Portland Timbers 2014 Season Preview: 4 Things to Watch for This Season

Meeting expectations will be the Portland Timbers' story to watch in 2014, but what additional storylines will complete the team's season preview?

In part 16 of our 19-part series, we will take an in-depth look at the most intriguing plots surrounding the Timbers this season. The number and player to watch, as well as the match that should immediately be circled on your calendar, will be delved into with great detail.

Read on for your comprehensive guide to 2014.

Note: Unless otherwise mentioned, credit all statistics to Squawka. All data collected is licensed from Opta Sports.

Before we preview the coming year, here is MLS's complete list of offseason acquisitions and departures that helped mold this season's version of the club.

Players In:

Players Out:

The Portland Timbers experienced one of the best turnaround seasons in MLS history last year, jumping from the near bottom of the Western Conference standings in 2012 to the very top in 2013. The hype only increased entering the new season.

Lofty expectations have been set for 2014. 

An extremely confident Caleb Porter made that apparent to William Conwell of SB Nation following a short practice:

We should be one of the best teams in the league, plain and simple. We showed that last year. I would say that with the additions that we made we should still be in that caliber and maybe even better.

That "maybe even better" is going to have to be reflected in the draw column this year.

Despite having the lowest loss total in 2013 (five), the Timbers failed to capture the Supporters' Shield title. They were the first club to suffer the fewest loses in a season and not capture the regular season crown since Real Salt Lake in 2010 (15-4-11). Their 15 draws led the league and were the most MLS has seen since 2011.

One or two less draws could be the difference between a trophyless season and a successful one.

Adding to Portland's lofty goals for 2014 is the club's first-ever participation in the CONCACAF Champions League. A proposed change to one of the four allocated berths for clubs based in the United States was altered from the runner-up in the MLS Cup final to the best regular-season record in the conference opposite of the Supporters' Shield champion.

Try saying that three times fast. 

The benefiters of this change just so happened to be the Timbers. More mileage has been added to a package that already contained more competition and more expectations for Portland in 2014.

Fingers crossed, at least for the club's sake, more trophies come along with it. 

This. Is. Football.

The Portland Timbers finished with 44 assists in 2013. Only the New York Red Bulls (46) finished with more. The Timbers' pass-happy attack is further reflected by their 52 percent possession rate, 12,181 successful passes and 79 percent accuracy in 2013. Portland finished in the top three in each of those categories. 

Only Real Salt Lake dominated the ball more last season.

Driving this punishing attack is the menacing midfield at Coach Porter's disposal. 

Diego Chara—an underrated commodity in MLS—successfully completed 1,468 passes in 2013 with an 86 percent accuracy. He ranked sixth among midfielders in both categories. He finished first, however, in tackles under the same criteria (112). His teammate Will Johnson landed five spots lower at No. 6 with 74.

A little Latin flavor added the beauty to the midfield's bite.

Diego Valeri—the 2013 Newcomer of the Year—led the club with 56 key passes and eight assists last season. The addition of his compatriot Gaston Fernandez—along with an upstart Max Urruti—will look to add an extra finishing touch to the attack. All three started alongside Darlington Nagbe in a preseason bout with the rival Vancouver Whitecaps.

It was in that moment Coach Porter believes he found the perfect recipe to his team's success, but he admits to Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian that flexibility remains key for this season:

With a couple of new pieces, we don't have it completely figured out but we've got a good idea of where we're at. From game to game, we can really change the pieces in those front-four spots to get some different dimensions out of the game...I thought in the second half, with Valeri at the "10" and Gaston on the left and "D" [Nagbe] on the right…I thought that felt a notch better. There will be some games where we rotate them. It's nice to have that flexibility.

This is the evolution of "Porterball." The Timbers will be one of the more prominent attacks in 2014. 

There'll be plenty of more assists to go around.

The keys to the Ferrari are yours, Maximiliano Urruti.

Portland's decision to part ways with striker Ryan Johnson pegged Urruti as the key player atop Caleb Porter's formation for 2014. The 22-year-old was traded from Toronto toward the end of last season in exchange for Bright Dike, a first-round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft and the proverbial allocation cash.

Urruti started just four matches and finished with one goal.

He wouldn't feature as a starter for the final two weeks of the season and the rest of the playoffs.

At 6', 165 pounds, Urruti doesn't exactly fit the mold of the typical No. 9 associated with football. But that's not the type of striker Coach Porter is interested in, according to Geoffrey C. Arnold of The Oregonian:

We were so excited to get him. He's very unique in that he's pretty well rounded in almost everything you're looking for. I don't want a big, slow target. I want a guy that's nimble. A guy that can be strong enough to get on the end of crosses and hold the ball up. But I need a guy that's mobile. A guy that can press. A guy that can run the channels. But also a guy that can link the midfielders into the game.

Urruti fits the bill in each of those categories.

Despite his limited action last season, the young Argentine scored a goal, contributed four key passes and intercepted three. He also added six tackles and 13 headed duels to his defensive resume. With an entire offseason to grow under Porter's high-octane system, Urruti will have the opportunity to increase his statistical performance by various multiples in 2014.

A breakout year is in the works.

Seattle Sounders. Vancouver Whitecaps. Cascadia Cup. Rivalry. Blah, blah, blah.

We get all that.

This season, however, is all about the evolution of the Portland Timbers. That evolution begins by moving past the tried-and-true local flavor. The Timbers have elevated themselves to the level of a major player in MLS, one that will also participate in Champions League play. This is big-time soccer.

Besides, there's a new goal for the upcoming season: avenging last year's playoff elimination and doing something they haven't done since 2011.

Real Salt Lake have owned the Timbers in each of the last two seasons, beating them in four of six regular-season contests. The two sides met in all three competitions in 2013. On top of the 0-1-2 record posted in head-to-head matches in league play, Portland was eliminated by RSL from the U.S. Open Cup and MLS Western Conference finals.

The Timbers ultimately finished 0-4-2 against their aesthetic counterparts.

There's a rivalry brewing here, but RSL's return to the newly dubbed Providence Park on October 17 will carry much more than the revenge narrative. If last season is any indication, there will be Supporters' Shield implications at play.

Couple all that with the fact that these two clubs are the most statistically gifted at possessing and distributing the ball, and you have the recipe for a night to remember. They don't just play to win the game. These two play the beautiful game the way it was meant to be played.

No rivalry will ever top that.

Eduardo Mendez is a Bleacher Report Featured Columnist and analyst for Opta Sports. Follow him on Twitter for more insight on a variety of sports topics. Follow @Mendez_FC