It isn’t often that a Cascadia derby match is relegated to the 2nd biggest story for the Portland Timbers, but that is exactly what happened this week when the team finally announced the long-rumored acquisition of (another) Argentine Designated Player in 22-year old Lucas Melano on Friday, just a day before Portland played to a 1-1 draw with northern rivals Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
Melano joins the Timbers as their third Designated Player, filling the recently opened slot Portland created by utilizing the new “Targeted Allocation Money” provided by MLS to pay down the salary cap charge of striker Fanendo Adi below the Designated Player threshold. Timbers owner Merritt Paulson opened up the checkbook for this signing, as Portland paid the entirety of Melano’s reported $5,000,000 transfer fee. Melano is also expected to earn a salary near $1,000,000 annually, making him the second-highest paid Timber behind center back Liam Ridgewell.
The 6-foot-1 Melano most recently played with Club Atlético Lanús, part of the Argentine top division. Interestingly, Lanús is the same club that current Timber Diego Valeri played for before joining Portland in 2013. Timbers General Manager Gavin Wilkinson admitted that the club had been following Melano for “several years,” and had to fend off interest from “several European and Mexican clubs” to earn his signature.
Melano played mainly the target forward position while at Lanus, scoring eight goals in 42 league appearances. But one of the most appealing aspects of Melano for the Timbers was his potential adaptability. According to Timbers coach Caleb Porter, “(Melano’s) versatility to be able to play any of the front four positions in our system also gives us flexibility to mesh him with our other quality pieces.” Multiple scouting reports cite Melano’s speed and height combination as his greatest asset, so he could fit in nicely as the type of speedy, skilled wing player that Caleb Porter seems to favor.
Based on Porter’s comments and Melano’s profile, it would seem likely that the new acquisition will slide into the left wing slot currently occupied by Dairon Asprilla and Rodney Wallace, leaving Adi and Maximiliano Urruti to continue manning the target striker position. While some Timbers fans would like to have seen a replacement striker brought in, adding a top-tier talent on the wing will open more space for all, particularly playmakers Valeri and Darlington Nagbe.
As the match against Vancouver Saturday night made clear, the defensive strategy against Portland is to pressure Valeri and Nagbe with double-and-triple teams, and make someone else on the field beat them. While Asprilla has the speed, his technical ability and finishing are not elite and teams are willing to let him go 1-on-1. If Melano is as good as advertised, he will punish teams that focus too heavily on Valeri and Nagbe.
Even more interesting than what this signing means for the Timbers tactically is what this signing represents philosophically for the Timbers and Coach Porter, GM Gavin Wilkinson, and Merritt Paulson. Melano is 22-years old and is, while undeniably talented and skilled, probably somewhere between two and four years from reaching the true prime of his career.
For a five million dollar transfer fee and a one million dollar annual salary, the Timbers probably could have landed a player closer to the prime (or just beyond) of his career that could have a greater immediate impact on this season’s fortunes. For example, 31-year old Brazillian international Robinho just signed with a Chinese team on a free transfer, NYCFC just signed 37-year old Italian legend Andrea Pirlo, and 35-year old Steven Gerrard had an immediate impact in his first game for Los Angeles Galaxy Friday night. The Timbers themselves had previously expressed interest in 37-year old Ivorian striker Didier Drogba. All are legendary players long past their best years, but all are primed to help their respective teams for a year or two.
In signing a 22-year old, no matter his potential, over a past-his-prime legend, the Timbers are demonstrating they want to build a team to compete for the next five years, not just today. Consider the ages of Portland’s other main players: Nagbe is 25, Adi is 24, Valeri is 29, Will Johnson is 28, Urruti is 24, Ridgewell is 30, and Alvas Powell is 21. Only 34-year old center back Nat Borchers is probably close to the end of his prime, and even he has two-to-three more solid years as a center back. Should this team gel the way the Portland braintrust hopes, the core of this group could be together for years to come, only getting better as these young players enter their best years.
In the meantime, Portland still has a pretty good team that just added another weapon. Porter and Wilkinson were unable to say when Melano would actually join the team, but it would be a surprise if we did not see him in Timbers uniform by the next home match on August 7th against Chicago. In the meantime, Portland has two critical away games coming up against Western Conference leaders FC Dallas and San Jose Earthquakes, who trail Portland in the playoff chase by six points with 13 games left to play.
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