If it was raining glorious rose pedals in the Rose City, anyone from the Portland Timbers organization would find some way to get nailed square on the noggin by a thorn.
Such is the luck around the Jeld-Wen Field bunch, where DP striker Kris Boyd appears to be done for the year.
It’s too bad, because it strips away any last chance that Boyd had to become the striker that owner Merritt Paulson and management around Jeld-Wen thought he could be and promised he would be.
Assuming the Scottish striker will not play again in 2012 – And with so little on the line, what would possibly be the point in taking a chance? – Boyd will finish his debut MLS season with 7 goals in 26 matches.
That’s not entirely awful; there have been and will be bigger DP busts.
But neither does it represent DP-worthy goal generation, a highly insufficient total for the team’s marquee acquisition.
Some of the meager production is about Portland’s poorly constructed team. That’s on Gavin Wilkinson and also on former coach John Spencer. (Boyd was more a Spencer acquisition than a Wilkinson one, as the former coach used his Scottish connections to help secure Boyd.)
Either way, a star striker simply must do more.
There’s also another line of thinking, one that says Portland’s offense is built around speed, and perhaps the slower Boyd doesn’t fit at all.
His inability to play over the last few matches removes a few more chances to see how – or even “if” – Boyd best fits.