—by Lucas Grzybowski

Yeah it was just a training match, yeah the Timbers side was mostly reserves and trialists, and yeah OSU isn't exactly on par with Chicago Fire in terms of quality of opposition. But hey man, this isn't just a hobby, this is a lifestyle. Which is to say I'm obsessed beyond any hope, and have been for years. So a few of us drove down Corvallis way last Saturday for the scrimmage.

Photo by Cap Ap OUT

It was pretty idyllic, standing in that parking lot on the edge of campus, breathing in the clean air of the Willamette Valley (aka "God's Country"). And Yea, a fruitful bounty did emerge from within the trunk of the car.

The Timbers' bus arrived at about 5:40pm for the 6:00 kickoff, and off marched the team, fully kitted out and ready to go. Which made me wonder: did they get dressed on the bus? Did they put on their uniforms in Portland and then ride on a bus for 90 minutes wearing cleats and whatnot?

Anyway we said something like "Hello Timbers we like you a lot!" and giggled like the obsessed fanboys and fangirls we are. Bright Dike was spotted; he didn't appear to be limping but he had a massive boot on his foot.

We then helped the driver parallel park the bus (remember this is a lifestyle, folks).

You won't find much in the way of expert analysis from me in these blogs, but here is my review of the game.

• Darlington Nagbe looks like the business. The kid has got some wheels on him, and his goal was pretty sweet (off a great run up the right from Ryan Pore).

• Our Romanian trialist Constantin Arbănaş looked active in the right back spot, made a bunch of runs forward, but I can't tell how good he is because A) there were plentiful and obvious communication breakdowns with the rest of the team, rendering many of his runs pointless, and B) I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

(More great pics of the match from Allison Andrews of The Timber Mill here.)

• MLS pool keeper Kevin Guppy played between the pipes for us (opposite last year's Timbers U23 backup keeper Steve Spangler, in net for OSU), and he kept a clean sheet.
• Futty started alongside Kevin Goldthwaite in the middle of defense and had multiple strong chances in the air from corner kicks, and one blast from distance that went just wide. I really like Futty and I hope he sees some minutes this season (with the injury to David Horst that looks likely).
• I enjoyed watching Eddie Johnson, Adam Moffat, and Spencer Thompson get some playing time. They seemed hungry and effective, but please keep in mind B) from the second bullet above.

(More great pics of the match from Sarah Alley here.)

• The Timbers might have treated this as a training scrimmage with a meaningless result, but it was obvious the Beavers did not want to lose the game. They were getting stuck in all over the place, and fair play to them for that. The second half was pretty entertaining in part thanks to their hustle.

That's about all I got. If you want actual soccer talk, try this link:

Beavers play well in training game against Timbers [Corvallis Gazette-Times]