On Saturday the Timbers return to Texas. This time they will square off against the Austin Aztex, an expansion club that hopes that it will avoid El Paso’s fate. So far, so-so. They are averaging 3,019 per game, a figure that is pretty solid for a first year USL-1 club and a number that places them ahead of Minnesota, Miami and Cleveland in the attendance table.

On the pitch, the Aztex (3-7-6, 15pts) are in the same position — fourth from the bottom, above Vancouver, Cleveland, and Minnesota. About those three wins — two came against Cleveland (a feat the Timbers have yet to accomplish) and one came at Puerto Rico’s expense. The Aztex enter Saturday’s match fresh off a 4-1 drubbing at home against Rochester. They have yet to play a nil-nil game this year. They’re also tied with Cleveland for most goals allowed.

The most intriguing player on the club might just be Eddie Johnson — unrelated to the nine million other athletes that go by the same name. He grew up playing in Manchester United and Crewe Alexandra’s youth systems, spent time with Royal Antwerp, Conventry City, Crewe Alexandra, Bradford City and Chester City. He made his way to Austin thanks to his old Coventry City boss Adrian Heath, who is running the show in Texas. Johnson has acquitted himself nicely with 4 goals and a league-high 36 shots in 14 games (a feat facilitated by games against that pitiful Cleveland side).

This is another opportunity for the Timbers to pick up three points on the road, something that has not been their strong suit in an otherwise stellar half of a season. The Timbers are 1-1-5 on the road. They enter Saturday’s game coming off a brutal 1-1 draw at Minnesota. It was brutal in the sense of squandered points. A Minnesota goal in the closing seconds of an extra long extra time took away a pair of points that could very well be needed later in the season in the battle for the top of the table. It is the second road match this season – remember that draw against Cleveland? – where the Timbers gave away points. That is something that cannot happen against Austin, a side that has lost three times at home this season.

Too early to care about this game? Probably. I’m out of action most of this week so figured I’d earn my salary early. I hope to tune in on Saturday and file a report that you will never, ever forget.

Bottom Line: First half goals by Roger Levesque and Stephen King lifted the Seattle Sounders to a 2-1 victory over the Portland Timbers in a US Open Cup match played in front of 16,382 at PGE Park. Levesque, a former member of the USL Sounders, stunned the packed stadium with a goal in the first minute. The visiting Sounders took a two-goal lead in the 26th minute when King struck a shot from outside the box and beat Timbers keeper Steve Cronin. The Timbers pulled one back in the 43rd minute when Mandjou Keita emerged from a scrum in front of the net and poked it past Sounders keeper Kasey Keller. The Timbers were unable to find the equalizer and lost for the first time in 14 games. With the win Seattle advances to the next round of the US Open Cup and will face the Kansas City Wizards.

Timbers lineup
Cronin
Thompson Knowles Keel (Danso 90) Hayes
Farber Claesson Savage (McManus 45) Suzuki
Keita Josten (Nimo 80)

Did you notice…

• As disappointing it is to see the Timbers lose, it was a fantastic night for soccer in Portland and the Pacific Northwest. The atmosphere was outstanding. Both supporters groups sung loud and proud. A lot of new faces showed up to the stadium. This is what a lot of us have worked for for a very long time.
• I give the Timbers credit for sticking in the game. A first minute goal is always deflating and to fall behind by two goals usually means game over. The team fought through the early struggle and played a pretty decent, even game.



• The biggest difference tonight was the central midfield. Claesson and Savage were badly outplayed in the first half. The both are a step slow to be successful playing against MLS caliber players. I thought Gavin Wilkinson made the right move bringing in Tony McManus for the second half. He is a more physical player than Savage and broke up some of the Sounders’ build up.
• Roger Levesque has always killed the Timbers. It was disappointing to see an Oregonian and former University of Portland player Nate Jaqua join in the goal celebration by pretending to chop down Levesque. Until he uses a real chainsaw to do the deed, Jaqua is dead to me.
• I thought Wilkinson waited a little too long to bring in the bench. He didn’t make a substitution until the 80th minute and when he did it was Nimo, who was very effective, for Josten, who had his moments. That left Suzuki paired with Keita up front. Suzuki worked hard, but he isn’t going to get it done late in the game. He doesn’t have the gas. Bringing in Danso as an extra forward was intriguing, but at the 90th minute a bit too late.
• When the Timbers panicked they resorted to the long ball. When they were under control, they rolled it around. For a 20-minute stretch in the first half it was almost all long ball.
• Who shot Sanna Nyassi? There must be a grassy knoll out there somewhere that is hiding the sniper that felled him late in the game. How else can you explain him going down to the turf in a heap with no one around? Whoever threw the empty water bottle from the North End has tremendous aim. Next time throw it at Wilkinson too for letting Nyassi play for the Timbers last season while on trial with Seattle.
• True conversation I had with a Seattle customer fan after Levesque scored:

  Me: Your guy Levesque always kills us.
  Him: Who?
  Me: Levesque. The guy who just scored.
  Him: (Tumbleweeds…)
  Me: The guy who played for your USL side.
  Him: (Deer caught in headlights look)
  Me: Your team. The one you had for a decade or so.
  Him: (Looks like he doesn’t understand English)
  Me: Never mind
  Him: (Relieved look on his face)

Match Reports

• Sounders down Timbers in US Open Cup (USA Today)
• Sounders FC cuts down Portland 2-1 in spirited battle of Northwest rivals (Seattle Times)
• Sounders beat old rival Timbers in U.S. Open Cup (Seattle P-I)
• Sound loss for Timbers (The Columbian)
• Seattle 2, Portland 1: Sounders stun sold-out PGE Park crowd in U.S. Open Cup (The Oregonian)
• Photo Gallery (Allison Andrews Soccer City USA)

Photos: Alex McDougall

It is difficult to imagine a better way of renewing a rivalry that dates back more than thirty years. More than 16,000 people will be jammed into PGE Park (imagine if this was being played in front of 2,000 at Starfire!) this evening to watch the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders go at it in the US Open Cup. A few years ago when the announcement was made that Seattle would leave for MLS, many of us assumed that the only chance we would have to see the Pacific Northwest rivals battle one another again would be in meaningless exhibitions. This is not a meaningless exhibition. Nor will it be the last non-meaningless game we see between the two clubs. With Portland joining Seattle in MLS in 2011 (something even more difficult to have imagined a couple of years ago), the rivalry will live on. Tonight is a preview of what is to come. Show up early. Expect a physical, ugly game. And savor this moment. It might not be back for a couple of years.

Match Previews

• Timbers-Sounders game provides proving ground for some Portland players (The Oregonian)
• Timbers renew rivalry that has some legs (The Columbian)
• Smoldering soccer rivalry gets new fire (The Olympian)
• Sounders still all the rave (green) (Seattle P-I)
• Former Portland soccer star Keller returns as rival (KGW)
• Portland vs. Seattle soccer rivalry more friendly back in NASL days (Seattle Times)
• Portland Timbers fans take rivalry with Sounders FC to another level (Seattle Times)
• Seattle-Portland rivalry remains intense (MLSnet)

Photo: Allison Andrews/Soccer City USA

*Full=16,000 capacity
*Full=Happy scalpers

By the time they take the pitch at 5pm on Sunday the Portland Timbers will have had eight days off since their last game, a 5-1 drubbing of the Minnesota Thunder. Eight days off is roughly the same as 3.75 dog lives in the USL First Division. Witness the four games in seven days that are to follow.

Sunday’s match is against the Montreal Impact (5-4-2, 17pts), a club that has won its past three league games since falling to Portland (6-1-5, 23pts) 1-0 back on June 4 at PGE Park. You’ll recall that it took a Keith Savage goal in the 90th minute to lift the Timbers to victory in a game in which they outshot the Impact 19-2. You may also recall that the game against the Impact was the last time that Ryan Pore was on the pitch for the good guys. After sitting out a few games, he is back in the fold along with midfield mate Tony McManus, forward Antouman Jallow and defender Takuro Nishimura.

Amen

Lest you think that you only have one game to think about on Sunday, let you be reminded that the Portland Timbers U23s are also doing their thing. What is unique is that their thing is being sponsored by the Timbers Army. Proceeds will go to all those crazy banners you see in the north end as well as to a deserving local charity. You’d be stupid not to show up for the 1pm kickoff against the much hated Vancouver Whitecaps Residency team. The U23s have scored 28 goals in 10 games. That, my amigos, is the definition of offensive footy. The Forest Grove News-Times is on the story.

You’ll be excused if show up a tad late, however, since the U.S. national team faces Brazil in the Confederations Cup final starting at 11:30 in the morning. I have no clue where the masses will be meeting to watch this one, but I imagine it will be at one of the venues near the stadium and I imagine a good time will be had by all.

Sunday it is. I’ll be making a guest appearance and will even do my best to churn out a match report of sorts following the fun.

Last man standing wins.

Photo: Alex McDougall

Win
Draw
Draw
Win
Thumping (three players sent off, my goodiness)

Those are the types of results that are enough to get a guy with his head up his arse’s (guilty, although in this case replace arse with Seattle and you get my story) attention.

It doesn’t matter the year, there is also a time when the Timbers face adversity. Some years they deal with it well and some years they roll over and die (see last season). There still might be some tough stretches ahead – four straight league road games in July, and the annual Montreal/Rochester road affair come to mind – but based on what I have seen (term used loosely) during this recent run, I’m not too concerned about this team’s ability to handle it.

No defeats since April 25. Can’t argue with that.

Photo: Alex McDougall. He has more photos from the game right here. You should be kind and visit his photos since I was unkind and failed to let him know I was out of action on Friday. Cheers.

You should also take note that everyone’s pal Rick has brought the Oregonlive Timbers blog back from the dead. The more voices the merrier!

Two of the hottest teams in the world (hyperbole, but how many leagues actually play in June?) will square off in the second round of the US Open Cup on Tuesday. The Sonoma County Sol host the Portland Timbers at the infamous Ernie Nevers Field in Santa Rosa, California. The Sol, an amateur club that plays in the National Premier Soccer League, have not lost a game this season. Including US Open Cup qualifying matches, they are 12-0-2. They have outscored their opponents 46-13.

They face a Timbers team that has not lost since their season opener against the Vancouver Whitecaps on April 25. That is 11 straight games in all competitions without a defeat. The match will be the fourth in eight days for Portland, who advanced to the competition’s second round with a 3-0 victory last Tuesday against the Kitsap Pumas.

One of the fun things about the US Open Cup is that it provides fans with an opportunity to learn about teams playing in the lower divisions of American soccer. I’m sure by now you are all very familiar with the Sonoma County Sol, but I was not. After spending a bit of time poking around the interwebs I have learned the following:

• The club is primarily made up of players from the Santa Rosa area, the majority of whom have played for Sonoma State University, a Division II school that won an NCAA National Championship in 2002.
• Sonoma State University mascot is the seawolf. Seawolves and RailHawks are mortal enemies.
• In their 5-2 victory over Tommy Poltl’s former club, Orange County Blue Stars, Shawn Percell scored a pair of goals for the Sol. Percell, who also serves as the team’s assistant manager, played three seasons for the Seattle Sounders back in the Darren Sawatzky era. I don’t remember Percell, but I don’t have to remember him to know that he is scum.
• The only other player on the roster who appears to have played at the USL-1 level is Lee Sandwina, who was on the Charleston Battery’s roster for a season.
• Defender Lee Summerscales earned 10 caps for the U-18 England National Team.
• As part of their US Open Cup qualifying, the Sol tied Doxa-Italia 1-1. Apparently Doxa-Italia is part of the remnants of Hollywood United FC. We are all too familiar with Hollywood United FC.
• Earlier this season the Sol crushed Salinas Samba 10-1. How classy can a team that scored 10 goals in a game really be? Answer: not classy at all.
• Sol Philosophy: The Sol play a traditional 1-4-4-2 system. Grassroots style, but with an entertaining flair.
• That entertaining flair is not evident on YouTube. Not a single highlight of the Sol can be found.
• The median household income in Sonoma County in 2000 was $88,303. All of the players in Tuesday’s game earn less than the median household income.
• Ernie Nevers Field is named after a former Duluth Eskimo. The pitch is plastic with American football lines.

Useless the Portland Timbers were not during this sojourn. They defeated the Kitsap Pumas 3-0 on Tuesday in one of those tricky US Open Cup matches where they are supposed to win because they play in a higher caliber league but they aren’t assured victory because the game means more to the lower caliber league guys.

They then flew cross country and faced the Carolina RailHawks for the third time in ten league games. Without their leading goal scorer and without their holding midfielder, the Timbers pretty much took it to Carolina and could easily have walked away with three points instead of the standard 0-0 result they seemingly always get against Carolina.

A few hours rest and they were back at it in the heat and humidity in Charleston, facing a Battery team that has yet to lose in 12 games. Falling behind a goal, Portland could easily have folded. Instead, a late goal from Mandjou Keita leveled the score at 1-1 and extended the Timbers’ unbeaten streak to ten games.

A win and two draws even though it could just as well been two wins and a loss. Either way we’ll take it. What we learned from this brutal stretch was that this year’s squad does in fact have a bit of depth. Over the three games, 15 different players started and 18 players saw action. The Cameron Knowles Iroman awards go to Steve Cronin, David Hayes, Scot Thompson, and Keith Savage for playing all 270 minutes.

And now the team has the luxury of two whole days without a game. They get to fly back across the country to face some outfit called the Sonoma County Sol in yet another one of those tricky US Open Cup matches where they are supposed to win because they play in a higher caliber league but they aren’t assured victory because the game means more to the lower caliber league guys.

A victory means a US Open Cup home match on June 30 against the much despised Seattle Sounders. That would not suck.

Photo: Steven Worthy

Don’t look now but the Portland Timbers are one-third of the way through their 2009 campaign. Time flies when you go weeks without blogging. Apologies and all that. Ten games into the season seems like as good of a time as any to evaluate where things stand. We know that the team sits third in the table with a record of 5-1-4. We know that the team is two wins away from matching last year’s total. We know that they are going to get those two wins and a whole lot more because this is a greatly improved squad and because they have played only one game thus far against the teams that currently hold the bottom four spots in the table (Cleveland, Minnesota, Austin, and Miami — a lot of points still available for the taking). Let’s take a look at where things stand position-by-position.

Goalkeeper
After the revolving door of MLS loans in 2008, things have settled down thanks to the addition of Steve Cronin. He has allowed four goals in eight matches and I am not sure if any of those four could be considered soft. He has not been asked to make too many big saves, but he has shown that he is capable of doing just that. We have yet to see his backup Brian Visser in a league game and you have to wonder how confident the club is about him considering they brought in Chris Seitz for a couple of games when Cronin was injured. As long as Cronin stays healthy this position is not a concern.

Grade: A-

Defenders
Four goals in ten games. You can’t argue with that. Once again Gavin Wilkinson has assembled a very good backline. The difference this time around is that there is depth. Cameron Knowles, Stephen Keel, and Mamadou Danso are also fairly interchangable in the middle. Takuro Nishimura and Cameron Dunn (remember him?) can both spell both the inside and outside backs. Scot Thompson is having another fine year. And with all due respect to Jacobi Goodfellow, David Hayes is probably the best defender we have had in Portland since the rebirth in 2001. Hayes is incredible at always being in the right position and his passing skills from the back have been huge. The only concern is whether Hayes can continue to log Knowles-like minutes.

Grade: A

Midfield
A tremendous upgrade from last season. The midfielders have shown that they are able to string together passes and control the flow of the game. Johan Claesson and Tony McManus are steadying forces in the middle. Ryan Pore and Brian Farber have brought speed and an attacking style to the outside. Keith Savage has proven a capable backup. Alex Nimo has done some nice things as a late game substitute. Takayuki Suzuki has been able to slide in as an outside left mid. We haven’t even seen Shaun Higgins at all, which is a positive sign.

Grade: A-

Forward
Three goals in ten games. That is the collective output from the group up front. Not a tremendous number, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Mandjou Keita has been able to create a number of scoring chances both for himself and his teammates. George Josten has played some important minutes. Suzuki has played his normal role of setting up others. Jason McLaughlin has not done much, but he is a late game banger. Antou Jallow has played just a single minute and I’ve been told he has not lived up to the coaching staff’s expectations. The question heading moving forward is whether Keita will get enough support up front so that he isn’t always double teamed. I’m not sure if Josten and Suzuki can consistently provide that support. Perhaps will see trialist Warren Ukah play that role if he is signed by the club.

Grade: B+

Coach
Give the boss some credit. He was able to identify last year’s weaknesses – a poor midfield, lack of depth at defense, and no number one keeper – and he went out and got players to address them. He also has allowed his players to use their talents. Instead of playing a boring, conservative style, he has given the team the green light to attack. The result is a team that is very fun to watch. He also has done a decent job juggling his bench.

Grade: A

Overall
With so many new players on the squad I thought it would take a little longer for things to come together. This club is beyond where I thought it would be at this point in the season. In addition to staying healthy, the challenge will be the ability to make adjustments moving forward. Teams will start to figure out what the Timbers do well and what they do not. Can Wilkinson make changes throughout the season? Can the team continue to get goals from a variety of players? Can the club take advantage of the weaker teams in the league? Lots of positive signs at this point, but there is still plenty of season left to be played.

Photo: Allison Andrews/Soccer City USA

Some teams take non-league competitions seriously.
The Islanders made it to the semifinals of the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League. This past week they qualified for 2009-10 tournament after defeating Haiti’s Tempete.

Housekeeping (or what you missed while life beat me down)

• Brian Farber was named to the USL First Division team of the week for his efforts against Rochester last Thursday. He will receive $5 off his next purchase at Red Lobster.
• Defender Takuro Nishimura has secured his work visa and has made the trip to Puerto Rico.
• The Bonsai that is the U23s finally experienced the agony of defeat, losing 3-1 on the road to the much despised Seattle Wolves on Wednesday. They play against Tacoma (who haven’t lost at home in 21 matches) on Saturday in a must-win situation if they are to qualify for the US Open Cup.
• Fuck yeah.
• The 107 Report

Being Gavin Wilkinson
It is about time, mate. After spending more than 60 games straining my vocal chords in an effort to get these USL referees to pull their heads out of their asses, it is about fuckingtime (apologies Canzano) that we got a call at the end of the game. We’re going to ride this karmic justice all the way to Puerto Rico and pick up six points by fielding this lineup:

Cronin
Thompson Knowles Keel Hayes
Farber Claesson McManus Pore
Keita Josten

Money.

Just a hunch
Keith Savage is going to play an important role this weekend.

Programming Note
I’m out of town this weekend so no posts from me until Monday. Apologies.

Match Previews

• Timbers visit Puerto Rico for two matches this weekend (Portland Timbers)
• Breaking the Standings Tie (Dropping Timber)