Considered by some to be a weak link in the Portland Timbers defense, Jorge Villafana has emerged as a strength during Portland's MLS Cup run.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — There has been a trend for much of the 2015 MLS season of opponents of the Portland Timbers targeting one defender to try and break down. Jorge Villafana has been characterized by some as the weak link in the Timbers back line, and the result late in the year was a Who’s Who of top MLS wingers going at Villafana.

Few of them have found much success, even less so in the playoffs, where he has emerged as one of the key figures in the Timbers run to the MLS Cup final.

“Every single player he goes against thinks they’re going to beat him, and they never do,” Timbers coach Caleb Porter told Goal USA. “Funny enough, a lot of teams will switch guys, like FC Dallas switched Castillo, because they think he’s the weak link.

“That’s him in a nutshell. He’s always got something to prove,” Porter said. “He had to prove himself by winning a job through 'Sueno.' He had to prove it coming to the Timbers and not starting when he got here. He has to keep proving it because he gets no respect. I hear the commentators say Villafana can’t defend. I think that’s what makes him good. He has to keep proving himself and he keeps doing it.”

A look at the Timbers schedule over the course of the past two months has featured a laundry lost of top wingers who have all taken their shots at trying to beat Villafana, and the success rate has been sparse, which is part of the reason the Timbers are currently riding an eight-match unbeaten streak.

Villafana has enjoyed strong showings against the likes of Gyasi Zardes, Graham Zusi, Christian Techera, Michael Barrios and Castillo, which has helped the Timbers defense evolve into one of the best in the league, and a player Porter believes is the most underrated in MLS.

“He’s faced some of the best wingers in the league, guys that are, on paper, more athletic, they think,” Porter said. “But he’s one of those guys that is a lot more athletic then you think and he’s been an unbelievable one-on-one defender. That’s the part of the game that has evolved.”

Villafana’s evolution is made even more impressive when you consider his humble beginnings. At the age of 17 he was working a job cleaning churches when his family convinced him to try out for a TV show contest searching for a young soccer talent to give a chance at becoming a pro. "Sueno MLS" had 2,000 participants, and Villafana originally missed out on the initial registration before being added in.

Villafana eventually beat out 2,000 other players to win the contest, which helped him earn a place with the U-19 team of the now-defunct MLS side Chivas USA. The same team that, prior to the contest Villafana won, had passed on signing Villafana after a tryout.

His second chance proved to be the one he needed as he blossomed through the club’s ranks and graduating to the senior team, earning a look and eventual place in the U.S. youth national team ranks as well, which culminated in Villafana playing in the Under-20 World Cup.

Villafana enjoyed modest success with Chivas USA, but the club was mostly a league laughingstock while he was there, and prior to Chivas USA’s final year of existence, Caleb Porter saw an opportunity to poach a young talent he grew to admire when he coached him with the U.S. Under-23 national team.

The Timbers acquired Villafana prior to the 2014 season in a trade that sent Andrew Jean-Baptiste to Chivas USA. The deal helped the Timbers land winger Steve Zakuani in the MLS re-entry draft, which was seen as the driving force behind the trade, but Porter insists Villafana was his true target.

“As a coach you try to find guys and reinvent them,” Porter said. “I did that with (DeAndre) Yedlin. He was a winger and I moved him to right back. For me it was similar with Villafana. I didn’t see him as a winger. I saw him as an outside back. I knew he needed some work defensively, but he’s coachable so I knew I could develop him on the defensive side.

“I also saw he had a lot of pride,” Porter said. “When a player has pride they’ll do whatever it takes to make it. He was kind of wasting away at Chivas (USA) and we did kind of a stealth move slipping him into the (Andrew) Jean-Baptiste trade. He was a guy we really wanted to get.”

The trade was a godsend for Villafana, who didn’t start for the Timbers right away, but eventually grabbed the role in the second half of 2014.

“The truth is I finally came to a team that’s a good team with good players, so it was easy to find a rhythm within the team, and to settle into Portland and I’ve loved it since I got here,” Villafana told Goal USA.

As much as he appreciates having moved to Portland, he does admit having felt emotional about the shutting down of Chivas USA, where his career began.

“It was sad because I’d been there since the U-18s, the U-19s, the reserves and first team,” Villafana said. “I spent seven years there and I grew there. I got to know my family there, met my wife there, my first daughter was born there.

“I have great memories there and when the club you were born as a player, and grew up as a soccer player, just disappears you’re going to get a bit sentimental,” Villafana said “That’s how things go sometimes and you just have to find a new path.”

Villafana’s new path has seen him blossom into one of the best left backs in the league, and a player who is starting to get buzz as a potential U.S. national team prospect. Considering the lack of left back options in the U.S. pool, and Villafana’s age and skill set, it isn’t a stretch to think Jurgen Klinsmann might give him a look soon.

As things stand though, VIllafana hasn’t been contacted about the national team, but he considers it a dream he’s hoping to fulfill.

“I always think about playing for the national team, I think for any player the national team is the ultimate,” Villafana said. “I just have to keep working, day by day, for my club and what you do for your club will decide what other opportunities might be there. Hopefully one day I can do enough to be part of a national team call up.”

“I haven’t heard anything from the national team, haven’t gotten a call,” Villafana said. “I’d be very happy if a call came, but right now I’m focused on Portland, and if the call does come from the national team I’ll thank God.”

Villafana will have another chance to impress Klinsmann on Sunday, in one of the more high-profile match ups of the 2015 MLS Cup final. He will be going up against Best XI Columbus Crew winger Ethan Finlay, a player he helped shut down when the teams met in September.

“(Finlay) is a good player, and I think there are many good players like him in that position in the league, like Fabian Castillo and Michael Barrios,” Villafana said. “I have to play my game. I have to defend, but when I can, also make him worry about me getting forward.

“He plays more like a second forward. He doesn’t play like a winger out wide,” Villafana said of Finlay. “I have to be aware that he will be looking to run into space in the middle. He’s not going to be trying to beat me wide, I think he’ll be trying to beat me to the inside.”

If Villafana can contain Finlay, it would go a long way toward helping the Timbers win a championship, and helping Villafana check off another goal on a list that includes many he has already accomplished.

“When you’re young you dream about becoming a pro soccer player, and when that dream comes true your dream changes to wanting to win something,” Villafana said “Now I have that chance to win something, and it’s one game that could help me realize that dream.”