cascadia cup, match preview

who would have believed magadh would hit the blog centennial so quickly? i guess it was bound to happen given our daily format. but even though i have it on good authority he has relationships with socks lasting longer than merritt has kept gavin around, his level of devotion to our little platform still surprises me, proving he thinks as highly of the timbers as he does those socks. if you have not gathered yet, i do hold a rather high opinion of the man, and i am incredibly grateful to have developed this blog with him (and the noob, shecky green).

given that we spent the formative years of our friendship in seattle, it is only fitting that his milestone arrives as the timbers are preparing for their first and only seattle away match of the season come. as you may well know, if you are regular readers of this pretentious blog, mags and i had to suffer many nights in our local, listening to countless muppets talk up the sounders as if they actually cared about sounders football before drew carey and the mls arrived. and suffered we did, which might explain why our personalities are not disimilar to statler and waldorf--age aside, of course.

few sounders players have been suffered more by the timbers faithful than levesque. in fact, i cannot think of one. i dare say that no sounder is hated more than the stache. and i believe the sounders get that, which is why we who will be making trip north will suffer further. as if the timbers chop down goal celebration was not insulting enough, we now must endure a scarfing of sorts. and because of that little ceremony, the sounders may have the last laugh when it comes to the tifo finger--handing a golden scarf to the hated stache pre-kick off. hopefully we can make a wee bit of noise for his reception...

in preparations for seattle away, several of the timbers players fielded some questions about the game ahead. i love these moments. you know: when you want the interviewer to ask a probing question and all that comes out is "how do you prepare for this game, you know, it being on national television and that?" not that they have ever played on national television in the past, or that they actually think about playing on national television as they are playing on national television. i think they have a fair amount of mental strength to help themselves over the fear of the fact someone in tukwilla or pocatello might actually be watching them play sport. the players understand the importance of this match to the club and to the fans and are preparing for it as well as they can. sal, danny, and horst all recognized the importance and provided some insight into their emotions, and jitters, and the enormity of such a large crowd. you can watch the interviews as they happened right here.

impressively, david horst suggests he will be unphased by the gigantic atmosphere. and, surprisingly, i actually believe him. of the players on the squad, horstache has performed best in these cascadia cup matches. i know typically i have some harsh criticism for the boy, his positioning and marking are suspect, but he really does step up for these matches. i know many people may attribute montero's goal to horst's marking, but i did not find fault with him. i wanted to. but i did not. mosquera and bendik were culpable for that cock-up. so, if gca needs someone to vouch for how horst will respond to a stadium filled with 66000 idiots i will gladly do so.

and here is where we get to those who may or may not play. mcauley has been talking to the media about the headache gavin is suffering as he is forced to choose a side from all these players who really really really want to play and really really really want to remain in portland to play for the timbers. you dont have to be a genius to understand there is a distinct difference between a desire to remain at the club and earning the right to remain at the club. but hey, every kid has the right to dream and sean is positive the way the play has changed on the pitch may prove difficult for the interim ginger.

I thought every player that went on the pitch, through a bit of adversity as well, absolutely worked and worked and worked to prove to him that they want to be here.

while i read that quote, courtesy of the fine fellas of stumptown futty, i envisioned the rodwall reading deepak chopra and marianne williamson while plopping in some jack handy mixtapes to tackle his personal moments of adversity. daily, he works on the positive affirmations before drumming up the courage to step into the ginger's office with his heart on sleeve like a little shecky green before begging to be part of a new blog (i kid--shecky does not read deepak chopra, he goes for dr phil). but as much as the rodwall can say to himself "doggone it, im worth it," i am not certain he is. unfortunately, with our little man diego charra out injured, not many reasonable options remain for the interim ginger. i would say give richards a shot, but his youthful enthusiasm far exceeds his footballing iq at the moment.

to be quite honest, i doubt many changes will be made from the dc united match save the obvious injuries. by all accounts, it is unlikely mosco or diego will be back to full fitness for this match, so expect brunner to get his first full run in since april. there was a time when i loved seeing his name penciled in the eleven, but given his nutted dome i do have some trepidation. if he can gather to the pace of play, his maturity may just be the tonic our side needs. but that is a big "if." he will be required to mark either of eddie johnson or fredy montero, and neither were easy jobs handled well by a fully fit mosquera in the last meeting. i imagine a few bobbles will occur for eb5.

of course, all of this is speculation. i really do not know whether rodwall reads both marianne williamson and deepak chopra, while simultaneously listing to jack handy affirmations. but i guess he does enjoy them separately. to that matter, i may have a good guess about the eleven this sunday, but gavin does like to change things up.

ok. i am tired and rambling and the pretentious nonsense is simply oozing. i had better clean this up and go listen to some bach fugue in g minor as i smoke my pipe. now, where is that damn cravat?

ok, lovies, peace out.

sunshine