Monthly Archives: April 2012

please, stay here and try not to do anything…

Posted on April 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

the great thing about the timbers continued poor performances is as the number increases so does the threshold of acceptance. i can shake off a loss in a matter of minutes where it used to require several days of gestalt therapy assisted by cold compresses, a cocktail of ibuprofen and sodium naproxin, and a bowl of jellied pears. during those incipient days of humbling my expectations, mrs sunshine was forced to listen to the continued discussion of how i was feeling about football at any particular moment and what attitudes were needed to accomplish anything worthwhile following a loss. but with the help of the timbers, i can safely say that i am ok with losing and i have no further expectations for this year.

i think the cocktail has eaten away my stomach lining and i am suffering from bleeding ulcers, because that last paragraph is a load of hooey. personally, i believe i would not be a football supporter, a timber supporter, if i did not care about failure and defeat. i can think of few things that hurt more, perhaps driving a nail through my foot or eyeball, but very few other things, indeed. which is why i do not accept the current rationale that consistency is the issue. the timbers are consistent, just not good. which suggests the issues are threefold: lack of talent, poor discipline and absent leadership in certain areas.

while you cannot reasonably expect your captain to be the best player on the pitch (often that does not work out) , you can expect your captain to do the hard work, to pick players up when they are not pulling their weight, to lead, whether by cussing and yelling or by example, and to say the hard things when it is necessary. cue the typical, vacuous captain jack quote:

I think consistency has been an issue for us on the road. We came out last week again Kansas City, at home, we were winning second balls and had a great game. It’s just a matter of finding that consistency on the road now.

did you learn anything there? yeah, neither did i. neither did jack, otherwise he would understand that the team is consistent on the road–consistently poor. i get the need to remain upbeat, semi-positive, but why not take some responsibility? why not do something novel rather than press the rewind and replay buttons? why not look geoffrey c. arnold in the eye and say, hey, i stunk it up and so did the team–you know, something similar to what boyd did.

Montreal played better than us, they worked harder than us, so they deserved the victory. I think the penalty decision changed the game. But we need to look at our performance. It wasn’t good enough on the road.

there you go, jackie boy, a substantial quote that considers the possibility of personal and group stinkitude. unfortunately, you have been indoctrinated into the ostrich school of media interaction.

i have been thinking of all the famous captains throughout history and fiction. there was captain horatio hornblower, captain kirk, followed up by captain picard, captain america, captain bligh, captain cook, captain hook, and captain francesco schettino. yes, that is the guy i am thinking of…the one who excused his abandonment of his multi-million dollar, luxury cruise liner in the mediterranean on the fact he tripped and fell into the life raft. the lack of consistency response is as absurd and insulting as the “i left my sinking ship and the hundreds of passengers aboard because i am a clutz” response. we get that the side cannot put two games together that are worthy of a winning team, but inconsistency expresses an unpredictible nature of play–5 loses out of 8, a -4 goal differential, and the inability to find the back of the net in the last two games, suggests something more than inconsistent play is at the heart of the issues. jack is there in the side, boyd is there also, why minimize the problem when punching it in the mouth is often the better approach.

merritt paulson tweeted for the umpteenth time that the side does have issues, but talent is not the issue and they will be working on righting the ship. whether it is talent, an unbalanced side, or players who have limited to no footballing intelligence, the one thing i have seen to be consistent other than the timbers poor play is the inability of the manager, gavin, and the front office to address the ballasts and the issues. it is comforting to know the owner recognizes there are issues pervasive within the side, but when, and more importantly, how will he address them?

an option would be to dismantle the underperforming and ill-disciplined central midfield. after contemplating the contributions of certain players, i would like to officially announce that the lovel palmer experiment has failed. i know i handed him a get out of jail free card for his performance against sporting, but that was more due to a fine collective, defensive effort than to the fact he was outstanding. against the impact he suffered from the same issues of hesitation and wanderlust that plagued his days at right back, which either forced him to make ill-advised passes or to chase players rather than crunch their nuts when first confronting them, which is the job of a defensive midfielder. while i can sacrifice palmer for the good of the team, and would do so yesterday, his play against the impact characterized the disciplinary problems abounding the timbers in general–players either do not have a distinct idea of their position or they just do not care. i would suggest it is the former, not the later.

our poster child for on-field, disciplinary problems, diego chara, is an enigma. my initial evaluation of diego against the impact was unkind, to say the least. i have been unable to determine whether he is an important figure for the side, or just fouls so often that we are led to believe he is an important figure for the side. early on, he committed some fouls against the impact but then decided to go to recess as all good twelve-year olds do. i know i was bored enough during the match to contemplate sleeping, but i did not sleep, and, honestly, i cannot remember him playing aside from the fouls he committed. however, his increasingly enigmatic play coincides with the change in positions on the field. placing him on the wing does provide the team a defensive barrier, but is that not what jack and palmer are required to provide? when diego was placed in the creative role, and captain jack in the defensive role, we actually scored goals. the last two games where jack has been given freedom to get forward, diego has been marginalized and we have scored 0 goals. zilch. zero.

two games may not be a trend, but it does indicate where the imbalance in the side resides. maybe, but unlikely, that is the issue merritt indicates he will correct–the removal of jack from the side. there have been enough changes in formation and tactics to suggest it is personnel issues. clearly, when the changes have been made to pander to a particular player’s opinion of his own talents, the common denominator is easily observable.

with that, have a great day.

 

sunshine.

 

 

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sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, regardless of how awful it tastes…

Posted on April 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

good morning and apologies for the late post–i was sleeping. i rarely dream, or, more accurately, i rarely remember my dreams. on those occasions that i do remember it is often following one of those wonderful, freudian wish fulfillments, where i would rather remain in the dream than awaken to reality. i am sure many timbers supporters suffered a similar experience at 1 pm this saturday, wishing to remain in the bliss that was felt by stealing a win from sporting.

i recall being rather excited last saturday night when leaving the jw, the supporters around me were excited, and with good reason–we had just beaten the best team in the league. but did we? the fact portland never threatened sporting any more than sporting threatened the timbers would suggest that the timbers received a good bit of luck and sporting a great shock. as much as i enjoyed sporting’s misfortune brought on by a poor clearance, i knew we were thieves and did not deserve that win–we deserved a draw, but not that win. so, you must forgive me when i say the aberrant result against sporting may have been a helpful response to the hemorrhaging of early season games, but it was never going to be the definition of our season. the real test of what type of team we have came this saturday.

as much as we do not like the answer, we have it. the timbers are a shambles of a side. the leadership is frail. the captain is not a captain. the midfield is anything but a viable midfield. but more frustrating than any of that is the simple fact none of the issues from last season were actually addressed in the offseason. this week saw the number of leftbacks increase and our midfield decrease. we still need a rightback, we still need a creative attacking midfielder who is not named jack jewsbury, and we need a defensive midfielder who can patrol in front of the back four with dedication and authority. with this in mind, why not take a look at the match in quebec?

in the years i have been watching football, i have experienced some good games and i have experienced some bad games. this was a bad game. in the first half i was so bored by the play i found my eyelids getting heavy, with my nappiness prevented only by the annoying vuvuzela type thingy the canadiens would blast with screeching irregularity throughout the match.

the first noticable difference between the timbers and montreal was the timbers inability to control the midfield. the majority of their play was spent looking for the next lofted pass northward, returning to the same ineffective and deliberate tactics of last year. at the half, i was shocked to see that the timbers were able to connect 74% of their passes in the first half; this number did not reflect accurately the reality of the game.

from the outset, the impact when in possession of the ball were able to move it throughout the pitch with fluidity, passing the ball effortlessly from player to player. their ability to hold the ball up and dictate play was illustrated by the first dangerous moment of the game. mapp took purdy to the byline, turned purdy and slotted the ball back to arnaud who was left alone and open at the six yard box. by some force of luck or a need to impersonate ryan giggs, circa 2003, arnaud launched the ball so far into the stratosphere that russia put out alerts. i cannot say that i suffer from ptsd, because i have never served in the military, but when mapp made that pass i slipped into a crumpled mess on the floor and cried “no, not donovan!”

i then returned to my napiness until the 38th minute when nagbe made a wonderful, mazey run into the box, passing to jewsbury on the right who had an open shot on goal. this was a moment where something exciting would have happened had it been any other player to  receive the ball than jewsbury who is about as useless as tits on a boar. i am not certain whether he thought about crossing, how big ricketts’s hands are, or the wonderful dish of poutine he would enjoy after the match, but he sissy-footed the ball directly at ricketts who made an easy stop. any player with an attacking mindset would have done something more than what captain jack did to put ricketts off-balance.

as the half trickled to an end, i asked the question: is there a man more terrified to lead than jack jewsbury?  i admit i have been a rather harsh critic of jewsbury lately, but that comes from too much time spent making excuses for him, making excuses for his back passes, and making excuses for his negative play. but the fact remains, when he is given moments to shine, to make a difference, and to carry the team, he goes missing. i have run out of patience and desire to provide him any further assistance in justifying his position on the side.

one last bit of heart-attack defense was necessary before the whistle. corradi had a great opportunity to open up the scoring at the 43 minute mark. arnaud took smith to the byline, dinks a pass to an onrushing corradi, who also drilled the ball over the crossbar. this was no longer funny.

the second half was much the same as the first. the timbers showed little to no interest in completing passes or getting forward. it was clear the timbers lacked the tiny piece of a spark they may have had in the first half–something needed to change. at the 56 minute, franck songo’o came on for the ineffective and perpetually offside, jorge perlaza. though his first contribution to the match was to pass directly to the impact, he did increase our creativity. i think. to be honest, the game just went on and on, and was anything but compelling.

i am sure the gaffer would have brought on another creative player, say, eric alexander, had he not been forced to replace perkins. at the 63 minute perkins was forced out of the game after taking nyassi’s boot to the face. a cynical man would suggest nyassi was settling an old seattle score, but i doubt he is either smart enough or shitty enough to contemplate doing such a thing. that does not mean his challenge was not reckless–it was–and, in my opinion, the replays showed it could have resulted in much more than the yellow he received for his efforts.

the loss of perkins was felt. on came joe bendik, whose appearance yesterday answered the age-old question: who ate all the pies? uh, joe did. my god, that boy is large and gratefully so, because his girth was immediately put into use as he blocked a shot off his shoulder, a shot he was unaware of until it hit him. the next time he would be called into action he new the shot was coming.

surprising to many of us is the fact steven smith made his debut for the timbers after a mid-week transfer. i would have prefered a few more days introduction to his teammates before starting for the side, but i am not the gaffer. he did provide glimpses of his talent, specifically his crossing and deliveries from set pieces. at the 55 minute, smith delivered a tasty cross into boyd, who was lurking at the edge of the goal. the ball came within inches of boyd, unfortunately it was scuppered away to boyd’s evident frustration.

it is an unwritten truth that most debuts result in hero or goat status. saturday, partially undeserved, smith got the goat. at times, smith did appear outpaced and detached from the game and teammates. again, much of this can be attributed to lack of conditioning and actual play with his new teammates. on the 76 minute, while throwing his body about to defend a direct and powerful shot on goal, he blocked the ball with his knee and, as things happen, the ball ricocheted into his arm. handball was yelled for, handball was called, and smith was hard done. in even the worst moments of officiating (mls excluded) that was not a handball. it was not intentional and should not have been given as a penalty.

so, back to bendik. there are keepers who can stop penalty shots and then there are keepers who flop at them. bendik flopped. he guessed right, but seemed more concerned about the effects of the landing his large body would suffer than stopping the penalty. i cannot take a keeper to task on penalties too much, they are a reaction, but give yourself a chance by putting your arms out. corradi scores.

while smith should not be faulted for the poorly awarded penalty, he should be held responsible for the second goal. at several times during the match, smith could be observed tip-toeing through the tulips, smelling the roses, and chasing butterflies. the 84 minute was no exception. the run of play was heavily weighted against the timbers at this point in the match and all players need to be alert and assertive. smith was caught out and did nothing to retain his mark, rather he simply strolled back to the 18 yard box, allowing his man acres of space. arnaud fires ball across 6 yard box to some fella whose name is longer and more difficult to say that supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. i knew it, you knew it, and bendik let smith know it–he was at fault. game over.

i tried to muster some enthusiasm for the remaining minutes of the match, but it was pointless. much can be said about the pitch, and it was a patchwork quilt of velcro and astroturf, but both teams had to play on the surface. the fact is the timbers are not good. they lack a real midfield general and appear no closer to finding him, and, unfortunately, their character reflects the current captain’s nonchalant approach to the game.

 

with that grim assessment, enjoy the beautiful day.

 

sunshine

 

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Notes from Up North

Posted on April 28, 2012 | 2 Comments

For some reason, Fox Soccer Plus has recently started to stream matches from the SPL, and as I sit here writing this I am also watching Hearts v. Dundee United in the background. Ahh, the memories this brings back…mostly of standing in freezing drizzle in the stands at Easter Road, wishing that I had another can of Special Brew. One thing you do notice about these broadcasts is that the on field mics seem to pick up a lot more of the crowd commentary thanduring matches in the bigger leagues. It provides a rather disturbing insight into the slurring, booze-sodden world of the Scottish football fan. People scream out things in public that I would hesitate to say in private, and the fact that these things are uttered in a dialect impenetrable to most native speakers of English is of limited comfort.

Here we are, a week on from beating the best team in the league, and it’s another chance to find out where this team really stands. Today’s opponents are L’Impact and we’ll be playing at their place. Since the boys from Montreal are, as I understand it, still waiting for their stadium to be ready, we’ll be facing them at the Olympic Stadium, where last time they managed to get practically every warm body in the city to show up. The Olympic Stadium will always be associated in my mind with the closing ceremonies of the 1976 Summer Olympics. Why do I remember this? Because I was ten years old and, watching on TV, it was the first time that I had ever seen a real live streaker. Oh the 70s.

Anyway, down to more serious matters. The burning question of the week, at least for me is, how will the Timbers approach this match in terms of formation? I thought sunshine’s post midweek made some good points, particularly with reference to Lovel Palmer’s role with the team. That Palmer was uncomfortable playing at right back was about the most poorly kept secret in town for the first few weeks of the season, so the move to a more central location made sense. But it does present something of a tactical conundrum. The insertion of a defensively minded midfielder to partner with Jewsbury made sense in the context of a match with Sporting KC. Not only are they by record and reputation the best side in the division, but they are a team that really likes to attack up the center of the park. Shifting KC’s attack laterally had the desired effect, but the question that one might ask is: at what cost?

The Timbers have managed to score a few goals this season. You could argue that the match against KC was the second shut out that the Timbers have suffered all year (given that the goal was scored by Chance Myers). One has to admit that Portland really didn’t create many chances at all during that match. The cross that led to the goal was particularly illustrative. I have to admit that I was quite shocked when I saw it, since when Boyd put it in there wasn’t a Timbers player within about fifteen yards of the back post.

The upshot is that, while the addition of Palmer into midfield stiffens the defense, is it a formation that will allow sufficient offensive chances? The shifting of Chará out to left wing in preference to Alexander seems, on the basis of the evidence from the match with KC, to be a push in terms of performance. Chará and Chabala did a good job of soaking up the pressure that came their way, but incisive forward motion from the left side of the pitch was signally lacking. Things were rather better on the right, where Nagbe’s speed and Perlaza’s skill managed to make a bit more headway, but the overall result was pretty much the same. But for the clownish bungling of Myers and Cesar, which I know we all appreciated, KC’s goal remained blissfully untroubled by enemy incursions for the vast majority of the match. Given that the side that we will be facing this time around is considerably less dangerous that KC, it might be the case that the team can revert to a more offensive formation. On the other hand, it was precisely that approach that produced exactly bubkus against the Revs after conceding the early goal.

So what should we expect from this match? First of all, it should be another very physical match. The appropriately named Impact are currently leading the league in bookings, and the attempt to disrupt opponents through a bit of kicking is a well established strategy for teams moving up to a higher level of competition. Also, as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the surface at the Olympic Stadium is, to say the least, active. For much of the match against the Fire that I watched earlier this season it looked like one of those pickup games that you see on asphalt courts in the neighborhoods of Europe. There will definitely be a bit of home turf advantage, at least for the first part of the match, and it will be crucial for the Timbers to adjust to this feature of the venue.

From what I can tell from the prematch chatter, it looks as if the side will remain unchanged from last week. It looks as if Kalif Alhassan will be out with a sprained knee, which makes a further argument for keeping the same formation as last time, although it will be interesting to see if Alexander can reclaim his place on the left. Chará had some decent moments against KC, but neither he nor Alexander is really the sort of get-to-the-byline-and-put-in-a-cross sort of player, so the question remains as to what the approach on the left side of the pitch is going to be.

There have been promising signs of late, both in terms of the on field performance of the side, as well as in the willingness of management to light a fire under people by bringing in new players and making places in the team more competitive. One swallow does not make a summer, and the win against KC was just that: a win. The key now is to see if the lads can build and that and eliminate the blunders and naivety that have cost them so dearly in the first weeks of the season. What will we know at the end? Well, at least we’ll have some more information.

Magadh

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What Marcelin Did: Dead Horse Flogging

Posted on April 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

I got up this morning planning to write something about the upcoming match with the Montreal Impact. I’m going to get to that in a bit here, but first I wanted to touch on a couple of other things.

The first of these is the sudden departure of James Marcelin from the club. Marcelin had come over from the Puerto Rico Islanders at the tail end of Portland’s existence in the USL. When the Timbers made the jump up to MLS, Marcelin was one of the few people from the old regime to make the cut, making 22 appearances in the inaugural season. I must admit to not knowing any more than this about the guy. He seemed like a decent pro. Nothing special, but a serviceable guy who could eat up some minutes and contribute to solidifying several defensive positions when needed.

I was thus surprised when sunshine texted me the other day to let me know that he had been waived by the club. Stumptown Footy has a many details as anybody else (I’m link to their site as a matter of professional courtesy although if you’re reading this you’ve probably also read that). The cryptic reason given was “non-soccer related reasons,” which as anyone who follows sport will know covers a multitude of sins. Anyway, it seems as if this has caught a lot of people by surprise, at least if the emissions in the blogo/twitto-sphere are anything to go by. The hashtag #whatmarcelindid suddenly sprang to life and, in terms of its entertainment potential, the vein was mined clean with remarkable rapidity. At the risk of flogging the proverbial dead horse, I present for your perusal my top ten contributions:

10. Rode the Max beyond Fareless Square and didn’t pay a dime
9. Told Boyd that everyone knows he’s going bald
8. Snuck @Wynalda11 into the stadium
7. Came up with the idea for the Timbers mohawk stocking caps
6. Told gavin that even he could score on http://cougarlife.com
5. Talked about Fight Club
4. Constantly mispronounced Couch Street
3. Tried to save eight seats with one scarf in 107
2. Two words: Chelsea fan
1. Caught smoking out of a pop can in Lake-O

I know that #6 came from The Axe twitter account, but it was sunshine that put it up there, not me. As for #1, thank you Isaiah Rider. What a numpty that guy was. Seriously, can he possibly have not have ever heard the local nickname for that particular part of town? For the love of god, Isaiah, any time four black men are in a parked car in a cul-de-sac in that area, some neurotic is going to call the fuzz. It really doesn’t matter what they are doing. Selling bibles or whatever, the cops are going to get called. That was low point, even by the standards of the Blasés. But I digress.

On the plus side, the team also announced that they had signed Preston North End defender Steven Smith. Smith, who has also played for Norwich City, Rangers, and the Sheep Shaggers, will probably be a little disappointed that he will have found one of the few places on Earth that doesn’t have significantly better weather than Lancashire. I’ve only seen him play a couple of times, but I will say this for the guy, he is a hardnosed player. He’ll let opposing attackers know that he is about and will not back down. He’s racked up seven bookings and one sending off so far this season for Preston, so he’s clearly not shy about getting a boot in.

The players that are here now are probably glad that the grim run of results that had blighted the first seven weeks of the season has now been snapped. But the next challenge for the side is to achieve another thing that has eluded them so far this season: winning back to back matches. This week’s opponents are one of this year’s crop of expansion sides, the Montreal Impact. Even on the road this is the sort of side that the Timbers should really get well against. The key word here being “should”.

Montreal has had a lot of the kind of results that you would expect from an expansion side so far this year. They got butchered by the Energy Drinks away from home at the end of March. Since then, their best result has been gutting out a draw with DC United. That is, if you discount their win against league whipping boys Toronto (a team that has really shifted into reverse and engaged the warp engines). What stands out in their record is that they have so far only played two matches at home, and didn’t lose either one. Most recent was their victory over Toronto, but in week 2, they held the Fire to a draw in their home opener. Lately, the Fire have been poster children for underachieving, perhaps not to the same degree as the Energy Drinks, but you’d still think they’d be better than they are with the personnel that they have.

I actually watched that match, having nothing better to do of a Saturday afternoon, and two things stick in my memory. First, the pitch at the Olympic Stadium is very lively to say the least. It really seemed to take both sides much of the first half to come to terms with the way the ball moved. Second, Montreal got something like 58,000 fans to show up, which is pretty impressive. I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept packing them in as well, since in those parts of the year when the Habs aren’t in action their really must be a pretty big hole in the sporting culture up there, one that the Alouettes can only sort of fill.

In any case, I’ll have more to say about this tomorrow when I do the prematch post. Until then, for those of you who are dying to see Mike Fucito inserted into the lineup, just remember that he can’t play against Montreal in the Olympic Stadium due to contractual reasons. So there.

Magadh

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what do we do with what we have?

Posted on April 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

as much as i long to maintain my position in the exclusive club of luddites, i have conceded that social media is taking over this world. very few moments of our days are spent slowing down, hand writing letters, reading actual newsprint, letting our fingers do the walking through the yellow pages, while we sip on a cup of hand-milled coffee. when headlines are written and the news announced it is no longer done with an “extra extra extra” attached to it, rather hashtags and likes. so, it should come as no surprise that the biggest bit of news in stumptown football was announced on twatter yesterday and trended throughout the day.

it is official, steven smith is a timber. personally, i am excited by the fact gavin has gone into the market and brought in a wingback, addressing the needs of the team. unfortunately, the greater need was on the other side of the pitch; smith is, was, and always will be a left back. if you are interested, i wrote about smith over a week ago in my post: further slips or pink slips…that is the question? if he can stay healthy, i will contend smith is an improvement upon what we currently have at the left back position. improvement is good, but now we have three leftbacks and no rightback to speak of.

there has been some discussion of perhaps pushing the rod wall further up the pitch as a left wing, but i doubt spencer will justify usurping a position held by many players who are better than wallace at most things football simply because the timbers now have a surplus of leftbacks. consequently, i am left with the suspicion that we have not seen the last of gavin’s dealings in the transfer market.

we need a right back and we need him yesterday. there are some internal options but they really are not viable ones. steve purdy is the most likely to continue at right back. purdy gave a passable, yet noble, performance against sporting kc, but you cannot tell me that he is capable of that type of performance for the remaining 27 matches of this season. he simply is not athletic enough, nor disciplined enough, to prevent attacking sides from exploiting the right side of the field over the stretch of a season. ryan kawulok may have impressed in the few moments he was given in pre-season and in reserve matches, but i am not willing to trust the right side of the defense to the young kid from the university of portland quite yet–and likely the gaffer is not either. finally, there is freddie braun, who came in to replace purdy after an injury forced the veteran defender out of the match on saturday. braun put in a good shift, shutting down kai kamera in the crucial late moments of the game. however, one thing i noticed about his play during that match was a natural tendency to traverse into the middle of the pitch, which is understandable given he is a defensive midfielder. wonders and miracles can occur, but i doubt spencer has the footballing equivalent of the midas touch to transform braun into a right back better than steve purdy. simply put, we have not addressed the issues of the right side of our defense, nor have we helped the cause any by moving #facepalmer to the midfield–we have only moved him to midfield, and limited our options at rightback.

this should not cause us to anticipate the arrival of smith into the starting xi without any excitement. the gaffer has heralded his play as that of a grafter, a player who will work hard for the cause and the team.

Steven has impressed us, both on the field and as a person, during his trial. He is a hard-working defender who possesses a winning mentality. Steven has been a part of successful clubs throughout his career and has experience at high levels, including playing in the Champions League.

smith has the pedigree and the quality to suggest he will be successful in the mls, a league not yet on par with the scottish premier league or with the first division in england.

so, thanks to twitter and the topical trending the cliffhanger question was answered: who will come in first? the answer is now out, and so is james marcelin. gavin made the announcement, stating that marcelin was released outright due to non-soccer related issues. frankly, as much fun as it provided some on twitter, i am unmoved by this story. james was marginalized for some time. whether due to his lacklustre displays on the pitch, or his attitude problems off it, he had become irrelevant to the team. the few moments he did find himself in the side he did very little to help his cause. marcelin may have been one of the first signed during the inaugural season, coming directly over from the 2010 timbers usl squad, but with our current form we have no room for sentimentality. i wish him the best, but in an effort to develop and grow as a side this move made sense and is one i would have welcomed last year.

with that, have a great day.

sunshine.

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who me? yes you…couldnt be! then who?

Posted on April 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

i cannot express with proper accuracy the exact route the shiver takes when i hear the shuddersome name, john terry, but it is a fearsome and horrible response that travels widely, ranging from my shoulders to my ankles and even the remnants of my hair follicles. he is an utter shitbag of the highest order, and will likely move on from his time in football to assume his position at the helm of that order as the triple-decker cyclops and grandwizard of shitbags. so, when i see that a small form of justice was served yesterday with him being dealt a straight red card for an unnecessary, yet typical john terry, foul on alexis sanchez, i may have danced a little happy dance in my office. at that moment, i felt there was a far-reaching force able to deliver justice that her majesty’s courts have yet to perform. not everyone is blessed with the luck with which john terry is blessed, but then you would have to be an absolute shit of a human being to have his luck, or possess a serious collection of compromising photographs…needless to say, he had it coming.

but how did a young player like eddie johnson, a player who has suffered three concussions since arriving at portland, deserve the unfortunate circumstances he was faced with in the last week. as we all have become aware, he has announced his retirement from professional football, cutting short a career for which we all had great hopes. injuries certainly prevented him from attaining his best form with the timbers, but what he did show during the moments he took advantage of was enough to whet the suspicions that we had a player on our hands. personally, on countless moments during matches last season, i would mention to shecky how much i wished the gaffer would play eddie over the buffoon that was kenny cooper, or run him out with kenny cooper, or simply play him.

rather than thinking of him in his latest interview regarding his retirement, i would prefer to remember him smashing this goal in against toronto, or this goal against west brom, or even this pre-season header against motreal. sadly, he is a talent we will not see emerge within the mls or among the timbers. we can belabor the point of the great loss it is for the club, for football, but the bigger issues are those potentially felt by eddie in the future. though we create gods of them by our enjoyment of their on-field feats, athletes are not immortal and are as easily broken as the casual jogger or the couch potato with an arm around a bag of tim’s extra crispy, low salt, family size chips. we forget they are faced with life after the apotheosis; they do not get to return to their former selves after sacrificing their health and bodies. so, when faced with living life as a personal hero, muhammad ali who suffers the effects of years of rope-a-dope hits to the cranium, eddie elected to forego the alzheimer’s, the parkinson’s. there is nothing wrong and everything right with that decision–i would rather he kept his feet on the ground than find out the results of waxed wings, for that there is no resurrection.

a player that has found a minor resurrection in his career at portland is lovel palmer. before i get too far into this conversation, it will take more than one game to convince me that he has the talent and ability to be an effective defensive midfielder. however, he did well in putting graham zusi off-balance, preventing the man who has been involved in the majority of sporting’s goals from being any type of factor within saturday’s game. interestingly, #facepalmer considers himself a bit of an on-field general, claiming the defensive midfield role is suited for his talents.

I get a lot more touches and I’m more involved in the game. One of my strong points is organizing. I can move guys around and get them in good positions to help our team defend.

one position he did not assist the defence was at right back, and, to his credit, #facepalmer recognized that fact.

I wasn’t playing well at right back. I had to be honest with myself. Nobody wants to be on the bench, but I agreed with Coach’s decision to take me out and put Steve in.

one quality that can absolutely endear a player to me, and i dare say to many other fans, is humility; the player’s understanding of his true worth to a side, and whether or not he is actually contributing a positive effort can work wonders for the confidence supporters have with the player, and in turn the confidence the player has with his own abilities. if palmer can perform like he did against sporting on a regular basis, i am more than willing to share in his success.

interestingly, the gaffer is one person who takes credit for #facepalmer’s rather dire displays at right back. admitting that he tried to put a square peg into a round hole, spencer acknowledged that he did make a mistake with forcing palmer into the right back position.

I take a little bit of the blame for Lovel’s form. I tried to force him to play at right back, when he wasn’t really 100 percent happy there. I think he’s more accustomed to playing in the middle and that’s where he feels most happy.

i feel like a group hug because everyone is happy and not in a public image limited ironic sort of way, but a genuine big smile sort of happy type happiness. i  guess that is what happens when you get a win off an outrageously poor own goal, while simultaneously putting in one of the best defensive displays of the this short season–a new sense of happiness. still, this leaves me with the continued and ever-growing concern: who will play at right back?

we know that purdy is not the fulltime answer, and some had hoped that sexy andi dober would be given a chance. however, in his last trial game with the reserves, dober logged a total of 7 minutes, which indicates that he is not the chosen one. this fact was recently confirmed by william conwell of stumptownfooty.com, who stated he was informed that dober was “no longer with the team.” ladies, i know silent streams of tears are traversing the contours of your cheekbones, but be consoled in this fact: he was just too pretty for portland. having run into him outside the jw on saturday, i doubt he would look or feel at home when squeezing his doberness into some extra skinny jeans and rocking an ironic mustache. the search for the messiah continues…

with that, have a great day.

sunshine

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Odds and Sods from a Good Night at Home

Posted on April 24, 2012 | 3 Comments

That was a pretty ugly win. I will spend the next three seconds regretting that fact…Ok, I’m done now. Sunshine and I have both wagged our chins pretty extensively in the last couple of days with respect to our lads fighting the good fight, so I will spare our readers further paeans, at least so far as the intro goes. It was what it was. We didn’t manage to score a goal on our own account, but we did keep the first clean sheet of the season and when you do that you’re always going to be in with a shout.

Before I get on to the player ratings, I thought I would pass on a couple of apposite quotes from the discussion of the match in The Guardian. First, their description of the goal really made me laugh:

[Chance] Myers meanwhile is a more traditional non-scoring defender (he’s never scored in MLS), though you wouldn’t have known it on Saturday night, when he executed a beautiful diving header, despite the close attention of Julio Cesar, to send the ball crashing past the keeper. Unfortunately the keeper was Jimmy Nielsen and for the second game running an own goal proved decisive for Sporting KC – this time not in their favour.

And I have to agree. Myers’s header was excellent, both in terms of the bravery and the technical form on display. But for the fact that it was on his own goal, it was a model that should be emulated.

On a more serious note, the Guardian had the following to say with respect the Timbers’ approach to the match:

It might not give too much heart to Sporting’s pursuers, that the only defeat on their record was self-inflicted, but Portland’s decision to put Palmer and Chara in positions to physically compete with Sporting’s midfield paid dividends and may offer some further clues for those willing to risk going toe to toe with them. Despite their midweek exertions, Sporting had not showed up cautiously here (a mark of the confidence brought on by their start to the season), but watching Portland refuse to be bullied was a reminder of how important a physical dominance, alongside their more vaunted patient build up play, has been for SKC this year – and what can happen when it’s challenged.

Too right. Whatever else one might say about that match, the lads stepped up and refused to be put off by KC’s physical approach. Without that fighting spirit, things might have turned out much differently.

1. Troy Perkins: This was Perkins’s 50th win, and with a clean sheet to boot. That’s all to the good. However, his distribution was not that great, and he really nearly cost us by not being cognizant of who was around him and bouncing a throw out off of one of his own players. Due to the supreme effort of the guys in front of him, he wasn’t really tested all that much by KC. Be that as it may, a clean sheet in this situation merits a slight bump. 6

5. Eric Brunner: This was always going to be a stern test for Portland’s center halves, and Brunner really rose to the occasion. His positioning was excellent and he did a good job of letting KC attackers know that he was about and preventing them from getting comfortable in the box. 6

33. Hanyer Mosquera: Take what I just said about Brunner and hit the “bold” key. Mosquera was a massive physical presence in this match and his partnership with Brunner took another important step forward. 7

4. Mike Chabala: Man of the Match. As simple as that. I was pretty critical of Chabala a couple of weeks ago when he came on for RodWal, but his subsequent performances have really allayed my doubts. Chabala simply ran his socks off all match long. Even better, on the couple of occasions when it looked like it might all kick off between the two sides, Chabala was present and correct, defending his guys and letting KC’s boys know that if they didn’t like it they were welcome to get bent. Chabala really illustrated the level of effort and accountability that are going to be necessary to turn this season around. 8

25. Steve Purdy: He ran hard and got physical with KCs attackers, especially Kei Kamara, to very good effect. When he went off injured in the 78th minute you could see that he had really left everything on the pitch. 7

30. Lovel Palmer: He’s been out of favor lately, and then he was substituted for Jewsbury in the LA match in a way that suggested that a message was being sent. As I recall, the official explanation was “hamstring tightness” or something like that, but it seemed to me that the real goal was to see what Palmer could do in the middle of the park and/or to send a message to Jewsvbury. Paired with the latter in the starting lineup on Saturday, Palmer’s energy and physical play had the desired stiffening effect. Perhaps this might be the way forward. 6

13. Jack Jewsbury: The captain did a good job of breaking up KC’s favored strategy of playing it up Route 1. Partnered with Palmer, he seemed to play with a bit more confidence that he usually does when he works central midfield with the more offensively-oriented Chará. 6

21. Diego Chará: When I saw the team sheet at the start of the match, I was a little surprised to the Chará out on the wing, but it makes some sense. KC’s defenders are not terribly fast, and it was pretty clear that the goal was to use Chará’s speed to spread the field and keep KC’s wide players honest. Chará’s play was not totally effective, but the approach in general was a success. 5

6. Darlinton Nagbe: Same theory as starting Chará on the other side, so it seemed to me. Nagbe worked hard, but in wide positions he seems to get disengaged. 5

9. Kris Boyd: This was clearly Boyd’s kind of match. He is simply impossible to intimidate and he put himself in dangerous positions all night long (although he didn’t get much service while he was there). And then, of course, he put in a cross that was so beautiful that Chance Myers couldn’t resist firing it into his own goal. 6

15. Jorge Perlaza: Much better from him this time around. In recent matches he has looked a little adrift, from my perspective. He looked a lot better on Saturday, playing aggressively and not seeming to mind too much when he got bumped around by KC defenders. Like Boyd, he suffered a bit due to the lack of service that the more defensive posture of Portland’s approach on the night. 6

17. Eric Alexander: Brought on late as a replacement for Perlaza in an attempt to preserve the win. Seemed to have difficulty finding his footing on the park, but generally did alright in limited minutes. 5

8. Frank Songo’o: Brought on very late for Nagbe, mostly to bleed some seconds off the clock in stoppage time. 5

28. Freddie Braun: I feel like the coaching talk before he was put on must have gone something like this: “Ok lad, see that enormous guy with the fangs on his gum shield? He’s your responsibility. No, I’m not joking.” For his first appearance in the MLS, Braun was thrown into a tough fight against the best team in the league and told to cover Kei Kamara. Was he perfect? By no means. But he stuck to his task well, showed no fear, and got the job done. Well played. 6

Ok, that’s me then. I’ll be back later in the week with some blag about the cipher that is the Montreal Impact.

Magadh

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Just What the Doctor Ordered

Posted on April 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Against all expectations (rational and otherwise), the lads gutted out a tough win on Saturday against the team that must lead the league in forearm shivers per match. KC are very much Vermenstein’s Monster. People who remember Vermes from his playing days (primarily with DC, Colorado, and KC) will recall that he was a tough, take no prisoners defender. This KC team is very much in his image.

The match wasn’t quite the war to the knife that we were expecting, but it was plenty physical and I am happy to say that the lads were not found wanting in terms of graft and dedication. With the season starting to slip away and personnel changes in the offing, the players finally seemed ready to grasp the nettle and fight for the full 90. In the postgame interview, Spencer was rightly complimentary of the players for stepping up and getting it done.

I’ll have a real player ratings column tomorrow, but I thought I might throw out to a couple of the more important contributors. First of all, I want to say that I think that John Spencer did a great job of mixing up the team sheet. The manager is a little limited in what he can do to fix what you might call “in match” issues. Spencer took one available avenue of approach by shifting his assets around. We got a little preview of this last week when he subbed off Jewsbury in favor of the lately out-of-favor Lovel Palmer. On Saturday, he paired the two in a central midfield alignment that was clearly meant to add some resistance. I thought Palmer did well, and he and Jewsbury did a good job blunting the Route 1 approaches of a very large and physical Sporting KC side.

Diego Chará was shifted outside in preference to Eric Alexander, I suspect both to keep his passing and movement in the mix and to give the Timbers a bit more speed on the outside. Chará (who always sort of looks like he’s about to cry) played hard and did his best to make KC’s wide players thinking about their defensive responsibilities. Perlaza and Boyd fought hard up top. As advertized, physical play was not the sort of thing that was going to put off a guy who in past years had heard his home supporters singing “We’re up to our necks in Fenian blood!”

The goal, when it came, resulted from a miscommunication between Myers and Julio Cesar. Lucky? Yes it was. But given the number of unfortunate bounces that have plagued this team during their recent struggles, it was nice to see the scales get balanced.

For me, the real heroes of this match were at the back. Brunner and Mosquera are really starting to gel as a central defensive pairing. Not only did they play well together, but they both seemed to be pretty vocal in demanding accountability from their fellow defenders. On the outside, Purdy and Chabala fought hard. Chabala must have touched every blade of grass up both flanks (it was easy to see because he wears those orange boots that have got to be visible from space). He also was quick to get in an defend his guys when the aggro level ramped up. Finally, massive props to Freddie Braun. For his first MLS appearance he was chucked in at the deep end, inserted into one of the more physical matches the league will see this season and tasked with shutting down Kei Kamara, one of the most physical attackers in the North American game. I must say, he did a pretty solid job.

I think the best thing that you can say about this win is that the team was engaged from the first minute to the last. Although there has been improvement in evidence in the last few matches, the lads have been guilty of some very naive play late in matches. Against the likes of Chivas and the Galaxy, it is absolutely fundamental that you keep your head in the game. These sides have gotten where they are by being very opportunistic.

The goal that Beckham scored last week is a perfect illustration. For about the first fifteen seconds of this video, David Beckham is standing in midfield without a Timbers player within twenty yards of him. When he does get the ball, his touch isn’t even that good, but because he has so much free space he is able to gather it and have a pretty much unmolested crack at goal. Beckham’s skills have deteriorated over the last few years, but not to the point that you can let him have that much time and space to operate. Donovan’s equalizer was less about naivety and more about poor organization, but it illustrates another problem from which Portland suffered from in the matches leading up to Saturday. It was refreshing to see that, generally speaking, these problems were successfully addressed against KC.

Anyway, I’ll have more to say about matters such as this in the player ratings column.

Magadh

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the harder they come, the harder they fall

Posted on April 22, 2012 | 1 Comment

apologies for the late post, but if you were there last night you most likely understand. now, on to things that do not involve apologies. last night i scarfed a noob. it was a special scarfing because it was my brother-in-law and it was his first timbers match, ever. as in ever out of all of the evers to ever be available sort of ever. recently, things have not been wonderful in the sunshine family, mrs. sunshine’s father lost his fight with cancer on friday afternoon, and i thought it best to take the young fella to a game to relieve some stress and think about loss in a way that stings far less than what we had experienced. i am pretty sure it helped because he left smiling.

taking the usual walk to the ground and then the pre-match conversations with my seat neighbors, it was clear people arrived not to see the timbers win, but simply to experience the game and enjoy our team. most people i spoke with were certain the result would be something quite different from what had occurred. personally, my expectations were for a hard-fought defensive game with success or something close to plunger rape pivoting on whether our midfield adhered to their designated roles. to be quite honest, i quite expected a nil-nil draw. essentially, that is what we got.

there were some changes to the line-up, perlaza was partnered with kris boyd in the top of the formation, #facepalmer was partnered with captain jack in the central midfield, which pushed diego chara to the wing. nagbe took up a role on the opposite wing, where he seemed isolated and, to be honest, looked to recover some of the same issues that bothered him last season–at times he was indecisive. however, his play ;ast night is better and more properly described as that of a marked man–at any time he found himself with the ball, he also found 3 giant men in baby blue hugging him and squeezing him and not because he is just so damn cute. by this time in the season, sporting were educated on the dangers of giving nagbe free range and leaving him unmarked. remember, it was sporting that saw nagbe score what would eventually become the goal of the season.

my initial response to the line-up was a mixture of dismay and derision. i am not a strong supporter of #facepalmer and my faith in the captain has been lost, so to see them partnered together i was certain we were not going to enjoy the match. however, the additional defensive minded player was the tonic we needed. pushing chara onto the wing gave the wingbacks the support that had not been present through the recent four game losing streak; it solidified a side that needed to not lose.

but, for me, the difference in the team play and the result was created with the addition of jorge perlaza. jorge may not be the finisher we would all desire, but he adds an element of discomfort to any defense with his direct runs and play off the ball. he puts sides off-balance, and that is what was needed agaisnt the stingiest defense in the league. if you look at the own goal, perlaza was attacking on the left without the ball. he drew two defenders towards him as well as the attention of aurelien collin, the biggest douchebag i would love to see in timbers green. as perlaza makes his run, collin turns his head to him and directs the rightback, chance myers, to cover perlaza. perlaza then runs to the near post and takes an already uncomfortable collin to the byline, disrupting collin’s concentration enough to allow boyd’s zipping cross to run the face of goal and for myers to knock in what should have been a basic head out for a corner. that was the chance we needed. i cannot feel too sorry for a fella who wears a scrunchie on his hair, but that was really poor.

after that, it was nailbiting time for 49 minutes plus stoppage. here, where your fingertips are raw, what may be left of your hair is on the ground at your feet, and your voice sounds like a squeak, is where we would expect the timbers to fold. however, no personal celebrations and lapses of concentration occurred. they defended and played an entire 90 minutes. boyd picked his team up with his defensive play, and picked sporting up every time they flopped on the pitch pretending to be hurt in pathetic attempts to win free kicks and bookings. but it was the often unheralded play of chabla that stood out for me. he is not the most talented player, he is not going to win you games, and he is not going to change the course of the game in those moments when they count, but what he does do is play with conviction and passion. last night, he snuffed out everything and he put his body on-line more than once, doing everything you would expect of leftback.

it was through chewy’s exemplary play that we were not left to rue the missed opportunity on the 47th minute. chara broke down the right and latched onto a wonderful midfield splitting pass. he carried the ball of paces and curled a ground level pass in front of aurelien collin for either perlaza or boyd to latch onto. perlaza laid off and boyd drilled the ball into the body of the onrushing keeper, jimmy nielsen, who still reminds me of antti niemi, and the ball went out of bounds. here, i thought it would have been prudent for perlaza to be selfish, but he was not.

if you had told me that the key to beating sporting would be to not score any goals, i would probably have gotten up from the conversation and walked away without caring to ever return to it. evidently, the key to beating sporting is to not score any goals. more importantly, the key to breaking the streak and winning was to not allow any goals.

in the end, there was not much more to the match. we left talking trash, we had strawberry daiquiris in honor of the rose city, and we forgot for a brief moment the troubles of the last few weeks. maybe it was the fact this was my brother-in-law’s first time experiencing the beautiful groan as it should be experienced, with the collective 20k+ at the jw, rather than at home in front of a television, or maybe it was the fact he was introduced to a new side of his usually proper and respectable brother in law, but he smiled.

no matter how ugly the win was, the timbers and the timber faithful needed it.

with that, have a great day.

sunshine

post script: i literally ran into sexy andi dober when walking to the usual northend, entry gate. very euro, that one.

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It’s Gut Check Time

Posted on April 21, 2012 | 6 Comments

I have a very bad feeling about this.

–Han Solo

I woke up this morning with an intense feeling of foreboding. You could look at the Timbers’ recent results and maybe think that, although they had signally failed to close the deal in repeated matches, things were improving in certain respects. That said, it must be conceded that Sporting KC is not the kind of side that struggling teams are likely to get well against. In a lot of respects, they just do them a lot better. They specialize in getting physical with teams and have one of the stingiest defenses in the league. If memory serves, they have only allowed two goals so far this year in seven matches. Even though it’s at home, this is the kind of match that fans of the Timbers must look at with a certain amount of trepidation, particularly given the relative form of the two teams involved.

Ok, once again I’ve found myself writing something very pessimistic about the upcoming match with KC. I try to be optimistic about things, but the advantage of being a pessimist is that at least when you’re wrong it’s a pleasant surprise. What can be said in favor of our chances? Well, KC did have a tough match in midweek, so they may be a little leggy for this one. There is at least some sentiment among people who know suggesting that KC may have a tougher fight on their hands than the records of the two teams would indicate in and of themselves. In this vein, the occasionally perceptive Ives Galarcep writes:

This one seems like an ugly mis-match based on the records, but the Timbers have more than a puncher’s chance to pull the upset here. Sporting KC surely has to feel the strain of playing a mid-week game, and they’ll have to contend with the hostile atmosphere at Jeld-Wen Field.

Will that be enough? Sporting KC’s stifling team defense has crumbled every opponent they have faced, but the Timbers have the offensive weapons and the midfield skill to deal with Sporting’s defensive pressure. The biggest question is whether the Timbers defense can deal with the KC forward trio. We’re going to go with no, though if they can, this could be an upset special.

Galarcep ends up picking KC to win 2-1, and given how things have shaken out of late that is a pretty reasonable prognosis.

This is absolutely gut check time for the Timbers. There has been a lot of talk coming out of the team about how they are working to put things right. But then we’ve been hearing that for a few weeks now and it seems like they can only manage to fix one thing per match, while letting everything else hang fire.

An interesting development in this regard is the acquisition of Mike Fucito from Montreal that was recently announced. There are a lot of people around who think that he has been brought in to be a make weight in a further deal to bring in some defensive help. I must say that this was my impression when I heard about this deal. A minority opinion floating around (for instance here) takes the view that Fucito is meant to be a partner for Boyd in a reconfigured offensive formation for the Timbers. It could be true, but if it is I don’t think it is a particularly good idea. From where I’m sitting, the problem with the Timbers is not on offense. Boyd is still finding his way into the side. Nagbe has shown himself to be capable of an effective partner for him. Even Perlaza has had his moments, although lately he has seemed a bit lost. Better play on the wings recently, especially from Alexander, has meant that the offense has seemed quite dangerous, at least at times. In any case, the Timbers have also recently acquired Sebastian Rincon on loan from Atletico Atenas of Uruguay, and I would tend to think that he would be preferred to Fucito.

The real problem in this correspondent’s opinion has been at fullback. I know that sunshine thinks that Jewsbury is a big part of the problem, and I’m not totally unsympathetic to that idea. However, it is my considered opinion that if more effective pressure were applied to opposing wide players it would improve the situation in defense generally. Brunner and Mosquera have been reasonably effective, particularly when getting the appropriate cover from midfield. Wallace is probably not going to play again today, so Mike Chabala will get another opportunity to show what he can do to help the side. I also expect to see Purdy once again preferred to Lovel Palmer. This is all to the good as far as I can see. Purdy is less athletic than Palmer, but seems to stick to his task better. It will be interesting to see what happens if Alhassan cannot go, as early indications suggest that he will not, since Songo’o has yet to show that he has the fitness to go the distance.

Well, that’s about it from me for this morning. I’ll back tomorrow morning with a match report and other blab.

Magadh

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