Let’s Play Two: Timbers head to Puerto Rico
By: Bob Kellett | May 21st, 2009
Toughest road trip of the year. Two games in three nights against one of the top team in the league in the type of heat and humidity that makes most Portlanders wilt. That is the fun that the Portland Timbers (2-1-2, 8pts) have in store for them this weekend when they travel to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (via Philly — gah, hire a real travel agent next time, lads!) to take on the Islanders (2-1-2, 8pts). How have the Timbers fared in previous years when they have made the cross-continent journey to Puerto Rico? Not so well. They are 0-3-1 on the road against the Islanders. Puerto Rico has not lost at home this season.
Some teams take non-league competitions seriously.
The Islanders made it to the semifinals of the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League. This past week they qualified for 2009-10 tournament after defeating Haiti’s Tempete.
Housekeeping (or what you missed while life beat me down)
- Brian Farber was named to the USL First Division team of the week for his efforts against Rochester last Thursday. He will receive $5 off his next purchase at Red Lobster.
- Defender Takuro Nishimura has secured his work visa and has made the trip to Puerto Rico.
- The Bonsai that is the U23s finally experienced the agony of defeat, losing 3-1 on the road to the much despised Seattle Wolves on Wednesday. They play against Tacoma (who haven’t lost at home in 21 matches) on Saturday in a must-win situation if they are to qualify for the US Open Cup.
- Fuck yeah.
- The 107 Report
Being Gavin Wilkinson
It is about time, mate. After spending more than 60 games straining my vocal chords in an effort to get these USL referees to pull their heads out of their asses, it is about fuckingtime (apologies Canzano) that we got a call at the end of the game. We’re going to ride this karmic justice all the way to Puerto Rico and pick up six points by fielding this lineup:
Cronin
Thompson Knowles Keel Hayes
Farber Claesson McManus Pore
Keita Josten
Money.
Just a hunch
Keith Savage is going to play an important role this weekend.
Programming Note
I’m out of town this weekend so no posts from me until Monday. Apologies.
Match Previews
- Timbers visit Puerto Rico for two matches this weekend (Portland Timbers)
- Breaking the Standings Tie (Dropping Timber)
Category: Timbers Team News
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Comments
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I’m not trying to detract from the Islander’s great run in this year’s CL (I was definitely pulling for them), but it’s a lot easier to take non-league competitions seriously when your qualification schedule is a cupcake. Just saying, for PR to qualify they have to beat some Haitian club, and Portland would have to win the US Open Cup. Even the Canadian sides have to win a round-robin with Toronto to get in.
This weekend is probably going to be the toughest roadie of the year for PTFC and I’m glad we’re getting it out of the way early. Weekend trips later to Miami(x2), Charleston/Carolina, and Rochester/Montreal won’t be as tough to get points from as this will. I hope they come out gangbusters tomorrow night and see what happens.
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Their qualifying might be easy (so is beating Hollywood United, in theory) but their run to the semis last year was impressive.
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I wonder what kind of run the Timbers could make in CCL if they qualified by merely beating Hollywood United (aka Tempete?)?
Like I said the run was impressive, and it looks like they’ll have the chance to make such a run every year with their all-but-automatic qualification.
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Since the tournament doesn’t conflict with the Timbers’ Mexican reserve team exhibition season I imagine the starters would play and they would do ok if they qualified.
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I agree that the Islanders had an easy way to get a return ticket to the next CCL, but that was just because from one of the bottom ranked teams in the 2007-08 CFU (Caribbean tournament) we went to top-seed for this years CFU classification, thanks to our CCL run in 2008-09. In the 2007-08 tournament the CFU did us no favor, and we played 7 games to get the 3rd Caribbean berth to the CCL. Here is a chart with the entire CFU-CCL run for the last tournament:
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Also, it was not just some Haitian team we beat to get into the next CCL. In the USL we may not hear much about Haitian (or other Caribbean teams), but Tempete (the 2008 Haitian Champion) was a lot tougher than we expected. Tempete won 8-0 aggregate (2 x 4-0) in the quarterfinals, and kept the Islanders 0-0 in 90 minutes of regulation. Tempete also had quite a number of oportunities to score that Gaudette saved. Unfortunately for Tempete (but fortunately for the Islanders), the Haitians received a red card right on the added minutes (90+), and had to play a man short during the 30 minutes overtime when the Islanders scored the 2-CCL clinching goals.
I would love to see USL teams play regularily friendlies with some tough Caribbean teams to take away the perception that Caribbean teams are not a challenge.
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I had the craziest dream that the Timbers came away from this ordeal with 4 points.
That couldn’t be the actual case, could it?
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we’re gonna win the league!
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Hello all I have recently been banished from soccercityusa and would love to continue posting but a certain person (god) in said world will not let me… Is it wrong not to see eye to eye with the rest of Portland’s world?? Keep living the dream; reality is only around the corner…
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had been enjoying these reports … some big news out there now just sitting there: huge result in PR, Burnley friendly …
what’s Bob’s take?
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Kellett, where the hell r u man? Missing ur stuff. The lads are winning. Or r u just a drama spinner that needs tragedy to inspire ya?
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Love.
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What Jack said.
Bob is missing some amazing amazingness. And I miss Bob. Bob, please come back.
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See you in Bummertown today, Bob?
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And now the “let’s play two” headline is appropriate again for this weekend.
Go Timbers.
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