A Pair of Games Coming Down the Road
After a pair of nil-nil draws this past weekend, the Portland Timbers will spend the week preparing for a road trip that will take them to Puerto Rico and Miami. Both locales are lovely enough to visit, but are not exactly that much fun when you have to run in 90-percent humidity for 90 minutes. Portland has never won on the island of Puerto Rico. The Timbers did win one of their previous two games in Miami. Two numbers to keep in mind: 329 and 194. The Timbers haven't given up a goal in the last 329 minutes of play and they haven't scored a goal in the last 194 minutes of action.
USL First Division Week 5 Wrap
Thursday
Portland Timbers 0-0 Rochester Rhinos - Recap here
Friday
Charleston Battery 3-1 Miami FC Blues - You really only need to know a couple of things about Miami. The first is that their Brazilian striker Alex Afonso should be playing at a higher level than the USL First Division. He scored his fourth goal in six games in this one. He is class. The second fact about Miami is that their defense is causing their keeper Josh Saunders to develop whiplash. Miami has given up 11 goals in six games, a large reason why they have four losses to their name. Meanwhile, Charleston is feeling pretty good after winning their second in a row at home. Randi Patterson scored a brace for the Battery. Former Cuban international Osvaldo Alonso is a joy to watch in the midfield and is the type of playmaker Miami sure could use. A strong crowd of 4,908 showed up at Blackbaud Stadium.
May 11, 2008 | Read this article...
Match 5: Seattle Sounders 0-0 Portland Timbers
The Bottom Line: The Portland Timbers paid their final regular season USL First Division visit to Seattle on Saturday evening and played the Sounders to a 0-0 draw before 10,184 at Qwest Field. With both teams struggling to find their attack, the two Northwest rivals played a typically tight game. The two teams met just two weeks ago with Portland coming out at top at home. Seattle has started their season 1-1-2 and the Timbers have opened up at 3-0-2. It was the second nil-nil draw in three nights for Portland and the fourth shutout in five games for their keeper Ray Burse. Seattle and Portland will meet one more time in the regular season on August 7 at PGE Park.
May 10, 2008 | Read this article...
NW Derby Round 2
Two weeks ago the Portland Timbers took the first scalp in the 2008 Cascadia Cup by defeating the Seattle Sounders 2-0 at PGE Park. Saturday night they travel to Seattle for the next installment of the NW Derby. The Timbers enter the contest with a 3-0-1 record and are in first place in the USL First Division. The Sounders picked up their first win of the season last Saturday in Atlanta and are 1-1-1 on the year. This is the last regular season game the two teams will play as USL foes at Qwest Field. It is the only regular season game the Sounders will play at Qwest Field this year -- the rest of their games will be played at the much more intimate Starfire Complex in the burbs. You can watch the game on USL Live (if you haven't bought a season package by now you should) or listen to the melodic voice of Andy Mac online. If you live in the Portland area, I believe there will be watching parties this season at Beulahland (118 NE 28th) and Slabtown (1033 NW 16th Ave), but you might want to call ahead first to confirm that.
May 10, 2008 | Read this article...
Portland v Rochester: Sights and Sounds
Takayuki Suzuki welcomes former Timbers midfielder Luke Kreamalmayer back to Portland and Scott Vallow is none too pleased.
May 09, 2008 | Read this article...
Guest Post: Leagues of their own
David Falk is the webmaster of www.GOALSeattle.com. He has followed the Sounders and the Seattle soccer scene since 1974. He was instrumental in starting the Cascadia Cup competition and had lobbied for the NBA Sonics to change their Yellow & Green (ick!) color scheme. He's recently realized that will soon no longer be an issue. His thoughts on the Timbers and Sounders rivalry ahead of Saturday's clash in Seattle are below. My take on the Northwest Derby can be found here.
Sounders and Timbers fans are looking at 2008 through very different lenses. So are the clubs themselves.
While the Timbers look to continue their hot start with a second win in Seattle this Saturday night, the Sounders are hoping for some home magic to turn around the performance and result from their 2-0 loss in the Rose City in late April.
It goes far beyond one match, though, this seeing things differently.
May 09, 2008 | Read this article...
Match 4: Portland Timbers 0-0 Rochester Rhinos
The Bottom Line: The Portland Timbers and Rochester Rhinos played to a nil-nil draw on a Thursday evening in front of 7,519 at PGE Park. Coming off a 12-day layoff, the Timbers could not find a rhythm against a Rochester side that kept the action tight. The two teams combined for a total of 40 fouls in a contest that was at times chippy. Rochester starts their season by going 270 minutes without a goal and are winless in three games. The Timbers end their four-game homestand with three wins and a draw. Keeper Ray Burse picked up his third shutout in four games. The Timbers have gone 18 regular season games at home without a loss and they remain in first place in the USL First Division.
May 08, 2008 | Read this article...
An Alternative Approach: Portland should wait out MLS
I applaud people who are creative in thought and who are willing to challenge conventional wisdom. I salute Cliff Pfenning, a former scribe for the Portland Tribune and the current publisher of Oregon Sports. He has penned an interesting piece (PDF) about the approach Portland should take to land an MLS team. He argues that instead of dipping into his extensive piggy bank, Timbers owner Merritt Paulson should spend his time and energy building up the current franchise so that it becomes so big and so attractive that MLS simply will roll out the red carpet in 2012 without demanding a huge expansion fee. An interesting idea for sure, but for the sake of argument let's examine some of his reasoning.
May 08, 2008 | Read this article...
Thursday Night Lights
How does this work again? It has been 12 days since we last saw the Portland Timbers play and I almost forget what I am supposed to do on game day. Surely it doesn't involve performing any meaningful work. Surely it does involve spending all day alternating between looking at the clock and the Talk Timbers message board until a reasonable enough hour arrives for me to slink off to the pub unnoticed. We can start to fill the waiting hours by reading the piece on Miguel Guante in the Thursday Oregonian. Guante is the flavor of the moment thanks to his performances against Minnesota and Seattle, and he's hoping to become the flavor of forever. It just goes to show how thin of a line there is in the soccer world. One minute it looks a player isn't going to feature much for a club and the next he has a stranglehold on a starting position. At least for now. There are a lot of bodies in the midfield this season and a lot of them are seeking to do the same thing that Guante has done early on this year, win a starting job.
May 08, 2008 | Read this article...
Who are ya? – Rochester Rhinos
The Details: Portland Timbers v Rochester Rhinos, Thursday, May 8, 7pm, PGE Park. Web audio broadcast, Video webcast, Spanish radio on La X 1040AM
Last season: The 2007 Rochester Rhinos had high hopes playing their second season at Paetec Park, a stadium built over a filled-in section of the Erie Canal. Alas, the Rhinos did not live up to those high expectations, finishing the regular season in fifth place with 12 wins, 10 losses, and 6 draws. Rochester was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Atlanta. A franchise that once won three league trophies and the US Open Cup in its first six years, Rochester has now gone six years without winning anything.
May 07, 2008 | Read this article...
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- Match 5: Seattle Sounders 0-0 Portland Timbers
GOALSeattle.com: Thanks for blogging with us this week, Bob. A Seattle-centric video is here: http://goalseattle2.bl ... [read more] - Guest Post: Leagues of their own
Erich: What road trips to Portland? The 30 you brought a week ago? Or the 15 you brought two years ago? Or ... [read more] - Match 5: Seattle Sounders 0-0 Portland Timbers
Dr Bickle: I pissed in Brian Schmetzer's Ovaltine. He liked it. - Match 5: Seattle Sounders 0-0 Portland Timbers
Joel: Karalexis ? You mean thompson Ed: Thanks, Joel. Brain freeze on my part. - Match 5: Seattle Sounders 0-0 Portland Timbers
Ian Rose: The Army sounded fantastic on USL Live. Nice job, boys and girls. Great job from Burse again, and ... [read more] - NW Derby Round 2
Dr. Bickle: Charles: it's been all over that board and announced on the Timbers e-mail list. Just not very eas ... [read more] - NW Derby Round 2
Charles: Isn't that something that should be on talktimbers.com? I was just over there looking for exactly th ... [read more] - NW Derby Round 2
Dr. Bickle: Tonight's viewing party is at Beulahland, an all-ages venue. Nothing going on at Slabtown tonight ... [read more] - Guest Post: Leagues of their own
GOALSeattle.com: Not sure if this link will work, but Schmetzer was on KJR today. Damnit! I could only get him to ... [read more] - Guest Post: Leagues of their own
Allison Andrews: What is Kreamalmeyer doing to Wicks in that photo? Wait a second, that's Levesque directly behind ... [read more]
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