PDL: Portland Timbers U-23s – 3, Fraser Valley Mariners FC – 0

Posted on May 12, 2012 by HRD

Portland Timbers U-23s and Fraser Valley Mariners FC each opened their 2012 USL Premier Development League season last night at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland. The home side did not not disappoint the 1,257 green-and-white supporters as the Timbers U-23s dominated the Mariners to the tune of three goals to nil in what easily could have been a 6-0 blowout.

All of the goals came in the first half of play at the south end of the field – oddly enough – where the MLS Timbers have yet to bag a goal after five matches, but I digress. Mark Sherrod score in the 10th minute on an assist from Reed Matte, Emery Welshman dribbled his way to an unassisted marker six minutes later, and Sherrod scored his second of the evening just five minutes before half-time.

Fraser Valley goalkeeper Mark Village stopped two great chances by Sherrod in the second half as the sophomore striker from the University of Memphis – who led the nation in goals in 2011 with 19 – should at least have potted a hat trick. Village also made a sparkling save on an 83rd-minute penalty kick by 4th-year U-23s midfielder Steven Evans as he dove high to his left for a two-handed stop to stem the onslaught.

The Timbers U-23s lined up in a 4-4-2 diamond formation though the diamond stayed compressed as attacking center midfielder Steven Evans and defensive center midfielder Andrew Ribiero were never far apart. Fraser Valley played what looked to be a 4-5-1 formation and as such failed to muster many challenges on the Portland net. One could argue that the Mariners played a defensive formation with the mindset that they would be best served by conserving energy in light of having to play a second match within 24 hours this evening at Kitsap, but the ball skills of most of the Timbers U-23s side were clearly superior.

The 1,257 folks in attendance got their money’s worth as all seats were general admission and could be had for just five bucks each. The west side seats were only ones made available as the north, south and east ends were closed and the only open entrance to the stadium was at the corner of 20th and Morrison. Tickets were only available at the box office and as of twenty minutes to kickoff only one ticket window was open to service the long line of buyers; in the future it would be wise to show up earlier if purchasing at the box office or make an advance purchase online if it is an option (it was not an option for this match).

A few observations on the evening:

  • The turf was not watered as it normally is pre-match (as far as I could tell having arrived twenty minutes before kickoff) and at halftime for MLS Portland Timbers matches. The ball seemed to play well and did not run quickly into touch as we are used to seeing for MLS matches.
  • Right midfielder Cam Vickers is fast and he’s tenacious in pursuit of the ball.
  • Right fullback Reed Matte is a tough, physical defender and paired well with Vickers on the right side of the pitch. Matte overlapped and attacked often and demonstrated what a RB should look like.
  • A failed PK aside, ACM Steven Evans was very involved in the match and constantly communicated with his teammates to organize things both defensively and offensively. He was clearly a leader.
  • New Zealand U-20 national team LB Anthony Hobbs displayed good pace and sharp passing in the first half but as the game wore on late into the second half he seemed slower, multiple passes went astray and he looked gassed trying to chase down a few opposing players.
  • If last night was any indication, Mark Sherrod will terrorize PDL goalkeepers all season long. He’s big, strong and his effort over 90 minutes never waned.

Next up for the Portland Timbers U-23s is their opening-round US Open Cup match this Tuesday evening when they host PSA Elite of the U.S. Adult Soccer Association (USASA). While the opponent plays at a lower competition level the Timbers U-23s would be wise not to take them lightly as the PSA Elite squad have had more matches together than the U-23s (and their lone match) have this season. Attendance is expected to be considerably higher than for last night’s match as not only is it the opening round of the 99th edition of the oldest Cup competition in the United States but the MLS Timbers road match at Houston will be shown live on the big screen at Jeld-Wen Field pre-U23s-match and it should conclude just minutes before the U-23s kick off against PSA Elite. Four hours of football and beer specials. Oh. My.

Official match information

Match report with photos at the fantastic SoccerCityUSA.Com site

Posted in Portland - Oregon, Portland Timbers U-23s, sports, USL Premier Development League | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Tale of Two CEOs

Posted on April 30, 2012 by HRD

Twitter is a funny thing. It’s a place to rant and rage in 140 characters or less. Be succinct or be dead. Because you are completing your thoughts in such a short amount of space – and therefore quickly – hitting the <send> button can often occur before either rational thought or regret can kick in and be implemented as an editor. As such, you see a lot of spontaneous thoughts, statements and reactions in the Twitterverse.

Because of the short-form quick-send reality of Tweeting, our impulses have a good chance of getting the better of us. While impulses are more often than not honesty, if one is uncertain of how to react to a Tweet, it’s best to remember that it’s just the internet. It isn’t real. Unless someone takes it a step further and makes it real.

This is a tale of two Chief Executive Officers who are participants in the Twitterverse which in and of itself is commendable. In the sporting world, head honchos can often be insular but the National Hockey League’s Florida Panthers CEO Michael Yormark and Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers CEO Merritt Paulson choose to communicate their passion via Twitter, and their passion is real.

Sometimes ‘real’ is a good thing, and sometimes … not so much.

In a recent NHL playoff game between his Panthers and the New Jersey Devils, Yorkmark Tweeted a comment accusing visiting Devils fans of throwing plastic rats onto the ice and causing delays, despite the plastic-rat-tossing historically being something the Florida fans do at home playoff games. A Devils fan replied with an accusation that he was using Devils fans as scapegoats for his own fans’ stupidity and that Yormark was making an ass of himself.


Yormark’s reply: “you have 70 followers. No one cares what you think.”


Normally things would fizzle from there. Things gets said, people snipe back and forth, but it’s the internet. It isn’t real. Unless you make it real, and that’s exactly what Yormark did.

Likely realizing that he acted like a bully, the Panthers CEO ended up calling the person he insulted, apologized, and flew her and her father down to Miami to attend game seven of the playoff series from his luxury suite. Understand this: Yormark treated a fan of the opposing team with grace, humility and generosity.

That’s one way to handle things. The other way is MLS Portland Timbers CEO and owner Merritt Paulson’s way.

Following a 1-0 loss by the Timbers in New England, against an opponent most people expected them to beat and against whom they instead turned in an extremely lackluster performance, I Tweeted to Paulson that he’s got my season ticket holder money but I won’t spend another dime on stadium concessions or team merchandise until we get a road win (we only had 2 road wins in 17 tries last season and currently sit on none in 4 games this season).

Paulson sniped back the following day that better yet I should stay home and not come to games.

He followed that he’d happily refund my money if I promise never to come to another game.

Good for him. He’s got passion and that is far better than having an absentee team owner who just sits quietly and counts his beans.

It’s the internet. It isn’t real. Unless you make it real, and that’s exactly what Paulson did.

The very next day, on Monday morning March 26, I received a voice-mail message from Joe Cote, Vice President of Ticket Sales and Services for the Timbers, and also an e-mail message asking me to call him because “I need to talk with you about your season ticket account.”

I took a break from work and called Cote. He told me he had seen a Tweet of mine saying that I was unhappy with my season tickets and that he’d be happy to give me refund as there is a long list of people waiting to buy season tickets. I replied that I was not unhappy with my season tickets. He asked me again if I was sure, because, again, there is a long list of people waiting to buy season tickets. I responded again that I am not unhappy with my season tickets.

Before I go further, I should mention that I have no proof that Paulson instructed his underling to call and harass me into giving up my season tickets. However, if Cote is on Twitter I can’t tell, so I am assuming that he was instructed to make the call to me. It is possible that Merritt Paulson had nothing to do with this. It is also possible that a monkey might fly out of my ass, though it isn’t fucking likely. But I digress … back to my conversation with Joe Cote.

After telling me twice that there is a long list of people who want to buy my season tickets, Cote told me that he saw that I used the hash-tag ‘#flask’ in my Tweet, and that being caught in the stadium with a flask is grounds for ejection. Stifling my laughter, I thanked Joe for the information, and the call came to a conclusion.

And there you have it: a tale of two CEOs. Things get written on Twitter between fans and owners. One CEO/owner writes a nasty Tweet to an opposing fan, doesn’t delete his Tweet but rather leaves it posted and lives with it, and treats a supporter of an opposing team like royalty. The other CEO, who often Tweets in disappearing ink (though he did leave up one of the Tweets directed at me) has one of his underlings strike back at a supporter of his own team.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Posted in Major League Soccer, National Hockey League, Portland - Oregon, Portland Timbers, sports | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Should the Portland Timbers Fire Head Coach John Spencer?

Posted on March 25, 2012 by HRD

Here’s the situation. You’re on the wrong end of a 1-0 match on the road. There’s 15 minutes to go and you desperately need a goal to pull level.

Should you insert a player who played the equivalent of fewer than 2 games last year but proved, in that short time, that he can enter as a substitute in a road match and score a goal, or do you put in a guy who in 15 career MLS road matches (13 starts) as a forward has never scored a goal and only ever managed one assist?

If you are John Spencer, current head coach of the Portland Timbers, you chose the latter and leave New England with with just 2 wins in your 19-match MLS regular-season road coaching history.

Jorge Perlaza entered the match in the 76th minute, performed as would be historically expected, and Bright Dike stayed on the bench. A reasonable person would not insert a forward into a situation where he has proven that he cannot score. I don’t have a non-snarky explanation as to why John Spencer made this move so I won’t even try.

If this odd managerial decision were an aberration one could forgive Spencer, but this was another in a long list of questionable coaching decisions. Witness the use of Kenny Cooper at forward last season during a stretch of twenty consecutive matched (15 starts) where he produced a total of just one goal. Spencer kept playing him, the results were good for just 23 of 60 possible points in the standings, and the team missed the playoffs.

The Portland Timbers were not reasonably expected to make the playoffs last season. It was their first year in Major League Soccer and John Spencer was a first-year MLS head coach who worked his way up the ranks as an assistant coach in Houston. He was not a stranger to coaching in MLS, but was given leeway as a first-year head coach last year.

That leeway is gone.

Portland opened the 2012 season at home against a Philadelphia Union squad that had for some reason not played a single MLS team in the pre-season. The Timbers fell behind 1-nil before playing with purpose only when they were attacking the Timbers Army end of the pitch where the supporters clearly gave the team a needed lift. The Union currently have three losses in three regular season matches and are a rebuilding side. Why didn’t Spencer have the squad motivated for a better first-half performance?

Over the course of the first three matches of the season so far, Spencer has been unable to motivate his team to a single quality first-half of play and the team has yet to score in the first 45 minutes of a match.

In the second match of this season, Perlaza was removed from the game in Dallas (a road game, so again why did he start?) at halftime and Spencer did insert Nagbe who scored to give the Timbers a 1-1 draw and one standings point instead of none (or three for that matter). For the third match, in New England, Spencer did not have his team ready to go and they conceded the lone goal of the match just 28 seconds after the game began.

The MLS Western Conference is extremely competitive again this season, perhaps even more so than last year. The rival Cascadia sides are likely better teams than Portland right now. The team in Washington state has been together for a while, have a better roster and have a far more accomplished head coach. The lowly (last year) Vancouver Whitecaps FC scored a major coup in bringing in Martin Rennie as head coach to begin the 2012 season and he’s got the western Canadian side off to two wins and a draw in their first three matches.

The Timbers clearly are capable of winning at home more often than not where they’ll always play in front of over 20,000 folks wildly cheering them on. The crowd will motivate them to successes. But when the team are on the road, it is the head coach who has to do the motivating, and he has to combine it with effective game management. In these regards, Timbers head coach John Spencer has yet to deliver.

No one wants to see the team start over with a new head coach (and possibly GM, but that’s an article for another day) this early in its MLS existence. However, the leash needs to be short as the Timbers could find themselves effectively out of the playoffs as early as mid-May if the road woes don’t get righted.

Ah, screw that. He’s shown over three matches to begin the 2012 season that he is not capable of having this team ready to play at the opening kick-off. Spencer should be fired. Now.

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Will a new NBA/NHL arena become a reality in Seattle?

Posted on February 15, 2012 by HRD

This should be interesting.

Seattle-bred San Francisco hedge-fund manager Christopher Hansen has called a news conference for tomorrow to announce “our offer to the city” for building an arena that would house an NBA team and possibly even an NHL team, according to the Seattle Times.

The interesting part is the question of what he could actually propose that would give the city a profit that would be no less than the rate of return on a 30-year US T-Bond in exchange for whatever funding I expect he would ask the city to provide. If he were not proposing public assistance he likely would not be announcing a pending “offer to the city.”

Seattle residents – by a roughly 3-to-1 margin – famously passed Initiative Measure 91 in 2006 that required that the city of Seattle come out in the black on assistance given to a for-profit pro sports endeavors. I’m not sure how one actually accomplishes something like that without enacting an oppressively expensive lease or a ticket tax so high as to make buying a ticket something you’d have to be a hedge-fund manager to be able to afford to do.

Will he simply ask for the ability to remove any potential zoning restrictions in order to add housing, restaurants or retail to the project so he can have the whole thing make enough financial sense for him to build it on his own? Not likely, but perhaps Hansen really is a genius and what he will propose tomorrow will be a model for future public-private sports-related partnerships that don’t require taxpayers in municipalities nationwide to fund sports arenas to the detriment of the local residents’ pocketbooks.

Like I said … this should be interesting.

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Valentine’s Day Massacre: NHL Eliminates 8 Teams from Playoffs

Posted on February 14, 2012 by HRD

Here’s wishing a Happy Valentine’s Day to fans of the Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers and Columbus Blue Jackets.

Congratulations. Your teams have been eliminated from playoff contention and you are now free to make plans beyond April 8.

I know, I know. “There’s over seven weeks remaining in the season!” “There are roughly 26 games per team yet to be played!” “30% of the season isn’t over yet!” However, since the NHL became a 30-team circuit starting with the 1999-200 season, the fact of the matter is that if your team is more than six points removed from a playoff spot in the conference standings when Valentine’s Day rolls around, your team will miss the playoffs.

As of this morning the National Hockey League conference standings are as follows:

Eastern Conference                               Western Conference
1. * NY Rangers    77 points                  1. * Detroit          78 points
2. * Boston             70                             2. * Vancouver    76
3. * Florida            65                              3. * San Jose       68
4. Philadelphia      69                              4. St. Louis          75
5. Pittsburgh         69                              5. Nashville         70
6. New Jersey       66                              6. Chicago            65
7. Ottawa               64                              7. Los Angeles     65
8. Toronto             62                              8. Phoenix            63
9. Washington       61                              9. Calgary            60
10. Winnipeg         58                             10. Colorado         60
11. Montreal          55                             11. Dallas              59
12. Tampa Bay      54                             12. Minnesota      58
13. NY Islanders   54                             13. Anaheim        53
14. Buffalo              54                             14. Edmonton      49
15. Carolina            53                             15. Columbus      38
* = top seed as division leader

The top eight teams per conference make the playoffs. In the Eastern Conference, Washington and Winnipeg are no more than four points out so they remain in contention. The Habs, Bolts, Islanders, Sabres and ‘Canes are done. On the West side, Calgary, Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota are outside the top eight but are within five points so the possibility of making the playoffs remain. The Ducks, Oilers and Jackets are toast.

Fans of eliminated teams: I feel your pain. I’m an Islanders fan and mid-February seems far too early to have to give up on the playoffs but unfortunately, the morning of February 14 is the point at which you know whether to kiss your playoff chances goodbye or not. Let’s glance back at the past Valentine’s Day mornings of the 30-team NHL.

  • On February 14, 2011 with roughly 68% of the season played, Buffalo was four points out of a playoff spot and made the playoffs. Chicago was three points shy and made it.
  • On February 14, 2010 with roughly 74% of the season played, no team outside the top eight made the playoffs. Over in the West the Red Wings came from three points behind to qualify.
  • On February 14, 2009 with roughly 67% of the season played, Carolina and Pittsburgh trailed by five and made it. Columbus was tied for 8th/9th and qualified, and the Blues overcame a massive six-point deficit to make the playoffs.
  • On February 14, 2008 with roughly 71% of the season played, the Capitals were three points out of a playoff spot and made the playoffs. No team in the West came from 9th place or beyond to qualify.
  • On February 14, 2007 with roughly 69% of the season played, the Islanders and Rangers came from two and five points behind respectively to make the playoffs. Out West things had already been decided.
  • On February 14, 2006 with roughly 70% of the season played, the East was already settled. Out West the Ducks came from three points back and the Sharks came from four behind to qualify.
  • In 2005, the NHL and the players’ union collectively gave us the finger.
  • On February 14, 2004 with roughly 79% of the season played, the East was already settled and St. Louis came from two points back in the West.
  • On February 14, 2003 with roughly 78% of the season played, no team outside the top eight in either conference came back to make the playoffs.
  • On February 14, 2002 with roughly 73% of the season played, Montreal and Phoenix were tied at the 8th/9th spot in each conference and qualified for the post-season.
  • On February 14, 2001 with roughly 78% of the season played, the East had already been decided but out West the Kings came from six points back to make the playoffs.

So there you have it. Since the NHL became a 30-team loop no team has qualified for the post-season when they’ve been more than six points outside their conference’s top eight spots on Valentine’s Day. With over seven weeks remaining in the NHL season a whopping eight clubs have already been eliminated from playoff contention with near-certainty. It shouldn’t happen this early. Valentine’s Day should be about hope, possibility and the romance of the upcoming playoffs season. Instead, the NHL delivers a kick to the pills for fans of eight teams.

Is it October yet?

Posted in National Hockey League, sports | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

I can’t read the newspaper right now. It’s charging.

Posted on February 2, 2012 by HRD

First world problems, I know.

The subscription price to the actual paper version of The Oregonian went up higher than the promotional price we’d been getting for eons so it was time to cancel. I am partial to having the daily local rag on the kitchen table so I can peruse the local news while having tea or a bite to eat. The Oregonian is the only local daily so that’s been the choice of rag by default, but when the price jumped to $30 per month … not happening.

Now I fancy myself a somewhat environmentally conscious person so I decided to go paperless – but not news-less – and try a trial subscription to The O on my Kindle Fire tablet. I knew it would be a different experience as I’ve always enjoyed the tactile feel and layout of a physical newspaper. But I live in Portland, so, the environment, yo. Reading a newspaper on a tablet isn’t nearly the same thing as reading an actual newspaper, but if it’s close enough and I don’t consume a bunch of paper and the gasoline someone burns bringing it to the house each morning is saved, then it’s a habit I should start.

The first two days were fine. I can go to the Metro section of the ‘paper’, pull up the first article then scroll through all the articles in that section, then I can jump over to the sports section, read a sentence about each NHL game from the previous night, still not see a box score, then get all the details on every high school hoops game within a hundred-mile radius (oh, The O).

So all was going swimmingly, until I went to turn the tablet’s power on this morning … and the battery was drained. I couldn’t read the newspaper. It needed to be charged.

Ignore the part about the electricity coming from the coal-fired Boardman Plant

Like I said, first world problems. I’ll still try to read my newspapers on the tablet and lessen my consumption of physical paper.

It ain’t easy being (somewhat) green.

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Hugh Cornwell is coming to Portland!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by HRD

Why wasn’t this the lead story on all the local news stations? Wait, what? I don’t actually … ummmm … watch the local news? But the anchors read from the teleprompters in such pleasant voices!

For the uninitiated, Hugh Cornwell was the lead singer and guitarist for The Stranglers from the mid-seventies to the late-eighties. Classic tunes such as Peaches, Skin Deep, No Mercy, Strange Little Girl, Golden Brown, Always the Sun and others are woven into the fabric of my youth and as such I’ve got to see this show. It’ll be fun to see him and listen to the newer material.

It’s on Sunday, March 11, 2012 at 8PM at the Star Theater in Portland, OR.

Also appearing are Glen Matlock (the original bassist for The Sex Pistols!) and Massive Moth.

This should be fun.

You can get a legal and free download of Cornwell’s latest album here:

 

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Today’s special election is already bought and paid for …

Posted on January 31, 2012 by HRD

… which sadly makes it differ very little from most other elections.

An already skewed competition for Oregon’s vacant 1st Congressional District between Suzanne Bonamici and Rob Cornilles has been tilted even more strongly in Bonamici’s favor by influences from outside the state of Oregon. The national party that Bonamici is affiliated with has waged a roughly $1.3M advertising campaign to attack her opponent in the race.

The interests from beyond Oregon will take an easy victory for Bonamici and turn it into an out-and-out ass-kicking. Bonamici’s political party members outnumber Cornilles’ by about 12% and she is a career politician running against a businessman in a District that does not elect businesspeople over career politicians. The outside money won’t change the outcome of the election, but it will make her beholden to influences from outside the District rather than the folks who actually live in her District.

The identity of the political party in this particular instance is of little consequence. The issue is that instead of deciding a race locally, special interests – interests to which Bonamici (in this case) will be beholden – are deciding the outcome of an election that should only be decided by the represented constituents.

As with any election in the United States … follow the money.

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments