My bad. I forgot that Omar ALWAYS scores on opening night. And I underestimated the Rapids kicking ASS! That said, I think that Nyassi is going to be a really strong addition to this team. Can't wait for the rest of this seasons!!!
great start to the season, they really looked like a team that knows how to play together. What a shot by Smith! I look forward to seeing more of Nyassi.
Now that's how you start the season! Portland fans over on their Timbers Army board claiming we were lucky to win because we got lucky bounces on our last two goals. Whatever. You could tell one of the teams was starting the same 11 from last year's MLS Cup and one of the teams was an expansion team playing their first game together. Nyassi looked good, I was impressed with Amarikwa's advancement since last season as well. I like the subtext to the Champions sign. Instead of a sign that reads 2010 MLS Cup Champions its a sign that reads MLS Cup Champions with a 2010 logo beneath it. Its not hard to read the intention to put other year's logos beneath it at well. Pid Army, loved the Colorado flags. BSG, great job on the Japanese flag.
Really? Those guys better pace themselves, it's a long season. I'm sorry their defenders let a ball spend a minute rolling through the 6 yd box. If anything the free kick was the flukey goal. It was well-struck but that's still an improbable score from that distance. I thought it was a good showing by their travelling supporters (just the numbers, I wasn't close enough to hear what they were singing). He did a great job winning possession. I think the lead was pretty safe, but helped nail it down by making sure Portland rarely had the ball. Yes, the Colorado flags looked great. Oh, and Kenny Cooper sure is a big boy. I'm not sure what he was up to during the game; he seemed to be in an offside position a lot. I've seen strikers sitting off the defender's shoulder like that, but usually they dip back onside to take the pass. Maybe that was his intention but the ball was rarely close enough to him.
Cakewalkin super relaxin three goal leads are good for the soul. It's like when you stress out for an exam and the big day finally comes and the questions are much easier than you expected and you know you gots this sheetz in the bag.
Welcome to Blowout City!! The defense played great and the offense produced. Portland had no answer for Jeff and Pablo in the middle. Just think how it felt to be a Portland player at halftime. Spencer is "fiesty" and apparently curses every 5 words when he's happy. Spencer's halftime speech couldn't have been pretty...
We (Portland) had a terrible backline this game. There's no such thing as a lucky goal, just a shady defense that can't clear. Played longball too often and we got burned. Good game and look forward to when we meet in Portland this season!
Yeah, that was my new character, The 90's Hip pop Aficionado. JD is Illmatic keep static like wool fabric.
Shoulda got the shut out. This defense is a wall during the run of play. I just don't understand what happens on set plays. Last night showed it wasn't from lack of height. Omar is still one of the most exciting players in the league. Casey can't get away with anything. Cooper must be a really nice guy because he plays like someone half his size and gets the soft fouls too. Wynne's speed killed Portland. Their Colombian player might give other backlines fits with his pace, but he couldn't out run Marvell. I thought both Pablo and JL were a little too loose with their passing. The post-Pablo 433 was interesting. There was plenty of pace up top with Q., Omar, and Nyassi. But, too much tinkering before shooting. Great way to start the season.
Clearly, it is nice to open the season at home and *not* start on the road early-many recall that the concern for snow often gave us extra road games early. You know, those 1-2-2 starts were frustrating.......We looked great in half one, then as one might expect, Portland settled down and played better, and we lost the initiative. Big deal, the shutout is only really meaningful for my fantasy team (Jeff, KK, and CC all will score points anyway). Pleased to see a nice group of Portland fans here. Hope to get there sometime, too. R
Months of waiting finally climaxed yesterday and it was worth the wait. Everything from all the pre-game activities between the team's Supporters Groups to the game itself. Was real impressed by the Timbers Army and how they showed up. Lots of great and friendly guys/gals who are so passionate about their team. Initially I was shocked that an entire supporters group could get together in such short time, but I totally forgot the fact the Timbers were in the USL and their Army has been together since around 2000 or something like that. They made a "fan" out of me. Nice change of pace compared to the San Jose $*%(@# from last year. Although I will say about 30 minutes before kickoff, I was getting tired of the Green lovefest and was ready to bleed Burgundy. Couldn't have asked for a better opener, except the shutout. No use being greedy though!
Anyone know where I could find a replay of this? I was at the game but would like to rewatch it with commentary. MatchDay has it blacked out, presumably due to it being on Fox.
I know FSC is replaying it and will probably replay it again a couple more times this weekend or early into the week. Doesn't the MLS website have MLS Live! where you can watch past games? I don't know if you'll have to pay for them though..
Portland had some real height in Cooper and one of their defenders (6'4"), so the set pieces had me worried. However, they didn't seem to be targeting those guys, or maybe the service was just another thing that went wrong last night. Cooper goes down, perhaps even a bit easily. Though Casey tried that in the box on an aerial and didn't get the call.
I thought the Rapids looked strong in the first half. I am trying to weigh how good we looked against the fact that we played an expansion team in their first ever MLS game. On the other hands, I thought we looked flat at times in the second half. Officiating was weak....both from the main ref, as well as from the JAR. Talk about not getting a break...I can handle bad calls - if they are uniformly applied (to me, its like a strike zone in baseball...an ump may have a big or small strike zone, but they call it the same for every player on both teams...that's fine with me). Calls that were cards against us were either fouls (or nothing) for Portland. As for players....our starting line looked good. Amerikwa seems like a wildcard to me out there. Good for when you have a 3 goal lead and want to bring a little havoc/chaos. But if we were down by 2 goals, I still seriously doubt he is the answer. I was a little concerned by Wallace's play in the first half. I thought he got beat a little too easily. For what its worth, cheers to the Portland Timbers fans who came out and represented...they were loud and looked well organized. BUT...because they were put right next to the supporters terrace, they actually drowned out BSG and Pids Army (from row 1, section 106). By the way, I only noticed one mascot (Edson the Eagle) during the entire game. Where were the other 3? I only ask becauses I hate having all the mascots, and with a "1 mascot, 1 team" ratio, it seemed well, much better. This was a great improvement, if it is true. Either way, looking forward to a great year.
To answer a question asked last night, Larentowicz's 8th minute goal beats Cooke's 10th minute goal in 2008 for the fastest Rapids goal to start a season. (The Rapids website does not have goal times on-line for the 5 years between 1998 and 2002, so there might have been a faster one then.)
Uh...I thought 2007 was the year that we opened the Dick, and H. Gomez and Roberto Brown were the scorers in that opener?
I was happy the the team lived up to expectations and came out of the gate looking like they just won a trophy. Portland looked pretty slow overall and they really got bossed around in the middle of the park. We did have a couple of lucky bounces that resulted in goals, but so did the Timbers on their goal. Even with the luck, the reality is that we were never in any real danger of not getting the 3 points. I'm fairly confident we could have put 3 or 4 more past Brown if we had a reason to keep our foot on the gas. Smith definitely had them hold back in the second half to avoid injuries and such. Great start to the season. Hopefully we see many more results like this. P.S. If any of TA is reading this, I just wanted so say how much fun we had with you guys and hopefully we'll see you again sometime soon. You're class. And best of luck to Spenny!
Bet you didn't mind the non-handball call on Cumming's goal though, huh? My impression was that the referee really called a very loose game which benefited the Rapids most .