Tag Archives: steve purdy

a new corps, a new style: a ballet of sorts…

Posted on May 15, 2013 | 7 Comments

four players. three passes. two touches. one goal.

for us in the terraces and the bars and at home on the couches that goal appeared to be as effortless as that description. the players understood each other’s movements, they knew where each other would be, and they made the runs expecting the passes to reach their feet. it was magical, and it epitomized that moment rarely seen in football when players intuitively work towards the same end in a seamless motion. the striking thing about sunday’s game is that moment happened more than once, and with different components.

the rod wall’s goal was a timely piece of counterattacking that left chivas wondering which way the timbers intended to move. after receiving ricketts’s outlet, valeri did two things that confounded the chivas pursuit: he turned with the ball and looked to the left flank and then slid the ball laterally to johnson on his right. valeri’s subtlety froze the goats, took them out of picture, and earned the rod wall more space to attack on goal from the left flank. an unsung but crucial participant in the goal was the movement made off the ball by darlington nagbe. albeit steve purdy was in no-mans-land on the goal, nagbe’s run held him there and secured the one-on-one situation between wallace and eric avilla, which created the additional benefit of forcing a young keeper to come off his line.

just minutes before that goal, the timbers had executed another piece of one touch wizardry that but for the pesky crossbar would have seen valeri likely win goal of the week. that counterattack started with valeri’s pass to nagbe in the center of the pitch. and, again, nagbe switched the direction of play, sending a quick pass to diego chara on the right flank. chara then found johnson, who found nagbe, who then found valeri just outside chivas’s 18 yard box where he curled the ball towards goal with a cultured shot.  alright, we have relived that errant moment of disappointment. what of it? re-read the names of the players involved in that attack. look at the positions they held in that attack. now, think of the ways they got there. if the rod wall’s goal was not a fair enough illustration of the basic components of one-touch, counterattacking football, then this break should inform you of the change in mentality and footballing philosophy that has occurred within the side–the players know what to do next. it is not just one player (though he may be as much of an exquisite specimen of a footballing demi-god as portland may every see–yes, i speak of valeri), it is every player performing the next right move. performing, not making. when a team connects as the timbers connected on sunday night, they are performing balletic maneuvers choreographed by hours of study under the brilliant mind of an artist.

with all this artistry in mind, why not watch all the highlights?

moving on from the glory that was, as Magadh put it yesterday, a game the timbers really should have won and only did what was expected of them. it seems the timbers long discussed issues at center-half have been given a lift. pah moudou kah announced that he has finally obtained his visa. in case you lived on mars or kelso, washington, that means the timbers now have some depth in the back. it does not mean “the kah” will immediately start for the timbers or that he is guaranteed a starting position when he becomes accustomed the style of play. personally, i would not expect the big norwegian to immediately step into the side given his hiatus from football–you know, having only recently played in saudi arabia. all jokes aside, and saudi arabian football is a joke, we are sure to see him riding the pine for a while until his fitness and footballing levels have risen to the estimable heights now exhibited by futty and ajb.

and, finally, in other areas of interest, the u-23 squad put in a fine shift last night as they beat the sacramento gold 3-2. memphis university standout, mark sherrod, who put in some good work for the u-23′s last season, sent the saplings through on a late chipped goal. that means the u-23′s have now gone further in the lamar hunt u.s. open cup than the first team did last year. yes, i intended to bring up cal fc if only to pull the band-aid off and let us all get to healing our little broken hearts.

last year was a morass of indignation, complaint, and anguish, that found its zenith within the loss to cal fc. the wheels really fell off the train for the timbers, the coach, and the players, following what was a very predictable kris boyd missed penalty. but this year the timbers have two bites at the prize and it is good to see the youngsters get off to a start dissimilar from the one their elder counterparts made last year. it is trite to say, but a lengthy run in this competition for either timbers entrant can secure further success in other areas of the game the season.

that is it for me. enjoy your hump day.

sunshine

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you say yes, i say no…or so it goes.

Posted on December 4, 2012 | 7 Comments

i entered the transfer season with great anticipation for a cull of the deadwood floating around the timbers clubhouse. after yesterday’s movement i was not disappointed. in movements best described by the silly, yet classic beattles cut, ”hello, goodbye,” day 1 of the anticipated implosion was a day to bring both feelings of happiness and shock. there were the trades and declined options envisioned and assumed to be no-brainers, notably lovel palmer, kosuke kimura, and steve purdy. and then there were the shockers.

i know that many have their attachments to certain players for reasons as varied as there are lightbulbs in peacock lane, but we have to be reasonable and objective in our understanding of the trades that took place. i also know many of you may consider me to be a curmudgeon, who has no ties or love for any players on the timbers, an opinion made easy by my usual malcontent writings, but do not be fooled–i have several favorites. two of which were sent packing yesterday.

we here at the axe have composed reams of pixels regarding our admiration of steven smith. in numerous conversations we have had (and we do actually talk with one another), both mags and i considered steven smith to be well entrenched within the future plans of the timbers. neither of us envisaged what would transpire monday afternoon. yes, on sunday i assumed something was up when smith began to express his discontent with keybank. i get it–banking on a sunday cannot be easy. right? if that was not enough of a hint that something was up, the description of the day being a really hard one sure could have been. but, you know, i could have always been adding two and two and coming up with 53. but the writing was pretty clear. still, when it was announced that the timbers had declined to re-sign smith i felt a twinge. just a little.

there are players who embody what it means to be a timber and then there are those who just do not get what it means. those who embody the ideal are not always the best players on the side, but they are the players who give everything on the pitch. and let’s face the fact that smith was not ever going to be considered the best player on the side, having made some notable mistakes that lead to some embarrassing moments in the timbers mls history, but he tried and did everything he could with his talents. at the end of the season he was a player we all placed our trust in–if, by the end of last season, we actually had faith in any of the team.

which leads me to the trade that shocked most of the timbers faithful. eric brunner did not have the season we had all hoped for–he was nutted early on and really did not regain optimal fitness until the final couple matches of the season. by then the worm had turned and it was clear that his position had been usurped by david horst. i am not sure whether he could have added to the side next season given porter’s love of athletic, mobile players, who have on-ball skills. brunner is the prototypical centerback who uses his body and wits to clear balls from danger rather than a modern back, who holds ball skills within his repertoire. that is not to say horst does, but there may yet be more in store for the team i the coming months.

i always suggested the side needs another centerback and the move sending brunner to houston makes sense on many levels, not least of all the ones enumerated earlier–he has health issues. though it does leave the timbers short on vocal leadership. it is a shame to not see him wear the captain’s band on a permanent basis, but with jack around that really was never an option.

in a strange and ground breaking move, gavin obtained the homegrown rights to the energy drinks and akron’s outstanding defensive mid, bryan gallego. i know i may give gavin a bit of stick. and for good reason. but i do give credit where it is deserved and yesterday the bus driver earned a compliment. as shocking as it may be, gavin did something, to my knowledge, that no other general manager has had the vision to do. in the mls roster rules, the definition and limitations on the homegrown players are thin at best. section II(f) states:

A club may sign a player to his first professional contract without subjecting him to the MLS SuperDraft if the player has trained for at least one year in the club’s youth development program and has met the League’s Homegrown Player criteria. Players joining MLS through this mechanism are known as Homegrown Players.

There is no limit to the number of Homegrown Players a club may sign in a given year.

that is it. all. nothing more to guide teams in how to acquire homegrown players, only that there is not a limit to the number of homegrown players that can be acquired. so, with in combination with II(d), which states

Players, SuperDraft and Supplemental draft picks, allocation money, allocation rankings, and international player slots may all be exchanged in trades…

it seems gavin made use of the obvious lack of restrictions on homegrown players. and because the homegrown player designation is a protection from the super-draft, a trade of the homegrown rights seems within the spirit of the guidelines of II(d) because it is essentially trading away a superdraft pick. sure, that is a simplification of the process but the best analysis possible–it is, after all, unchartered ground.

finally, the option on rodney wallace was declined which means he is re-entry draft bound, but most likely this is a ploy to renegotiate his contract. i would not be heartbroken if the front office forgot to make that last call to the rodwall’s agent. i know some rate him as a midfielder, but i do not.  and i really do not rate him as a midfielder within porter’s system–a system that requires footballing intelligence. porter’s system requires players to control the ball, to retain the ball, and to think beyond just the next pass. too often in the last two seasons, when required to do any of those aspects of footballing, the rodwall just froze. he may have something that resembles athletic ability, but he does not have the footballing intelligence to succeed in the years to come. this is not a knock on wallace as a player, or a person–he may well perform lights out within a different system, but i doubt it will be porter’s.

i will have more analysis regarding the trades and roster moments later, once the fervor has settled down. and i do not anticipate that to be for a few more days. so, for now we have a new midfielder and a new fullback. both will johnson and mike harrington are great additions. more on those later.

sunshine.

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Posted in portland timbers, silly season

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black friday backroom bargain shopping…

Posted on November 23, 2012 | 4 Comments

happy black friday. unlike some of the readers of this blog and their families, i am seated in front of a roaring fire, fueled by natural gas, as i enjoy my day off from world of intrigue associated with my job while watching the mist piss down outside. i get that bargain hunting can be an occupation even a vocation, but the thought of fighting elbow to elbow with grumpy people who have been camped out over night for the opportunity to purchase the latest incarnation of light brite and cabbage patch kids is as appealing as sitting down over dinner and drinks with gilbert godfrey.

when doing my shopping, i employ this wonderful thing called the internet. it is helpful and buffers me from the anxiety attacks i often suffer when chasing down the latest copy of mrs. marple on blue ray. as well all may know, the internets are something our wonderful general manager uses to keep in touch with the out regions of oceania and the green hills of inner colombia. let us face the facts–gavin loves a bargain and while he may be kiwi by birth, he has adopted the good old stars and stripes as the flag of his employers. so we all know black friday shopping is in order.

all kidding aside, there does seem to be more afoot at timbers ground zero than waiving a few players who will spend more time cleaning the little rubber pellets from gavin’s one brown suit than actually playing. and once again the information comes from the loquacious owner and his twitter account. while others were preoccupied with the recent announcement of the arrival of women’s professional soccer to portland and the question whether that meant megan rapinoe and abby waumbach will be staring for the side given their residence in the rose city, i was trolling for more info on merritt’s tweets. first, following the upheaval and disbelief that facepalmer was not waived outright, he launches this beauty:

Additionally, we’ve been active on player front as I noted last wk. I didn’t realize that trades won’t be announced until after cup though…

he followed that twat up with this one:

keep in mind many moves aren’t made in a vacuum.  Often other deals are part of the thinking and announcement timing isn’t aligned…

my dog ears perked up when that one was released. could this mean, why, i think it could, yes. yes, perhaps there will be more things happening!? including facepalmer being shown the door. whether it was palmer he refered to or some other figure of inconsequence in the side, merritt was, in his special little way, informing the timbers faithful that a plan is in place and they are working to right the ship. i know, it also fills me with confidence and hope knowing that 2/3′s of the brain trust that put together this side are working ever so hard to fix their mistakes.

almost immediately after merritt’s subtle exposition on the term “more to come,” a fellow blogger and writer unearthed some twatter discourse involving a player. steve purdy had twatted with a friend in the area about leaving. the discourse acknowledged that purdy was not going to return to the rose city. that conversation looked something like this:

unnamed fella on twitter (you can look at the axe tl for the source):

Hate saying goodbye to @spurdy25 today.  The man is a legend, and will be thoroughly missed in Portland.  Happy to call him my friend.

which was then followed by purdy’s tweet:

i haaaate goodbyes!! Good times bro

so, there it is. a likely acknowledgement that at least one player and perhaps others are on their way out following the less than purgelike waiver draft.

but even more exciting is that these players are involved in trades, not simply black friday bargain hunting in the lower antilles and the cook islands. unfortunately, this also means these players are involved in trades. with the exception of jorge perlaza for danny mwanga (which is a trade that should eventually bear fruit–if danny remains in portland), the recent trades within the mls have benefited a number of sides other than the timbers. frankly, i have not been impressed with gavin’s dealings amongst the sharks within the mls. but, in all fairness, those dealings were made with the intelligent recommendations of john spencer–wallace, chabala, facepalmer, and kimura are players spencer sought as much as gavin cosigned. so, perhaps this off-season we will see a final clearance of idiot phase one moving into idiot phase two with some assistance from a tactically sharp freshman manager. who knows? but the encouraging part of the revelations of earlier this week is that movements have been made and they do involve some of the unwanted dross on the side.

ok, michaels has some serious bargains on foam spheres and dowels, which means it is planetarium time! enjoy your friday.

 

sunshine

 

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Posted in mid-week review, silly season

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hey rainmaker, come away from that rightback…

Posted on November 12, 2012 | 2 Comments

as the rain started yesterday afternoon i began to hum shawn ryder tunes as i began to ponder on the upcoming topic of rightback. i have a great love of late eighties/early nineties brit-pop and baggy music. so, it was propitious that while i was singing to myself i found the issues the timbers have at the position of right back can be summed up by some manchunian drug addict–it really twists my melon. it does not require you sit down and  discuss the timbers options at rightback with your nearest and dearest over a couple cups of your favorite liquid refreshment to determine that the men playing for the side have really stamped out the team’s fire–the position is a deathtrap.

i am sure we all remember the classic moment from the sound bite that was john spencer when he stated that anyone could play right back. i know the revisionist historian in all of you wants to give more credit to spencer than is necessary (especially following the mired attempt at interim managing gavin put in), but that comment exposed two things about the pudgy scotsman: first, he was not a smart man. and second, well, who really cares so long as the first thing was relevant? seriously, he was dead wrong. if the lines of attack taken by most teams against the timbers this last season were not evidence enough of spencer’s limited understanding of how to assemble a defense, the players he brought in to play right back certainly were.

through his tenure, spencer retained one and brought in two duds to fill the role. not one of the three could play the position and disproved spencer’s theory every time they took the pitch. though we all know steve purdy is not the standard we should draw upon to describe the role of a right back, at different points in the season the management felt that both lovel palmer and kosuke kimura were.

while i would consider kimura over palmer every day of the week and sometimes on the following monday, he was not a player blessed with speed or the finest man-marking skills. when confronted with stronger, more agile players he was often left either tripping over them or himself. after sal zizzo took over the right wing duties from kalif, kimura was given more support on the flanks, which emboldened him to travel north of the halfline. for me, that line was a line of demarkation he should have never travelled beyond, because when he dared travel beyond the half-line bad things seemed to happen.

as for the guy whose starting position he usurped, i feel the less i say the better. but that is not how these things work. preparing an objective evaluation of palmer’s skills will require some restraint of pen and tongue–i can find only salty words to describe the recollections i have of his play. over his tenure at the timbers he did everything he could to earn the nickname facepalmer. overall, his play was not exceptional and i doubt you would find a supporter who could argue for his return next season. if he was not firing a shot from 40 yards out that was shanked so poorly the corner flags had to be replaced on several occasions, he was giving ten yards of space to opposing attackers and wingers. in his defense, facepalmer was not a rightback–he was acquired to play right back. there is a difference. and that difference disproved the spencer theory of rightback relativity. as the time he put in on the flanks grew, i along with most everyone i knew or stood by in the northend began to beg for the return of jeremy hall. his presence was made even more unbearable when watching the mls playoffs i saw adam moffat launch a missile into sporting kc’s net (a missile that would have lost its guidance system had palmer hit the ignition) to send houston to the mls eastern conference finals. exactly what spencer determined was attractive about bringing in both mike chabala and facepalmer for a player who is now a regular and productive starter for a side that challenges for silverware is well beyond my comprehension. but it happened and we were forced to suffer facepalmer ever since. while it could be argued that the collective opinion of lovel is clouded by the loss of a popular player, moffat was neither popular nor unpopular when at portland. facepalmer simple is an awful option at rightback.

oddly, the best rightback we had this year was our so-called defensive midfielder and captain. he began his career as a rightback and then migrated further up the pitch. but in a rare moment of mad genius brought on by the necessity of addressing the problems on the right and an injury to facepalmer, spencer employed his captain on the flank. jewsbury was not an adventurous rightback–he stuck at home, shepparded the flanks with something resembling aplomb, and supported the attack when needed. his play was not dynamic, but it was also not detrimental to the side. one worrying aspect of jack’s play was the tendency to drift to his more natural position at central midfield. an understandable mistake, but one that could cause some blushes but thankfully did not. honestly, i wanted him to remain at rightback for the duration of this season–he is not a good defensive midfielder, but at rightback he did cut off most reasonable avenues for a leftside attack.

overall, this position caused the side and the supporters more consternation than any other. it was so clearly obvious that it was in need of an upgrade, but yet the management failed to really do anything about the issues. obviously, towards the end of the season it would have been pointless to make and improvement with caleb porter to join in mid-december. however, with the season already a wash it would have been nice to give someone like ryan kawulok some further minutes rather than showcase the big heart and limited talents of kimura. regardless, the players currently employed in the position are a loose fit at best and, in my opinion, should be told to step on.

alright, that is about all i have today. mags will be here for the next few days with some blag on specific players. happy monday…

sunshine

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to defend the indefensible…

Posted on November 11, 2012 | 6 Comments

scaring the american public is a relatively easy thing to do, but not as easy as scaring the average timbers supporter. sure, the timbers faithful are unlikely to believe the threat of africanized bees traveling north from mexico into the lower regions of texas and arizona, but then we all live in a cold, rainy region. nor would they suffer the threat of the evil-doers doing evil on hawthorne like evil doers do. but say the word facepalmer, or mention kosuke kimura is likely to be the starting right back for 2013, little pools begin to form at our feet.

i know many of my seat neighbors would agree that last season were subjected to pavlovian conditioning. the cringes and the embarrassing pee stains and the bruising on our foreheads are the self-flagellting results of a culture created by the timbers management who failed to adequately address one of the two deficiencies that plagued the timbers in the 2011 season: limited creativity and a suspect defense. in 2011 the timbers finished 6 in the western conference with a goal differential of -8. in 2012 they finished 8 in the western conference with a goal differential of -25. how did the differential increase by 17 goals after 1 season?

at the beginning of the season the same players were available and the same defensive coach was training them. they had made two additions in central defense–hanyer mosquera and andrew jean-baptiste. just a few matches into the season the management made the changes many of us had hoped would have been made in the off-season–lovel palmer was benched in favor of jack jewsbury at right back and steve smith was acquired to replace the hapless rodney wallace. but before those changes were made several others were enlisted to stop the hemorrhaging–freddy braun and steve purdy come to mind.

however, those and further changes still failed to stop the leakage. several things come to mind when trying to understand the reasons for the porous defense. first, the timbers back four did not and do not work together as a unit. whether the coaches failed to train the backline as a unit or the back four simply forget that training and drilling and education the moment they step onto the pitch at gameday i do not have that answer. but defense is the only area on the pitch that four players must remain in complete synch in order for them to be successful. under george graham, arsenal were one of the stingiest defenses to ever grace modern football. it was alleged he made his back four train with a rope tied between them–presumably done to impress the need to retain their structure. whether it actually took place during training sessions or was a necessary exaggeration used to describe the classic back four of bould, adams, dixon, and winterburn, the defense worked because of its reluctance to break ranks. this does not happen with the timbers defense–too often the centerbacks were pulled out of position because of the fullbacks or a player would go walk-about and then the entire backline would be exposed.

while the backline so often failed to retain its shape and keep a tight line, it too often failed to employ an offside trap. and if it did employ the trap, the line was so high that any side with a minimal amount of speed would be able to exploit the openings. i remember having a pre-match conversation with a couple of people prior to the timbers losing 3-5 to the galaxy regarding the timbers inability to work a proper offside trap, opting rather for a haphazard system of marking whomever comes near the 16 yard box. i recall that i was told the offside trap is not that important. and it may well not be, but it sure would have been nice had the timbers employed it to some effect that day. but they did not. instead, the timbers pressed too high and allowed jimenez, keane, franklin, and donovan to get in behind them with too much ease. the goals by keane, if not made particularly annoying by the celebrations, were frustrating because had the backline not pressed as high as it did and held its shape the irishman would not have found his way in behind them.

evident in that match was also the tendency of the back four to collapse upon itself when pressured from the wings. too often hanyer mosquera and kosuke kimura were standing upon one another while dancing with jack jewsbury. when the season began i felt hanyer mosquera was a refreshing addition to the side, but over the season it was clear he overcompensated for the ineptitude of his rightback partner. whether it was palmer, purdy, braun, or kimura, the left side was the best option for attack given the over-committed, but lazy play down the timbers right flank and mosquera would commit too high in order to assist his partner. admirable though it may be, his willingness to break ranks and assist his incompetent partner left the middle far too exposed.

it would be unfair to suggest the backfour were always guilty of breaking ranks. they were not. in fact, they had some very good displays, individually and as a unit. unfortunately they could not replicate those good displays on a regular basis. however, through the season we did watch david horst develop into the leader every timber supporter has wanted. which was necessary once eric brunner was nutted and unable to tie his boot laces, recognize his wife, and got a tattoo of gavin’s red hair. i kid. but he was never going to be the same player once his noggin had been deflated and it was fortuitous that horst developed into the player he did.

so these are some of the circumstances surrounding the timbers defense this 2012 season and will instruct our thoughts on what can be accomplished with unit going into 2013. personally, this is the area that needs the greatest attention. i know many will argue that a creative midfielder is the key to unlock the timbers potential, to that i suggest you consider steve bould’s famous words: “it is simple: if you don’t concede a goal, you aren’t going to lose the game.” so, mags and i will be jumping into discussions of positions and players for the next few days. as we do, we would encourage your input and comments–we may make observations, but there are always things we miss and your thoughts are as important as our blathering.

enjoy your sunday.

oh, on a special note: congratulations to anfield 89 and his lady–a new rightback has entered the world. our wishes and hopes are extended to the new spawn–may he grow up to love the timbers, simply to spite you as children do.

sunshine.

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Posted in defensive woes, season review

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who me? yes you…couldnt be! then who?

Posted on April 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

i cannot express with proper accuracy the exact route the shiver takes when i hear the shuddersome name, john terry, but it is a fearsome and horrible response that travels widely, ranging from my shoulders to my ankles and even the remnants of my hair follicles. he is an utter shitbag of the highest order, and will likely move on from his time in football to assume his position at the helm of that order as the triple-decker cyclops and grandwizard of shitbags. so, when i see that a small form of justice was served yesterday with him being dealt a straight red card for an unnecessary, yet typical john terry, foul on alexis sanchez, i may have danced a little happy dance in my office. at that moment, i felt there was a far-reaching force able to deliver justice that her majesty’s courts have yet to perform. not everyone is blessed with the luck with which john terry is blessed, but then you would have to be an absolute shit of a human being to have his luck, or possess a serious collection of compromising photographs…needless to say, he had it coming.

but how did a young player like eddie johnson, a player who has suffered three concussions since arriving at portland, deserve the unfortunate circumstances he was faced with in the last week. as we all have become aware, he has announced his retirement from professional football, cutting short a career for which we all had great hopes. injuries certainly prevented him from attaining his best form with the timbers, but what he did show during the moments he took advantage of was enough to whet the suspicions that we had a player on our hands. personally, on countless moments during matches last season, i would mention to shecky how much i wished the gaffer would play eddie over the buffoon that was kenny cooper, or run him out with kenny cooper, or simply play him.

rather than thinking of him in his latest interview regarding his retirement, i would prefer to remember him smashing this goal in against toronto, or this goal against west brom, or even this pre-season header against motreal. sadly, he is a talent we will not see emerge within the mls or among the timbers. we can belabor the point of the great loss it is for the club, for football, but the bigger issues are those potentially felt by eddie in the future. though we create gods of them by our enjoyment of their on-field feats, athletes are not immortal and are as easily broken as the casual jogger or the couch potato with an arm around a bag of tim’s extra crispy, low salt, family size chips. we forget they are faced with life after the apotheosis; they do not get to return to their former selves after sacrificing their health and bodies. so, when faced with living life as a personal hero, muhammad ali who suffers the effects of years of rope-a-dope hits to the cranium, eddie elected to forego the alzheimer’s, the parkinson’s. there is nothing wrong and everything right with that decision–i would rather he kept his feet on the ground than find out the results of waxed wings, for that there is no resurrection.

a player that has found a minor resurrection in his career at portland is lovel palmer. before i get too far into this conversation, it will take more than one game to convince me that he has the talent and ability to be an effective defensive midfielder. however, he did well in putting graham zusi off-balance, preventing the man who has been involved in the majority of sporting’s goals from being any type of factor within saturday’s game. interestingly, #facepalmer considers himself a bit of an on-field general, claiming the defensive midfield role is suited for his talents.

I get a lot more touches and I’m more involved in the game. One of my strong points is organizing. I can move guys around and get them in good positions to help our team defend.

one position he did not assist the defence was at right back, and, to his credit, #facepalmer recognized that fact.

I wasn’t playing well at right back. I had to be honest with myself. Nobody wants to be on the bench, but I agreed with Coach’s decision to take me out and put Steve in.

one quality that can absolutely endear a player to me, and i dare say to many other fans, is humility; the player’s understanding of his true worth to a side, and whether or not he is actually contributing a positive effort can work wonders for the confidence supporters have with the player, and in turn the confidence the player has with his own abilities. if palmer can perform like he did against sporting on a regular basis, i am more than willing to share in his success.

interestingly, the gaffer is one person who takes credit for #facepalmer’s rather dire displays at right back. admitting that he tried to put a square peg into a round hole, spencer acknowledged that he did make a mistake with forcing palmer into the right back position.

I take a little bit of the blame for Lovel’s form. I tried to force him to play at right back, when he wasn’t really 100 percent happy there. I think he’s more accustomed to playing in the middle and that’s where he feels most happy.

i feel like a group hug because everyone is happy and not in a public image limited ironic sort of way, but a genuine big smile sort of happy type happiness. i  guess that is what happens when you get a win off an outrageously poor own goal, while simultaneously putting in one of the best defensive displays of the this short season–a new sense of happiness. still, this leaves me with the continued and ever-growing concern: who will play at right back?

we know that purdy is not the fulltime answer, and some had hoped that sexy andi dober would be given a chance. however, in his last trial game with the reserves, dober logged a total of 7 minutes, which indicates that he is not the chosen one. this fact was recently confirmed by william conwell of stumptownfooty.com, who stated he was informed that dober was “no longer with the team.” ladies, i know silent streams of tears are traversing the contours of your cheekbones, but be consoled in this fact: he was just too pretty for portland. having run into him outside the jw on saturday, i doubt he would look or feel at home when squeezing his doberness into some extra skinny jeans and rocking an ironic mustache. the search for the messiah continues…

with that, have a great day.

sunshine

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further slips or pink slips?…that is the question.

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 2 Comments

i always had dreams of being a man of leisure. in those dreams i would read the majority of the day and sip seven and sevens while thinking of fantastic scenarios to place antagonists. instead, i work a thankless job for a good salary and benefits. if i do not perform, if i am not a responsible employee, i lose my position and find myself in the unsavory position of having to find new employment. while it is not a subject yet considered by many bloggers out there, the gaffer has considered the prospect that if his team continues the run of form it is on that he may find himself searching for new employment.

speaking during practice on monday, he candidly referred to the tenuous nature of positions at the club.

It’s like any job in any walk of life or profession. You’ve got to do  your job. I’m no different, in fact, if we continue to be on this, this  form, and we keep losing games, then my job’s on the line. And that’s  no different from players. I told my players this weekend that we’re in  this together, and the only way we’re going to get out of it is me  sticking by the players and the players sticking by the coaching  philosophy and what we’re trying to build here. And you know, you’re  always under pressure. You don’t produce, you’re out the door, plain and  simple. And that’ll be the same as any person who has a job in today’s  world.

spencer is not a novice, he knows this side is not performing and he knows that if the palyers he has are not getting the job done he needs to bring in players that will. so, with the streak growing and april 30 looming, the timbers are still in the market for outside defensive help.

in addition to the foxy right back from rapid wien, andi dober, ex glasgow ranger, steven smith, is in portland to try his luck at taking away the spot currently occupied by chabala and the rod wall. smith is an ex-teammate of kris boyd, though i doubt they spent much time together given the fact smith spent the majority of his proffesional career with the physio and not playing with the first team. smith made his debut with greatest team in scotland in 2004 and won the scottish young player of the month in april, 2006.

most recently, smith had been playing in deepdale with preston north end of the english football league one. when he joined that side he described himself as the prototypical spencer signing that spencer just cannot seem to sign:

I’m primarily a leftback who can play in the left midfield. It is a position i enjoy playing. I like to get forward and I enjoy a tackle.

he ticks all of the right boxes, but it is that last portion i love to hear. there is something about northern players and their love to get stuck in, something many of the timbers could benefit learning. for instance, the rod wall, who neither enjoys a tackle nor does he enjoy getting stuck in–the rod wall is the type of player who just dangles a leg out with his eyes closed, hoping that he clips the ball. bringing in a player who actually likes to put the body into play is encouraging.

the only issue is that he suffers from the old saying: injured early, injured often. after signing with rangers in 2002, the scot has played a total of 92 games (in fact, due to his lack of appearances i was able to find only this clip, which is rare in you tube scouting land). throughout his career he has suffered chronic pelvic and groin issues, and has also suffered an achilles injury. evidently when gavin and spencer got together to search for defensive help there were some communication issues. the manager must have asked gavin to bring in a player who could go big and win balls, not suffer from ruptured balls. all joking aside, if healthy, many publications i have read seem to rate him as a player. the issue is if he remains healthy.

interestingly enough, on april 10, smith and preston north end agreed to mutaully terminate smith’s contract. make of it what you will, but he is here on trial and we all know which positions need fortification. the question remains: does a 26 year old crock add more to the side than a 30 year old afrikaner, or a 22 year old who knows next to nothing about playing defense? at any rate, this leaves the afrikaner back in south africa, awaiting word form the timbers whether they are interested in his services.

it also seems that the aforementioned, sexy andi dober may get his wish to play in the mls, or spencer has just lost his marbles. when asked whether we could expect to see a lovel palmer defensive midfield cameo again, the gaffer stated:

Yeah possibly. I think Lovell will probably tell you that he probably  prefers playing in that position more than in the right back area.

while people may get a chance to play in the timbers line up, that does not mean they deserve to play. the timbers did relatively well on saturday, especially when you consider they were forced to cope with being down a man given the 2 passengers on the field: jewsbury and palmer. where one ended the other picked right up and ran with the standard of mediocrity. sure, palmer would like to play defensive midfielder and i would like to be the starting central defensive partner of thomas vermaelen, but neither should ever happen.

the fact steve purdy put in a passable shift on saturday, better than some we have seen from palmer recently, and the fact we have horst, futty, and zizzo all coming into health, competition for places will be fierce. if there is one thing i love for a manager to suffer it is the headache caused by this question: which player do i play? i only wish he had that headache in the defensive midfield position.

with that, have a great day.

sunshine

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