A Pair of Games Coming Down the Road

By: Bob Kellett | May 12th, 2008

After a pair of nil-nil draws this past weekend, the Portland Timbers will spend the week preparing for a road trip that will take them to Puerto Rico and Miami. Both locales are lovely enough to visit, but are not exactly that much fun when you have to run in 90-percent humidity for 90 minutes. Portland has never won on the island of Puerto Rico. The Timbers did win one of their previous two games in Miami. Two numbers to keep in mind: 329 and 194. The Timbers haven’t given up a goal in the last 329 minutes of play and they haven’t scored a goal in the last 194 minutes of action.

The enemy of my enemy
Watching the Timbers play in Seattle for the last time at the USL-1 level on Saturday, I couldn’t help but think that some of those Sounders players we have been rooting against over the years could find their way to Portland next season. Despite their coach’s proclamations that half his roster is good enough to play in MLS, the reality is that most of the current Sounders won’t be part of the MLS expansion team. They’ll need jobs and they might even want to stay in the Pacific Northwest. When there was question whether or not the Sounders would play a USL season in 2008, we saw a number of the Sounders suit up for Minnesota in an exhibition against the LA Galaxy, as well as a pair of players play for the Timbers against Toronto FC. Could some of their guys strengthen the Timbers team next year? Absolutely. I’d love to have Kenji Treschuk as our holding midfield and if Ray Burse goes back to Dallas I don’t think Chris Eylander would be a bad replacement in goal at all. Of course, those MLS Sounders might want some of our guys too, but let’s not think about that.

Benjamin Totori Surfs the Web
Future Portland Timbers legend Benjamin Totori’s season in New Zealand has come to a close with a dramatic come from behind win in the O-League final. Totori, who scored a goal to help Waitakere United overcome a 3-1 first leg deficit and advance to the Club World Cup in Japan in December, will be on his way to the States soon. How did he decide that the Timbers were the club for him? From the New Zealand Herald:

“It was a big shock for me when I got the call from Gavin,” Totori says. “The first thing I did was look up the club’s website and it looked good, it looked professional. That’s what I have been dreaming of doing. Now I have to take my chance… [and then] maybe move to another club, a higher league.”

Looks like the club’s website upgrade last season has already paid off!

Stadium Naming Rights
This is how my mind works. I was celebrating Mother’s Day with my future 88-year-old grandmother-in-law at a generic chain Italian restaurant that has some of the worst food in America when it dawned on me that the original deal the city struck with PGE for the naming rights to Civic Stadium expires in 2010-2011. That deal was worth $8.5 million spread out over ten years. I would imagine that the city could get a much larger naming rights fee if it had a team playing in MLS. The increased revenue could be used to help offset some of the estimated $20 million that will be needed to upgrade the stadium. That thought made my not very appetizing food a little more appetizing. I suppose the new minor league baseball stadium could also have a corporate name too. New Copper Penny Ballpark, anyone?

Buy Local, Think Timbers
I was at the downtown Farmer’s Market this weekend and noticed that a table was set up to sell Timbers and Beavers tickets. I even witnessed a couple people purchase tickets to the Vancouver game on May 24. This is the first time I have ever seen the club out in the community selling tickets. Things continue to move in the right direction….

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