Pre-Season Scrimmage vs Ventura 2/4/11

Discussion in 'Portland Timbers' started by SheffWedFan, Feb 5, 2011.

  1. SheffWedFan

    SheffWedFan Member

    Dec 23, 2005
    Thousand Oaks, CA
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Hi Timbers Fans!

    I was at this game tonight and thought you might like a quick recap of what happened:

    Cold night in Ventura (high 30s temperature), maybe 200-300 spectators, on the FieldTurf at Ventura College

    Portland started out with a 3-5-2. The starting XI was Perkins in goal; Brunner, Purdy and Barengrub at the back; Pore, Alhassan, Marcelin, Hall and Josh Cameron in the middle; Dike and Brian Umony up front. They played in their training kits (so no first look at the nice new green shirts). It was to be expected that they would be a little rusty, but for the first 10 mins Portland were awful - they couldn't string 5 passes together and their positioning was all over the place.

    Ventura scored after 26 mins, one of their triallists (I forget his name) ran in from the right hand corner of the penalty area and tried to hit a low cross towards the back post; Perkins came out to collect it but Barengrub stuck out his leg out to block the cross and deflected it back to where Perkins had been standing and it went in the net - they gave the goal to the Ventura player but it was an OG really.

    Dike took a knock half way through the first half so Nagbe came on to replace him. Marcelin also took a huge whack from Ventura midfielder Guerrero, a shoulder to the chin which laid him out flat for a couple of minutes. There were a few shots on goal from Portland, Brian Umony looked especially dangerous, and he hit a vicious 25-yard drive which the Fusion keeper Hill did well to save.

    To be honest the teams were quite evenly matched in the first half - Timbers were clearly a better technical side in terms of first touches and ball control, but Fusion had more of the play and had a couple of chances to go 2-0 ahead. Spencer didn't look very happy going in at half time.

    To start the second half Spencer brought on Jake Gleeson in place of Perkins, and also brought on Peter Lowry, Quavas Kirk, Rodrigo Lopez, Robby Lynch and Jorge Perlaza (there were some others too but I didn't spot who they were).

    Timbers scored 2 mins into the second half - a 6-or-7 pass move resulted in Perlaza having possession on the right wing; he did a lovely jinking run past the Fusion left back and floated a cross which Nagbe nodded into the far corner.

    Not much action in the second half after that - it was more a "getting to know you" exercise. Peter Lowry got booked for flattening Fusion striker Jack Avesyan, Rodrigo Lopez looked really lively and had some lovely flicks and things. Quavas Kirk left the game after about 70 mins holding his hamstring.

    Didn't see anything of Eddie Johnson or Kenny Cooper.

    I think once it all comes together you should be fine, but you looked REALLY sloppy in places tonight.

    Finished 1-1.
     
  2. R.C.T.I.D.

    R.C.T.I.D. New Member

    Jul 22, 2010
    Portland, Oregon
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would expect them to be pretty sloppy after only really playing the actual game of soccer together for 4-5 days with quite a few trialists at that, but thanks for the recap. Also, Cooper and Gilbert have not arrived in the US yet and it wasn't Umony with that long range strike but Kalif Alhassan.
     
  3. Baracuda

    Baracuda Member

    Feb 17, 2002
    Portland Oregon
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thank you for the recap!
     
  4. evangel

    evangel Member+

    Apr 12, 2007
  5. SheffWedFan

    SheffWedFan Member

    Dec 23, 2005
    Thousand Oaks, CA
    Club:
    Sheffield Wednesday FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    Oh, man, that's awful for Dike. He didn't seem to be hobbling too much when he came off, but he was all alone when it happened. I figured he'd just twisted his ankle or something.
     

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