DC United vs. the defending champion Timbers 7:00 pm at RFK Newschannel 8 Our coach will be up in the seats Their Diego Chara will be out after a red card
Whomever is playing D-mid for DCU better get in Nagbe's jock early and stay there, otherwise this won't turn out well. Sam and Nyarko should fly at a Portland backline missing Borchers. If DCU plays conservatively and lets Nagbe move at will, Hamid will have to stand on his head for DCU to get a draw.
Gonna be a hot hot hot damn day on Saturday - don't forget to bring water to mix on and off with your regular bourbon/vodka/rum/beer! This could be a great gut-check and turning-point for United. Or a bloodbath. DCU - 2 Timber Joey - 1 Is it my imagination or is my boy Chad Ashton undefeated? One of you anal bastards must have a spreadsheet PS -No Screaming Eagle Tailgate, so remember to bring your own beer!
This. If it's >95 and humid, I may even forgo the beer for water at halftime. The horror. Yep. The season is starting the home stretch, and the team is not in a good position. But the same with Portland...this could be a horrendous loss, or a marker to change this achingly mediocre year.
Between the tailgate in lot 8 and actually being in the stadium, I'm gonna be a twice baked potato (if you get my drift).
The match is tomorrow and the pregame site has only seven entries? Pathetic. Why, it's enough to make someone think we don't care
Adi or Mullins? Melano/Mattocks or Nyarko/Sam? Valerie/Nagbe or Acosta/DeLeon? Substantial talent deficit in attack. United's hope lays in Portland's makeshift back line. Only Alvas Powell is a regular, United reject Amobi Okugo manning the middle with Jermaine Taylor, and some guy with the second longest name I've ever seen at left back. It's probably pronounced Andrewshayvitz, but uses about 10 more letters. He rivals Jan Vennegor Of Hesselink, easy.
Hopefully nobody gets heat stroke. This is probably going to be like that Chivas game from 2006-7 (I can't remember exactly) -- it was like 115 on the pitch.
Game got moved to 8 PM and you're allowed two unopened bottles of water. http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/08/13/d-c-united-kickoff-saturday-august-13-pushed-back-8-p-m Yeah, the talent deficit is huge on offense and Portland is finding their form after a rocky start to the season. I believe they are going to bring in Steven Taylor formerly of Newcastle into central defense today. He's played a couple NASL matches already, so he might be activated for today. And we haven't actually beaten Portland anywwhere since 2011. On paper we don't stand a chance, but a draw is possible I suppose. Hamid will have to be huge though because Portland is not shy about taking shots. No Chara will really hurt them though. Juiceberry (as Balboa calls him) is decent but not the impact player Chara is. We'll see. Oh, I remember that Chivas slow cooker. Also a couple molten Superliga matches. Anyone remember that Boca Juniors boilermaker? A 3 o'clock start in August that was like sitting on the surface of the Sun. I literally didn't want any part of my body touching another part on any other human under any circumstances. I felt like my skin was melting off.
Methinks some of you are vastly overrating Portland right now ... Valeri and Adi can punish any team on their day, but if you can contain those two the rest of the team is below MLS average. Chara will be missing, Nagbe is overrated, Melano is mostly a bust and their defense has been in shambles with only like 3 or 4 shut outs all season. Not to say this means we should win, after all we suck and are making a living off dropping points at home. But if we lose it's not because we're facing some unstoppable juggernaut.
Good news: we won't be competing with Nats fans (7:05 first pitch) for the use of road/Metro infrastructure. Bad news: both games are now much more likely to end at roughly the same time, putting both fanbases on a collision course. FWIW, what is a potential annoyance now (overlapping Nats/DCU fan traffic) will be a no-crap nightmare once the Buzz opens and we-all have to share South Cap Street and the Green Line together. Just sayin'
How many people will actually know ahead of time that the game was delayed? I just happened to see a tweet that wasn't from the team. The two water thing is nice. It would be nicer if I could keep the deadly cap on it after going through security.
Melano has 2 goals and 5 assists. For a basis of comparison, Barrios has 6 goals and 2 assists. Is he a bust? Dallas has only scored one more goal than Portland. Portland hasn't allowed more than one goal in a game since late June, and that streak includes shutouts at Jersey and Colorado. Now, this isn't that defense due to injury, but it's not like they are a sieve. Nagbe is fantastic, how dare you? Seriously though, he's one chip on his shoulder from being the US' best p!ayer.
I'd rate Melano about equal to Barrios. The difference is that Melano cost a substantial transfer fee which is a rare occurrence in MLS. Barrios was discovered in Colombian 2nd division and earns about $80K ... True ... Portland's defense has improved a lot in the last month or so. Gleeson has been a revelation. But as their defense has improved their goals have also started to dry up a bit. Their game just doesn't impress me that much ... Meh ... he's fantastic on his day but only in brief stretches. He hit his stride during playoff stretch last year, but I'd like to see him put it together for one consistent entire season before giving him the keys to the NT. For me he disappears from games too often. For Portland Valeri is the real catalyst that can consistently change games ...
Nagbe absolutely disappears, so frustrating. He's like Donovan in that way, without the shooting boots. I'm convinced something is going to have to majorly piss him off for the switch to flip.
It's the Birn bomb again!!! That's been one of the differences between this season and last season ... not enough set piece goals. Glad to see that changing!