BEAVERTON, Ore. — Diego Valeri, the driving force for the Portland Timbers offense the past two seasons, is expected to make his 2015 debut on Saturday when the Vancouver Whitecaps visit Providence Park.
Timbers coach Caleb Porter said on Friday that Valeri will play against the Whitecaps, but declined to say whether Valeri will start or come off the bench.
Valeri suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Oct. 25, the final regular season match of the 2014 season. He was in uniform but did not play in Sunday’s match at Seattle. He began training at full speed with the team for two days last week and for each training session this week.
“He’s looked really sharp. He’s just a very gifted soccer player in terms of his first touch and in terms of his movement and the final pass,” Timbers defender Nat Borchers said. “He’s one of those creative type players in this league who can unlock teams and do some fantastic things with the ball.”
In his first two season with the Timbers, the 28-year-old Argentine scored 21 goals and added 27 assists in MLS regular-season games.
The Timbers hope that Valeri’s return can spark an offense that has scored only seven goals through the first eight games of the season. Coach Caleb Porter said his team — and Darlington Nagbe in particular — has played well without Valeri. But the coach said getting Valeri back into his central attacking midfield position will put more stress on opponents.
“We picked him to run the attack. Everything goes through him. When we have everybody healthy and he’s in there … we certainly create more,” Porter said. “He produces not only assists and setting guys up but he scores goals, and he’s one of the best in the league at doing that.”
While Valeri was out, opponents could focus on defending Nagbe. Valeri’s return means opponents won’t be able to send multiple defenders to either player. It also can mean more space for wide attackers such as Rodney Wallace, Porter noted.
“One of the reasons that Darlington and Valeri work so well together is that they can basically rotate positions,” Porter said, explaining that when they are together Nagbe and Valeri are given freedom to move around the field.
