Well 48 hours and 4 flights later and I'm back in SLC. First ever away game and I'm so glad we chose Portland. Being around so many soccer enthusiasts was just a welcome change from Utah. No offense to Utah but I think 1 of every 4 person we came across saw our RSL gear and just wanted to chat with us about soccer, Timbers, RSL, MLS, etc... One guy was staying at our hotel was from Oregon. He lives on the coast but he still goes to the games and stays in a hotel. We talked with him about the game, he was hoping Rimando wouldn't start. We assured him he would. Ha ha! Had a great pregame dinner at Elephant's Delicatessen (thanks @UPinSLC ) and headed to Providence Park. We got there about an hour and thirty minutes before kickoff and the majority of the Timber's Army was already there. The atmosphere there was amazing, when that stadium joins together in a chant it was hard not to get those chills that I've only experienced a handful of times at the Riot. It's a shame we didn't get a goal because the away section was packed with RSL fans and would've erupted. Still, we got to witness the divine works of Nick Rimando. More than once during the game I thought to myself "oh crap, Portland just scored" only to have Nick blow my mind with another inhuman save. The frustration of the Portland fans with not being able to put the ball past him was palpable. The only damper on the evening was that there were some altercations between two groups of fans that escalated to the point that the event staff/police had to kick some people out. M. Night Shyamalan plot twist: all fans involved were RSL fans Even after the game, as we walked back to our hotel, we had multiple Timbers fans either on the street or from their cars tell us "good game". Awesome experience overall, I wish we could have stayed in Portland for longer. Hopefully we can make this a yearly thing!
Hindsight is 20/20, my friend. You can't possibly sit back and point fingers laughing to yourself, it's easy to say that "oh we should have just thrown everything into going for 3 points" when we were getting absolutely overrun in the game. The chances of us getting all 3 points after making a sub like Vela we re significantly lower than getting 0 points. You can tout the "0 vs 1 point is meaningless" now that Dallas has played, but at the time 1 point at least in that game was big.
Anyone could have looked at the schedule and thought, "Hmm Dallas is only two points behind us playing the absolute worst team in the league." It's less of a, "see, see! Dallas is now ahead so we should have gone for the win," and more of a, "Well what did you expect?" Sometimes you just have to go big or go home. RSL did neither and now the play in game is nothing all, but ours.
I felt it was a good game. Real wanted to win it just didn't happen ... Portland also wanted to win and it just didn't happen. Both teams go on and try to obtain what they want. Real to come in third and Portland to get to to the Playoffs...
Right, because everyone knows that when you play the absolute worst team in the league it's basically a sure thing that you're going to win it. RSL knows that all too well.
15 Thoughts Nick Rimando is God Did I watch the same game as some of you? RSL was living on the absolute edge with the defense it had in. You throw Vela out there and we're really testing the brilliance of Rimando. Give credit where credit is due - Portland was the better team on the night. We just had a keeper standing on his head to keep the scores at 0. Not starting Mulholland was weird. Not having him in the 18 was inexcusable. Something had to have happened this week at training. Illness? Injury? Told Cassar he looks like a freak with his head shaved? I dunno. But to not even be in the 18 screams something is up. Outside the clearance into our own player that lead to the Nagbe breakaway, Salcedo played a hell of a game. He doesn't have the presence of Schuler (does anyone) but his composure on the ball kept us in this game a lot. I was impressed with the kid. I'm really excited to see a duo of him and Schuler. Playing on turf really kills this teams style of play. When you water it, we might as well just kick the ball t the goal every time we get it. We could not complete a pass to save our lives. I think you could count on one hand the amount of times RSL had a passing sequence greater than 5 passes on our offensive side of the field. Findley needs to go. It just isn't working. If he had a salary in the Plata range I would say give him time, but the dude is holding up way to damn much cash that we could use on some midfield depth/starters. The Jaime project, for 2014 at least, also needs to go. The guy isn't clicking and the team actually seems to play worse with him on the field as there is an obvious hole in the system. If Cassar has the juevos, he'd leave Jaime out of the 18. He certainly doesn't deserve to be in it, IMO. Nick Rimando is still God. Javier played one of his worst games this season. His touch was off. His decision making was much too slow. and his set piece service? God awful. Hopefully it was just a bad game and not a sign of things to come. Our offense was already inept enough with the forward duo, add in a poor Javi and we were doomed. I was actually quite pleased with the draw. Yeah, it's always nice to get 3 points, but you have to be realistic. We held a team that was throwing the kitchen sink at us to a 0. That is impressive. We had almost no offense to show for it - which actually wasn't as much connected as you would think - but that is the nature of the beast. If you think Vela would have changed the game you haven't watched us play this year. This game was the worst possible situation for Vela. We needed someone with speed, good tackling, and very good decision making. Vela is none of those thing. The game required someone to help alleviate the defense from the bombardment it was under. Ideally, yeah, an offensive sub would do this. But Vela doesn't have the defensive qualities to make the offensive ones matter. I've been hyper critical of him but it needs to be said - the improvement of the defense has come exactly with the return of Tony Beltran. He isn't tremendous on the offensive end, but defensively he is quite sound. When he is on his game, he is one of the better defensive outside backs in the league. Props to Tony. Wingert is a perplexing player. One moment you are applauding his awareness and defensive acumen, the next you are wondering how this guy is playing as a professional with his passing ability. He's just like Beltran and I think that is one of the most frustrating parts of our team. We rely on wing backs to give us width yet lack any offensive threat out there. I'm beating a dead horse here, but we really need an offensive outside back. Just one, please. I'm not overly hopeful on this team doing anything in the post season, but it must be said that this game had all the feeling of a post season game. We held strong defensively but were incredibly inept offensively. Maybe, just maybe, the goals can come in the next game but I have my doubts. Still, it was very encouraging to keep a clean sheet in that kind of environment. I read some reports on twitter from fans that made the trip that the 100 Lions Club was at this game. Not sure on the full details, but it sounds like RSL FO had the whole group of them flown out and at the game. Which is great except that apparently those fans demanded they have "their seats". I've been to Portland a few times - the away section (like most away sections) is treated as GA. You get there early, you pick your seat. This was apparently the point of discussion that lead to some fans (read not 100 Lion Club Members) being told to move or leave.
The 100 Lions Club thing sucked. It didn't help that there were some unconsolable drunk fans who started to berate the 100 Lions Club for being there and not chanting. It wasn't the 100 Lions that were at fault. They did what they normally do. They were civil and followed the rules. This was just a bad idea from the FO. RSLFO screwed up big time. Hopefully, they learn from this. Communication could have been much better. Furthermore, the 100 Lions don't need to sit in the away section. Traveling CHEERING fans needs to sit together. If they want to have a suite or conference room that the 100 Lions can visit before, during, and after the game, GREAT. To ass out the fans who want to cheer together, that's messed up!
You would think they would get better tickets for the 100 Lions Club. Those seats, as @UPinSLC said are terrible in terms of view.
I don't know if you've heard, but Portland has a wait list for season tickets. They don't even release more tickets for SEA or VAN when they come to play. The Lion's Club could have purchased their tickets on stubhub just like all of us poor people had to. However, they could more likely afford the x2 markup.
The away seats in Providence Park are among the worst I've ever sat in for a professional event, they really are that bad. Obstructed views are common and the field viewing angles are really really bad, you basically can barely tell what the hell is happening on the opposite side of the field (the north side with the Timbers Army). The Timbers do release tickets prior to games, it's usually not many and they are almost ALWAYS crappy obstructed view seats (mostly in the north end near the Timbers Army, directly adjacent to the suites tower, or on the opposite side of that near the field elevator). The only other seats that get released are whatever allotment of away tickets that don't get used. There is basically zero guarantee (or even chance) that the Lions Club people could buy tickets on the secondary market and be in one group, not that that is a bad thing. I think it's poor form from the RSLFO to pull such a move on fans. Not much you can do, though, RSL makes so much money off those Lions Club people that a few upset peons don't mean much. What I used to do was buy a Timbers Army ticket (they aren't hard to get, they have a facebook ticket exchange group and the prices are forced to be face value), sit in the TA for the first half of the games and take a good ribbing from TA fans, then in the second half go sit with the RSL fans when RSL attacked the south end and you had a decent view of that.
This is what I'm talking about, sitting in the away section with obstructed views: SteeleGoalCelebration by PdXBenedetti, on Flickr
At the final last year we could see the middle of the box or the goal, but not both (we were several sections to the left of the main RSL section). Not as bad as being at old Comiskey Park in Chicago; there you chose seeing home plate or the pitcher's mound - there was no leaning over to see around the pillars, which was sort of possible in our seats in Portland.
Up we have sucked for the past month, we knew going into this match tha Dallas was a point back and a point would not help much. Not much hindsight needed. What was needed and is needed is to create some offensive spark on this team. With Sabo rusty, Jaime lost, Findley worthless. This team is in need of some creativity going forward and Vela has shown a ability to bring to the attack something Gil, Mollholland, Grabavoy have not been able to bring. So hell yes I will risk some defense to get some points. What I liked in the Sacramento match and the San Jose match was how Vela forced the attack with the ball at his feet. In those matches RSL when in possesion went forward not back and side to side.
You mean the games when Vela was at the tip of the diamond and had very little defensive responsibility? We were already getting overran by Portland, so putting Vela in would've just meant we have less of the ball, because he's not going to be winning it back for us. Gil also looks pretty good at the tip of the diamond. Honestly what we were missing was Mulholland. Why he wasn't in the 18 I'll never understand. Mulholland is better defensively compared to Gil and Vela, while providing pretty good offense on top of it. Mulholland has had 6 goals and 7 assists as a first year player with us. There's a reason why Gil and Vela aren't getting minutes.