It’s Hollywood Time for the Portland Timbers

By: Bob Kellett | June 10th, 2008

Think Hollywood United have been scouting the Portland Timbers ahead of Tuesday’s US Open Cup clash at PGE Park? Try this quote from their general manager Ian Carrington on for size:

“I think they’re going to be surprised at what we’re going to bring to them,” Carrington says. “We’re very technical. We possess the ball’ we don’t give it away much. And we have the quickest wingers you’ll ever see.

“I’m not saying we’ll beat them, but we’ll give them a decent game.”

Let’s see. The Timbers have struggled all year with possession and the team’s lack of speed has been most evident. If Carrington’s team lives up to his boasts, they will in fact have a good shot of knocking off the Timbers.

Giving back to the community
Kudos to the club for establishing the Portland Beavers and Portland Timbers Community Fund, and for distributing $36,000 to some excellent groups in the area.

Work for the Zeus
This isn’t my dream job, but it might be yours.

The Timbers should wear these in 2009
It is not often one come across a real, genuine Colorado Caribous jersey for sale. Those things were a work of art and built to last. I bet none of them ripped the way the Timbers’ kits have this year.

Being Gavin Wilkinson
What a dilemma. His team is struggling, his players need a rest and he has a league game two nights after this game. He has drawn an amateur team that is merely amateur in name. In an ideal world he could role out any of his 11 players and watch them roll over Hollywood United. This ain’t an ideal world. Therefore, using my powers to look deep into Gavin Wilkinson’s brain (I actually got the starting IX right last game - the first and last time I think that will happen), I see:

James
S. Thompson J. Thompson Karalexis Griffin
Brown Gregor Dombrowski Guante
Suzuki Bagley

Burse is not going to play because Dallas wants his for the US Open Cup. Cameron Knowles is out with a card suspension from last year’s competition. Higgins is dinged up. Not sure about Olum’s status. My guess is that if the Timbers get an early lead we’ll see Brown, Suzuki and Gregor head to the bench and we’ll get a look at some guys who haven’t played much this season. If the Timbers fall behind, it is an entirely different story.

Predict the attendance, win no prizes
One thing I am certain of is that this will be the smallest crowd of the year since it is a Tuesday night game that was announced only a couple of weeks ago and it isn’t part of the season ticket package and it is still February in Portland. I’ll be there. You are probably going too. Let’s multiply that by a thousand and throw in 500 in inflated numbers for a total of 2,500, of which 1,800 will be in the North End.

Oh, and as a reminder, you can watch the game on demand on USL Live sometime after the final whistle. There isn’t a live broadcast anywhere. I’ll be providing the color commentary for the broadcast. This should be interesting….