NW Derby Round 2

By: Bob Kellett | May 10th, 2008

Two weeks ago the Portland Timbers took the first scalp in the 2008 Cascadia Cup by defeating the Seattle Sounders 2-0 at PGE Park. Saturday night they travel to Seattle for the next installment of the NW Derby. The Timbers enter the contest with a 3-0-1 record and are in first place in the USL First Division. The Sounders picked up their first win of the season last Saturday in Atlanta and are 1-1-1 on the year. This is the last regular season game the two teams will play as USL foes at Qwest Field. It is the only regular season game the Sounders will play at Qwest Field this year — the rest of their games will be played at the much more intimate Starfire Complex in the burbs. You can watch the game on USL Live (if you haven’t bought a season package by now you should) or listen to the melodic voice of Andy Mac online. If you live in the Portland area, I believe there will be watching parties this season at Beulahland (118 NE 28th) and Slabtown (1033 NW 16th Ave), but you might want to call ahead first to confirm that.

What to expect from tonight’s game? By now you are quite aware that these two clubs don’t especially like one another. The fans don’t, the coaches don’t, the security guards at Qwest don’t. All this not liking one another usually adds up to physical, ugly games. Even though the game two weeks ago was well played and relatively clean, I don’t expect to see that tonight. Rochester provided Seattle with a blueprint for how to make life tough for this year’s Timbers squad. Pinch the middle of the field so that Andrew Gregor has no room to operate. Pound the Takayuki Suzuki and Chris Brown up front. Make the Timbers wide players beat you. Take away the midfield and force the Timbers backline to go with the long ball. I expect Seattle to follow a similar tact.

Unlike Rochester, Seattle actually has an offense capable of scoring. During the game two weeks ago a lot of Seattle’s attack was built from the back. They love to have their wide backs make overlapping runs. They always try to attack in a triangle so that they have the numbers advantage. During the game in Portland the Sounders forwards did not play especially well. I expect they will put in a better effort tonight.

Being Gavin Wilkinson
Following a disappointing tie on Thursday against Rochester, Timbers boss Gavin Wilkinson said he was thinking about shaking up the lineup. That is all well and good, but how much shaking can he really do? The backline is pretty much set in stone. Suzuki and Brown are class up front, and until Benjamin Totori arrives they don’t have much competition for their starting spots. That leaves the midfield, particularly the wide players. Tapping into Wilkinson’s brain, this is the starting XI I think he’ll field.

Burse
S. Thompson Knowles J. Thompson Griffin
Guante Gregor Poltl Higgins
Suzuki Brown

Yep, the same lineup that started against Seattle the first time.

The Army invades
Three buses of Timbers fans are heading to Seattle for the game. I remember back in 2002 when we were happy to have one carload. Times sure have changed. I wish everyone who makes the trip well. Seattle is not an easy place to visit. Their security folks are not especially well trained and their management has done little in the past to make it an enjoyable trip. Hopefully it will be better tonight. Like it or not, road support is growing in this country and that is going to mean that clubs are going to have to invest in training their security staff how best to deal with opposing fans. Right now the onus is almost entirely on the fans. And while the vast majority are not going to cause trouble, there are always going to be some that will, especially if conflict resolution is left up to them. I firmly believe that road support is a really good thing for soccer in this country, but only if fans are able to support their team away from home in an environment that is safe for everyone. Other countries have figured this out by now. Hopefully the US will too.

A message from Blog Central
Sometime this season I will probably LiveBlog a road game while I watch it on USL Live so that you can be fully exposed to my poor grammar, bad jokes and random thoughts live during a match. Tonight is probably not that night, but that might be a game time decision. In either case, I will do a game recap after the final whistle and I will welcome your thoughts on the match, especially from those of you who make it to Seattle. And then I will sleep all day Sunday. Planning a wedding is exhausting.

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