an instinctual defensive minded coach knows that a hurt keeper is fatal to an already shaky defense and has no hesitation making the change. Just saying Porter is a better offensive than defensive minded coach--thus far. This should change as Porter should grow as a coach, if Porter is as sharp as he is said to be.

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