match preview

good morning! a glorious day begins and it could not have come soon enough. it has not been the easiest of summers to stomach if you support the timbers, but today helps those football obsessed assuage at least a small portion of the anguish they understandably suffer from. it also means that for those of us who are equally devoted to another team we can look forward to continued heart issues, anger, despair, and fleeting moments of elation--that is unless you are one the many who suddenly became lifelong man city supporters last season. as if i need to inform you all--the epl begins today.

as i suggested, this helps us timbers supporters because tomorrow we get to see a few players that should still be timbers, but are not timbers, excel at playing football because they are surrounded by good players. it has not been an easy year for the timbers faithful and watching a player who should have been leading the timbers midfield now playing for the red bulls. i know some think the rodwall will become some sort of player (what that sort is i have a good idea will never be superior quality), but trading dax mccarty to dc united for him may go down as one the lamest trades ever completed in mls history. whether due to his notable attitude issues, or simply because gavin had his head so far up his ass that lump in his throat was his nose, dax maccarty spent less than it takes to say the first 5 letters of the alphabet as a timber. given the disappointment i still feel when i think about him, the bornstein situation, and kerrea "my career has gone missing since failing to secure a visa" gilbert, that the answer must be situated in an adam's apple.

mccarty is the type of player the timbers needed and still do need. he has the right mixture of creativity and nastiness that is currently missing in the side. sure, the front office eventually got diego chara, but can you imagine a midfield with chara and mccarty and no captain forever. i can. and the image does not play well.

as for the other player...well, he just keeps scoring and scoring and scoring. and that is what happens when a fella who does not create his goals gets good service. now, this may get me in trouble, but i was never a fan of kenny cooper. i understand he did not receive the service necessary to make him an effective player for the timbers. and i understand that had spencer employed him properly he would have been a very good asset for the club. but when i heard of the trade to the red bulls i was elated. whether it was the system employed by timbers, or simply a facet of his game cooper enjoyed sitting on the pitch too often for me to consider him a player worthy of my respect. he wore the green and i supported him because of that, but for me the f in kfc had a different meaning than normally attributed.

those two players are only 2 of 11 quality players that will face the timbers for the only time this season (and you can thank that genius, don garber, for that). recent to the big apple is tim cahill. a nasty player in his days at everton, he has proven to be a great acquisition so far in the short time he has played for the sport drinks--he has created one goal for them. then you add lindpere, sebastien le toux, and some fella i still call the king and after whom mrs sunshine has agreed to name our first male born. at 35, thierry henry is still better than any player sat in the timbers starting eleven.

while franck songo'o returns to the side, i do not see tomorrow going well for the timbers. the amount of firepower and creativity sat within that red bull side is exceptional and the timbers are still without a truly creative player to unlock the abilities of kris boyd. add to that the fact the timbers back four appears to be regressing rather than developing as a unit, the likelihood the redbulls will put up an insurmountable lead is great.

apologies for the short post, but the opening day beckons.

sunshine.