Portland just re-signed the A-League's top scorer from last season. 18 goals 6 assists. He'll join Portland's other 18 goal scorer, Fadi Afash, up front. Now if Portland could just get a midfield to help out... Here's the press release link: http://www.pgepark.com/timbers/set_cookie.php?id=594&type=r
Oh yeah baby.... Watch out A-League, the Timbers are gonna roll this year. With a beefed up defense and the top two leading scorers IN THE LEAGUE in Fadi Afash and Tennyson back, watch the hell out!!! The remaining questions to be answered are a true #10 and our GK...
Musa Shannon (Taken from the Whitecaps website. Stupid site doesn't let you link to individual articles): Profile View more Shannon info and photos National Team • Current member of Liberian National Team where he is a team-mate of former World Footballer of the Year George Weah. • Has 14 caps and 1 goal for Liberia, and scored in his country's celebrated 3-1 win over Ghana in World Cup qualifying on January 8, 2001. Liberia narrowly missed out on the 2002 World Cup, finishing just one point behind powerful Nigeria in the final round, after leading the group early on. Overseas • Played two seasons with Maritimo of the Portuguese First Division from 2000 to 2002. North America • Scored an impressive 20 goals and 7 assists in 50 regular season games with the Tampa Bay Mutiny of MLS from 1997 to 1999. • Lead the Mutiny in scoring in 1999 with 12 goals and 5 assists in 27 games. • Selected by Tampa Bay in the third-round of the 1997 MLS College Draft. • Signing with the Colorado Rapids of MLS on July 26, 2002, but had difficulty cracking their already established line-up and played only two games. Was released by Colorado on November 5, 2002, the same day the team released former Whitecaps defender Rick Titus. • Had tryouts with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and DC United of MLS in 2003. Vancouver • Signed by Vancouver as a free agent on April 10, 2003. Yes we still have Jordan,
Vanc**ver Veterans---Musa Shannon? Who's at left flank...Jar Jar Binks? P*rtland---people,people...history shows us that Alfred Lord "Tennyson" has been dead for a long time. Seattle has the Strikers! Oops...we lost O'Brien and Hercules Gomez is injured... Darren Sawatzky, anyone?
Shannon should be decent at this level, that's a good pickup for scum North. If you watched Monty Python at all, you should know it's Alfred Lord "Tennis Ball" not Tennyson Gomez disappeared from the Sounders' site roster, wonder if the loan is off or something else is in the works... Hope not, Gomez has game and according to the LA Riot Squad page where he posts, he thinks he can be back much sooner than originally anticipated!!
Plus Downing I see today that Portland has also added defender Nick Downing from the NE Rev's on loan for the season.
If he was a "player" he would not be on loan but would figure into NE's immediate plans. It will be interesting to see if Nick can win a starting spot on the Timbers defense. He is not overly fast and stands 5'9" and weighs 145 lbs. He is a smart player and has been successful at the youth levels but he hasn't really made his mark as a professional yet. The hope is that he can get playing time in Portland and up his game through the experience so that he might some day compete at the MLS level. He's a good guy and a hard worker so I wish him only the best as he continues to chase his dream of professional soccer.
Nick sounds like a "project," Portl*nd. Not exactly what a already challenged defense needs. As for Hercules Gomez, future A-league star and Seattle stiker...he is scheduled for minor surgery on his foot today (April 18) and is optimistic about a early June return.
We're actually pretty loaded on defense, and to be honest, there really isn't room for him there. He's more likely to be in midfield. Defense this year looks MUCH improved from last year with the addition of Vaughn, Morrison, and Heinzen. Still not sure if it's going to be Spiteri (University of Portland) or Burgman (Atlanta Silverbacks) in goal yet. Very hard to tell so far because neither has been challenged in the scrimmages that I've seen so far.