Takuro Update - A Timbers Fan Writes

Portland Timbers fan Michael Pearson has been kind enough to provide GGOA with a local's view of ex-Ardija man Takuro Nishimura, currently on trial and hoping to land a contract with the USL1 outfit. Michael writes:

"I saw him play last week against New York Red Bulls and was really surprised. I'd say the general consensus is that we hope the team can end up signing him (he is still technically on trial). For position, my guess is he'll end up as our left back, or left side of midfield. His touch looked really good last week, but [he also] had some great runs forward, some really dangerous crosses into the box and did a good job containing some speedy players from Red Bulls.

"There is a debate right now whether he or a former USL defender of the year (2007) that we just signed should play that left back position, but one of the advantages is that David Hayes (the former defender of the year) is good at getting forward a lot, so perhaps a combination of those two would be great!

"It's thought that the only hold-up [to him signing for the club] is that we only have one international slot left, with about a month to play, so we may keep him on trial a bit longer before deciding. In his favor, he is the only international player we currently have in camp, so that bodes well."

Portland itself is regarded as a comparatively vibrant city as far as support for its football club is concerned, the hope being that average crowds will increase from around 8000 last year to 10,000 or so in 2009. The Timbers have recently been awarded a slot in the MLS from 2011 onwards and so at present Takuro, Takayuki Suzuki and colleagues are in pre-season preparing for their second-to-last year of ULS football. They play a further friendly game against the University of Portland on Friday.

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