Portland Timbers face the Vancouver Whitecaps

By: Bob Kellett | August 22nd, 2008

There have been times in previous seasons when I thought the Portland Timbers would travel to Vancouver to play the Whitecaps and they would come home with three points. I don’t have this feeling heading into Friday’s game. Consider me 100% jaded. Watching your team lose 12 out of 15 at Swangard Stadium will do that. Watching this 2008 team get beat at PGE Park by the Caps after the team from Vancouver played the evening before in Seattle will do that. Watching the Timbers go up a goal in Vancouver and then concede three in a row will do that. It will take a monumental effort and a little luck for this Timbers squad to come home with three points. A draw would be a victory. A loss that doesn’t include any injuries or suspensions would almost be acceptable.

Two fronts
The local media is starting to take notice of Merritt Paulson’s MLS expansion plans, but the talk hasn’t been about soccer. It is not entirely unexpected that the focus to this point has largely been on the idea of moving the Portland Beavers to a new stadium in Lents. For the casual sports fan or someone who doesn’t follow sports at all, and hasn’t been following this story since March, this is a new idea and it is one that is going to have some people scratching their heads. Lents? Minor league baseball? Felony Flats? Etc, etc. It is equally puzzling to those who reside in the myopic world of sports journalism where the only sports that matter are baseball, football and basketball.

The story that isn’t being told, or that isn’t showing up in the media, is the value an MLS team would bring to Portland and to PGE Park. If you only get half the story, baseball in Lents, it is strange move. If you get the full story - an MLS team, a renovated PGE Park for both soccer and Portland State, US National Team games, a potential women’s team, a top notch facility for local youth teams, etc - it makes a little more sense. If I were one of Paulson’s highly paid consultants, and I have been waiting by my phone for a year waiting to get that call, I’d get him out in front of this. Sure he needs support for Lents and the old money/downtown power brokers/dinosaur sportswriters are more familiar with baseball, but he also needs to sell whatever value this project will bring to stadium in the heart of downtown.

From the mailbox…
This movie came out a few years ago and if you haven’t seen it, here’s your chance. If enough people say they are going to attend I hear the Timbers will sign Zidane before next week’s roster freeze.

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait

2008 Time-Based Art Festival screenings at Northwest Film Center Whitsell Auditorium at Portland Art Museum
1219 SW Park, Portland, OR
$6 PICA Members / $7 General
Sat . Sept 6 . 9-10:30 pm, Thurs . Sept 11 . 7-8:30 pm, Fri . Sept 12 . 6:30-8 pm, Fri . Sept 12 . 8:30-10 pm, Sun . Sept 14 . 7:30-9 pm

Being Gavin Wilkinson
The juices are still flowing, mate. The adrenaline is like Niagara Falls in body. That win over Montreal on Saturday sure was sweet. I’m going to hold a Chalk Talk before each game from here on out. I sure used the coaching tips those fans gave me. In fact, I’d like everyone to text message me their starting lineups before tonight’s game. I think I get cell service in Canada. If not, I’m going with:

Knighton
S. Thompson Knowles Dunn Higgins
Olum Brown Poltl Griffin
Jordan Alvarez

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