| 02 March 2011
The Portland Timbers announced yesterday that the club has traded for midfielder Jack Jewsbury from Sporting Kansas City. In return, Kansas City will receive allocation money. It’s an outstanding signing for Portland, as bringing in Jewsbury rounds out the roster even more and brings additional experience to a team that is still very young.
Jewsbury has been in the league for eight years, all of which were spent with Sporting Kansas City. During that time, he appeared in 198 regular season matches, contributing with 15 goals and 21 assists during that span. In 2008, Jewsbury led Kansas City in assists and was named the club’s Defensive Player of the Year. The next year, he was invited to the U.S. National Team camp on two separate occasions.
As reported by Timbers Insider, Coach John Spencer had the following to say about the new addition: “It’s a very good signing for us. We’ve added a player with tremendous quality. A very, very experienced MLS player, he gives us that little bit of depth and experience that we’re going to need for the whole season.”
Roster Completion Progress
The addition of Jewsbury now brings the team roster to 23 total players, leaving 5 spots still open for trialists. Out of the spots remaining, one is expected to be held for striker Jorge Perlaza, who continues to struggle with roadblocks regarding his availability. According to the Oregonian’s Geoffrey Arnold, Timbers Technical Director Gavin Wilkinson said that sorting through the issue would take time.
"[Jorge] is in the U.S. with the team until further notice,” said Wilkinson. “We would love to be in the position to announce him as a signed player, but at the moment, we're unable to do that."
In the meantime, the Timbers appear to be closing in on a deal with striker Brian Umony. Umony, the Ugandan Footballer of the Year in 2008, joined the trialists in Ventura, California for training camp near the beginning of February and has apparently worked out a deal. Nothing is official yet, but the signing and unveiling is expected to be announced any day now.
Nagbe Scheduled for Hernia Surgery
The deal for Jewsbury couldn’t have been made at a better time, as it was also announced yesterday that #2 pick Darlington Nagbe is expected to undergo hernia surgery this Friday. It was an injury that happened gradually, not all at once, and the team felt it would be best to address the issue immediately, as opposed to waiting and trying to deal with it midseason if the injury worsened.
The Timbers won’t be without the former Akron star for long, however, as Nagbe is only expected to miss between two to four weeks. The first game of the season isn’t until March 19th , so if Nagbe is able to return closer to the early side of that projection, he won’t have to miss any games.
Nagbe's injury marks the second significant injury to a Timbers player since the start of training camp. The first injury was to Bright Dike, who ruptured his Achilles tendon and will unfortunately have to miss the next six to nine months.
photo: getty images
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