Long weekend and disappointing result. One thing I learned is that opposing teams love playing in front of us. Couldn't believe we never bothered singing, "what's it like to see a crowd," to Colorado.

Chris Rifer has another excellent match report up.

Timber Joey made a commercial for Alaskan Airlines. So did John Spencer. I think I have to give the edge to Spenny. What do you think?

Good day to you all.

—by Chris Rifer

Okay, this is starting to get serious. The Timbers again fell on Saturday night, this time in heartbreaking fashion at the end of an entertaining, competitive match.

In many ways on Saturday night, the Timbers played some of the best soccer they have all year. The passing was at times exhilarating and the defense was dominant—at least until second half stoppage. And yet, at the final whistle the result only furthered a three-week stretch without a point.

The match started off in promising fashion for the Timbers. After some very early pressure by Colorado, the Timbers showed some creativity and passing flare that Portland hasn’t seen to date. Flipping Kalif Alhassan and Darlington Nagbe on the wings proved successful, as the combination of Jeremy Hall, Kalif, and Diego Chara had several clinical displays of sharp distribution and creativity. Meanwhile, on the left side Nagbe looked as dangerous as he has all year.

Throughout the match, the Timbers defense looked equally dominant. While Colorado was able to get some shots off—including a fair few on goal— those efforts were largely found from distance. While the Rapids showed some danger from outside the box, Troy Perkins was game.

Portland couldn’t seem to find frame with many of their efforts, however, and even when they did Colorado netminder Matt Pickens was up to the task— stopping dangerous looking efforts off the foot of Darlington Nagbe and the head of Kenny Cooper.

While the first half was played on relatively even terms, the second half seemed to turn decisively in the Timbers favor. While Portland didn’t quite have the passing flare that they showed in the first frame, in the second half the Timbers pinned possession in Colorado’s defending end for extended periods.

Every dangerous moment that came, however, was met with disappointment. Pickens parried Cooper’s pretty bouncing volley just wide. When Jorge Perlaza beat Pickens he couldn’t send a cross in cleanly and Cooper couldn’t turn the ball into the open net. Ryan Pore sent a header tragically wide, and in the waning moments Pore sent the potential miraculous equalizer over the bar.

Disappointment turned into heartbreak in stoppage time. After a soft foul set up a Rapid free kick on the left wing, Jamie Smith sent a ball in that was nodded down. Again, though, Troy Perkins was able to keep the ball out of net. A scrum ensued at the mouth of the goal. Another shot. Another Perkins save. Finally, after David Horst couldn’t clear the ball out of the box, Drew Moor delivered the fatal blow.

Despite a promising effort, the Timbers once again come away from Jeld-Wen Field empty handed. The loss is the Timbers’ third in a row—and puts Portland’s playoff chances firmly on the ropes.

Match Observations

• It was nice to see a good contingent from Colorado come out for the match. It was terrible to see them leave so happy, but they again showed their class in passionately supporting their side and then unfurling a large “Thank You, PDX” banner after the match. Jeff Larentowicz, on the other hand, is no longer welcome in the State of Oregon.
• You know, this season is starting to feel a bit like a game of Whack-A-Mole. Just as the Timbers solve one problem, another pops up. First the Timbers struggle with slow starts. They fix that, but then look shaky to finish matches. Then the defense goes MIA. That gets fixed, but all of a sudden they can’t score in the run of play. Just when that appears to be remedied, but then the Timbers can’t link up more than a pass or two at a time. Portland solves that, but then they can’t hit the target when they do create opportunities. I guess the glass-half-full supporter would see this as a positive—the Timbers still have a halfway decent record and really haven’t hit on all cylinders yet. One problem: How many glass-half-full supporters are out there right now?
• The summer transfer window is approaching, and the Timbers have some decisions to make. They have space on the payroll for another major signing, but the question is where to look to upgrade. The offense seems to need the most help right now, but who do you replace? I have no quarrel with how Jorge Perlaza has acquitted himself—and expect he will only get better as he gets more comfortable. While Cooper has been disappointing at times, he is still relatively young, the Timbers are paying him a lot of money, and Portland already has a bevy of forwards on the roster. Both Kalif Alhassan and Darlington Nagbe are very young, need pitch time, and have shown flashes of brilliance. My guess? I think we look for an outside back—probably on the right side. This is no knock on Jeremy Hall, but I think he fits better with this team as a super sub—a guy the Timbers can bring on either the right or left side of the defense or midfield. That said, how much would the addition of an outside back help this team? I’m really not sure.

Timbers Grades

Troy Perkins, 6.5 The guy is just a stud. His defense played better in front of him on Saturday, but Colorado still found ways to test him. Even on the run up to the goal he made two great saves.

Rodney Wallace, 5 Pretty nondescript outing from Rod. Had a few times when he got forward, and I liked that he fancied himself from distance, but otherwise was pretty quiet. Oh, and the hopeless long ball forward to nobody in particular is officially the Rod Wallace Special.

Futty, 5 Sounds like his shoulder is going to be alright. From the way they were holding his arm on the way off the pitch and the prognosis, it looks like a separation or dislocation. Usually not a big deal, although easy to reinjure.

Eric Brunner, 6 I’m on record as liking Brunner. The difference between the defense on Saturday and the defense against Chivas was, to say the least, substantial. Not a fan of the wispy beard, though.

Jeremy Hall, 5.5 A little bit of standing around on the heartbreaking goal, but when he, Kalif, and Diego got the ball moving on the right side it was downright electric.

Darlington Nagbe, 5.5 I like him on that left side. Right now he’s not a guy that plays off another player on the wing that well, so it makes sense to have him on the left side and Kalif on the right so he can play off of Hall.

Jack Jewsbury, 4.5 Sort of a disappointing night for Captain Jack. Had a mishit or two on set pieces and played with a little more anonymity in the midfield than I would like to see. He does get some credit, though, for an overall solid performance by the Timbers midfield.

Diego Chara, 6 Gets credit for stacking up well with the Larentowicz/Mastroeni combination in the midfield. His passing is outstanding. You can tell there are still just a couple communication and familiarity issues lingering, as there were a couple broken runs, but at this point I’m very pleased with his performance.

Kalif Alhassan, 5.5 After a wretched match against Chivas we saw a little bit of the old Kalif on Saturday. Looked comfortable on that left side, and I continue to like it when he gets cheeky and tries to chip the keeper. It would be nice if he put one on frame, though.

Kenny Cooper, 0.5 His play on the pitch earned him a 5.5. Saw a bit more work ethic out of Cooper than we saw against Chivas and had two great efforts snuffed out by Pickens. Cooper gets deducted 5 points, however, for having dinner with Drew Moor after the match. Old friends be damned. Coop can get his 5 points back if he can prove that he (a) ordered the most expensive thing on the menu; and (b) made Moor pay for it. I’m kidding. Mostly.

Jorge Perlaza, 5.5 See Ryan Pore’s grade for the explanation.

David Horst, 5.5 Had a nice outing in relief of the injured Futty. He may not be a feature central back, but he has proven himself to be a more than capable Robin to Brunner’s Batman. Hold on, Futty is Robin to Brunner’s Batman. Okay, then Horst is Alfred to Futty’s Robin to Brunner’s Batman. Got it?

Sal Zizzo, 5 This substitution was all about not wanting to push Darlington too hard too fast. Eventually the reins are going to come off Baby D. When that happens, it will be interesting to see what happens to Sallie.

Ryan Pore, 4 Okay, so this grade is partly for Pore and partly for John Spencer. Ryan needs to do better with his opportunities. He was served two golden opportunities and failed to put either on frame. Mostly, though, I thought this was a poor substitution. With Perlaza on the field, the Colorado defense had to respect his ability to make his signature runs. This made the Colorado backline sit back a bit more and opened up some space in the midfield for Chara, Kalif, and company to operate. When Pore came on for Perlaza, the midfield became substantially more congested—resulting in a final 10 minutes where the Timbers struggled to make a push for the winner.

Onward, Rose City!

—by Lucas Grzybowski

A week late and a US Open Cup berth short, here's a little video I got from the Timbers U23 vs Kitsap Pumas match last Friday, June 3. Timbers came out rather flat — perhaps more accurately Kitsap came out full-bore — and fell behind 0-2 in the first half.

Kitsap's second goal was, it must be admitted, pretty sweet. Brent Richards-esque, one might say, from former flounder Nik Besagno. Sarah Alley caught the moment in this great photo:

Brent Richards Himself got one back for the U23 early in the second half, but the Timbers were never able to properly defend the set piece all day: all three of Kitsap's goals came following set pieces. Even with a man advantage (which should have been a two-man advantage after Ricky Abrego was taken down in the box by the last defender), Timbers U23 were unable to get over the hump. Miles "Bypass" Byass missed the resulting penalty (and the point-blank rebound, maddeningly), and a late goal from Nick Palodichuk (who had a very nice game) wasn't enough. A 2-3 loss in front of nearly 5,000 fans (a U23 record), and Timbers fail to qualify for the USOC for the third year running. On top of that we now sit nine points behind Kitsap (with one game in hand) for first place in the PDL NW Division.

The next U23 home game is Saturday June 18 at Kiggins Bowl in Vancouver, WA. There's no conflict with the Elder Timbers, and from all reports Kiggins is a fantastic place to take in a game (I've missed the match up there the past two years).

Onward, Rose City!

Match day...

Oh look...another MLS coach is whining about the size of our pitch. A note to Gary Smith: prepare your team properly and don't whine about a FIFA certified pitch.

John Strong has some notes on the game. "That being said, the more crucial test of character Saturday comes, once again, from seeing how well this group can rally back from two straight weeks of disappointing results."

IT'S MATCH DAY!

Good day to you all.

The Colorado Rapids are in town. If you didn't know about the shindig tonight going down at the Bitter End consider this your invitation.

Good news for the Timbers. Omar Cummings isn't going to play. If the Timbers win Gary Smith now automatically has one excuse. After reading that article I think his second will probably be something about the artificial turf.

Former University of Portland player Conor Casey is here with the Rapids. He thinks their championship last season wasn't a fluke. I do.

By special request...one Steven Patrick Morrissey

Good day to you all

The AC Portland project, being led by adidas and the Timbers Army, made its public debut this week.  Sean Moran and Harper Warner spoke about the project on Wednesday evening’s “Strong at Night” show.  Earlier that day, Fernando Machicado and Lucas Grzybowski visited City Hall for a meeting in the Mayor’s office.

This is the first part of a fund-raising effort that will culminate with a breakfast/work party on the morning of July 8.  The Advantage Centers program will initially focus on elementary school students at six locations around the Portland area.  Participating kids will play soccer and receive supplementary lessons in literacy and nutrition, with the goal of giving kids more hours of school and low-key instruction that ultimately lead to higher achievement levels.  As part of this, the program will be developing or improving fields at the schools. 

To raise both money and awareness, we are contacting 50 or more Portland-area business and civic leaders, seeking their participation and support.   We are asking that they join the Timbers Army as partners and even members for a day, if they so desire. 

We’re also looking for other TA/107ists to help out by taking part in the invitation tours.  We’ve been very well received at the offices we’ve visited.

We want to show the colors, so the sartorial emphasis is on game-day attire, as much as possible.  Scarves, props welcome.   

HERE IS THE TENTATIVE SCHEDULE for next week.  Additionally, we are still working toward a City Council presentation (a TBD Wednesday morning) and a Multnomah County Commission presentation, which is likely to be on Thursday, June 16.  If you’d like to take part in our recruiting, contact Roger.Anthony@107ist.org.

TUESDAY:   8 a.m.-1 p.m.  – Downtown stops at Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Business Journal,  Stoel Rives, Standard Insurance and others. 

WEDNESDAY:  8 a.m.-1 p.m. – Eastside stops at Comcast, Pacific Power, Fred Meyer and possibly Luis Palau ministries.

THURSDAY:  9 a.m.-1 p.m. – Multnomah County Commission meeting at 9:30.   Also aiming for ODS, PGE, and NW Natural. 

OTHER DATES to keep in mind:

Groundbreaking Breakfast at St. John’s Pub/James John Elementary - July 8

Volunteer work crew days:  July 23, 28/29/30.

First off I have to apologize for the lack of a Monday posting. I suck. Actually I had something come up last minute and rather than posting a round up late at night I opted to just do a big one today. Don't like it? I've had worse thought about me I'm sure.

Explore the new weekly completely arbitrarily come up with MLS power rankings. I lvoe those things.

Rachel Bachman has a really great article up about the Timbers efforts to market to the latino population. IMHO it's a little overdue but I'm glad they're doing it. Also the comments section is filled with imbeciles.

A bunch of teams came in here and lost so their coaches complained about the size of our pitch rather than their own failures. If Seattle comes in here and loses I'm willing to bet $5.00 Sigi uses that as an excuse. I hope it's raining that day too so he can use that excuse again.

The USMNT has a Gold Cup match tonight against the evil Canadians. Oh who am I kidding. Canadians are so nice and polite that they're impossible to hate!

Good day to you all.

—by Lucas Grzybowski

I woke up with this in my head this morning, not having heard it in years (whenever I last visited the Charleston Battery website, where this addictive little ditty would play on a loop), and now, apropos of absolutely nothing, I'm giving it to you.

Battery song.mp3

A little about the Battery:

They are currently in the third division, having self-relegated from D2 when it all started to go south for second division soccer in the States (i.e., 2010, or as I like to call it, the United States Soccer Federation Division Two Professional League Era; rolls right off the tongue, that).

They play in a lovely little soccer park called Blackbaud Stadium, which I unfortunately never visited during the time they competed in the same division as the Timbers. There's a soccer pub attached to the stadium that is apparently a must-visit, so if the Timbers ever find themselves playing in Charleston for a US Open Cup match or anything, maybe I'll make it out.

Battery's all-time leading scorer is Paul Conway, son of former Timbers player (NASL) and coach (NASL/USL) Jimmy Conway. Paul grew up in Portland, and began his career with FC Portland, playing with them for one season (1989) alongside Scott Benedetti, John Bain and Kasey Keller; he also played for Carlisle United in northern England. After scoring 91 goals in seven seasons with the Battery (still by far the club record), the younger Conway returned to Portland and finished his career with one season in Timbers Green (2005: he was slow and old and scored one goal in 13 appearances, and was a real nice guy the couple times I met him).

Timbers legend Byron Alvarez played one season for Charleston after leaving Portland following the dark times of 2006. When the Battery played here that year it was almost physically painful to see El Matador on the Piggy pitch dressed in another team's kit (but at least he didn't go play for *that team*, unlike another former Timbers great).

They had/have good supporters, some of whom would make it out to Portland each year, and from what I gather they're very welcoming to visiting fans, inviting them to their excellent pub for pre- and post-game quaffs.

Despite all of the above, when I think about the Battery, I think about that song. Enjoy the earworm!

—by Chris Rifer

So here we are, at the first true turning point of the inaugural MLS season. Sure, there have been ups and downs before this week, but this feels like the first time this season there has been legitimate concern about an extended slide.

The first five minutes on Saturday started encouragingly. Portland controlled possession and showed some early promise going toward goal. Unfortunately, for the first half, that was about it.

Possession remained fairly even through the first stanza—with neither team doing a fantastic job of stringing passes together. Chivas USA, however, looked by far the more dangerous team going forward—three times forcing Troy Perkins into serious action. Chivas repeatedly asked questions of Portland’s Brunner-less defense, and nobody but Perkins seemed to have any answers.

The Timbers best chance came in the 19^th minute from a Jack Jewsbury set piece from 30 yards out on the right wing. David Horst was able to get a head to the ball, but it was deflected away by a flailing—and perhaps a bit lucky—an Kennedy.

The Timbers started to apply a bit more pressure on the Chivas defense in the second half. Through the first twenty minutes, Portland controlled much of the possession and largely played in their attacking half. The Timbers couldn’t reap the benefits of their possession, however, as shoddy service thwarted Portland’s attack time and again.

Finally, in the 70^th minute, Chivas broke what looked more and more like a stalemate, as Paulo Nagamura sent a bending cross in past a disorganized Timbers defense for Marcos Mondaini, who easily tapped it home. The Timbers lack of shape and miserable marking were all the more embarrassing considering the run up to the play consisted of Chivas meekly passing the ball around their own half, then jogging into their own half past a shocked-looking Portland defense.

Portland’s search for an equalizer was largely in vain, as two Jack Jewsbury shots from distance were the best the Timbers could muster, forcing Rose City to limp out of The Home Depot Center for the second time in this young season.

Match Observations

• After a heartbreaking loss to D.C. United and a reported good week of practice, this effort was a little bit shocking to me. The Timbers seemed listless and at times even a little disinterested. The backline was disorganized all day, the midfield looked overwhelmed, and the strikeforce looked like they were on an island and didn’t care much to get off.
• Eric Brunner might just be the most important player to this team. Saturday it was clear how much he was missed. The guy is the anchor of the Timbers defense, and without him the backline looked completely adrift. There were some nice individual plays, but the shape was awful and the marking was nonexistent. If you can stomach it, go back and watch the Chivas goal. Here is what the shape pretty much looked like: Rod Wallace at striker, Futty playing left wing, Jack Jewsbury at left back, David Horst and Jeremy Hall and center back, and Sal Zizzo at right back. Other than Jewsbury applying some pressure to Nagamura, everybody else that was involved wasn’t marking anybody. Point is, if you have a spare moment today, take Brunner some orange juice and chicken soup.
• Okay, so there is no such thing as a must-win in early June, and anybody who says otherwise is either exaggerating or dumb, but Saturday’s game against the Rapids is definitely more important than your run of the mill regular season match. Portland is coming off of two losses against teams that, frankly, they are better than. A loss on Saturday and the Timbers would be staring a long losing streak right in the face, with fixtures against New York and FC Dallas coming down the pipe. In the grand scheme, dropping two in a row isn’t a big deal, but going five in a row with little to speak of in the way of points would be devastating to the Timbers’ playoff hopes.

Timbers Grades

Troy Perkins, 7 The best performance Portland has had from a keeper this year. This match could have easily been 1- or 2-nil at half but for Perkins’ heroics. By far the man of the match.

Rod Wallace, 4.5 The Chivas offense was going up his side much of the night, but probably not because of him. Defensive mistakes in the midfield meant Rod had to play a lot of defense a long way from goal with acres of room behind him. That’s a tough spot for an outside back, so Rod doesn’t get all the blame here, but he also didn’t exactly handle it brilliantly.

Futty, 4 Again, had to scramble for much of the night, often forced to play out on the left wing because of Rod being pulled upfield. Still, he was the guy that the defense was looking to provide some leadership in the absence of Brunner. Made some nice individual plays, but as the leader of the defense, a couple nice plays isn’t enough to warrant a positive grade.

David Horst, 4.5 Also had a few nice individual plays, but is also partially culpable for the disorganization of the backline. Made a couple more plays than Futty, and also doesn’t bear as much of the cross for the failure of leadership.

Jeremy Hall, 4.5 Remember last week when we talked about Jeremy’s propensity to disappear on the pitch for periods? About that…

Kalif Alhassan, 4 I really like the guy, but he played really poorly. Didn’t do a whole lot offensively in the midfield and was brutalized defensively a number of times.

Diego Chara, 5 Created as much offense as anybody in the midfield, and wasn’t bad defensively, but he and Jewsbury didn’t do nearly as good a job controlling the game in the center of the pitch as they have the last few weeks.

Jack Jewsbury, 5 Had a couple nice strikes at goal, and was maybe even a bit unlucky that one didn’t find net, but doesn’t get much of a reward due to the inability to establish much control over the match.

Sal Zizzo, 4.5 Could never establish himself a good position, partially because he was being flipped every 25 minutes and partially because he was pinned in defense for extended periods.

Jorge Perlaza, 5.5 Perlaza was really the only guy that brought much in the way of urgency to the match. His final ball betrayed him a few times, but at least he was getting himself in a position to send a final ball in.

Kenny Cooper, 4 Holy overcompensation, Batman! Last week he was all ants in the pants in netting 4 offside calls. This week he was barely on the pitch. Remember when this guy used to work his butt off to get the ball at his feet – even if that meant tracking back into the midfield? He drew fouls, created opportunities, and even scored a few goals. Coop needs to get back to those days.

Darlington Nagbe, 6 I thought this was actually one of Darlington’s better outings. He brought a dimension on the ball that had been sorely lacking earlier in the game, showed a desire to go at goal, and successfully created a few chances.

Eddie Johnson, 5 Had a couple nice moments, but ultimately didn’t make much of a difference. Was much more active than Cooper, though, which is as much as anything a sign of how big a funk KFC is in right now.

James Marcelin, 5 Sort of a weird substitution, but in Spenny’s defense, there really weren’t any good options.

Onward, Rose City!

Looks like we're finally going to get a break from our current trend of rain, wind, rain, cold, rain. I can just imagine the swarms of hipsters already planning on descending to Colonel Summers Park.

I remember when my coaches stepped up the practice intensity. It usually involved being long, painful, and a lot of sweat.

If you didn't already know. The Timbers are still looking for their first road win and hoping to pull it off in Los Angeles against Chivas. USA not Guadalajara.

John Spencer doesn't mind that we've been called offsides more times than any other team in MLS but one. I don't mind much either.

They announced Game C today that is included in your season tickets package. Take your time to educate yourselves about Independiente and their storied history.

Good day to you all