Pre-match: Crew vs Portland Timbers (MLS 03/25 07:30 PM)

Portland will be missing Nagbe and Guzman due to international duty. I'd guess Zemanski will start for Guzman, and either Asprilla or Mattocks for Nagbe.

I don't think we'll be missing anybody.

 

Raitala will be gone for Finland. Interesting if Francis is not healthy and Jiminez. who starts out left ? Also depends what formation we go with

 

The formation we used tonight seemed successful,I would think we would give it another run out!

 

If Raitala or whatever the Finns name is is gone for international duty and Francis is still out injured, I would give Finlay a run at left wingback in a 3-4-3. He has the pace and endurance for the role and he can get to the end line, get the ball on his right, and chip in crosses in that position.

 

f portland

 

The way Portland has opened the season, this could be a big falling back to earth type game. Portland has 10 goals from 3 games. They put four past Houston this week. This could get ugly.

That said, if we even get a point here we could set ourselves up for a decent start to the season. I mentioned elsewhere how in our first 6 games of the season we played only one 2016 playoff team (DC United). I was thinking that getting 10-12 points out of that was an acceptable haul before the schedule got tougher. Some had the bar as low as 8-10.

4 points from our first 3 games isn't bad. Before the season I would have thought we beat Chicago at home, draw Houston and lose to DC on the road. Beating DC on the road puts us in a good position here. After Portland we have Orlando at home and Chicago on the road. 11-12 points looks unreachable. But even a point versus Portland would go a long way.

Also, Caleb Porter is an asshole.

******** it. Win by 2.

 

But this is MLS so that's the perfect formula for a team to come out flat.

Valeri has been incredible this season, and they have the depth to replace Nagbe on the wing. While whoever replaces Guzman won't cover nearly as much ground as he does, Chara is still back there to fly around, cover for Valeri, and cut out our counter-attacking play if we're slow over the middle (*cough*Pipa*cough*). .

Porter has had Gregg's number since he came to MLS. We drew 3-3 in 2014 despite being up a player for 2/3 of the game. Porter beat Gregg 2-1 each of the last 3 meetings (in Columbus twice, in Portland once). While I hate to say a point is a good result at home, I'd take a point from this game right now. If we come out with 3 center backs like we did last week and give Porter a look he hasn't seen from us before, we might be able to buck the trend.

 

Crewster point standings after Week 3:

EAST

Toronto 5
NYRB 3
Chicago 1
Columbus 1
New England 0
Orlando 0
Atlanta 0
Philadelphia -1
Montreal -1
NYC-2
DC -5



WEST
Dallas 4
Portland 3
Seattle 1
San Jose 0
Houston 0
Kansas City -1
Colorado -2
Minnesota -2
Los Angeles -3
Salt Lake -5
Vancouver -5

 

I wouldn't mind seeing Jimenez there. Several times during the game Raitala stopped short on attacking runs as if he was allergic to the 18. For as much grief as we give Hector, he knows how to make those runs and at the same time is a bit more defensive minded than Findlay. And Francis is so one-footed that he is easy to defend when attacking the goal.

 

If we win do we get a German national team player too?

 

He has not been healthy nor has Francis. So who is healthy will have a lot to do with it. Then it depends what formation we go with. Any outsidemid or outside back is a possibility at this point.

 

We only get +1 Ambition point.
If only we could get the +1 Win the Stands point, we would have a chance.

But we will probably get a -1 Timber's Own Mapfre Stadium points.

 

I'm worried that we won't get any PK's this week.

 

With Chara all penalties are possible.

 

I get Free beer for this game, win by 6

 

Results oriented, I like it.

 

I have tickets in section 124, row 2, seats 11 & 12 for $22 apiece if anyone is interested. The seats are very near the Crew bench. We could meet at the Crew Union tent to do the exchange.

 

All we need to do is hold them off for 30 seconds and the Crew front office can show how much we've improved.

 

We need a win but a draw is ok. We just can't loose to these guys again

 

We need a win.

A draw is ok even though we need a win

Loose

 

I hate it when my wife is loose to these guys.

 

I guess many away goals have been scored