Category Archives: euro 2012

we had dreams and songs to sing…

Posted on June 15, 2012 | 1 Comment

there is something admirable about reveling in defeat and the irish do it better than any nation. after going down 4 nil to spain, thanks to a slashing cesc fabregas shot off the far post, the irish faithful belted out a rendition of the fields of athenry in acceptance of the loss but also seeming protest to the defeat. yes, they had been singing the folk anthem throughout the match, but it was merely a warm up for the 85th minute. the hope of getting away with stealing trevelyane’s corn was well and duely doused and the irish knew they were on the boat home

i may not enjoy defeat. in fact, as many others likely do, i absolutely detest when the timbers lose. however, i am sympathetic to those moments of anguish gripped with the loss of hope. perhaps that is why so easily i slip into chorus on “can’t help falling in love.” regardless of the inevitable result, my hope remains steadfast. too often, when going into the final ten minutes of a match, i believed the timbers would retain their composure and finish a game strongly, without shipping free goals to the opposition. and too often i have watched leads disappear in the 80th minute.

not that we need to question why these let-downs continue to occur, when watching our combined defensive play the answers are obvious, but after a while one begins to believe a curse looms over a team and they are doomed to failure. several individuals have made pathetic and impotent connections between elvis and the failure of the timbers to retain a lead. the desire to find an answer for the failure outside the obvious is understandable, but a song does not play defense. sure frustrations can be attributed to the song, making the song as palatable as chipped beef on toast. but those associations are as disparate as the associations i once made with the use of blue crayons to a bad case of stomach flu. while i still avoid blue crayons, i understand how irrational my avoidance is. in the face of being irrational, i still sing, as the irish sing, expressing my love in the face of frustration, because i understand something other than a song causes the mishaps.

personally, no game was as frustrating as this year’s loss to the galaxy. the timbers had a lead only to relax and give the galaxy a decisive win. if you recall, and how could you not, the timbers took an early lead against the galaxy thanks to kris boyd. they held that lead into the 44th minute, when brunner was beaten by robby keane and landon donovan drilled home the equalizer. the score remained even until the 83rd minute when things fell apart. donovan connected with beckham, who took advantage of sparse and lazy defending.

well, this sunday the timbers return to los angeles for the second of three games against the galaxy. as annoying as the unbalanced schedule may be, this is the lot we were given thanks to the mls brain-trust headed by don garber, mensa member. fortuntately, the galaxy are suffering from injuries to key players and absences of others. notable losses are edson buddle and robby keane. while missing their primary striking duo, the bigger blow to the galaxy has been the absence of greg gonzales to a knee injury. since his injury, the galaxy have had a revolving door in the central defense. during his absence they have used meyer, boyer, lopes, keat, leonardo, and gaul to fill the void next to de la garza. each new pairing has been as inadequate as the last, and teams have taken advantage of their deficiencies. frankly, the galaxy have had a difficult time attempting to emulate the timbers and have been nowhere near the form that brought them the 2011 championship.

with a revamped forward pairing, the timbers might be able to take advantage of the galaxy’s defensive frailties. might. the timbers have scored one goal from open play since the last time we faced the galaxy. and though they create chances, they have failed at creating the types of chances necessary to involve the million-dollar-man, kris boyd. with danny mwanga now in the side, the timbers will look to a foyle more likely to pull defenders off boyd than perlaza was able to do. if so, i imagine boyd will be able to knock a few in.

while the irish comforted my sense of inevitable failure, yesterday, the spaniards gave me the belief that failure can lead to triumph. if fernando torres can score two goals in a match, i am confident the timbers can accomplish similar heights of achievement.

with that, have a great day.

sunshine.

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please, you can’t go home again…

Posted on June 13, 2012 | 2 Comments

with little to do last night but pay to watch a humdrum draw between the usmnt and guatemala, mrs. sunshine and i took a moment to hit the season ticket holders appreciation night at the jw. we walked through the posh seats, the concession stands, and the team store, eventually making our way back to the old-reliable northend. as much as i enjoyed the free hotdogs and warm cheese wiz before a stroll on the turf, i could not feel comfortable until i sat down on my seat. somethings and some places are just plain comfortable.

which is what the russians likely felt when unveiling a banner the size of 4 city blocks that revealed their feelings toward poland. there is tifo and then there is that. we in portland do some good tifo–gigantic timber jim action figure taking out the space needle, the king of clubs, the sunshine sun on opening day, to name a few–but the russians took demonstration to a new political middlefinger. i am sure somewhere in the multiple broadcasts from multiple regions and news affiliates, someone has mentioned lech walesa and the solidarity movement that began in gdansk, and which eventually lead to the first free elections in communist occupied territories. and that would be a nice place to start if you simply wanted to gloss over the tensions between poland and russia–tensions that have existed for several centuries. considering those tensions, it certainly is not a coincidence that flag read “this is russia.”

without question the flag will be the talking piece for the talking heads, but what they should be discussing is the play of andrey arshavin. when i began this post, i discussed the homey feeling i had for the northend of jw. players have similar affection for their positions, and when played out of position they look as comfortable as an ant on a radiator. it goes without saying that andrey arshavin has increased his worth in the transfer window during the first two games in these championships, by adding a third assist to his tally.

for those of us who follow arsenal, when i speak of andrey arshavin i think of the word enigma. for a player who threatens so much talent he has fallen short of his promise. yeah, he scored 4 goals against liverpool (i have never seen him run faster than he did for the fourth goal off a walcott pass), but he also failed to produce the quality of assists that we see with russia. he is always dangerous, he always absent. quite often the argument is made that he has been mis-played on the wing by arsene wenger, and i would have to agree. he is a creative player, better suited for efforts behind the main striker, yet on the wing he was isolated in a position that required him to defend more than he ever cared to do.

when looking at the timbers, i am concerned only about one player who is being played out of his comfort zone. jewsbury. captain jack began his career as a right back, but in our side he was drafted into the midfield. jack was drafted into the rightback position because the personnel the timbers have were not making the grade. i believe 6 players have been slotted into the right side of the back four this season and of those six jack has done the least amount of harm. sure he is played out of position, but, unlike arshavin at arsenal, jack was never really good at his prefered position in the midfield. since his move, the timbers offense has become more assured and direct, though still reliant on horrendous crossing. if a new rightback were to come in, jack immediately goes back to the midfield and the timbers return to dungeness crab tactics, incapable of penetrating defenses.

as of monday, gambian rightback, kebba ceesay, has been heavily linked with a move to the timbers. (here is your youtube scouting report). ceesay looks as if he knows how to play rightback–he is nasty in the tackle, understands the importance of overlapping runs, and, from what i have viewed, he can cross the ball more effectively than a slug–suggesting he would be an immediate upgrade from the unimpressive options we have currently. while it would be pleasing to bring in a player who knows how to do the job, as i said earlier, there is a  downside–captain jack will have to play elsewhere. while i am not sure my nerves can handle jack’s return to the midfield, i am certain the team cannot withstand that blow. frankly, less harm is done to the side if he remains at rightback. of course, a better option to the jewsbury dilemma is to ship him out entirely. however, i have a better chance of winning powerball than we do of seeing jack in a different kit in the near future–spencer has tied his career to the man.

for now, all of this is speculation, which is to say it means nothing. but i do have some grave concerns if such deal transpires. at any rate, the euros are back on today and the germans will look to put down the oranje resistence. given the political tensions of the european championships thus far, i imagine eindhoven will soon be firebombed for the second time in 70 years.

with that, have a great day and enjoy the euros.

sunshine

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Diminished Expectations

Posted on June 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Much against the general run of my inclinations, I took the time to watch the England v. France European Championship match yesterday. It was a bit of a snorefest. There was some entertainment in the period between minute 30 and minute 40, during which to two goals were scored, but other than that there was not a great deal of action. It really seemed like both teams were willing to take a draw from the off, particularly the English, who played incredibly deep for much of the match. Any time you see Scott Parker and Steven Gerard hanging around the top of the box for the best part of ninety minutes, you can tell that a team is in a really defensive posture.

The match did illustrate one important point though, and it’s this. One of the biggest problems that the English have had for the last forty years or so has been inflated expectations. This is not totally surprising. With all due respect to my many English friends, it’s probably an element of the overarching declining empire syndrome. When you’ve been the empire on which the sun never sets, and having the sun finally set, that’s a hard thing with which to come to terms. Similarly, England’s historical status as the birthplace of football has imbued the English with a sense that they should be an elite side.

Well, I suppose it’s not all illusory. The English produce a lot of top class players. One of the really shocking things about the English national team is their propensity to underachieve. I still remember one of the owners of the George and Dragon in Seattle, dolefully telling me exactly how much money he was going to lose because the English had failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships. For a team with the kind of quality that the English could bring to bear, this seemed like an absolutely shocking result.

The run up to this edition of the European Championships had the normal measure of soap opera drama surrounding the English national team. The pressure was always going to be on Fabio Capello after the disappointing results of the World Cup two years ago. And then came the repeated problems with John Terry. First he was temporarily stripped of the captaincy after fathering a child with Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend. Then, of course, he decided, quite idiotically, to abuse Anton Ferdinand in racist terms. Losing his captaincy for the first thing was, I have to say, pretty lame. Poaching someone else’s girlfriend is weak, but that’s between the three people involved. Why should the team captain be some kind of moral exemplar? I don’t know, and I suspect that Fabio Capello didn’t either.

On the other hand, the racist abuse is another matter altogether. Racism is a public concern and a social problem in a way that philandering is not. That sort of conduct is disgraceful and plainly unacceptable from a public figure. Capello’s response was also deficient, but you can kind of understand it in a way, since this was the second time that the FA had intervened in a matter of team discipline. Still, he should have had the sense to understand that racially abusing another human being in a public place (or anywhere for that matter) makes one unfit for leadership. In addition to being repulsive on its own merits, it really shows a complete and total failure of judgment. As if this wasn’t a full measure of stupidity, Wayne Rooney also contrived to get himself suspended for the first two matches of the tournament for kicking Miodrag Dzudovic during England’s match with Montenegro.

Having lost their captain, their manager, and their best playerthe FA undertook and exercise in damage control. It was pretty clear that the authorities wanted to appoint an Englishman to the post. Early speculation focused on Spurs manager Harry Redknapp. For some reason their interest cooled, and I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps it had something to do with Tottenham’s collapse during the last quarter of the EPL season. In any case, the FA eventually settled on West Bromwich Albion manager Roy Hodgson. True, Hodgson’s résumé did include a successful spell at Inter Milan and getting Fulham to the finals of the UEFA Cup, which is a pretty remarkable achievement any way you slice it.

Nonetheless, this was clearly an attempt at tamping down expectations. The pattern with the selection of the last few England managers had been to bring in figures with star power. Both Fabio Capello and Sven Goran Eriksson before him were brought in to remedy perceived deficiencies in terms of the domestic managing talent after disappoints stints by Steve McClaren, Glenn Hoddle, and Kevin Keegan. The selection of Hodgson, the manager of a midlevel side in the Premier League kind of tells its own story.

After the match, Alexy Lalas went on and on about what a great result this was for the English. I think he was, as usual, overplaying his hand. The sort of hyperbole that he was emitting might have been appropriate if the English had managed to hold on to their lead, but was a little much for a match in which the French had clearly decided that a point would be enough. Both sides now just need to do the business against the lesser opposition (Sweden and the Ukraine) and they will be through. In that respect, it was an excellent result for England, who just needed not to lose.

The upshot of this long blather is simply this. England have, I think, finally faced up to what the actual talent level on this team is. Steven Gerard is approaching the end of his shelf life. Scott Parker is, at best, a grinder. Ashley Young looks better for United because he has better players around him. Theo Walcott produces just about as little for England, in terms of technique and decision making, as he does for Arsenal. Even with Wayne Rooney, this is at best a B+ side, and making it to the semifinals of this tournament would be a major accomplishment. For once, it seems like people around the team and in the media have come to understand this.

Perhaps there is an analogy here to our own situation. Fans of the Timbers have to look closely at the current playing staff and think clearly about what can really be expected from them. Certainly they have underachieved at times this season, but I also think there is reason to think that the current run of form that the team is on is a pretty fair illustration of the actual quality available. Bringing in Mwanga is not an unpromising sign, but until they find someone to be the playmaker in central midfielder, I’m afraid that there isn’t much to look forward to in terms of improvement, at least in the short term.

Magadh

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