PORTLAND, Ore. – When the Portland Timbers arrived in Costa Rica at the beginning of February, they did so with one of the most important spots on their depth chart open, the quest to fill the void having suffering a setback in the weeks before.
The team had been close to securing the transfer of a young attacker playing in Mexico, with negotiations between the Timbers and the player’s club temporarily auguring the end of a multi-month, multi-player process. But when the focus of those talks shifted from one of the Mexican team’s targets to another – from one type of player profile to another – the process deteriorated, then broke down.