The Season Starts Again

By: Bob Kellett | July 10th, 2008

The 2008 Portland Timbers season started way back when in April when the Portland Timbers defeated the Puerto Rico Islanders 1-0 at PGE Park. I can’t help but have the feeling that the season is starting against Thursday night against the same club in the same stadium. After a difficult first half schedule that saw too many games scheduled in too few days, the Timbers have had a few weeks to take a breath and to reshuffle the cards in the deck. In that game in April, the Timbers started Andrew Gregor and Ray Burse. Both are gone now. Benjamin Totori was still playing in New Zealand then. He is in Portland and fit now. Timber Jim enjoyed his last game as a mascot then. Timber Jim has joined the rest of us in enjoying Timber Joey now. It remains to be seen if the changes that have been made the past few weeks will make the second half of the season better than the first, but change was necessary. There’s still plenty of season left to be played and in a league where parity rules there is still plenty to play for. Thursday night is the Portland Timbers’ opportunity to begin again on a winning note.

The new captain…
…will be the same as the old captain. Cameron Knowles has been co-captain all year. There’s no reason to think that the Ironman won’t be wearing the armband from here on out.

Four is enough
There’s no way the Timbers are going to carry four keepers the rest of the season. Who will be the odd man out: Jordan James or Steve Reese? Neither makes much dough. Neither has had much of an opportunity to play. Neither has received a vote of confidence from the boss. My money is on James being released. Gavin Wilkinson has essentially cast his vote by going out and picking up two keepers in the past week. Reese is local and little more than a practice player. James could probably find some work at a lower level.

Attention Trekkies
Translation help needed, ASAP. Where’s Congressman David Wu when we need him?

A mere typo can’t hold you back
If you are a season ticket holder you might notice that your ticket for Thursday’s game says they are playing Atlanta. This was a simple printing mistake. You will still be able get into the game against Puerto Rico with your ticket.

Being Gavin Wilkinson
Mate, the last couple of weeks have been fanfuckingtastic. We played a couple of massive games against one of the best clubs in the world in front of rabid fans the likes of which we never see at PGE Park. My Spanish sure is getting bueno. I got to do a little favor for my good buddy Brian Schmetzer by letting whathisname get a run with us before he signs with Seattle. I got to tell our captain, the player who led our team in goals and assists last season, that he was traded for a backup keeper and a journeyman forward. The only thing that could make life better would be another exhibition against a Mexican squad. I’m bursting at the seams just at the thought of playing those Tigers! The only downer is that we have this little league game tonight against Puerto Rico. That means I have to pencil in this lineup, sit next to my suspended bud Tom Poltl on the bench and dream about how electric the atmosphere will be on Tuesday.

Knighton
S. Thompson Knowles J. Thompson Griffin
Guante Brown Dombrowski Higgins
Suzuki Bagley

That kids from the Solomon Islands might also see some time and maybe I’ll even see what Walters, I mean Welker, I mean Jabil can do.

Predict the attendance, win no prizes
The college kids are home looking to make their Thursday thirsty, the weather is near perfect, thousands of Morelia fans undoubtedly have caught Los Timbres fever. I think we’ll see a good crowd. Let’s call it 7,211.

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