Au Revoir, Portland Timbers-Lyon Friendly

By: Bob Kellett | June 23rd, 2008

A bunch of good folks from the Timbers Army met with the front office of the Portland Timbers today and the legendary Bickle has provided those of us who weren’t in attendance with the headlines. Let’s go through them one-by-one.

1) The FO is very happy about the relationship with the TA and with the TA’s performance this year (with the usual caveat, quite understated, about language);

I’ve done extensive analysis that shows that the worse the officiating is at PGE Park, the more often you will hear utterances of things like cocksuckermotherfuckereatabagofshitdouchebag coming from the North End. Simple solution is for the league to provide better refs and the team to win every game 6-0.

2) The Lyon friendly has been cancelled; an agreement was all but signed and cemented, but the new manager, appointed just last week, has decided that the club should not travel this summer; efforts are being made to find a replacement match;

The only person happy about this is my wife. We won’t need to reschedule our honeymoon after all. Kudos to the club for trying.

3) The FO would like very much for the TA to help spread the word about the upcoming friendlies with Mexican teams; both friendlies will be against the senior sides of these clubs, and outreach into the local Hispanic community is a high priority;

Si puedes hablar espanol, do your part. Even if you can’t, do you part. One thing the club could do in the future is to schedule these games on weekend afternoons. The past couple of months I tried to sell the Portland Timbers to a couple of people who grew up in Mexico. They were both big soccer fans and never had been to a game at PGE Park. They were surprised that most of the games aren’t on the weekends. I think they’d get bigger crowds and more families to attend if they’d had starting times and days that more closely resemble what you see in the Mexican leagues.

4) Player notes: two goalkeepers are in town for a look, as is the midfielder Mark Briggs, who has previously been identified; word is coming within days if not hours about another player speculated about here (hint: everybody loves him); and it is still possible that more personnel may be obtained; Tom Taylor has gone back to England; Benjamin Totori is about two weeks away from game-readiness;

My gut and this nugget of info tells me Ray Burse ain’t coming back. With Tom Taylor gone, I think Briggs takes his international spot on the roster. Left unanswered: why was Taylor even here in the first place and how long will the Bryan Jordan loan be?

5) The club will begin experimenting with youth-priced tickets for the Tigres match;

Get your fake, youth-aged ids ready!

6) Home plate will be covered for major exhibitions and, sometime in the future, for regular matches. The pitch is still being broken in, and certain aspects of the changeover are currently taking up the time and money budgeted for them; when they’re settled, others will be seen to;

Better have insurance because one these games Takayuki Suzuki is going to break an ankle on the dirt (which is more concrete than dirt).