Bring on the Islanders

By: Bob Kellett | May 16th, 2008

The Portland Timbers face the Puerto Rico Islanders the second time this season Friday evening in Bayamon. You’ll recall that the boys in green and white won the first encounter a month ago in Portland thanks to a 71st minute goal from Chris Brown. Puerto Rico played a man down the last 50 minutes of that match and other than a couple of early chances they never really threatened the Timbers’ defense. I suspect things might be a bit different tonight. Puerto Rico is eager to get on track in USL First Division play and my guess would be they are going to attack early and often. Portland has not won in three tries on the island. The weather at kick off is supposed to be in the low 80s with the usual humidity that those of us in the Pacific Northwest thankfully rarely experience. With a game on Sunday in Miami this is going to test the team’s fitness and depth.

Totori has parental permission
The Trib has a feature on future Portland Timbers legend Benjamin Totori, who received the go-ahead from his family to come to Portland and become a star. I’m still waiting on my parents’ permission to write on this blog.

Sweet Seventeen
The Friday Tribits focus on the ongoing mascot trial. Pity the poor guy who broke his foot playing soccer before he had a chance to fire up the chainsaw during the Rochester game. More important, one of the bits mentions the Timbers took 17 players on this road trip. The league rules state a team can designate 18 players for each game. Considering the conditions they will be playing in this weekend, I wonder why the club didn’t bring the maximum number of players. I also wonder who was left home. My guess: Steve Reese, Tom Taylor, Troy Ready, Varden Adzemian, Scott Bolkan, Neil Dombrowski and Lawrence Olum. Just a guess.

The Mac is Back
It is a glamorous life for USL-1 players. Those 4am, multiple leg flights sure sound fun. I wonder who got stuck with the middle seat. Tom Poltl? He doesn’t need much leg room.

We’re all going to The Agency pub, The Agency pub, The Agency pub
Your pre- and post-game drinking options around PGE Park will shortly increase by one. From Willamette Week:

SPORTY SPACE: Former investment banker Cameron Carr (son of ’80s-era Blazer Kenny Carr) and Bettie Ford founder Tyler Williams will open what Carr calls an “ultra lounge” near PGE Park late this summer. According to Carr, The Agency will be a high-tech sports bar with a price tag that’ll easily top seven figures for its lease and construction. The bar will be part of the shiny new Civic complex at 1930 W Burnside St. Its ground-floor space—currently just a wall of windows with an empty interior shell—will take up two floors, with an upstairs family dining room, private rooms for small parties and geeked-out video game consoles.

Ultra Lounge. Ugh.

Nothing to do with the Timbers, but it made me laugh

Spotted on Bike Portland

Being Gavin Wilkinson
Putting on my telepathic hat and digging deep into the cranium of Timbers boss Gavin Wilkinson, I see some concern. His team hasn’t scored in two games and it is facing a road trip that is physically and mentally exhausting. He wants to generate some offense, but knows that in this league you have to play tight, defensive games to have success on the road. He also knows that some of his older guys aren’t going to be able to play the full 90 minutes both nights. He is going to field two different lineups. The one against Puerto Rico will look like this:

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

I’ll check in after the game with some thoughts. Stay cool out there, my friends.