When Liam Ridgewell started playing professional soccer in 2002, Nat Borchers, his center back partner for the Portland Timbers' 2015 MLS Cup run, was a senior at the University of Denver. Jack Jewsbury was a forward for the St. Louis University Billikins. Ned Grabavoy was starring at Indiana.
In the last four months, Borchers, Jewsbury, and Grabavoy have all retired. But Ridgewell, armed with a new two-year contract as he prepares for his fifteenth professional season, is as important to the Timbers as he ever has been.
Off the field, he's the team's elder statement. On it, he'll be asked to marshall a defense that may be the only thing keeping the Timbers from championship contention.
For all their great attacking talents, it's Ridgewell who might be the Timbers' most important player in 2017.
If he's fit, Ridgewell should be up to the task. That's not to say he doesn't have his foibles — an utter inability to play in heat, the odd inexplicable lapse in concentration — but Ridgewell has generally been one of the best defenders in MLS since he arrived in Portland in the summer of 2014.
The London native is a slick player. Not blessed with dominant size or speed, Ridgewell is a sharp defender — consistent, competitive, smart, and unusually sound on the ball. Portland has been substantially bettered by his professionalism alone.
And Ridgewell, it's fair to say, has been substantially bettered by Portland. The Timbers made Ridgewell a DP at a time when MLS clubs weren't spending big money on defenders and made him captain on their way to MLS Cup. In his time here, Ridgewell has written a column for the Daily Mail and had his own Hopworks beer.
It's been a successful partnership — and both sides were happy to see it continue when the Timbers handed their center back a new contract in the fall. But 2016, for both club and player, left a bitter taste.
Between his move to Portland in 2014 and loans to Wigan and Brighton in the winters of 2014 and 2015 respectively, Ridgewell had not had a full offseason since the summer of 2013 when he was with West Brom.
The effects began to show last year. Ridgewell injured his hamstring in March and missed seven games. He hurt his calf in July and missed three more. All told, Ridgewell was out of the lineup for twelve MLS games in 2016 — during which the Timbers won just twice and conceded twenty goals.
The end of last season was a nadir. With Ridgewell suspended on yellow card accumulation for the season's final game at Vancouver, the Timbers fell apart in a 4-1 loss. Two days later, both Ridgewell and goalkeeper Jake Gleeson were arrested in Lake Oswego on suspicion of driving under the influence.
The case against Ridgewell would be dropped in January, but the episode prompted a reckoning of sorts. Ridgewell met with — and was reportedly dressed down — by members of the Timbers' front office and head coach Caleb Porter.
He emerged contrite, with his captaincy intact, looking forward to this season.
It might not be an easy ride. Gbenga Aroyoko, who was supposed to start alongside Ridgewell in central defense, tore his Achilles in training in January — leaving journeyman Lawrence Olum as the team's likely Opening Day starter with rookie Rennico Clarke and natural right back Zarek Valentin behind him.
The Timbers are trying to sign another starting quality center back, but in the meantime, Ridgewell is the only thing standing between this team and a circus reminiscent of the Danny O'Rourke-Rauwshan McKenzie show of 2014.
Even with Ridgewell in the lineup, the 2016 Timbers were a mess defensively. Portland conceded 53 goals last season — the worst mark in the Western Conference and of the Caleb Porter era. In both of the seasons the Timbers have made the playoffs under Porter, they've conceded less than 40.
The new central midfield partnership of David Guzman and Diego Chara should help defensively, but it will fall to Ridgewell to organize and lead a defense that will likely have rotating pieces throughout the year.
The organization piece will be especially key. Ridgewell is the team's loudest and most demonstrative player on the field, and Porter has spoken at length over the last three years about his qualities as a quarterback for the defense.
Those qualities were missing last year, as basic breakdowns in communication between various members of the backline haunted the Timbers week in and week out. Simple plays that the 2015 team made with ease became adventures. The April move from Adam Kwarasey to Gleeson in goal, as well as Gleeson played, didn't help.
Ridgewell's presence is important in another way. He's the Timbers' best passer out of the back, and, as Porter tries to transition the team back to a more possession-oriented style this year, he'll lean on his captain's ability to connect the defense to the midfield when Portland has the ball.
In many ways, this is Ridgewell's team. With the number of veteran players the Timbers have lost in the last year, it'll be down to the likes of Ridgewell and Diego Valeri to set the tone. Chemistry, which Porter felt lacked at times last year, has been an unusually big emphasis of this preseason.
Physically refreshed, Ridgewell has a point to prove this year — both on and off the field — after what transpired in 2016. For the Timbers to compete for another championship, he'll have to be at his best.