If the team is serious about a second-half surge up the table, then this is a massively important game. The Timbers sit fourth in the Western Conference, also having played 20 games but with seven more points than us. We'll get to see how Camp Petke prepared us for the rest of the season.
I expect a competitive loss. It'll be interesting to see how Petke handles the United game compared to this one.
Any word of this game remains buried on RSL.com. It's all ManU, all the time so far. Perhaps I am alone in this, but I am much more interested in the league game than the friendly, until after the league game is done. Maybe a 2/3 to 1/3 balance instead of 0 to 100% in terms of coverage.
There is a lot of irony in the website being all United game because I feel like there hasn't been too much promotion of the game outside a few billboards. I've been out of town the last week so maybe I missed the uptick, but it's seemed really quiet outside of that.
There have been a few pieces in the Trib about the game, and I've seen a few ads here and there, but you're right, we haven't exactly been hit over the head with promotion. I'm surprised how many tickets are still available for the game, all over the RioT. I can understand Sec. 14 being mostly vacant, but there are still a bunch of spendy seats on the west side available. Maybe $850 per scared some folks off.
I was told that previews only come the day of the game, so it is apparently normal to have no mention of the Portland game anywhere. Or I used the wrong word, and they took me literally.
For those who follow such things, losing to Portland will put RSL in the Toast category, which is defined as needing to average 2.00 PPG or more the rest of the season to reach the playoffs. Since people on MLS N&A began tracking this statistic, no toasted team has made the playoffs.
My mom texted me last week to ask about it. I'd say the marketing reached the masses based on that alone.
The XI for this game better be the same as the first XI last night. Don't mess with that squad right now. Rimando Tony Glad Horst Phillips Sunny KB Sava Rusnak Plata Silva Bench: Lalo, Acosta, MSilva, Luke, Brooks, Hernandez, Yura? Just realized that Lalo played 60 minutes yesterday. Is VanO hurt? And no idea who to put in the last spot of the 18 with the Yura "injury"
I don't know this for a fact, but rumors abound that MVO is on his way back to the NASL. Possibly back to Edmonton. I think Petke sees Lalo as our #2 for the time being, but don't be surprised if Connor Sparrow from Monarchs starts to enter the picture next season.
Sparrow has looked pretty good for the Monarchs, it will be interesting to see the competition between him and Lalo.
Yeah. So's Yura... Whether fair or not, MVO seems to be personally taking the brunt of those bad Texas losses. Not sure his MLS career can survive that.
While I'm still not a fan of seeing Silva as the CF, it's slowly growing on me. He's starting to integrate more and did look good against Manchester United, which is a plus. I hope this positive look continues.
he's decent at the position, but sooooo insanely slow. It's sad to watch the quick interplay of the three young guys behind him get halted when he gets involved. To his credit, he tries to play quick to compensate for it, but he's never going to be able to drop in for a pass, turn and sprint up field in an effective manner.
This is true, but it seems like they're gaining a better understanding on their strengths and weaknesses. I wasn't getting that feeling when they play with Yura, which is sad, since he should be the better player of the two. While I doubt it happens this window, I can easily see us replacing Yura in the offseason. It just hasn't worked out so far.
I don't know if I have been more intrigued to see how an RSL game has turned out all season as I am with this one. I do think a lot of factors did play into the relatively positive score from the ManU game but there are still many positives to take from that game that could be quickly thrown away with a horrible outing against Portland. Should be very interesting to say the least.
LA was/kinda still is in shambles United was very much in preseason (and we lost) this game is actually a test of Petke's vision. This game and the SKC game on the weekend are where we see just how "different" this team is. I'm confident we'll see improved play, but seriously doubt we see such an improvement that we get anything more than a point in these two games.
No Luke do to his tackle from LA and I am going to venture a guess for this game, Like 15 said Improved performance but we end up with a Beckerman Red card that results in a 2-1 loss.
What's this? Did I miss something? Luke and Mulholland out, and Holness injured, right? who plays alongside KB5?