bright dike

Since Our Last Deal With New York Worked Out So Well…

Posted on: February 12th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 4 Comments

 

I really don’t understand MP sometimes. Or rather, I feel that I understand him all too well. He’s probably a good guy when you meet him in the flesh (I have never had the pleasure) but he simply must stay off of Twitter. There are some humans whose consciousness is simply unsuited to that particular mode of communication. I mention this because he put up a tweet the other day which seems to be a joke about Sigi Schmid’s weight, or his love of food, or whatever. As a goof it’s just not very funny. But, more importantly, much as the green slime from Sodo inspire the same kind of feelings in me as the prospect of French kissing a badger, there is just no point in this kind of thing. I’m all for saying nasty things to an opponent. I’ve certainly been chucked out of a few places for doing so. But to be effective it has to be either a) obviously very funny or b) backed up by some show of actual superiority.

Much as it was pleasant to take a little piece of the Sounders down in Tucson, that and $2 will just about get you a cup of coffee. Not only have we had rather more preseason game preparation, but it was also a match in which we played a lineup that was rather closer to what our actual regular season setup in going to be (aside from the fact that Tucker-Gagnes played right back). I know the whole issue of the tweet is a minor thing and will, in all likelihood, soon be forgotten. But one never wants to give an opponent the opportunity to deal out some comeuppance. There are those of you out there who will say that this doesn’t really merit our attention, and you’re probably right. Still, it’s just the kind of thing that one generally oughtn’t to do.

Speaking of developments with our northern rivals, they seem to have taken Mikael Sylvestre on for a trial, now that his cuppa with us is done. I never thought that I would be uttering the following words, but I really wish that the Timbers would sign Sylvestre. It gives me only a modicum of comfort to know that sunshine and I have friends among the Seattle Arsenal mob who will feel the same sort of discomfort at his proximity that we do. However that may be, I think it’s pretty clear that he showed the requisite level of skill and ability during his brief stint in our camp. I understand that bringing him in creates a bit of a log jam at center half, but perhaps a bit of serious competition for playing time wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I have confidence in Horst and Mosquera, both individually and as a pairing. I’m less sanguine about the prospect of Jean-Baptiste getting significant time, as he would do if either of the aforementioned picked up an injury. Tucker-Gagnes could also chip in, but who among us could view the prospect of throwing someone straight out of college into the setup? Sylvestre might not be available on terms that we will work for us financially. I simply have no way of knowing. The thought of seeing him lining up in a Sounders jersey causes my gorge to rise.

Whatever it is that we decide to do in terms of personnel, we will have some extra cash with which to do it. This is a result of the fact that Eric Alexander has been shifted to the Energy Drinks for…wait for it…allocation money. Those hardy souls among you who have read what I have to say with regularity will remember that I have not exactly been the president of the Eric Alexander fan club. He’s who reminds one of those motivational posters that one sees at work about unspectacular people working unspectacularly to get a job done. You can’t fault the guy in terms of effort. But he simply is not quite good enough to assert ownership over a starting spot at left wing, and the number of times that he came off the bench to any good effect can be number on one hand. Mayhap I would have preferred to see him go somewhere besides New York. In my heart of hearts the Kenny Cooper thing still rankles. Admittedly, he was moved on when there was still some prospect of getting a reasonable return out of Kris Boyd. But Cooper went on to pot 18 goals for the Drinks, while Boyd turned out to be the footballing equivalent of a handful of magic beans.

While we’re on the subject of strikers, I would like to say that I am feeling intense guilt about the situation with Bright Dike. The other day I made some idiotic comment about the possibility that he might be able to come back from injury in a matter of weeks rather than months. I should know better than to say things like that, especially when it refers to someone who is having surgery to repair a knee injury. As it turns out he’s done until August (at least) and I have a feeling that I put the whammy on the guy. I take full responsibility for this.

Dike is another guy of whom I’ve been pretty critical. Or perhaps it would be better say that I’ve been skeptical of his ability to be the kind of guy who can carry the scoring load for a team with serious aspirations to contend. I talked a little the other day about what the loss of Dike might portend for our attack. Clearly, this is a time when other players have a chance to make their case for a more extensive role. You would think that this would be the time that Danny Mwanga would make play for more time, if only on the basis of the tools that he has. Still he hasn’t impressed, and moreover it’s not really clear to me that he represents the way forward in terms of the offensive style that Porter wants this team to play. The answer could be Ryan Johnson, who had at least a modicum of success during his time with the Quakes (less so up in Toronto). The fact that we’re now taking a look at the young Belizean striker Deon McCauley may render some clues about which direction things are going to take. He’s a player less in the Dike/Mwanga mode (big, hold up player) and more like Nagbe (small and mobile). With the improvements that have been effected in midfield this might portend a full commitment to an offense that attacks the top of the penalty area using running and through balls. To my mind this fits well with the overall attacking approach that we are building now.

Ok, I’m off. I promise to do my best not to jinx any more of our players.

Magadh

The Thinning Begins

Posted on: February 10th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 2 Comments

 

Hello ladies and gentlemen and a happy Sunday to you all. I am currently rolling with the Megabus between Chicago and points east and if you’re reading this it means that (contrary to my expections) I’ve gotten their wi-fi working to such an extent as to be able to post this thing. If you’re not reading this, well, it doesn’t matter anyway.

I didn’t see out 3-0 victory against FC Tucson. Of course, nobody did who wasn’t actually in Tucson. I discovered later that it would have been possible to follow what was going on via Twitter, but I don’t do Twitter. sunshine is the guy who does pretty much everything on our Twitter account. For some reason that particular format has never really appealed to me. sunshine and I are a bit like Jack Sprat and his wife. I can handle no Twitter, he can handle no Facebook, but between the two of us we seem to manage to get the full measure of social media exposure. I’ll have more to say about that below. Suffice for now to say that I only have the most general idea of what went on down in Tucson, other than that we won and who scored.

One thing that I do know about (at least to the degree that anyone outside the Timbers camp knows about these matters) is Bright Dike’s knee. According to media reports he’s just had arthroscopic surgery to repair a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament. This came as no surprise to me. As people who were following my Facebook posts during the Seattle match may remember, I said that it looked like he made a quick grab for his knee after colliding with Seattle’s keeper. It was hard to tell exactly what had happened because the camera angles were so wonky, but I definitely got the impression at the time that some sort of knee tweek had happened, and so it was. This has got to be kind of a tough blow for a guy who is only about two years removed from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Recovery time from this sort of thing can be a bit hard to predict, especially if one doesn’t have precise information about the nature of the injury. At least it wasn’t a full tear, so there is a possibility that the time frame could be weeks instead of months.

Months, yes, months. As in the case of Brent Richards who, it was announced a few days ago by the team, just had surgery to repair a torn ACL and meniscus. I really feel for the guy. He played some good minutes last year. He was raw for sure, but he had talent and looked like a guy who could add some useful dimensions to the side with the proper development. On a more selfish note, this leaves us a bit thin in attack. [I feel like there is some sort of weird harmonic convergence between the Timbers and Arsenal these days. Both seem to have a plethora of central midfielders and a shortage at other positions.] Richards was mostly used out wide last year, so his loss it not quite as worrying as Dike’s. I am on record as saying that Dike is at best a B+ grade talent. Admittedly, he is a very hard worker and has improved his game markedly over where it was when he got sent down last year. On the plus side, at least in terms of what he was bringing to the team, he really looked to be about the best thing that we had going up front.

Where does this leave us in terms of attack? The situation is a little murky, but one thing is clear. This is the moment at which Danny Mwanga needs to step up and show that he deserves a spot in the side. This is like one of those moments in a thoroughbred race where an opening appears in the pack and a horse that’s been trapped in the middle has a chance to break into the clear. Mwanga has been pretty unimpressive so far this preseason, and the lack playing time in the previous campaign seems to suggest that the coaching staff didn’t have great confidence in his ability to get it done. With the departure of Boyd and the injury to Dike there is now an opportunity for him to get an extensive run out and really show what he can do.

Another thing that occurs to me is that this might provide an opportunity to change the equation with Darlington Nagbe. He’s been shifted out wide for much of this preseason because of the overload of quality that we have in the middle of the park. This situation might provide an opportunity to move him back into a more central position, either partnering Mwanga up front or as part of a three man midfield in a 4-5-1 formation. Anyway, it’s just a thought. At this point I’m just not sure who else we could put up there. Nagbe’s pace and clever running could be effective up top, especially now that we have a guy like Valeri who really looks to pick out passes to cutters (and has the quality to do it).

I’ll return to this topic as the preseason continues. In the interim, people should feel free to offer up any suggestions that they might have about how this situation might best be addressed. Returning for a moment to the matter of social media discussed above, some of you saw that I essentially live blogged the match against Seattle the other day, at least in the sort of limited way that Facebook posts allow one to do. Some of you may remember that I did something like this in the lead up to matches last season. I am going to try to bring this back for the coming regular season, but only for road matches. It makes more sense to do it that way. Ultimately I’d like to set up a platform for real live blogging of the matches (yes I know that Stumptown Footy does something like that, but I think that there is room and processor speed for more than one outlet). Anyway, it’s all part of the plan to make The Axe a bit more interactive, so we’ll see how it goes.

Magadh

saturday drive time…

Posted on: February 9th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com No Comments

 

happy saturday.

rainball

the timbers have decided to trade the arizona sun for the northwest version of sun and return home. the club has one week until the beginning of the pre-season tournament at the jw. but before we begin discussing that all important series of matches, we have a few other things discuss.

first the bad news. we might as well rip the band-aid off the wound and talk about the injury sustained by bright dike. the joke many have used over the last few days since dike was forced to leave the game against seattle after he rumbled into the goal post is that dike dike'd himself. enough has been said about dike and his rise through adversity, either through injury or inability to get first team minutes. it is an inspirational and heartwarming story that should definitely star sandra bullock when it is transposed to celluloid. but the loss of a player through accident and hard play is just part of the game.

even still, many think dike may have a curse--he gets going and then injury takes him out of the mix. first the achilles and now the acl. dike is an ox. he is almost too heavy to play the position that he does without the expectation of suffering an injury. it is not a coincidence that a player of comparable size, didier drogba, suffered his own plague of injuries. running, beating, pushing, turning, stopping as center forwards do places an extreme amount of physical strain on the body, and to add the strain of weight to that equation only increases the likelihood of injury. though many say the game has passed him by, when he arrived in modern football back in 1996, he revolutionized the approach to training, diet, and the physicality of players. he claimed, and still argues, that forwards should not carry too much weight because it will decrease the effectiveness and the career of the player. the attraction many have to dike is the fact he is a bull-in-a-china-shop player. but that metaphoric comparison exists because those players actually do break things--even themselves. dike is a physical specimen, and he can bully past defenders due to his size and power, but i think his overall game as well as his career would benefit if he hit the salad bar a bit more--dropping below 200 lbs while retaining the strength he has is possible. hopefully when he returns he will have taken care to make some changes to his physique in order to improve his game and the inspirational story.

personally, i do not think the loss of dike will affect the team that much. it will certainly reduce the numbers in central attack, but there are young players itching to earn chances. this is that time. we had assumed trencito will see more time than the no time he saw last season, but now he is assured of minutes until dike makes his return in august.

and it was the younger players who stepped onto the pitch against fc tucson to earn a convincing win yesterday. well, as convincing as a win against a club the size of fc tucson can actually be. the timbers walked away with a 3-0 win, thanks to goals from mosco, sebastian rincon, and steven evans. while the win is nice, the more important result is that a number of players gained some game time experience with the new system--8 players were given their first pre-season minutes. as i have been banging on about for the last few weeks, porter's system is a team oriented approach--they defend together and they attack together, and the more they work within the system in game appearances the better for the team. porter was quick to remind of this fact:

We were down here together and we were able to become a more cohesive group; our chemistry is better. We had some time to bond and form a group. We got fitter, we got sharper.

what has been impressive to me so far this pre-season is the commitment to defending made by the team. possession obviously prevents the opposition from scoring, but those efforts are an assumed result of porter's system. the impressive aspect of the ethic brought in by the new manager is that when possession is lost every player works to regain the ball. every player. remember that statement about players playing honestly? well, there you go. there are no seats for passengers in dominant football--every player must push to bring the game to and beyond the opposition, not stand arround, waiting for a perfect bit of service.

the results will improve the more the players learn the system, adjust to the system, and the further they step away from concerns of the other team. the involvement of every player in building the play removes the concern and regard given to the other team's intentions and requires each player to judge what is best to improve the chances of scoring. following the win against fc tucson, for the first time, porter began to speak of the team in terms of destiny. not the destiny associated with naive assertions of we can make the playoffs, but as a game time destiny.

I think when you play dominant soccer, which is what we are trying to play, I think you’re the deciding team. That means the opponent in a day like today is irrelevant because we are looking for dominant play, on the ball, possession, sharpness, control, intelligence.

in other words, if the team adheres to its training and tactics, works for each other, and plays every minute of the game, they can control the game and their destiny. i buy that. the bigger question is whether the team buys into that theory.

all right, ok, i am off.

sunshine

players are off to do the reggay…

Posted on: February 4th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 6 Comments

 

imagesCASN748E

can it be that the national football league is over? this is truly a great day--it means eight months without roided out television commentators, who, as my mother-in-law so astutely pointed out, do little more than yell really fast as they talk over each other while stating the obvious amidst a cacophony of bursting suit buttons. it means no robots jumping around on the television screen trying to enlist the attention of viewers who already suffer from attention deficit disorders. it means peace. it means quiet. it means parking spaces in my neighborhood are no longer a premium on sunday afternoons. it means real football is about to return to the televisions and the roided-out commentators with muscles that stretch the seams of their suits are to now be replaced by a ginger commentator with an ego that rivals those muscles. and it means the timbers now step to the forefront of topics discussed around water coolers in the greater portland metro-area.

already the disruptions in pre-season training are happening. it should be no surprise that, but for a small event that occurs every four years in europe, i have no patience for international football. i know that it is a rather unpopular opinion to hold in a country that found its attraction to real football developed from following the united states men's national team, but i feel international football is as useless an experiment of patriotism as the super bowl is a great way to pass 5 hours of the perfectly good sunday afternoon. needless to say, i was dismayed when i read that our new number 9 and the current number one keeper had headed off to assist jamaica in the pursuit of disappointment. how the participation in a lost cause could actually improve the standard of play for the timbers in 2013 is my primary concern.

this last weekend, will johnson discussed some of the intangible benefits of remaining together in pre-season camp. he describe how the group of players have grown together and how important that experience is to bringing the players together as a team:

We get to see each other more, go out to some dinners and stuff, see each other around the hotel and have some more team meals together. I think that’s a positive. I think that’s why they bring us down here. We’re definitely getting to see some of the guys, get to know each other a little bit, start to make some friends on the team. Like I said, it’s a cool experience and I haven’t had this experience in the league in a long time.

building friendships and bonds between players only enforces the desire to fight for each other when the matter counts. and johnson recognizes the advantage to a continued pre-season seclusion:

We have to come together quickly because as a team because we’ll accomplish good things if we’re able to stay together and work together.

invariably, players head off to international duty and return injured and unable to contribute to the clubs that pay their wages. while the loss of ricketts to international football may not affect the timbers (and if he returned injured, which is highly likely given his injury record), the loss of ryan johnson to injury could prove a minor undoing of what the timbers want to accomplish this coming season. he has now had 11 days to adapt to and learn porter's system, as well as adapt to and learn idiosyncracies of his teammates. porter may be impressed by the understanding that has developed between johnson, valeri, and nagbe, but that understanding is now going to suffer an unavoidable set back thanks to the call of international football.

the next player most likely to step into johnson's role is bright dike. most think dike has blossomed since his stint with the nigerian national side. i cannot deny the potential positive effects that goal against catalonia may produce, but after reviewing the last couple games i have not seen the results on display. the optimistic approach to the loss of johnson for the next couple weeks is that now dike must and can learn how to play with valeri and nagbe. obviously, this cannot be damaging to dike's indoctrination to the system, but the loss of johnson is not ideal. especially so, now that porter has alluded to johnson's starting role when he discussed the developing understanding between the three likely starters.

one player i have been impressed with so far during the pre-season is trencito, jose valencia. the kid is good and has that indescribable quality that sets him apart from other players. if a positive could be found in the loss of ryan johnson to the reggae boyz then pushing trencito into the mix with valeri and nagbe might be ticket. unlike dike, whose technical skills have already been questioned by the boss, trencito seems to only require time on the ball to unlock his potential. the timbers have a month before the season begins and 2 weeks without ryan johnson, so i would assume valencia will get some chances to express himself on the pitch and, hopefully, that chance comes with the purported first team.

ok, it's monday; make the most of it.

sunshine

i reserve the right to loan you anything and nothing…

Posted on: January 25th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 1 Comment

 

uslpromls

with all of the drama surrounding the cascadia cup heist and the opening week of pre-season drills the fact the mls made steps towards improving the quality of the league went largely unnoticed. or perhaps, and likely the most logical explanation to the absent conversation regarding the announcement of the new reserve league, no one really knows how it will be installed and regulated to the point of being meaningful and therefore no one cared. alright, that really is not fair but it is not far off the reality.

as we discussed in a post a few weeks ago, the mls and the usl pro leagues have partnered up to create a reserve league. the mls teams will provide either their own side or inject reserve talent into an affiliated usl pro side on a permanent basis. the league will run from april through the middle of august, with 26 total games to be played. does that mean the timbers reserves will play 26 games this next season like a true reserve league? no. they play 2. here are the proposed terms of play:

Each of the 13 USL PRO teams will compete in two interleague games against MLS Reserve teams.  With the exception of Antigua, which will play both of its games at MLS Reserve teams, USL PRO teams have been paired with a single MLS team to play a home and home series.  All interleague games will count in both the official USL PRO and MLS Reserve League standings. (full article here)

hopefully those 2 games are in addition to the other scheduled matches to be played amongst mls reserve teams. if not, this league is already a slim shadow of what i had anticipated and really draws great concerns from my inner monologue. if the purpose of the league is to improve the quality of play by providing needed minutes for fringe players i am not certain that 2 games effectively satisfies let alone accomplishes that goal. there are only a few reasons for players to remain in the reserve squad rather than moving into the first team and typically they are punctuated by a lack of playing time. games, not the promise of games, but games are needed for players to improve. if you do not believe me, read what our boss had to say:

We have young players on this team that won’t necessarily be ready to play first-team games, but they will in the long run as long if we cultivate them properly. The reserve league is certainly one avenue, but if we can form a relationship with USL teams to be able to loan players out that’s going to help even further.

if there is a person who knows player development, particularly development within the youth ranks, it would be porter.

and it should not be forgotten (and it really is not, that was just a colloquialism or trite turn of phrase to segue into a new subtopic) that last season we did see in dike's play the benefits of extended first team opportunities through a loan spell in the final months of the 2012 season. sure, dike is not a world beater and will never light the footballing world on fire, but he sure lit up the catalonians this last month. and his goal return for the last few months of the season was respectable given the number of games he actually played. obviously, the number of games available to dike through the reserve games were not considered sufficient to increase his effectiveness. that may be a comment on the coaching staff's assessment of dike's overall skill level, but it certainly indicates the number of reserve games was deficient.

i have argued, and will still argue, that the best solution to the this reserve league question is not to combine leagues for a pathetic 2 games but to have the reserves play other reserves as the first teams play. it is a simple fix. all it would take would be scheduling a reserve match following the scheduled first team game. problem solved--the reserves would get 34 games a season (38 when mls decides to grow up and not play a ridiculous and laughable unbalanced schedule) and the league would improve immeasurably.

one thing is clear, the league and the teams recognize the necessity for providing a place for younger, inexperienced players to learn the craft of professional football. and there are success stories. on second thought, if we have to look forward to more chris wondolowskis and jeff larentowitcz's then i say shut the system down now.

ultimately, the advantages of the new reserve league or any reserve league extend beyond just improving the fringe players, it also pushes the regular starters to reach a high level of consistency. last september there were several articles written about the return of players from loan spells and the singular answer most of the coaches interviewed had in response to a loan was that the loan improved the player as well as placed pressure on the starters. that is the key, especially in a side like portland where there exists a culture, or did exist a culture, of guaranteed spots for mediocre starters. mediocrity should never be rewarded but often is when the players behind the starters are not ready to succeed. this new proposal is a step towards fixing that issue.

there it is: your friday helping of the axe.

sunshine

hello! how are you, darling(ton)…

Posted on: January 13th, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 3 Comments

 

imagesCA9YF537

well, having just watched arsenal kicked off the pitch from moment one i am in little mood to write a post. my advanced apologies. in the past this result may have affected the outcome of the day, but thanks to years of watching the timbers i have now become accustomed to this sort of disappointment.

however, today's loss is instructive for today's post--building a team is not easy, even if you have more than £70 million in the bank waiting to be spent. obviously, spending that money would be great, but finding the right players to fit the side is the greater concern. you know, showing some restraint to make prudent purchases. which is where we see the timbers coming into this conversation.

last year the timbers were given a blank paycheck and went out and purchased a player that brought great expectations, if only for the amount spent on him. the fact the owner was willing to drop the money was indication of his willingness to bring a winner to portland, if not his naivete.

the thought that building a team is merely a process of getting players in and putting them on the field is, well, ridiculous and suggesting that would only offend your intelligence. but for some reason, likely the fact neither had much intelligence on their own let alone together, spencer and gavin felt that accumulating players that fit the definition of some word called athleticism was the way to go forward. i am not suggesting boyd is anything near the word athletic, but i am saying that overall the players sought were ones who fit that definition regardless of how they fit within the team.

no player suffered more from spencer's and gavin's inability to build a team than darlington nagbe. whether it was their complete inability to observe how to best unlock his talents, or simply an obtuse reluctance to let darlington nagbe roam freely without the responsibility of carrying creative efforts of the team, the last two years have shown spencer and gavin knew little of how to use his potential. nagbe is not a creative midfielder but too often he was slotted in that position under spencer and gavin and offered very little, which is indicative more of their sparce knowledge of player positioning than nagbe's talent. obviously, nagbe had more raw talent than any player on the side last season. but raw talent is not the description of the requisite qualities of a creative midfielder, nor is it going to help an unconventional player become a creative midfielder. realistic or not, spencer and gavin placed these expectations on nagbe by placing him in that role.

admittedly, i have been increasingly underwhelmed by nagbe's play--due in no small part to how he has been played. this season certainly has a big question not of what porter can do with nagbe, but of what nagbe can do with the opportunities given to him.  it does not hurt nagbe's chances to turn things around now that a true creative player has been brought into the side.

 Like a good playmaker does [valeri] will make players around him better, and we have some very good players in the midfield that will I think complement him.

i think the last part of this statement is important to key in on--nagbe is a player, who, if given the opportunity to roam off the ball, can make things happen. a player like valeri who is adept with the ball at his feet can unlock nagbe, and perhaps increase the opportunities for nagbe to do more than score wonder goals. this was a point lost on spencer and gavin and is likely the greatest distinction so far unearthed between them and porter--finding players to fit specific roles for the team can actually help all other players on the team. i cannot stress this point enough.

over the course of two seasons it was obvious that nagbe did not relish the responsibility of carrying the team--he is a mercurial type of talent who picks spots and moments to impose himself on a game rather than an using the entire match. porter acknowledged this quality, stating that

With Darlington, I actually think in some ways he’s more effective when he can flow in and out of the game and pop up and hurt you in moments. I don’t think it will be on him to be the guy on the ball running the show. He’s a young player, and he’s not ready for that role yet. But he’s certainly ready to produce.

obviously, porter had significant time to work out this concept, but it should have been clear to any astute watcher of the game. it was not so clear to spencer and gavin.

in other news, bright dike will be back with the timbers come january 19. notwithstanding an excellent goal scored in the freindly against a fake catalonian side, dike was sent home from the nigerian team and will not take part in the african cup of nations. honestly, good. he needs to settle in with the timbers and learn his role within porter's system. sure, participating within an international tournament may have beneficial results for his overall game, but it would not improve his adjustment to porter's system and style of play.

alright, i am off to sulk a bit and plot the end of carpetbagger, venture capitalists within professional sports.

sunshine

the goal is to score…

Posted on: January 3rd, 2013 by theaxepdx@gmail.com 2 Comments

 

brightdike.nigeria

i love loyalty. i love people who stick by their own through thick, thin, or otherwise. but that feeling does not extend to footballers. i understand backing youth movement and bringing in younger heads into the fold, allowing them to grow and mature into fine players, but backing players who have remained around and show limited to no promise other than the way they earn their paycheck by sitting sexily the pine has no place in my book. and for that matter, neither does backing players simply because they have lasted through a few years with the club. my theories of loyalty certainly do not jive with one another, but friendship is not football.

i am a terrifically poor loser. i get gut-sick when my sides lose. i am inconsolable and often am forced to take several time-outs in the hours following a defeat. i would expect most of you who read this blog on a daily, semi-daily, maybe weekly basis have the same attachment to your club(s) as i do. so, you understand that when my sides lose i set out on a knights errand, a quest to find explanations, scapegoats, scapegoats, martyrs, and more scapegoats (and dont say that is not the case because i know it to be true), because the failure must reside with someone. typically i let the blame sit in the ever so capable lap of the manager or general manager or board. but there are times when a player, or players, sets me off to no end and i irrationally find fault at their every turn, haircut, boot choice, brand of cologne, and the type of earbud they may wear while listening to music. whether this is fair or not i do not care--especially at that moment of derision directed at the particular scapegoat. but that happens. and it has happened on a number of occasions with specific timbers players.

thankfully, aside from two players, they have all been shipped out of the club and back to one of the hovels they may have emerged from during a gavin and spenny joint-force scouting trip to the nether regions of greater oceania in the incipient days of the mls team. and while some of you regular readers may think, "well, one of the players old sunshine is discussing most obviously is dike," i will take pains to point out how wrong you would be. i actually think dike serves a great purpose in the side--he is the perfect plan b. end of story. i have said enough on that topic.

what i would like to discuss is the rapid ability one insignificant, but well taken, goal has to change our views of our general manager. or, as the owner wanted to suggest, that one goal was vindication for several years of loyalty to incompetence. no, it was not. it was a good goal scored in a meaningless game against a regional side that is subsumed into the greatest footballing powerhouse of the last decade. that team is a political stance, nothing more. to misquote the monty python troop: nobody expects spanish civil war...and that is why there is a catalonian side--a statement. each one of those players will return to the greater whole to continue their dominance of world football once the friendlies are concluded. while dike may be a player worthy of suggesting gavin has a nose for a player, he may also be indicative of the well-known american idiom: even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. which is to say, even the most misguided and ineffective people can be correct every now and then simply by being lucky.

now, i am willing to give old gavin the benefit of the doubt on dike--if dike can continue to play that way day in and day out. far be it for me to deny the excellence in a play--even if it was performed by a player i do not rate as highly as some might. the fact remains that was a fine goal and if dike can replicate that first touch, improving on his control, i would gladly see him leading the line for the timbers. but the same must be said about gavin. several weeks ago, it was stated in a discussion i had with an excellent analyst and pundit on things timbers that gavin is a window for the person he has underneath him. in other words, he is only as good as the coach who is describing the plan he has for success. i will save the rest of that topic for that pundit to discuss but it is a great point. until gavin can show that he is capable of doing that over and over and over again, like paddy said, to the majority of those greatly attached to this club he will still have the distinction of being the blind squirrel leading the way.

but do not let that opinion distort any thought you may have of dike's goal. that goal was a fine goal and a goal he should watch over and over and over again, like paddy said. that was the type of goal he should be scoring for the timbers on a regular basis. in fact, i would much prefer to see a bright dike on a cheap scoring goals like that than kris boyd looking to poach goals and doing little else on a large contract. that said, i might caution you to not get your hopes up--dike is not going to the african cup of nations. there are too many players better than he ahead of him. sure, shoala may not be eating his apple while riding a bike for nigeria, neither will kanu, but sammy ameobi, victor moses, and a few others certainly have a more direct line into the 23 man roster than dike. but for now, he has given us this to remember:

bright dike scores on catalonia.

keep it up, big man.

and to you, i say: enjoy your day!

sunshine

oh, and the rumour is the timbers have agreed terms with an argentinian named diego valeri. i am sure we will have more on this later.