Juventus Primavera Tickets on Sale Tuesday, Two Games this week

By: Bob Kellett | May 5th, 2008

After a week off, it is game week once again for the Portland Timbers. The heroes in green and white will try to be bloody dynamite against Rochester on Thursday at PGE Park and on the road against those dreaded Seattle Sounders on Saturday. It seems hardly fair to have to go through a season with a rush of games, followed by a lull and then followed by another rush of games. USL First Division scheduling is something I won’t miss when the day comes that the Timbers play in MLS. You can also add another game to the June calendar. Ticketmaster has confirmed that the Timbers will face Juventus Primavera on June 14 (UPDATE: Official club press release). Online presale tickets go on sale Tuesday and regular tickets will begin being sold on Saturday. I wasn’t super excited when I found out AC Milan’s kids were playing here last season, but that turned out to be an entertaining friendly. Let’s hope the Juventus youth also put on a good show. Here’s the most recent YouTube clip of them in action.

His teammates don’t kick balls at him this time

A lukewarm MLS endorsement
The Oregonian’s editorial board weighs in on Merritt Paulson’s efforts to bring an MLS expansion team to Portland. The board is in favor of having another major league team in town, but questions who is going to pay the costs of renovating PGE Park and building a minor league baseball stadium. A good question which implies they have no interest seeing taxpayers like you or I picking up the tab. For what it is worth, the Paulson Plan has now received qualified support from both The Oregonian and the Portland Tribune.

In related news, I was in Lents this weekend on business and checked out the proposed site for the baseball stadium at the corner of SE 92nd and Holgate. There is plenty of room for a stadium – a small one already exists – but I’m not sure where the parking would go. It would either have to eat up part of Lents Park or there would have to be a parking garage nearby. The access roads would also need a bit of upgrading and for families to use the walk between the Max line and the stadium site would need to be safer. In other words, the site is hardly move-in ready. The final bill is going to include more than just the cost of a facility.

Rivalry week revisited
The Timbers will play in Seattle for possibly the last time on Saturday and this week Goal Seattle is looking back at some of the moments that have helped this to become of of the best rivalries around. I’ll have some thoughts on this as well later in the week when we are closer to the game.

Vote early, vote often
Here is one political campaign I can get behind. Go ahead and vote for Takayuki Suzuki as your most favorite athlete in Portland in Willy Week’s poll. His platform: He comes here from Japan. He is a mighty man.

YouTube numbers
How do the Timbers match up against Portland’s other teams on YouTube? Davidrites has the answer. With a few more masterful goals from Suzuki we’ll catch the Blazers in no time.

Burse’s weekend
Ray Burse was on the bench for FC Dallas on Saturday to watch his team play to a nil-nil draw against San Jose. On Sunday, Burse played the first 45 minutes for FC Dallas’ reserve team, which beat San Jose’s reserves 2-0. Interesting to note that Jamie Watson, who briefly was on trial for the Timbers during the preseason, played for FCD’s reserves.

Nine Million goals in 2008
Mathematical proof that the Timbers will keep the scoreboard operator very busy this season.

Photo: Allison Andrews/Soccer City USA