Monthly Archives: May 2012

it’s a shame about our ray of sunshine…

Posted on May 31, 2012 | 8 Comments

i may be incapable of describing the shock and disappointment i felt when leaving the jw last night, but i will try. it was worse than the day camille paxman informed me santa claus, the easter bunny, and the tooth fairy were not real. i was inconsolable–i felt betrayed not only by my childhood friend, but also my parents, who both lied to me for over 7 years of my life. last night the farce called jon spencer’s timbers was exposed by a sunday league team, and i felt the same dispair then as i did when i saw santa in the mall for the first time following that awful revelation.

shecky and i, along with a few other supporters, watched 120 minutes of quite possibly the worst football ever played. no, that is not hyperbole, that is the truth. from the opening minutes to the closing seconds, the timbers were simply bad. spencer sat on the bench sulking and it appeared that every player with the exception of brent richards wanted to join him. they lacked desire, they lacked pace, they lacked precision, they lacked leadership, and they lacked the finishing touch.

the difficult truth revealed last night is that we have been treated to the same efforts all season. nothing changed about the timbers, we merely removed the rose-tinted glasses because we played and were beaten by a side that came into existence two months ago. i know some will say this was a fluke, some anomalous loop in the continuum of timbers football, but is it really? we cannot score from open play and we cannot defend the final 10 minutes of the game. we rely on an all too predictable offense that requires players to forget their brains, drive to the byline and cross to a target man whose primary weapons are his feet, not his head. when our offense is unable to drive to the byline, they revert to back passes or are dispossessed of the ball with relative ease. when they actually shoot, typically the ball travels well wide of the mark. does this sound familiar? it should, because that was last night’s match and several others over the last 40+ games we have watched the timbers play while under spencer.

he is wedded to a system no longer relevant in football. even the retread, fat sam allardyce, who is known for anti-football tactics, is capable of switching his team’s approach to games and seasons based on the talents of the personnel he has in his eleven. but not spencer. he forces play to the byline and then to cross. his tactics and schemes fail to isolate the exceptional qualities of our better players, and because of that those players become invisible. nagbe and boyd are misused, and there is very little this douchebag blogger can do about those facts. spencer insists on width of play, yet fails to understand the purpose of creating width–to provide openings for the attack within the middle as well as the wings.

and that is where my abilities end. i am not going to rehash boyd’s missed penalty or the 43 official shots on goal that failed to hit the back of the net–i lived each shot once already, and that was painful enough. some things are better described simply by viewing them, so here you go:

portland timbers 0-1 cal fc.

with that, try to have a good day.

sunshine.

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cat fights on a football pitch

Posted on May 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

clearly the authors of this blog need to discuss better the times they will be posting. as you may know, magadh and i swap turns at composing this here blog, not simply for the good of our creative juices, but also to give the readers different perspectives. occasionally, the shecky green column is up to help those noobs out there feel comfortable with their noobness. in order to coordinate posts we have numerous behind-the-scenes planning sessions. they get rather heated. i threaten magadh, he threatens me (only because he lives out of arm’s reach), and shecky just laughs. these conversations did not take place last night, so we failed each other. however, our failure benefits each and every one of you readers–you get the joy of two posts today.

our tour in the us open cup begins today and we should be excited–it represents the only real chance the timbers have at winning a trophy this season, and for that reason alone we should be supporting our club. already the cup has seen a number of mls casualties. the new england revolution, the chicago fire, fc dallas, houston dynamo, real salt lake and the galaxy have all been eliminated from the competition. their losses could be our gain. this season we have a snowball’s chance in the far reaches of a nuclear uber-hell at winning the league, so we must rely on the cups to bring us glory.

for me cup play has everything to do with england and nothing to do with america. while boats are rather cool, wispy winds and water are always nice, it could never compare with the passion that comes from a football match with sudden death implications. i jest. but to be honest, my first introduction to cup play was not through american soccer but through european football. in modern football, the league championship and champions league now overshadow the importance of cup play for the majority of supporters. not me. i love the fact that in cup play any two teams can be paired with each other–minnows against powerhouses, rival sides may meet–with any one team able to earn the right to call themselves the best. that is the spirit of competition i like–the removal of the the sheiks. frankly, cup play is the great equalizer.

during my time as a supporter of football in general, i have enjoyed a good number of fa cups and league cups. and while the 2005 fa cup victory over man united, won by patrick vieira’s last kick as an arsenal player, was a superb experience and one that magadh and i celebrated to no end, for me, no cup match compares to arsenal’s 1998 win over newcastle united. marc overmars nutmegged shay given and le sulk anelka finished off the toon to hand arsenal the double. if you are interested, overmars goal can be viewed here at 1:50 and le sulk’s at 6:40.

coincidentally, warren barton was on that losing toon side and now his partner in punditry is here in portland with ventura county cal fc. great. cool. whatever.

i am not going to pretend to know anything about ventura county cal fc. and if there is someone out there who claims to know everything about them, be aware you may be in the presence of a liar. cal fc have been in existence for the better part of two months and that is that. frankly, the only reason they have received any notice is due to their manager–eric wynalda. do i care about that? not really. and as funny as it is, i could not care less that wynalda and merritt paulson had a public cat fight.

the fact is wynalda has put together a group of adult soccer players and wants them to win. to be fair, ventura county cal fc does have some reputable players. several of them either have mls experience, have been drafted by mls, or have had trials with mls teams. jesus gonzales was given opportunities with both the timbers and the sounders–you could say that tonight is a sort of second coming for him. (thank you, i will be here all week).

unfortunately for the ventura county cal fc, nearly every article i found about them is wynalda centric. while he may tweet on twatter that he is not cal fc, the media, his media, sure would disagree. in every article wynalda is painted as a pied piper of football managers, bringing together players who have something to prove, which is fitting because i think wynalda hopes to prove something given the kick in the nuts he received from both chivas and chicago. even our own geoffrey c. arnold has fallen prey to the mystique of wynalda. while i would never categorize or even characterize gca as creative, i do think his article is worth a read. but the best article i have read regarding the wynalda factor and the chip on his shoulder was composed by jason davis at the footy blog and can be found here.

so often football becomes an issue of personalities and forgets the real contest. tonight, while some may think this match is an extension of two egos, i am more hopeful and less cynical than that. i long to see a hard-fought match between a purported minnow and the timbers, where both sides want to progress not for the personalities of their bosses, but for the spirit of the competition.

with that, enjoy the day and go to the match!

sunshine

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The Open Cup and Club versus Country

Posted on May 30, 2012 | 7 Comments

Wait, it’s how long until our next league match? Three weeks? By that time, sunshine will have gnawed out someone’s entrails. I am 100% totally serious. Not mine, of course, since I have managed to position myself well out of reach, but I kind of fear for Shecky. He’s a nice, inoffensive sort of guy and I could well see him failing to spot that homicidal glint in sunshine’s eye that precedes his wildest excesses.

It doesn’t help matters that part of the reason for the hiatus is the need to build in time for international matches. This is the sort of thing that makes people like sunshine and myself a bit crazy. I don’t care that match for the international game, and I know that it inspires feelings in sunshine that run the gamut from depressed resignation to intense rage.

Ok, it’s not quite as grim as all that. I’m mean, it is still true that if you look at sunshine’s high school yearbook you will find that he was voted “Most Likely to Take a Human Life,” but with the US Open Cup matches it might just be enough to keep him from going all Bruce Banner on somebody. First up is the Eric Wynalda-led Cal FC, based in scenic Thousand Oaks, California. I must admit, I don’t know a great deal about this level of football in the United States. It seems like there has been a real efflorescence of leagues and developmental opportunities below the level of the full professionals in the last few years. This is certainly a promising development for the game in the US. It’s a part of the slow and drawn out process of making football more integral to the national sporting consciousness.

So here we are, contemplating a home matchup with a club the primary purpose of which is to be a feeder side for clubs up the food chain. This is not quite the same as the multiple professional divisions in the European leagues, but of course at this point why should it be? What it does mean is that we are going up against a bunch of guys with absolutely nothing to lose and a lot to gain in terms of highlighting their abilities for some bigger side that might want to offer them a contract. This, I put it to you, is a dangerous situation. Cal FC have already knocked out the PDL champion Kitsap Pumas, and the USL side from Wilmington, so they know a bit about playing as the underdog. Sure, the differential in talent level should see us through, but that’s what a lot of people in Newcastle were saying last year just before they were shown the door out of the FA Cup by Stevenage Borough. It’s something to think about anyway.

If we manage to get through it, we face the prospect of two matches with our old friends from the Emerald City. I suppose that is the likeliest outcome, and perhaps the best. They have to play the USL team from Atlanta and I have to think that a) we’d like to take a piece out of them before we meet them in the Cascadia Cup, and b) we probably don’t need a cross country sojourn to Atlanta inserted into our travel schedule.

Allow me to return for a moment to the matter of international football. For followers of European sides, the question of club vs. country is one that arises quite often and rouses intense passions on both sides. One only has to look at something like the post stream on soccernet.com any time the issues of the African Cup of Nations comes to get the flavor of this. The ACN is a particularly vexing matter, occurring as it does every two years in the middle of the European football season. But the matter arises with only slightly less venom with all international matches, especially the so-called “friendlies” with which the season is peppered these days.

On one side, fans of the clubs are compelled to stand by as the rhythm of their seasons is disrupted and their players subjected to the danger of exhaustion and injury with (in the vast majority of cases) absolutely no compensation forthcoming. To cite and example that is close to sunshine’s heart (and my own), Robin van Persie suffered an ankle injury playing for Holland against Italy in a “friendly” in November 2009 that caused him to miss five months. During this time, Arsenal was still on the hook for his wages but got none of the benefit of his services.

Fans of the international game tend to point out that they players themselves consider it an honor. Furthermore, they argue, the national federations expend large amounts of money to provide programs and facilities that allow these players to develop their talents while young. It is only right, then, that when they are of an age to reap the fruits of this early training they should share some of the benefits with the national federation and the fans of the national teams.

Personally, I care a lot more about Arsenal (and the Timbers for that matter) than I do about any national side. As I said, I’ll root for the USMNT, but I just can’t get myself to the level of passion about it that I do for club matches. The point about the capital that the national federations invest in these players carries some weight for me, but I think it needs to be balanced by the potential losses to the clubs. The idea of insurance policies for players who participate in international play has been mooted and I don’t think that that would be a bad idea, or unduly burdensome to the national federations.

As is so often the case in matters of football culture, the situation in the United States is a little different. The USMNT was, for a long time, the central element of American football culture, in the years before the MLS and while the league was still developing in terms of quality. Because the MLS plays over the summer and because it includes a relatively small proportion of European players, the breaks for international duty tend to be relatively rare, at least in years when the World Cup isn’t being held. For these reasons, the club vs. country debate has not taken hold here in the way that it has across the pond.

In the future, as this league attracts more Europeans (as it is likely to do) and especially in the event that they move to a winter schedule (as Klinsmann has suggested that they do), the day may come when it becomes an issue here.

Magadh

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Not This Again

Posted on May 29, 2012 | 5 Comments

Saturday’s match was a blast from the past. And not the good kind, like when skinny jeans finally made their reappearance after more than a decade of market domination by fat pants. No, this was the bad kind, in which a nightmare that one has lived through on several occasions, and which one dearly hoped was now behind one, suddenly reared its ugly, ugly head. I’m talking, of course, about the late goal that the Timbers gave up, costing them two desperately needed points against the Caps.

I give credit to Spencer and the coaching staff for trying a new formation. Once again, the offensive side of the game improved, and for a lot of the time it seemed like it wasn’t done at the cost of defensive frailties.

I suppose the most irritating thing about it was that it was once again the lads were undone by a momentary lack of concentration, costing them the fruits of 82 minutes of otherwise pretty solid work. Spencer went with a more attacking line up, which had the virtue of creating more chances. But then this happened. I would apologize for the irritating Miller 64 commercial tacked on to the front of this video, but frankly it’s not even nearly as irritating as what comes afterward. Admittedly, David Horst hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time lately, and he was in there because the two guys in front of him in the pecking order weren’t fit, but he gets this badly wrong. This incident does highlight why playing center half is such a challenging assignment: minor errors of judgment and positioning have major consequences.

Claims by some players that there was a handball in the buildup to the goal were brought up on The Axe’s Facebook page, but I think we all came to the proper conclusion: if the defender stays in front of Mattocks, then it isn’t an issue.

1. Troy Perkins: Ok, here we go again. The goal (sing along if you know the words here) was not Troy Perkins’s fault. If you give an opposing attacker a free one from the penalty spot bad things will happen. Perkins generally played well and might have gotten a better rating but for the fact that he only faced six shots. 6

5. Eric Brunner: Once again, it was Brunner deputizing for Danso, this time due to injury rather than suspension (although Danso certainly couldn’t have played in the last match even if he hadn’t been suspended). Had a heavy collision with LeToux, who is a pretty big guy, and came off second best. Subbed off at halftime, and there our problems began…5

33. Hanyer Mosquera: I thought he did quite well, especially given the quality in attack that Vancouver brought to the match. One reason that Perkins had a relatively quiet night was that Mosquera was all over LeToux and Sanvesso like a cheap suit for most of the night. He was slightly out of position on the goal, but it shouldn’t have mattered. 6

13. Jack Jewsbury: I kind of thought that he would get the start, just because he’s been toting the captain’s armband and usually that means that management is hesitant to bench someone unless they are really out of form. Responded with his usual display of adequaquacity at right back. He does alright there, but eventually the team really will need something more going forward. 5

14. Steven Smith: I am swiftly becoming a believer in our stalwart Scot at left back. He is a solid one on one defender and he is comfortable handling the ball in tight spaces, which is good since there were a number of times when Alexander passed him the ball in positions that really didn’t do him any favors. Moreover, he gets forward in the way that a modern fullback is meant to. Maybe this rating is a little rich, but what the hell. 7

21. Diego Chará: Chará was the Man of the Match for me. He absolutely harried Vancouver’s attackers and made himself a real pest. He’s not the biggest guy on the park in terms of actual stature, but he really punched above weight. 8

6. Darlinton Nagbe: Nagbe is on a long term journey around the forward parts of the pitch, as Spencer and the coaching staff try to figure out where he can make the best contribution. Run out this time at ACM, Nagbe brought his usual energy and pace, but seemed to struggle to work out how to impose himself from that far back in the formation. 5

17. Eric Alexander: I’m really of two minds about Alexander’s play. He really worked hard and brought a level of physicality and aggression to the left side of the attack. For a lot of the match, he worked well with Smith, especially under intense forward pressure from the Caps. But his passing as the Timbers worked their way out of defense was often questionable. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt because he worked hard. 6

11. Kalif Alhassan: In his return from a leg injury, Alhassan really added some attacking thrust down the right side. His effectiveness was somewhat muted by the fact that he didn’t have a fullback behind him who had a great interest (or skill) in getting forward. 6

15. Jorge Perlaza: Perlaza has kind been in the wilderness for much of the season, so it was nice to see him get a run out. For once, he really brought all his assets to the match in terms of speed and technical ability. He fought hard, created dangerous situations in attack, and clearly made Boyd feel like he didn’t have to do it all. 6

9. Kris Boyd: For the last few weeks, Boyd has soldiered alone up front and the result has been a scoring drought and the definite impression that he was frustrated. This time, in a formation in which he was paired with another fulltime attacker, Boyd looked like the dangerous, pure striker that he can be. He responded with a tough performance in the box and the taking of a real strikers goal. A performance that bodes well for the future. 7

12. David Horst: As the old country lyric goes, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometime you’re the bug.” Horst was the bug on Saturday. Football can be a cruel game sometimes. Horst had done pretty well since coming on for Brunner, but he got his position on Mattocks horribly wrong and was instantly punished. This rating is based on his overall performance, particularly in light of the paucity of playing time that he’d had coming into this match, not on his one, spectacular botch. 5

7. Sal Zizzo: He’s been getting a lot of time, mostly off the substitutes’ bench, since coming back from injury. In general, I like what I’ve seen so far. Zizzo has a big engine and he’s very aggressive. That said, I’m not totally convinced that he was the right sub for Alhassan with ten minutes to go and a one goal lead to defend, at least in pure football terms. The question you have to ask is: given who was available, who else could they have brought on? And the question answers itself. 5

2. Mike Fucito: Brought on in the dying moments for Perlaza. Not really enough time on the pitch for a rating, but in general I haven’t been overwhelmed by what he’s brought to the team. Still, it’s early doors yet. NR

Magadh

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memories of underdevelopment and dreams of future football

Posted on May 28, 2012 | 4 Comments

another day, another rain cloud. this is memorial day weekend and it is required to be sunny, not overcast and likely to rain every other 5 minutes. i will take the three-day weekend any way it comes, but a little sun today would contribute greatly to the enjoyment felt while eating 8 different salad selections and barbecued meat.

not much going on in the world of timbers as they prepare for eric wynalda’s crew to arrive for wednesday’s us open cup match. the reserves played the whitecaps reserves yesterday and darren mattocks reminded those of us at the jw that people can be really good at what they do and still be douchebags. his celebration following his first-half goal was the stuff only mothers could be proud of and even then i think the pride would be fleeting. overlooking his on-field behavioral issues and his muppet hair-do, it is obvious he is going to be an immense talent for the caps in the years to come. at one moment, i recall commenting that he had a touch of didier drogba–based on play, not his muppet hair-do. i am not suggesting that he will be anywhere near the talent level of drogba, nor that he will cripple the careers of central defenders as drogba has done, but he plays direct and powerfully and also enjoys a flop. yesterday, he gave jean-baptise fits, exploiting the young centerback’s positional naivity on several occasions. jean-baptiste will improve and that is why he plays reserve football, but he cannot give a player of mattocks’s quality the inside line to goal as he did yesterday and expect first-team selection.

jean-baptiste did make up for his mistakes, pulling back a goal with an un-marked header in the second half. in the end, that goal was all the timbers reserves could connect. it would be unfair to suggest they lacked chances–they did not–they simply could not convert.

for all their troubles converting, which appears to be a club-wide issue (which surprises me not at all), the reserves hold a few gems. rarely do you observe a player who possess the “it” factor, especially when the standard is the mls. so i hesitate to suggest we have young players of such quality, but brent richards does have something setting himself apart from other members of yesterday’s reserve squad. to follow a strange and troubling theme of chelsea comparisons, richards has a quality of play similar to daniel sturridge if daniel sturridge was allowed to play center-forward. i wish i could bottle his hustle, his drive, and his desire to get forward, pour it down the throats of a select group of unjustified first-team selections, and give them a swift kick in the seat of the pants. frankly, i would love to see him eventually usurp jorge perlaza’s role–perhaps with a few more games he may turn spencer’s attention away from the colombian (though i am sure spencer would require him to deliver the compulsory set of ineffective crosses into the box).

there were three first-teamers on the side yesterday. not one of them indicated through their play that they deserved first team selection. chewy was as over-commited as usual, which was exacerbated by the fact he appeared to pull a groin and was forced to hold his junk as a little kid holds their junk when they have to pee really, really bad. songo’o was not absent, he simply was not sharp. even though he took a strong late shot at goal, palmer exhibited the usual dungeness crab passing, hesitation and empty-head ingenuity typical of his play. i am unable to determine what is more perplexing: the fact he remains in the team or the fact he has now been given the captain’s armband twice. what exactly are the qualifications associated with a captain? answer that question and i am confident you will be unable to find those attributes within #facepalmer.

rincon had an active game, but his play caused myself and a friend some concern. our consternation was not due to his play in general, but rather the drives to goal suggesting the philosophy of the manager is seeping into the drinking water of the youth. the reliance on the wings to provide creativity is misplaced, especially when players are instructed to push the wing though it is not their natural style. rincon is a center-forward, not a winger. too many times he looked to the wing rather than exploiting gaps within the whitecaps central defense. perhaps it is an issue of confidence and we were over-analyzing the issue, but a striker of his youthfulness and quality should have the audacity to try things–he simply stuck to the typical drive to byline and cross plan too many times to intimate any lack of confidence. that is troubling.

here is a further recap of the game with video attached.

with that, have a great memorial day!

sunshine

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in every game a little rain must fall

Posted on May 27, 2012 | 2 Comments

i am one tired fella and my ears are still ringing this morning. i am not certain whether the tinnitus is from the atmosphere of the match last night or because i spent yesterday morning jackhammering my basement floor. regardless, it only takes a cascadia cup match to get the support well and truly on fire and last night did not disappoint. not even a rain storm foreboding the four horsemen of the apocalypse could dampen the mood of the jw. unfortunately, the portentious moments failed to advise the timbers of what we all knew was coming–the 85 minute.

bad puns and weather delays aside, the crowd was well up for that match and after a little coaxing the timbers were as well. the starting eleven saw some personnel and formation changes. frankly, they were the changes this blog and several other pundits have been crying for. captain jack slid into the rightside of the back four, spencer removed palmer, returned chara to his natural position at defensive midfield, and brought on alexander and kalif. up front spencer had nagbe, boyd and perlaza. twelve games into the season and he finally gets it right. and to that i say: better late than never.

the timbers began the match defending the northend and were slow for the opening 15 minutes. they were given limited time to become comfortable with the ball before the whitecaps would close them down. and after the first 20 minutes, it appeared we might be in for another nil-nil defensive treat.

in the 12 minute boyd provided the crowd an early moment of hope, but his shot from outside the left-corner of the 18-yard box was easily caught by the caps goalkeeper, joe cannon. a few minutes following, captain jack made a good challenge and sped a tight slide-rule pass to kalif. jack than did something novel for his game–he continued his run. jack received nice return pass from kalif and laced a shot on goal, but deflected for a corner. the corner resulted in a whole-lot of nothing, but the interplay was evidence enough that with tight, concise passing, the timbers could breakdown the caps defensive structure. indeed, it was our passing and possession that proved our greatest weapons. i think i read a mike donovan tweet last night suggesting the midfield made 159 passes, and only 30 were errant. 81 percent passing success for an individual player is impressive, but an entire midfield to pass with such accuracy is unheard of unless the side is barcelona. i am not making comparisons with barcelona, i am only making a point that our possession and passing were on last night.

the interplay between alexander, smith and nagbe towards the end of the first half looked delicious. it never materialized, but did keep the caps nervous. alexander took players to the byline, he penetrated the midfield, and when assisted by nagbe’s ball control he was dangerous on the left. the great complaint i had about his game was his inability to keep the ball down when having a crack at goal–certainly he could have and should have kept his body over the ball when he shot (frankly, alexander was not the only timber guilty of a moonshot–nagbe had a couple as did jorge, but we expect that from jorge). smith was a perfect foyle for alexander. he made good crosses, he harassed y.p. lee, and made the defensive duties look easy, putting in crunching tackle after crunching tackle.

the caps had one dangerous attack in the first half. at the 45 minute, le toux and company drew perkins of his line and out to the left side of the 6-yard box. a look to slot a pass between perkins and the post was disrupted by captain jack who wisely stood sentry at the near post. eventually the attack petered out and the ball was cleared.

the second half was delayed by rain, thunder, and lightening. it was frightening and beautiful and it was displayed on the southend big-screen for those of us under cover of the northend to oooooh and awe.

horst came on to start the second half because brunner took a knock from sebastien le toux when they challenged for a 50-50 ball. brunner cannot go a match without being brutalized in some way or another. there was some concern that he was concussed, so let us hope he get better soon. thankfully we have a long break for him to weather the mls concussion laws.

early in the second half, boyd, perlaza, and kalif demonstrated a great understanding. while they made some nifty one-twos, it was with little end product. the first real chance of the second half came in the 50 minute. perlaza made a great run to the byline within the box, he laced an unstoppable ball across goal to nagbe. all the ball required was a simple tap in. instead, nagbe went ryan giggs and put the ball over the crossbar.

then came the moment. the moment most claim cost us the game. while i disagree that the moment cost us the game–there were numerous wasted chances by the timbers where any one of them could be saddled with that claim–the moment did suck. kalif made a great run into the box and demerit destroyed him, never once playing the ball. you be the judge–look here! in any other world but the world of jorge gonzalez, when an attacker is taken down in the 18-yard box without an attempt to make a play for the ball that is a penalty. if jorge gonzalez is the standard by which the mls measures its officiating, they will have a rather hard time convincing fifa the league is viable.

as i have informed you, i take notes during matches. i recently downloaded an app for my htc to assist with note taking. last night was the first opportunity i had to really test i out and it worked marvelously. there was one glitch–every time i wrote “penetrate” the program would replace with the word ”penis.” perhaps the porno-notetaking program knew something i did not, but as the match wore on i had to agree–the game was replete with cocks, most were wearing white, the biggest one was wearing black.

however, you can blame the ref only so far.  poor officiating is a convenient and ready-made excuse to avoid the discussion about the obvious frailties of a side. sure, gonzalez is not a good ref, he is a very bad ref. but gonzalez did not fail to convert the numerous chances on goal handed to the timbers. gonzalez did not mishit a perfect cross over the bar when squared on an open goal–nagbe did. the timbers had chances to put the game away well before the penalty was ruled not a penalty. so i am not convinced the failure to give a clear penalty was the undoing of the timbers last night. the timbers must finish their chances. nagbe must put that ball in the back of the net, not over the bar.

the disappointment of the non-penalty was soon forgotten on the 67 minute. through kalif’s industry, boyd did what boyd was brought here to do–score. kalif held the ball up well, shucking and jiving, passing back to captain jack. perhaps he noticed the difficulty cannon had with perlaza’s earlier cross, maybe he just saw an opportunity, whatever it was, jack put a good ball into the box, across the face of goal. cannon palmed at the ball and somehow boyd reached it and side-flicked it into the back of the net. pandemonium. elation. relief. the timbers score from open play for the first time since boyd scored against the galaxy.

eric hassli came on for the anonymous gershon koffie, whose only contribution was a shot from outside the 18-yard box easily saved by perkins in the 72 minute. hassli improved the whitecaps limited attack. but it was not until darron mattocks came on in the 83 minute that his impact would be felt. hassli took a lofted pass at the edge of the box, heading it into the path of mattocks. mattocks drove to middle and past an over-committed david horst. smith dove in to assist horst, but mattocks had buried that ball into perkins’s goal.  why it is the timbers insist on going to sleep in the final moments of a match still boggles, but again it happened.

fucito then came on. for all the drive and determination the italian connection bring, sal and michael could not bring back that goal. sometimes football is kind, sometimes it is really cruel. last night it was cruel only because the timbers let up the pressure at the crucial 85 minute. aside from that goal, i felt the timbers played well, attributable to the changes in formation and personnel.

usoc on wednesday the future of the timbers today at 4.

with that, have a great day!

sunshine

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Forward into Battle

Posted on May 26, 2012 | 1 Comment

You would think that, having made my way through this world for several decades, I could read a calendar properly. But no, a couple of minutes ago I discovered that today is the 26th, not the 25th. And that of course means that it’s match day, the most wonderful day in all the week.

There’s something about hating someone from the old neighborhood that’s really quite satisfying. We meet so many people in daily life who are worth disliking: the jerks that stand on their horns at traffic lights, the morons we work with, the list goes on and on. But it’s not all that often that you run into someone that you’ve had consistent cause to dislike for a long time. This gets down below the surface irritation to a more visceral level of animus that, for me at least, is really life affirming.

Thus we come to this evening’s match with the Whitecaps, one of our rivals for the Cascadia Cup and an old nemesis from the pre-MLS days. I dislike the Galaxy, RSL, and the rest. I have an instinctive dislike for anything associated with the state of Texas (FC Dallas and Dynamo this means you). But, with the possible exception of the Flounders, there is simply no team in North America to which I would more like to give a mullering.

Nowadays, of course, this match takes on an added significance. We are the poor cousins of Cascadia in terms of the standings. Although we’ve gotten a couple of good results lately, I don’t think even Timber Joey would say that our recent form has been good. Improving yes, but it is still not up to the level that is going to allow us to make the playoffs, or to hold our heads up in the faces of the taunts of our local rivals.

The victory over the Fire was a good sign, and the match with Valencia gave us reason to hope that there are players coming into this side that can compete for places and raise the level of play. Assessing a football club is a constant dynamic process. I’m reminded of a press conference that I saw a couple of years ago. After a midseason match that Tottenham won (against whom I don’t recall), Harry Redknapp was asked what he thought the implication of Tottenham’s victory was for the big picture in the league. “Well,” he said, “we have more information.” I think the Twitchy One got that exactly right. The pundits (yours truly not excepted) are always anxious to try to read the tea leaves. It is right and proper that we should do so. To love a team is to be interested in the details. The key in all of this is not to think that we have knowledge that we don’t have. But we do have information.

What do we know about tonight’s match? Number one, we know that we have Vancouver at our gaff, one of the toughest places to play in all the league. We know too that they are coming off losing a two leg fixture in the Canadian Championship final to the plucky band of incompetents that is Toronto FC. That had to hurt. They will be angry and looking for someone on whom to take out their frustrations. And who better to receive the pain than ourselves, from the perspective of our Canadian neighbors? No one, that’s who. They’ve yet to beat us in the MLS, and that is a record that I think we all hold very close to our hearts.

The Whitecaps are currently sitting fourth in the conference at 5-3-3, six points ahead of us. It’s hard to pick out a trend in their play. They looked good for about 45 minutes against Seattle a week ago. Before that, they got butchered away to the Revs. What you can say is that, when they are having an off day, they tend to give up a few goals. The Timbers have been doing a better job of creating chances of late, and if they continue to stick to their task there is every reason to believe that we can get some end product tonight. Also, this is a team playing their eighth match this month, and away no less, so chances are they are going to be a bit leggy.

What do we have to do to get a result tonight? First of all, this is going to be one of those matches in which there is a real premium on playing with a high tempo and moving the ball around. We really need to make these guys run and play a lot of defense. Second, it’s important that we focus on LeToux, but not too much. He’s been responsible for a lot of scoring in the last couple of seasons, between his goals and his assists. For me, the key guy to watch is going to be Davide Chiumiento. He’s been in and out of the lineup so far this season, but I think that this has more to do with the rotation system that the Caps employ than it is a commentary on his play. He is an assist machine. He had three in one match earlier this season. Of course, you could look at the fact that this was a friendly against FC Edmonton, but Chiumiento knows where to put the ball to create offense.

The Timbers lineup for tonight is a little hard to predict. Perkins, Smith, and Mosquera seem like safe choices at the back. Danso is apparently suffering from the hamstring tweak that he got in the Houston match, so Brunner play in all likelihood. Right back is hard to predict. The safe choice would be Chabala. Jewsbury might get the call, if only because teams tend to hesitate about benching a guy who has had the captain’s armband all season. I tend to think that it will be Purdy. He hasn’t had much time since he picked up his concussion, but he got some time against Valencia and I have a suspicion that the coaching staff are anxious to get him back into the rotation. In midfield, I would expect to see Songo’o, Palmer, Chará, and Wallace. Is it an ideal group? I think we all know it’s not. But they have been solid and putting them all together seemed to stabilize the team defensively. I expect to see both Zisso and Alhassan get major minutes in this match as well. Up top, the choice is clear: Boyd and Nagbe.

Ok, that’s all from me for now. I’ll be back later on our Facebook site with updates, music, and all the chat that you can stand.

Magadh

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won’t you be, please won’t you be…my neighbor.

Posted on May 25, 2012 | 2 Comments

i have lived in my current home for nearly 3 years. i have great neighbors to the west, and for the better part of the year mrs. sunshine and i truly enjoy them. they came to our wedding, we went to their wedding. we sometimes have barbeques. and i often feel like the man to the west and i have a relationship similar to tool-time tim and wilson. however, there is one time of year i choose to not be  around the westies, and that time has arrived.

lady westie grew up in wisconsin. she is a cheesehead. her decor is green bay green and yellow. and she is very pleased with the fact she was childhood friends with jay demerit. i forgive the fact she likes and enjoys the nfl, but i cannot forgive the fact she loves to inform me whenever she can that she grew up with jay demerit. the fact that she knows jay demerit is not offensive enough to cause me to consider new forms of self-mutilation that would cause even vincent van gogh to reconsider ear removal, but i do often wish for large rolls of toilet paper to stuff in my earholes in order to prevent hearing that lady westie knows jay demerit. i am certain that jay demerit is a nice enough fella, but at this point i could not give a toot about jay demerit.

needless to say, saturday is neighborhood jay demerit day. a feel good story of the year, jay demerit anchored a defense that was instrumental in taking watford to the premier league. then his contract was not extended and then the whitecaps made him their number one draft pick. and then lady westie made my life hell on neighborhood jay demerit day.

while i may be annoyed by stories regaling the wonders of jay demerit, the timbers will be annoyed by a few other fellas from our neighbors up north. a combination of omar salgado,  darren mattocks, and some french fella named sebastien le toux. since his days in seattle, le toux has increasingly become one of the greater offensive forces in the mls. in the two years he played with the union he produced 43 goals, scoring 26 and assisting 17. currently, he has scored 3 and assisted 1 in regular mls play.

given how stingy the timbers defense has been in recent matches, the whitecaps will need le toux at his best. the whitecaps come to the jw having scored only 1 more goal than the timbers in eleven games played, which seems a useless fact until you consider the timbers notable 447 minutes of scoreless, football fun. i am sure the absence of mattocks this season has contributed to that stat. for all the hype that came with darren mattocks, he has been unable to showcase his talents until just recently. evidently, performing street stunts with cooking oil is not a good idea because it burns you severely and takes you out of the game for two months. mattocks did make his second appearance for the caps on may 7 against fc edmonton, scoring late in that game to help the caps advance to the finals in the canadian cup. if you keep up with things canadien, you will know the caps lost to toronto fc. (save your laughter until…oh, ok, laugh). until mattocks can gain game strength and a finishing touch (here is an assessment of his skills by the canadians), the burden of production will fall on le toux and super sub, camilo sanvezzo.

the timbers have solidified their defense well enough to present the caps some difficulty, but one thing is certain, a more assured effort to prevent penetration from the leftwing must be given by chewy. he was woeful on wednesday night. granted, he was playing against the third best side in spain but that should not excuse his over commitment and how often he was caught out of position. of course he is a leftback playing as a rightback, but that should not affect his ability to play positionally well.

on the opposite side, steven smith will have to continue the form he has displayed in the last couple matches, proving that montreal was simply an anomaly. he will be tasked with covering that ex-spud, y.p. lee, who will be working the overlaps on the rightwing. i have watched y.p. lee on numerous occasions and he is one the most annoying players to ever come against the arsenal and that includes teddy sherringham. at least sherringham was annoying because (and this antithetical to everything i am as a gooner) he was good–lee, on the other hand is annoying because he does this.

returning to the neighborhood jay demerit day. it is without question that unless jay demerit has been shot in the pinky toe he is playing–after all, the man did play with a split tongue in the american’s final game of the world cup. he will be paired with the very-tall argentinian, martin bonjour. hopefully this wednesday’s match was an indication of the formation the timbers intend to use. playing songo’o in the central midfield role as he was used against valencia might be the tonic needed to break down such a stout and aerially-savvy, defensive pairing as jay demerit and bonjour. i am not a tactician, but launching balls towards the heads of big dudes, who can jump really high and hurt people in the process, hoping that boyd can connect with his head, is not a recipe for success.

i am sure magadh will have some further thoughts on the upcoming match. look for his post on neighborhood jay demerit day.

with that, have a great non-jay demerit day.

sunshine.

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Release the Bats

Posted on May 24, 2012 | 5 Comments

This post is going to be a little shorter than usual, and the reason is that there are black fragments of rotting pipe bubbling up into our sink and I am waiting for the plumber to show up in the hopes that some sort of disaster can be avoided. True, it would really be a disaster for our landlord, especially since he wants to sell this house. Somehow I think pipes exploding through the kitchen ceiling would adversely affect the return on his investment.

In any case, the lads made a good showing against Valencia last night. Some people that I talked to were a little down on the idea of scheduling a friendly in the middle of a tough run of matches like this, but to me it’s all upside. It’s early in the season and these guys are (or should be) fit enough to handle the added work. It’s also not a bad thing to expose our guys to a different (and in many respects better) style of play. Even with a makeshift lineup, Valencia fielded a lot of good players, guys well schooled in the quick passing game characteristic of La Liga. This is a style which it would be well worth our players learning to imitate.

Perhaps the best thing about this match from the Timbers point of view was the opportunity to get playing time for several guys who are coming back from injury or have been on the margins of the squad for other reasons. Spencer noted a couple of weeks ago that it was harder to bring people up to speed after injuries in the MLS environment than in Europe due to the lack of organized reserve team games. This match provided an excellent substitute for that, and it was good to see that David Horst, Kalif Alhassan, Steve Purdy, and Bright Dike all got good dollops of playing time to work back up to match fitness from their respective injuries. Similarly, it was a good opportunity for Bendik, Braun, Jean-Baptiste, Fucito, and a few others to get some time that would normally go to the team’s primary starters.

About the match itself there is not that much to say. The Timbers gave Valencia a good run for their money, especially in the first half. Chewie was his usual energetic and combative self, Perkins made some good saves, and Smith took another step forward in terms of integrating himself with the team. The performance that really stood out for me was that of Songo’o. He’s been a bit of a cipher lately. He showed great technical ability and speed during preseason, and has even shown flashes of it since he came back from injury, but too often he has become disengaged. Against Valencia we got to see a little more of Songo’o’s positive side. He ran at Valencia defenders and used his considerable pace and technique to good effect.

I suppose the question that this poses is: why not every week? As John Strong repeated several times on the radio broadcast (which was irritatingly out of sync with the video), Songo’o came up through the talent factory that is La Masia and he played a bit in Spain for Real Zaragoza, Real Sociedad, and Albacete. Maybe facing Valencia did something to tweak his pride and impel him to a stronger effort. Probably more importantly, the game last night was wide open, end to end stuff for long stretches. Week in and week out in the MLS, the style of play is much more conservative. Fullbacks tend to their defensive responsibilities a bit more assiduously and tend to be more conservative about getting forward. This means that a player like Songo’o, whose instinct is to try and run by people, is often matched up on a well-entrenched fullback with the midfielder on that side over top, paying close attention. This puts a premium on interchange play with one’s own midfielders and forwards. Songo’o doesn’t really seem to have gotten the hang of that so far this season. In any case, what we saw from him against Valencia was tantalizing and highlights the major contribution to this team that he could make with the proper approach.

A 1-0 loss to a side that ran third in La Liga is in no way a bad result, and it was a pretty entertaining match. I also give props to the club for streaming it free over the internet. So often the impulse is to try and squeeze every penny out of the fan base, but this is a bad idea in the long run, since it results in greatly diminished goodwill. It is that goodwill that carries a team through the difficult times, such as the kind we’re having this season.

Anyway, there’s some nice recap stuff here, here, here, and here, in case you’d like to read accounts of the match of a more “balanced” nature.

Ok, much as that was entertaining, there is something even more exciting on the horizon: the first match of the Cascadia Cup. The boys from up on the island will be heading down this way for our first meeting of the year. They’ve had a bit of an up and down season. They have a couple more wins than we do. On the other hand they did just get beat over two legs in the Canadian Championship by Toronto, quite probably the worst professional soccer team in North America. This is one of those matches where you pretty much throw the form book out the window. They hate us, we had them, and when we come together what we want to see is war to the knife, with no quarter asked and none given.

We’ll have more stuff in the lead up to the match in the next couple of days. In the mean time, I urge everyone to get out their Sebastien Le Toux voodoo dolls and start inserting pins.

Magadh

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Portland Timbers vs. Chicago Fire: Player Ratings

Posted on May 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

I got to watch this match with Spanish language commentary, courtesy of the irritating broadcast restrictions on MLS Live. Actually, it wasn’t bad. It was certainly better that having to listen to the away broadcast, as I had had to do for the Houston match. If nothing else, the Spanish language commentators at least pronounced Diego Chará’s name properly. Still, I think I would have preferred John Strong and Robbie Earle, as my Spanish was only good enough to discern about 50% of what was said.

The big news coming into this match was that, once again, things were going to get shuffled around at the back. Futty’s suspension and Jewsbury’s pelvic strain meant that two substitutions were required. Given the defensive problems that the Timbers have had so far this season, changes in that particular part of the lineup were the kind of thing that we needed like the proverbial hole in the head.

The match had a bit of a nasty edge to it. It was funny that Gargan expressed such dislike for the pitch at the JW, because the Fire players as a group seemed quite anxious to examine it from close range. In any case, it was a good win for the lads, and one that we all really needed.

1. Troy Perkins: I know it must sound like I’m making excuses for Perkins, but once again, I just don’t see the goal as his fault. I strongly suspect that I could have potted a goal given the kind of time and space that Anibaba was permitted. Perkins had a couple of bobbles, but also had a fine save in the first half when Brunner and Mosquera contrived to leave Pappa to shoot unmolested from about six yards in front of goal. 6

5. Eric Brunner: Brunner didn’t do much with the opportunity presented by Futty’s suspension. Well, he managed to keep Dominic Oduro, one of the most dangerous strikers in the league, pretty quiet for most of the night. Oh, and then his did score the Timbers’ first goal in almost three matches. Yeah, it was a good night for EB, as he pounced on a second ball and fired it into the back of the net. This was also the team’s first goal of the season from a corner kick, so well done to them, and well done to him. Man of the match. 7

33. Hanyer Mosquera: Mozzer was good at both ends. He set up Brunner’s opener. He really hammered Oduro a couple of times, and that’s never a bad thing. He looked like he took a bit of a knock right before Anibaba’s goal, which sort of explains why, on the replay, he looks like his boots are nailed to the turf. 6

14. Steven Smith: Smith has been finding his feet and did reasonably well in this match. His brief for this match was to rein in Nyarko, who can really fly. With one or two exceptions, Smith did a good job of keeping him penned in against the sideline, to the point that Nyarko frequently shifted to the other side of the pitch. Unfortunately, his duff clearance in the late stages of the first half allowed Pappa to set up Anibaba’s goal. 5

4. Mike Chabala: Got the start at right back because Jewsbury was crocked and did a good job. Chewy got stuck in, played tough, combative defense, and basically let the Fire players know that he wasn’t going to take any crap. 5

21. Diego Chará: This was a better performance for the diminutive Colombian. He won ball in midfield much more aggressively that in other recent matches, and provided a pretty impressive contrast to Palmer’s generally passive play. Given that he was just about the smallest guy on the pitch, his willingness to compete physically set a tone for the defensive performance of the team more generally. 6

30. Lovel Palmer: For a lot of the match, Palmer did what he is in there to do: disrupt opposing attacks and provide cover for the central defenders. But he was guilty of slack defending for the goal. For reasons unclear to me even after about fifteen viewings, he let Anibaba run free to pick up the ball from Pappa. When you give up shots from that kind of distance, even to central defenders, bad things are going to happen. In general, he seemed to lack aggression, which was particularly evident because of the proximity of Chará (who did not lack in that department). 4

22. Rodney Wallace: The first thing that you’ve got to say about RodWal is that he is not afraid to have a shot from distance, which is something that the team as a whole needs to do more of. He seemed to spend a lot of the match tracking back, which was not totally surprising given the speed that Chicago has in wide areas. 5

8. Frank Songo’o: A pretty ineffectual match, on the whole. He just didn’t get much done. Subbed off at halftime, which was hardly a surprise, since Zizzo could be seen warming up on the sideline for the last few minutes of the first half. 4

9. Kris Boyd: A better performance that some of his recent games, and why was this? Because he was getting service. Came close to potting one in the 37th minute when, mirabile dictu, RodWal got to the byline and put one across the face of the goal. Obviously, the winner was an own goal by Pause, but Boyd positioned himself well and forced the place in the middle. 6

6. Darlinton Nagbe: Nagbe worked hard, but didn’t produce me in terms of end product (I feel like I wrote that last week as well). Has a bad habit of letting defenders off the hook by taking balls wide instead of forcing play to the middle. 5

7. Sal Zizzo: Let Chicago know he was about from the minute he stepped on the pitch. Beat Sagares like a rented mule and drew a booking for the latter for a grim foul. Put in a good corner that Boyd (with the help of Logan Pause) converted into a goal. Zizzo spent the balance of the match absolutely running a furrow into the right side of the pitch. 6

15. Jorge Perlaza: Came on for Nagbe after 65 minutes, either to inject some pace or because the latter was carrying a knock, it wasn’t clear. Perlaza has lacked form and playing time of late, so it was nice to see him get on to try to remedy this. Caused the Fire a few problems, and maybe gave Spencer something to think about in terms of adding a little motivation to Nagbe by increasing the competition for spots. 5

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