Timbers Face Montreal Friday, Monarcas Morelia July 3 (Possibly)

By: Bob Kellett | May 29th, 2008

Save the Date
The word on the street (the pot-holed, dead-end, message board variety) is that the Portland Timbers will face the Mexican club Monarcas Morelia on July 3 at PGE Park. I’ve seen no official confirmation of this, but Merritt Paulson and others have mentioned the possibility of a Mexican friendly and this is probably it. Sure would be a nice way to kick off a long July 4 holiday weekend. Sure would be nice for an official announcement to be made sooner rather than later so that we can all have adequate time to convince our new wives that this is a way better way to celebrate the birth of our nation than going camping.

It’s getting congested out there
Starting with Friday’s game, the Timbers will play a stretch that includes five league games, a US Open Cup tilt and an exhibition match. That is seven games in a 16-day span. I sure hope that upgraded bench we have been told that we have turns out to be as good as advertised.

May is the Cruelest Month
Portland, Montreal and Rochester are traditionally three of the league’s better teams, but that hasn’t been the case this month. The three teams have combined for one win in May and have not exactly been stellar on the attack, scoring a total of five goals in 17 games. Ouch. Could we be looking at another pair of nil-nil games?

Beware of pony-tailed hooligans
How does Montreal get such large crowds to their games? No doubt it is a good soccer city with a large fan base and a wonderful new stadium, but that is only part of the story. Here’s another contributing factor:

As part of the stay-in-school program All the Way with the Impact, more than 4,300 students from the Commission scolaire de Montréal will attend Friday’s game.

Sure must be nice to be a club partially owned by the government, run as a nonprofit organization and to be able to give away so many free/discounted tickets. That model won’t fly in MLS, but it sure has worked out well for Montreal in USL.

Being ~~Gavin Wilkinson~~ Rod Underwood
With the Timbers boss sitting out Friday night’s game with a garbage can abuse suspension, will we see a lineup that is the product of interim boss Rod Underwood’s mind? Probably not (Gavin did make the trip, after all), but I do think it will be interesting to see his substitution pattern. With two games in three days and a team that is on the ropes, Underwood will be under pressure to push the right buttons. Using my magical mind-reading powers that are almost always incorrect, I see the following starting XI against Montreal:

Burse
S. Thompson Knowles J. Thompson Griffin
Oka Gregor Higgins Little
Bagley Brown

I suspect we’ll see Totori and Olum off the bench if extra offense is needed (and frankly we could use extra offense all the time). I also suspect that Poltl is going to have a role in this one.

My Kingdom for some Information

And while I have your attention, I’d like to suggest that it would be wonderful if the club’s public relations machine could tell us all in advance who is on the road trip roster. In previous years this hasn’t been an issue because we had no bench and our traveling team consisted of 11 guys and a water cooler (who happened to wear #11 and play holding midfield). With so many players playing the same position, midfield, it would be great to know ahead of time who got a plane ticket and who got a weekend off in Portland. Muchas gracias.

Match Previews (Updated when spotted)

The Impact Faces the Portland Timbers Friday at Saputo Stadium (Montreal Impact)

Timbers make trip to Montreal, Rochester (Portland Timbers)

Six Points or Bust (Ax to the Road)

Battle of the Slumps (Nasty Challenge)

Italian seasoning benefits Placentino (Montreal Gazette)