The Portland Timbers announced the formation of a second division United Soccer League club back in October 2014 in hopes of creating a competitive and winning environment to develop young talent for the first team.

But Portland Timbers 2, known as T2, fell way short of those expectations in 2017. T2 compiled a league-worst 15 points and closed out their regular season campaign with a whimper as they fell 4-1 to Phoenix Rising.

It was clear that something had to change.

During the offseason, Timbers President of Soccer and General Manager Gavin Wilkinson gathered Assistant General Manager Nick Mansueto, Director of Scouting and Recruitment Ned Grabavoy and the T2 staff into a conference room at Providence Park to plot a new course for the club.

"We needed to fix it," Wilkinson said. "We needed to take a deeper dive, we needed to recognize where we went wrong collectively and we needed to come up with solutions. I think there was a lot of reflection by all the folks involved, including myself, in saying it wasn't good enough and we need to do a better job in certain areas. I think a lot of those areas have been addressed."

The Timbers organization made sweeping changes to T2 in three key areas. Wilkinson and his staff revamped their scouting process for T2 to bring in better players and create a more balanced roster. Decisions were made to shuffle the T2 staff with former first team assistant coach Cameron Knowles taking over the head coaching role. And a greater emphasis was put on the relationship between the first team and T2 and how the club could foster a winning mentality at both levels.

Six months into the 2018 United Soccer League (USL) season, it is clear that those changes have paid off. T2, which is coming off a 4-0 win over Tulsa, sits in fifth place in the USL Western Conference standings with five games left in the regular season and is in position to earn its first-ever playoff berth. The Timbers have yet to have a player from their T2 program go on to see consistent minutes with the first team, but newcomers Marvin Loria and Foster Langsdorf, as well as midfielder Renzo Zambrano, who joined T2 toward the end of last season, are among the players that look like serious prospects in the pipeline.

"I think even early on this season, we thought we had a pretty good group here," Knowles said. "We had some vocal leaders. We had some experience. We felt we had the chance to shape this team into something better and something different."

The changes started early in the offseason as Wilkinson, Grabavoy and Mansueto started to invest more resources into scouting at the T2 level and worked to ensure that the process for signing T2 players was in line with the rigorous system used for the first team. Wilkinson and his staff, along with the Timbers and T2 staff, are now all involved in making decisions about players coming into the T2 program.

While the offseason signing of Honduran youngster Darixon Vuelto didn't pan out, the club upgraded the quality of the T2 roster overall and made a huge move by bringing in Loria on loan with an option to buy from Costa Rican club Deportivo Saprissa. Loria could be poised to earn a first team contract next year

"The same scouting process that we use for the first team, we've started to implement and bring down to the second team," Wilkinson said. "So, the same process is being followed throughout the whole club, which is the first chance really, with staffing, with infrastructure, that we've had the ability to do this."

At the same time, the organization worked diligently to create a positionally balanced roster with a mix of young and experienced players that would be capable of winning at the USL level. Experienced USL defenders Jimmy Mulligan, Josh Phillips and Nathan Smith were brought in to provide leadership and serve as role models for the younger players.

"While this is primarily a developmental team to produce players for the first team, it was about understanding that winning is part of that development and these players have to understand what it takes to win games," Knowles said.

The relationship and communication between T2 and the first team has also improved.

Knowles and Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese, who previously worked in youth development with the New York Red Bulls and Cosmos, made the decision this year to have T2 and the Timbers train within half an hour of each other each morning at the Timbers training facility in Beaverton. This has allowed for more interaction between the first and second team players and has enabled players to move seamlessly between the two practices as needed.

Savarese also meets with Knowles on a weekly basis to discuss which first team players will be loaned down to T2. A handful of rostered Timbers players have spent the season on loan with T2 to get minutes. Key first team players also sometimes play with T2 during their return from injuries or to build fitness.

"We want T2 to compete and also create a winning mentality, which is the mentality that we want with the first team," Savarese said. "The players that are going down to T2 understand that they need to perform with T2 in order for us to consider them with the first team."

But T2's success on the field this season hasn't yet translated into players from the T2 program getting many opportunities with the first team.

Langsdorf, who was signed by the Timbers as a homegrown player and loaned down to T2 this season, has scored 14 goals in 24 appearances. But Savarese recently said that he didn't think Langsdorf was ready to play at the MLS level at this point. Midfielder Eryk Williamson excelled in 15 starts with T2 this year, but never got an opportunity with the first team and was sent on loan to Portuguese first-division side C.D. Santa Clara in August. The Timbers believe the loan will be beneficial to Williamson's development. Forward Jeremy Ebobisse has made 18 appearances on loan with T2 this year, but didn't earn his first MLS start of the season until last Saturday, despite Portland's recent struggles in the attack. He scored a goal to lead the Timbers to a 2-0 win over Colorado in his season debut.

"We have those players every single day in practice and we watch them in practice," Savarese said. "So, we're not only seeing what they do in games with T2, we also see them day-by-day in training and have to make our decisions based on what we see day-by-day."

The growing gap between MLS and USL has made it particularly difficult for players to make the jump from T2 to the first team. The influx of Targeted Allocation Money, which can be used to buy down the salary cap hit on non-Designated Players making more than the maximum budget charge, has enabled MLS teams to bring in even more talent this season.

The Timbers' developmental program is also young as compared to other MLS teams. But the organization still clearly has work to do as it strives to develop an effective pipeline to the first team. The Timbers have yet to have a player from their USL or academy program see consistent minutes with the first team. Marco Farfan is the only academy product that has earned starts at the MLS level, while Ebobisse is the only player that has earned a start with the first team this year after consistent minutes with T2.

Members of the Timbers organization maintain that prospects from T2 will start developing into contributors for the first team over time. For now, the success of T2 on the field this season and the talent within the roster is a massive positive that the organization believes it can build on, especially after the disappointment of last year.

"As MLS becomes more competitive, we have to make sure that the gap between our first team and second team doesn't grow to the point that we're never going to see players contributing for the first team," Wilkinson said. "I think with the Lorias, with the Fosters, their work ethic and their mentality has been tremendous, and, over time, I do believe you'll see those players get rewarded, but there's a different pathway for every player."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg