UPDATE: Portland signed 11 players from T2 to MLS short-term contracts.
The 11 T2 players signed to short-term agreements include defenders Michael Amick, Lamar Batista, Harold Hanson and Max Ornstil; midfielders Villyan Bijev, Tomás Granitto, Andre Lewis, Terrell Lowe and Omar Mohamed; and forwards Russell Cicerone and Augustine Williams.
Just as the Seattle Sounders are expected to play a heavy reserve side against their Cascadian rivals, the Portland Timbers should be playing a reserve side. With a handful of injuries and national team call-ups impacting the club, Portland is going to play a side that looks more like T2 than it does the First Team. Caleb Porter told the Oregonian that “...the majority of the lineup will be a T2 lineup.”
For a sense of how much the Timbers will rotate their lineup for U.S. Open Cup #RCTID #MLS #USOC2017 https://t.co/sXRiU19tTw pic.twitter.com/ihp9HkLBZr
— Jamie Goldberg (@Jamiebgoldberg) June 12, 2017
Portland plays in Colorado over the weekend and did not have the international break off making it more likely they will save their starters for the weekend match. The one thing Portland had going for it was that only David Guzman and Darlington Nagbe played in CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers this past week, but a host of injuries have further cut into their available players.
This should be great news for fans that were concerned we’d see a full-strength Timbers side like during the infamous Red Card Wedding. It’ll be exciting and all the energy of a major game played largely by the USL sides. Of note, S2 has never lost at Starfire to T2 and has an overall record of 10-0-1 in all competitions.