no mo fo the show…

this should be a short post, today. after all, today is the day of days…or whatever it was that eisenhower wrote to millions of men preparing to cross a channel. thankfully, this day is not a day like that day, but a day where the timbers take on the sounders. a battle so steeped in decades of tradition that espn has promoted it more than they have ever promoted the old firm or zombie movies. cool.

first and foremost, i would like to thank our pal, anfield 89, for his efforts in describing why his sounders are a bunch of knobs. i think he did an exceptional job, but his efforts were made easy given the subject matter.

the timbers welcome back a few faces and are without a couple. notably, futty and steven smith are back to assist the defense. i thank all things that holy and some that are unholy for their return. not only does the return of smith improve the defense and the attack going forward, it also suggests that chabala will be sitting on the bench. after last week’s match against the galaxy i can think of very few things i would approve of more than chewy chewing on the pine. he was dire and the timbers do not need dire against arguably a better sounders side.

futty is likely to step in to fill the large hole created by hanyer mosquera’s post-dated violent conduct ruling. i get that he may have hit what’s-his-name, and i get that if he did intentionally hit what’s-his-name it is violent conduct, but for the mls disciplinary committee to wait until friday to issue their ruling was pretty bad form. i am not going to wade into the fray caused by this incident. frankly, i do not care, but the disciplinary committee had the evidence before them for 5 days. as much as i hate the nfl, it takes their officials about 30 seconds to review a decision.

the major offensive concern for the timbers will be danny mwanga. if you recall, he took a dead leg in that penalty that was not ruled a penalty because it is completely acceptable for the opposition to sammich a fella when he is on goal. as of mid-week it appeared his dead-leg had not yet awakened from the dead. which will be pretty cool when it does. the ghoulish headlines would be amazing–mwanga’s vampire leg strikes again, or night of the living dead-leg, or attack of the dead-leg. forget zombie fucito, i predict danny mwanga’s dead-leg will be the next wave of zombie related hero-lust.

aside from those few, it takes little imagination to be able to suggest the side picks itself. frankly, it takes about as much imagination as it took gca to compose his what-if paper-seller. with all due respect to a man who knows as much about football as a gnat knows about driving a car, that article had enough conjecture to make william randolph hearst proud. it has become the unwritten rule that when an owner either resists the opportunity to discuss the topic of sacking the manager or says, politely, no comment, what he really means is the manager’s days are numbered and he is among the walking dead. sorry, gca, you were grasping at something in order to shock some people. fail.

i have been rather vocal about where i see this side going under spencer’s guidance. i have also been clear that i cannot see any movement in the managerial slot until after the season ends and evaluations have been made. my opinion is not because i think spencer has earned the right to see out the season, but rather i believe merritt paulson is not as rash as that. in addition, i tend to agree with mags when he asks: “if not him than who?” at the moment there really are no jason kreis’s out there capable of taking this side to the next level. as much as i would approve of paulson assuming the role of frakenstein or re-animator in order to create a zombie kreis, it will never happen.

regardless of his intentions, gca has dumped on a day we fans hold rather dear. i know i will not buy that guy a beer. and i hope none of you who read our blog do either. what a debby derby downer.

with that, enjoy the cascadia!

sunshine