—by Chris Rifer

The wind may not blow,
Might not even snow,
But there’s nothin’ like Christmas right here at home.
It may not be white,
Might be a rainy night,
But there’s nothin’ like sharin’ the sounds and the sights,
Of Christmas in the Northwest, is a gift that we can share.
Christmas in the Northwest is a child’s answered prayer.
Take away the presents and they still will have a tree,
For Christmas is the Northwest is a gift God wrapped in green!

If you haven’t heard the Brenda White classic “Christmas in the Northwest” do yourself a favor and spend the $0.99 on iTunes. You can thank me in the comments section.[1]

But seriously, this Christmas in the Northwest has been a gift Merritt wrapped in Timbers green.[2]

Trencito Under the Tree

Just as people were starting to get nervous about another Kerrea Gilbert situation, Trencito arrived. After his Colombian club was knocked out of the playoffs by a second leg home loss, the Timbers announced they had inked a deal with Jose Adolfo Valencia – el Trencito. Yeah, okay, you know.

Trencito is an athletic, physically imposing, technically skilled, but still raw 20 year old Colombian striker. While he’s unlikely to be an instant impact guy, the upside is clearly substantial. A regular on the Colombian U-20 national team, Trencito harbors fairly realistic aspirations of making his way to Europe. The road to Europe leads through the Rose City, however, as the Timbers have locked him up to a long-term contract rumored to be at least 4 years in length.

Valencia is expected to arrive in Portland shortly after the New Year, as just today Trencito tweeted “Travelling. Next stop USA. Everything is in the hands of my God.”

The payoff for the Timbers may not be quite so immediate, however. With a strikeforce that suddenly seems stocked with potential but sparse with results, it is anybody’s guess what the Timbers will do up front next year and whether it will bring any better result.

Darlington Nagbe seems likely headed back to the midfield with Sal Zizzo’s status for the beginning of the season in doubt. Zizzo has a ways to go in recovering from the injured knee he suffered against Houston, and may not be ready for the start of the regular season.

Even with Darlington likely headed back to the wing, the strikeforce has five options in Kenny Cooper, Jorge Perlaza, Trencito, Eddie Johnson, and Bright Dike. At this point, I think Cooper and Perlaza have to be the favorites to lock down the starting spot. While both had disappointing goal totals in 2011, both provide reason for hope in 2012. After suffering through an atrocious summer, Cooper warmed up considerably toward the end of the season, finishing with 4 goals in the Timbers last 7 matches. The hope for Perlaza is maybe a bit more speculative, but time and time again in this league we have seen foreign transfers make a considerable jump in their second season in MLS.

Nonetheless, if Trencito comes in and impresses from the start, there is no reason he can’t break into the team early on. As of right now, nobody in the strikeforce is untouchable. My guess is he starts the season as an occasional substitute and ends as a regular sub who earns himself a couple starts.

Six Matches for the Price of One!

What?! This week the Timbers announced a preseason tournament featuring PTFC, Chivas USA, San Jose, and Swedish powerhouse AIK. While the Allsvenskan isn’t exactly the Premiereship, the partnership makes sense. Like MLS, many of the Nordic leagues run spring to fall because, well, it’s way too cold to pay soccer in Stockholm in December. So a preseason tournament featuring AIK and a couple MLS clubs is a great tune-up for the AIK, the Timbers, and the Army.

For season ticket holders the whole preseason tournament counts as Exhibition A – meaning you can watch six matches, three doubleheaders, for the price of one. The matches are Monday, February 27, Thursday March 1, and Sunday March 4, with the Timbers playing AIK on the final evening at 5:00.  For me it’s as simple as this: I get to watch six soccer matches[3] for $18. Three of those matches feature our beloved PTFC. Two more feature a decent European club most of us probably haven’t had much exposure to before.

Oh, and AIK is nothing to shake a stick at, either. They were eliminated in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League in 2010 and have already qualified for Europa League in 2012-13. Yeah, so they’re not Barcelona, but you’re also not going to get Barca in the U.S. in February.

So while this isn’t exactly the present that gets you running downstairs in your footie jammies on Christmas morning, it beats the heck out of socks.

Stocking Stuffers

I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this out, but as I was walking to get lunch today I stumbled on a delightful piece of parallelism. On November 3, 1995, the Portland Trail Blazers opened the Rose Garden to great local fanfare. On that night, however, they dropped their season opener to a visiting expansion team – the Vancouver Grizzlies. Well, fast forward to October 2, 2011 and the Vancouver Whitecaps were [re]opening B.C. Place to great local fanfare. Unfortunately for them, they too lost their maiden voyage in their new home to an expansion side – the Portland Timbers.[4] What’s that they say about payback?

Rod Wallace broke onto the scoresheet for Costa Rica again on Thursday as he scored the opener in Costa Rica’s 2-0 win over Venezuela. It started with Rod making a nice run down the left-center of the midfield. After receiving the ball, in classic Rodney fashion, he tripped over it a bit, before hitting a pretty nice left-footed strike just inside the near post. His success with Costa Rica just adds to the intrigue of the left back position for the Timbers, as Wallace is stating a convincing case to be the opening day starter.

Oh yeah, and PSG seems really, really serious about paying $18 million for 18 months of David Beckham. It just doesn’t get old.

With that, I bid you a very Happy Holidays.[5]

Onward, Rose City!