i dont think we've had this kind of thread so, ya. been watching the timbers over the last couple days at the cascadia summit.....yikes. its going to be a season a la RSL 2005 for them. freaking UGLY ass soccer, completely disjointed, no flow in any direction, horrible passing, boot the ball up the field and hope for something to happen. their undefeated preseason record is completely misleading, just like DC United last season. its going to be fun going to games this year at PGE, the atmosphere will be incredible and it will be like a party. but damn the soccer is going to be unwatchable, especially on a tiny turf field like PGE has. the timbers are lucky to have a hardcore dedicated fanbase which has been sustained through both good and bad years before. as for seattle and vancouver, seattle might be ok but they pretty average yesterday. kasey keller looks like he has really lost a step. vancouver is going to be worse than portland.
Its hard to judge them. Is Seattle really bad or was Portland exceptional on Friday? Will be an interesting first for all 3 together. Its great for the fans. But I agree that the massive fan-focus I have seen in the media might unravel a bit if all 3 teams do sub-par, especially in the strong Western Conference.
well i can tell you that portland was most definitely NOT exceptional, they played some ugly ass soccer and got a couple scrappy goals. seattle could not take advantage of several opportunities they had on goal. seattle dominated possession, while portland was content to just boot the ball up the field. i dont think there will be any problems promoting the games, they've always been intense even when the sounders, timbers and cap were all terrible before. its just the nature of this PacNW rivalry, its just like Utah vs BYU, intense feelings bordering on sheer hate of each other. especially portland and seattle, the to cities fight over everything. the impressions that i've gotten from these cascadia summit matches is that seattle is just trying to figure things out, portland looks EXACTLY how RSL did in 2005-06 and vancouver is a mystery. portland apparently has a 7 figure offer on the table for an international player, word on the street is Marcos Flores from the A-league. in all honesty i think its the wrong direction for the timbers to head in. the team needs to build to its identity, especially the cities identity. things around here are really grassroots and things tend to go very very wrong when people try to hit home runs (shit, look at the blazers, who have blown two #1 picks in epic fashion and seemingly every "star" they get ends up injured). in my honest opinion the team should have looked at RSL and copied EVERY SINGLE THING about them. RSL, from the FO to the team and its players, fits the identity of Portland so well, the team is the star and everyone is committed to its excellence. instead they've tried to copy Seattle and jump into the DP area and hit a home run with everything. hopefully things come together for the team and they dont experience RSL type epic failure in their first year. there is a bit of irony in two teams coming into the league together (portland/vancouver, RSL/CUSA) and the striking similarities in playing styles that i've noticed so far.
Just to clarify: They should copy RSL post the coming of Kreis (as coach), not prior to that. You said they look like RSL 05-06, wouldnt that imply that they are in fact copying us
ahh, yes, touche. i do mean RSL post 2008ish where they finally got their shit together. the timbers are looking just like RSL circa 2005-06ish. we'll see if they can get their ish together and form a half way decent team. sounds like they've got a couple guys that might be coming in the shore things up a bit.
maybe they feel we are so good now because of how shitty we once were... Ellinger as coach would convince me of that "route"
Kansas City donates naming rights to Lance Armstrong's Livestrong Foundation After our months of debate (months ago) on the Rio Tinto name I thought this thread could use a post on KC's new move. Personally I think it is a good move on their part and if nothing else it'll bring the team great publicity. It is a shrewd way of aligning the team with a very well-known brand. I should be making the drive south sometime the end of this year to check the place out. (I'll also be at my first game in the RioT this summer - the Seattle game)
I get the PR move, but what a colossal waste of a great revenue stream. Hopefully these OnGoal guys (KC owners) know what they are doing and have lots of money just sitting around in piles.
do you get a free bracelet if you go to a KC game, then? Also, will all the KC players chop off a ball to be more aerodynamic, like Lance? lastly, can I be the guy who cuts Omar ********ing Bravo's nuts off (if he has any)
Vancouver's uhhh.....creative way of advertising their jersey and upcoming season: (perhaps NSFW, no nudity but little is left to the imagination at the very end, otherwise just close ups of paint being applied to indiscernible body parts) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEKhV5c0MAE&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - Whitecaps Kit Model - Day 10 - Whitecaps kit model[/ame] i like, and i want to see the rest....
More importantly, will you get free Human Growth Hormone, EPO, and a good masking agent? How about a home blood transfusion kit?
I fully endorse this style of advertising. RSL should, though they never would, look into something like this.
This was brought up on KALL 700 this week during Garth's weekly interview. Garth commented that the owner's of KC are part of a medical company, so the Livestrong endorsement could've stemmed from that. They also said a % of ticket sales will be donated to the foundation. I think it's a noble move, but how will affect the bottom line? The Don has said very few teams to date have had a profitable year, and I doubt KC was one of them. I wonder how long it is before they drop the Livestrong and get a sponsor that pays them.
Depends on how the tax benefits of the donations are figured, and the profitability of the entire company (beyond the soccer team). If this makes it so the entire company can pay less taxes, and get great publicity and community support, it can be a huge win. Barcelona didn't donate their jersey sponsorship to Unicef by accident.
probably not the best comparison as they are now having to consider a quatari company to go on the kit...
In court. But outside of court, we are free to make any judgments or jump to any conclusions we want. As an avid cyclist, I really hope Lance is clean. But I suspect he's dirty. Either way though, he's still the greatest cyclist ever.
I wont claim to be an avid cyclist or know my stuff, but from the people I have talked to (who are avid cyclists) and read, this isnt just a Lance thing. Much like baseball, cycling is filled with many "top athletes" abusing the power of drugs and always finding a way to be at least one step ahead. Makes you happy that soccer, at least not to my knowledge, has gone this far off the deep end.
i have a number of cyclist enthusiast friends (as would be natural living the in the bicycle capital of the US, Portland) and they all agree that cycling right now is an incredibly dirty sport, perhaps even worse than baseball. the US had their sacrificial lamb in landis, hoping to take the heat off for a while. landis of course spoke out, but by that time his reputation was shot to hell (just as US cycle was hoping for) and people who dont know cycling didnt believe/care, while those in cycling just sort of hoped he'd go away. this is a topic for another thread, but yes cycling is very very dirty.
I would be highly surprised if PED's weren't fairly rampant in soccer. I don't think things like HGH would be big in soccer because it's not about adding bulk (hence you won't see the obvious physical signs like you do in baseball, like Barry Bonds' neck doubling in diameter through the course of his career). But soccer should be a magnet for blood doping and EPO, thanks to all the running and a lack of subs.