When Will Johnson broke his leg in Toronto last year, the Timbers plugged in Ben Zemanski and didn’t miss a beat. They might have even improved.
In the four games after Johnson’s injury last season, Portland won three and drew one, only conceding a single goal in the process. Zemanski’s star shot up, and the murmurs began about how irreplaceable Johnson really was to the Timbers’ on-field operation.
2014 was a bad year for Johnson, even before he broke his leg in one of the most gruesome moments in franchise history, and, in correlation, an extremely frustrating one for the club.
The Timbers captain, bless his soul, gave up too much ground to his manic side last year. As Portland struggled early in the season, Johnson was consistently and damagingly trying to overcompensate with kamikaze forward runs that would imbalance Portland’s central midfield and foist an overwhelming amount of defensive responsibility on Diego Chara.
The understanding between Johnson and Chara was one of the Timbers’ biggest strongpoints in Caleb Porter’s debut season of 2013, and it did wonders for a defense almost entirely comprised of players who are either no longer with the Timbers or no longer in MLS.
But in 2014, it was gone. Perhaps Johnson was guilty of buying too much of his own stock—trying to become an attacking savior in the wake of a nine-goal 2013 season—instead of focusing on little and far more important things like balance and shape. When Johnson said his team had the “brain of a goldfish,” he could easily have been referring to himself. Setting a career high in shots and getting hurt just one off his career high in fouls, no one else played more recklessly and impulsively.
Part of the reason that Johnson as a box-to-box midfielder didn’t work was also that teams figured out how to play the Caleb Porter Timbers—ceding possession, packing players into the defensive half, and going more direct. All of the sudden, Johnson’s combativeness was creating more problems than it was solving.
Johnson improved marginally as the season progressed, but Zemanski was a welcome antithesis. Harboring no illusions of grandeur, he doggedly shielded Portland’s defense, which, not coincidentally, rapidly improved. Of course, Zemanski is a far, far more limited player than Johnson. But that wasn’t a bad thing at the end of last year.
It’s always impossible to know the long-term impacts of a major injury. Some players are never the same. Some are replaced. Some slide right back into their spots, and some return better than ever. Johnson exited the stage for a grueling rehab with Zemanski being protected in the Expansion Draft, and the Timbers preparing to start the season without him.
But Johnson’s return has, in an understated way, been completely glorious. The Timbers have won all four of Johnson’s starts in 2015, and the only two losses the team has suffered since his return in late May have been played with the captain being rested. Without Johnson on the year, the Timbers have only won five out of 15 matches.
The time off appears to have been a good thing for Johnson. Possibly in part because he’s not 100% physically, Johnson has reinvented himself as a true #6. While his leadership was certainly missed, it’s Johnson’s combination of mobility, tenacity, and skill that has been so invaluable for the Timbers this year, on many levels.
Defensively, Johnson is tireless—far more combative than Jack Jewsbury, far savvier than George Fochive. It’s working on offense too, and it’s working to the benefit of Diego Chara.
Chara is a better attacking player than Johnson. He’s faster, can dribble, and is always moving. What Johnson brings to the attack—solid vision, strong distribution, and good goalscoring instincts on late runs into the penalty area—is best harnessed when he’s playing deeper in the formation.
Johnson will age well. The older he gets, the less he’ll run around, but the more impact he’ll have. Johnson has everything needed to be a superb #6, and as long as he has a defined role, that searing competitiveness that was a vice at times last year will always be a major strength. And that’s fantastic news for the Timbers.
It’s not hard for Johnson to be his best self. He’s a try-hard, absolutely, but he’s also a very talented soccer player. There’s no secret that the Timbers’ back-five has been its calling card this year. If the back-five can turn into the back-seven, with the central midfield of Johnson and Chara, this team is a playoff lock. Then all it will need to be a cup contender is the front four which looked so good against Seattle to find some consistency.
Johnson has a believer in Caleb Porter. His manager made him captain in 2013 before he’d played a game with the club, named him to the All-Star team last year when he was having a poor season, and then watched as Johnson flew in with the tackle that probably cost Porter a handshake with his idol, Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola.
Porter was always going to reinsert Johnson into the starting lineup, the question was whether Johnson would adjust to the failure of last season. It appears that he, and the Timbers, have. It’s taken a good deal of maturity: pragmatism from Caleb Porter tactically, and a measure of levelheadedness from Johnson, who is averaging only one foul per game this year and has yet to pick up a booking.
This year has been about Portland solidifying and stabilizing its squad, its style, and its vision. Similarly for Johnson, nearing his 30th birthday, it’s been about finding his best self after the scariest moment of his career. If recent results are any indication, it looks like there could be a happy ending for both player and club.
