BEAVERTON, Ore. – “I think now,” Giovanni Savarese began, “you guys believe me when I always said he was going to be important for the club, and he has shown it.”
The Portland Timbers head coach wasn’t answering a question about Dairon Asprilla, but he could have been. The words are almost as applicable to the Colombian winger as they were to Liam Ridgewell, about whom the questioner was asking, or others player who have, at one point or another, lost time in Portland’s starting XI throughout the 2018 season.