Happy Father’s Day
Like Father, Like Son
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Tag Archives: Will Johnson
A Team Transformed
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
Gone in a Flash
Sunday night was a weird one on the emotions. One minute I was singing the praises of the man who contributed to one of the greatest moments I’ve had as a Timbers fan. The next minute I was joining 20,000 others in calling for his head.
If it had been any of the other San Jose players storming around the pitch throwing elbows and directing ignorant slurs at our captain I would have been angry, but not bitterly disappointed. But it wasn’t Steven Lenhart or Chris Wondolwoski or one of the players whose name I don’t even know. It was Flash. It was Alan Gordon. It was a guy whose name brings a rush of happy juices to my brain nine years removed from his contributing to one of the greatest moments I’ve had as a Timbers fan. Continue reading
The Day After: Portland/San Jose Edition
Best paired with Rhum.
1. Back from Exile
The last time that Futty Danso started and went the full 90 minutes for the Portland Timbers was on July 21, 2012 when the Timbers lost 5-0 to FC Dallas in a match players some players, including Futty, where accused of quitting. Heading to to Sunday’s match against San Jose it seemed that we’d see Futty traded to parts unknown before we would see him in the starting XI. But with injuries and departures galore at center back, the long-time Timbers servant was in the lineup, paired with Mikael Silvestre. It was the fourth different pairing in the middle this season and ninth since the start of last season. You wouldn’t have known it. The two looked very comfortable playing next to each other with Futty displaying a composure on the ball that he has often lacked throughout his career, including last week in the reserves match where he looked awful. After his dubious debut, Silvestre has developing into a calming influence in the back. On Sunday his presence rubbed off on Futty. Continue reading
The Day After: Portland/NY Edition
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
The Two-Headed Captain
Who gets to wear this bad boy in 2013?
I have been of the opinion that one of the biggest gifts that Caleb Porter received from his team’s training sojourn to Tuscon was a hamstring injury to Jack Jewsbury. And no, before you move on, this isn’t another anti-Jack tirade. The gift is that it has made it possible, both politically and practically, for Porter to take a look at some combinations in the midfield that wouldn’t be possible with Jewsbury consuming preseason minutes on the field. It made it possible for him to acquire Ben Zemanski, a player he highly values.
It also has made it possible for the manager to put out a lineup that doesn’t include Jewsbury for the foreseeable future without much controversy. Captain Jack has to work his way back from injury, just like anyone else would. Porter can see how things are going once Jewsbury is fit to make the decision about whether or not he plays. At that time he might be eager for Jewsbury’s skills to be back on the pitch or he might be reluctant to play him because he doesn’t want disrupt team chemistry (or some such thing). Continue reading
St. Caleb’s Day
He might not pack the one liners or have the charmingly hard to understand accent or the smartyphone, but this Caleb Porter fellow has a few things going for him that make him a person worthy of a Valentine’s Day card or two placed in his cubbyhole.
For one thing, he makes up for his lack of pizazz with a refreshing degree of candor that aren’t always on display from his bosses. For another, he seems to have an idea about where he sees things going in 2013 and he has a clue about what he needs to get there. Witness his comments following yesterday’s move to acquire Ben Zemanski. Yeah, there is the bit of hyperbole about Zemanski being one of the best midfielders in MLS, but there is also this bit: