TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Loan expiration
Goalkeeper Logan Ketterer has returned to USL Championship side El Paso Locomotive after signing a short-term loan with the Portland Timbers under the MLS Extreme Hardship waiver, it was announced Wednesday.
Ketterer, 27, started all three MLS games he was available for and kept two shutouts. He saved a penalty kick in his memorable debut, a 2-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes. Ketterer joined Portland after Steve Clark, Jeff Attinella and Aljaz Ivacic all picked up injuries, leaving only Hunter Sulte, a 19-year-old academy product, as the club's lone shotstopper.
“It was an incredible experience from start to end," Ketterer said in a club statement. "Mark [Lowry] and the Portland organization put in so much work to make sure the paperwork got done in time. Mark was fantastic to allow me to take the opportunity because really it wasn’t easy for him. He had to go through a lot of hoops and hurdles in finding other players. It was a lot of work for me to take a chance to go play some games. It an incredible experience and I couldn’t be happier with everyone for making it happen.”
Clark and Ivacic were nearing a return, though neither made the bench in Portland's 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union last weekend. The Timbers next compete June 19 against Sporting Kansas City and expect to have at least one, if not both, ailing goalkeepers back. Attinella, meanwhile, is out for the season after undergoing surgery on a ruptured right rectus femoris tendon.
Ketterer has played for El Paso the last three seasons, posting 22 shutouts in 55 appearances across all competitions. He was originally drafted by the Columbus Crew in the fourth round (71st overall) of the 2017 MLS SuperDraft, his sole appearance coming in a Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match against Chicago Fire FC in 2018.
“It sounds silly, and obviously there is pressure, but once the gloves came on, it was just here is the same routine I’ve been doing for the last two years,” Ketterer said. “It’s just a different stadium with a different colored jersey. That was the biggest difference and I felt comfortable. Luckily, I was given a chance early on, catching a cross on a corner that was kind of a difficult ball to deal with. It was a great way to get brought into the game and from there I was completely comfortable.”
The goalkeeper returns to El Paso having missed only two games in which his parent club kept a clean sheet.
