Walking in a Timbers Wonderland

By: Bob Kellett | May 20th, 2008

No worries, mate
The Portland Timbers boss tells us all in the Trib to take a chill pill. Don’t worry about the lack of scoring. Don’t worry about those four consecutive draws. Everything is going to be fine. And considering Gavin Wilkinson’s record as a manager it is probably just fine for us to drink from his kool-aid just a little bit longer even if our eyes are not as happy with what we have seen the past four games as his. Consider this quote:

Wilkinson has been shuffling his midfield lineup. “We’ve had a lot of different combinations,” he says. “I was very happy with how quickly and how efficiently we moved the ball toward the end of the Miami game.”

Who was in that lineup at the end? It was Shaun Higgins, Tom Poltl, Kiki Lara, and Lawrence Olum. Is it me or is this comment another dig at Andrew Gregor? After the Rochester draw Wilkinson called out some of his “senior players”. And now he is emphasizing how quickly the ball was moved when Gregor was not in the game. You can read the tea leaves…

The best thing you’ll read all day….
…even if you don’t speak a word of Japanese.

It was Brownie after all
The announcers in Puerto Rico credited Chris Brown with a goal. The Timbers’ press release did too. Everyone was on board except for the Islanders’ media folks and USL Soccer. They originally credited the goal to Chris Bagley, but have now switched it to Brown. Just don’t tell Bagley’s parents. It might break their hearts.

Jordan and Co. talking Turkey
If you want to get a glimpse of former Portland Timbers forward Bryan Jordan playing for the U-23 mens national team, or sitting on its bench, you will be able to do so. The kids in red, white and blue face Turkey on May 21 at the lovely hour of 6:30 a.m. on Fox Soccer Channel. FSC is showing all of the U.S. games so if you miss this one you can also check out the action against the Ivory Coast on May 23 and Italy on May 25.

The Don talks about MLS expansion
No direct mention of Portland, but commissioner Don Garber talks about six cities vying for the next two expansion spots, while visiting Montreal for the Impact’s opening match at brand spanking new Saputo Stadium. “There is no one city leading the others,” he said. The next two teams will pony up $40 million for the expansion fee. Teams 19 and 20 might have to pay more. Listen to the interview:

They’ll smell like fish when they arrive in Portland
The Seattle Sounders are joining Portland in the Juventus Primavera exhibition fun. The Sounders announced Monday that they will be playing the Italian club’s youth team on June 12, two days before Juve Jr. face the Timbers. I wonder how often they play two games in three nights in Italy. Probably never, especially two games on fake turf.