Gave his blood for the green and gold.
Eight games played. 688 minutes.
A few years from now somebody will stumble upon the Wikipedia entry for Mikael Silvestre and see those numbers associated with his time with the Portland Timbers. They may also see a mention of a torn ACL. His time in Portland will appear to be little more than a footnote in the career that began in 1995 and that among other things saw him play 249 games for Manchester United. Continue reading
2013 Portland Timbers mantra
It is remarkable how quickly the Portland Timbers have been transformed. We are six games into the 2013 season and what we are seeing on the pitch is so very different than what we have ever seen before. Even with a roster that was blown up and even with a new manager who comes with a new philosophy, the pace of change has been unexpectedly fast.One interesting part of this transformation of club has been the rebirth of the players who are helping to transform. Continue reading
It was an unsettling weekend without a Timbers match. Yes, there were some familiar sights:
Lovel gets FacePalmed
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The excitement that is 5mTKO world headquarters on a Timber-less weekend.
What a cruel trick the MLS scheduling gods have played on us this season. Two games at home to get us fired up, #SeattleAway to send us into a frenzy, and then…poof…nada. Just when we were starting to get are Portland Timbers groove on we are given a weekend off even though nobody submitted the vacation request. The blank hole in the schedule has made it a long, irritable week with nothing better to do than to attack one another on social media and to count the minutes until #CommerceCityAway.
Here are a few selected things to help occupy your time: Continue reading
The smell of smoke bombs from the opening game of the Portland Timbers 2013 season has dissipated, which gives us an opportunity to introduce you to a new, EXCLU$IVE 5mTKO blogg feature called the Big Question. Each and every Tuesday we will ask and answer a burning question that has arisen from the previous weekend’s game. Yes, your existence has suddenly changed for the better.
This week’s question is one that you have probably had go through your mind a few dozen times since Sunday’s game against the New York Red Bulls. Is our defense always going to give up three goals or was this just an aberration that can be chalked up to Mikael Silvestre’s rhumlagged body? Continue reading
1. It’s hard to play well fresh off the plane
Those complimentary airplane cocktails can be a killer.
It don’t know about you, but whenever I travel on an international flight I am a mess for at least a few days afterwards. Between the free booze, listening to screaming children for 10 hours, and the bad sitcoms that are part of the in-flight entertainment, it takes at least 72 hours to recover.
One can hope that the travel, lack of training, and general unfamiliarity with his surroundings will make Mikael Silvestre’s performance on Sunday a one-off nightmare and not the norm. There is a ton of pressure on the Timbers center backs to perform well. Clearly, the most decorated player on the Timbers roster fell far short of that standard in his debut. As they say, time will tell if he is the right guy for the job. Continue reading
AJB needs a friend next to him in the middle.
In his brief stint as Portland Timbers manager, Caleb Porter’s job has been to make choices. Does he trade all of John Spencer players for allocation money or bury them in the Willamette River? Does he laugh at his general manager’s eagerness to bring in Belize’s best for a trial or does he placate him? Does he bust out the sweater vest and blazer combination for the AIK match or save it for a nationally televised game?
In some cases he has had choices made for him by circumstance. What to do with Jack Jewsbury’s armband and playing time? Give them away and claim injury as the reason. Who to choose as number one striker, Ryan Johnson or Bright Dike? Put Dike under the knife and watch Johnson net a preseason hat trick to make everyone forget about Dike’s existence. Continue reading