Timbers 2 - 0 Chivas USA

Scattered notes before I collapse into bed:

- What a beautiful night for football. We sat (stood) in the west stands behind the goal with Timbers Army, close to exits which was convenient for a friend with us with special needs, and in the first row so my pregnant spouse could sit without missing a thing. As a matter of fact it was the perfect place to hurl down insults on Chivas defenders like Heath Pearce - where's your mustache now, big guy?! - even if I had promised last night to golf clap his return to University of Portland. There is not a bad seat in Merlo, and we were awed to catch MLS soccer from a few feet away. I watch a lot of professional soccer, and it's been a while since I audibly caught a referee laughing after I screamed bloody murder at him.

We were also privileged to sit (stand) next to the event security detail. Our security monitor lady was charged with keeping the aisle aka "fire lane" clear, which was rich because with all the rain a fire couldn't have started tonight with four gallons of kerosene. At one point early in the second half a Very Important Security Person came near to us to start spotting & cataloging rule-breakers in the Timbers Army crowd. "Fans get away with a lot in Europe, and that's fine," he said to the security monitor lady. "But they're about to learn you can't get away with it here. They're going to drive families away, and then no one's going to come to the games." He pushed a button with me. "Hey, I've got my family right here, and we're doing just fine," I said to him. Which was true- and we were sitting (standing) next to a young couple with a young daughter as well! If you want to stay home and watch sports on your TV where it's almost impossible to be offended, go ahead. But Timbers Army is something magical, and I'll be damned if the Ruffian Police and John Canzano use soccer-mad young families as their reason for trying to clamp down on people having a good time.

- Rodney Wallace is an artist on the ball. He made some dumb ass plays tonight, but every time he got near the ball tonight he seemed like he was on the verge of doing something special. My jaw almost dropped once as he curled on a dime around a swiftly skipping ball and returned it deep down the field. After tonight, I could see why Gavin and John passed up Dax McCarty for him.

- At the start of the second half, an apparently inebriated fan came near the goal and shouted, "Jake Gleeson! I want you to marry my sister!" Everybody got a good laugh, but I suspect I wasn't the only one who was nodding my head in vigorous agreement. Gleeson was outstanding tonight. For most of the second half, Chivas was the more organized, attacking side, and Jake repelled a number of close balls brilliantly. The surface was slick and unsure, and yet Jake looked exactly like the guy worthy of an international call-up, who sacrificed duty to his country to guide his injury-ravaged club to victory. Thanks for stepping in to be the man of the match.

(Photo - the lovely lady and I after a rainy, exhilarating full time at Merlo Field. Timbers' first match in Portland & win as an MLS side. Tuesday, March 29th, 2011.)

Goat Roast Time

It's match day in Portland!

No, it's not at the sparkling, newly-renovated Jelly before twenty thousand roaring fans, and no, it's not even lowly Chicago facing the boys in green, but rather the only team in the league currently below us in ESPN.com's power rankings. No, it doesn't count in the standings, and yes, there will be backups played in important places.

And, yes. Yes is this one of the most important matches of the Timbers young season.

Timbers will play their first MLS-side match in Portland in the U.S. Open Cup Tuesday at Merlo Field in north Portland. John Spencer has indicated that the starters will see the majority of the early minutes. His impromptu video interview with the Oregonian was likewise illustrative of the expectations for tomorrow's match. When asked what he expected from his side, "a win" was his immediate response. Only one other side in the league is as similarly homely as Chivas USA, and Timbers just gave up a two goal, shutout loss in Toronto. Look for Spencer to play some key players significant minutes with the goal of getting a slump-busting win.

Similarly, Robin Fraser will likely attempt to grab a solid opportunity for a victory by playing some of his better players. I'm looking for amateur mustache impressario Heath Pearce to receive a warm welcome on his first return to Portland since starring for the Pilots six years ago. I'll be cheering. He's not the kind of guy I feel like booing, unless he sticks a cleat through Kenny Cooper's leg.

Chivas employed a 4-5-1 in Sunday's demoralizing 0-1 loss to Colorado at the Home Depot Center. Because of international call-ups, I anticipate Tuesday's lineup to be similar: Zach Thornton looks to get the start because of the club's thinness at 'keeper, and Jimmy Conrad will anchor the defense. The Chivas USA back line will miss Zarek Valentin, Conrad's young partner in the middle, who is seeing time with the USA U20 team this week, and presents an excellent scoring opportunity for a struggling Timbers offense. Ben Zemanski scored two weeks ago after giving up an easy goal, and should be tested in the middle early and often. Justin Braun and Victor Estupinan should have plenty of scoring opportunities against Portland's sieve-like defense.

Bring on the US Open Cup and the Goats!

Masochism Monday: Toronto Revisited

After obsessively watching the Timbers match live at a pub in Garden Home, indifferently taking in parts of the replay on FSN later that afternoon, and finally watching the condensed game on MLS Matchday Live, I have a few, post-Ontarian thoughts:

Queen Elizabeth is History's Greatest Monster. You know it's a rough weekend when the match sends you scurrying to Wikipedia to find examples of otherwise competitive sides that lost on the road in Toronto early in the season. A quick review of Toronto's 2010 season revealed at least one squad that lost there, only to finish the season strongly in the top half of the league. Yes, it happens to the worst of them. Here's proof. Seattle Sounders had a similar debacle in Toronto early last year, and recovered nicely. There's a reason we play 34 games a year, and one of those reasons this year was apparently to lose on the road to a crappy team ruled by a foreign monarch.

You're Only As Good as Your Guys on the Ball. Jack Jewsbury, Jeremy Hall and Rodney Wallace are three of our players who epitomize the state of the team currently. Jewsbury has no business captaining an MLS side. He's a fairly capable CM who can tackle and defend but can't score or distribute, and has hardly shown an ounce of creativity so far. His set pieces are borderline-atrocious but I think have been unfairly maligned. When I watched live on Saturday it seemed like almost every corner ball he put in play was too low or high and right at the goalkeeper. Sure enough, on review at least one corner to Ryan Pore in the early first half looked like it was flicked low by design. This obviously isn't a defense of Jewsbury's play per se, but he isn't the sole reason we're at the bottom of the table.

In an odd way Wallace and Hall have been almost exactly as advertised, at least if the advertisements in question were the ones by the skeptics who wondered what the hell Gavin and John were doing. Two games is an extremely limited sample and they will hopefully bounce back, but so far they've been an utter disappointment. For a duo that was defended from such skepticism by claims that when put together, they would make the Timbers left side a team strength, they've played like the exact sort of disposable, Goldy-esque talent that makes people hate MLS. This is a pretty harsh assessment, but Hall and Wallace have looked downright cumbersome together. On one play early in the second half, Hall brought the ball close to goal and misread a charging Wallace. Hall put the ball well off him, which caused Wallace to punt the ball wide onto the left outside of the net. Of course, this set up another Jewsbury-certified milquetoast corner kick that Stefan Frei grabbed and beautifully punt to Martina for Toronto's second goal.

Wallace followed up his "Omar Cummings? Who?" moments last week in Commerce City with a bit of lazy defending and poor communication in the 14' that facilitated Toronto's first goal. As Goldy assisted Steve Purdy on Maicon Santos just outside the six yard box, he lazily assumed Wallace had his man Javier Martina covered. Wallace let Martina get three steps ahead of him, and Martina charged and dutifully put Santos' ball past Adin Brown for what turned out to be the decisive goal.

When You Get a Man Advantage, Use It. Timbers played up a man for the last eight-plus minutes after Mikael Yourassowsky was busted for time-wasting and received his second yellow card. You'd be forgiven for noticing a difference in the play for the ensuing eight minutes, and it was hard to blame Silvio Petresceu for blowing his whistle with about thirty seconds still seemingly on the stoppage time clock. Saved by the bell, indeed.

HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC PLAYER RATINGS

Adin Brown. 6.0. Again, Brown made some energetic stops, and again he was burned by his defense for an easy first half goal. He was surprisingly pulled at halftime for young Jake Gleeson. According to John Strong on Twitter, Brown likely will be out a couple a couple of weeks after "tweaking" his hamstring. Like with injury-prone Marcus Camby, anyone claiming a "Portland injury curse" by pointing to Brown's latest physical dilemma is an idiot. Brown missed most of the last couple of years with various ailments, and is no spring chicken. Get well soon, Portland needs the depth.

Jake Gleeson. 6.5. He made a great one-on-one stop and had a couple of terrific plays. He got burned for being out of position on Martina's second goal, but that one was a cracker. Also, Brown's injury likely means he'll be seeing a lot time on the field for Timbers the next few weeks. I'm excited to see him play and think he's done a tremendous job making the jump straight from the U23 ranks to MLS.

Steve Purdy. 6.0. He was torched on a lazy pass intercepted by Santos early in the first half on a play that easily could have yielded a goal. All in all though, he remains our top player on the back line, and we're lucky to have him. El Salvador's loss was our gain this weekend, as he stuck around for Timbers before heading off to Jamaica for the international friendly.

Eric Brunner. 6.0. Stronger than the guys on the left side of the defense, but not by a whole hell of a lot.

Kevin Goldthwaithe. 4.5. He played physically, took a couple of hard shots and had a couple of well timed punts out of danger. About the rest of his game, the less said the better. He is a total liability at this point, and if Futty Danso doesn't get a look in the next few weeks, it better be because he's playing for The Gambia full time.

Rodney Wallace. 5.0. As detailed above, Wallace followed up his nightmare in Colorado with another poor effort. My hope is that the reason he seems constantly out of position is related to spacing issues as the team gels. Still, he's been horrendous. He was caught out of position and burned badly by Santos for Toronto's last goal. The demoralized look on Jake Gleeson's face as he stared at Wallace after the goal kind of sums up how his play's left most Timbers fans feeling.

Ryan Pore. 6.0. He looked better on the left, and Spencer has to be begging him to step up and stop deferring. He had a great look early in the first half from the top of the box, one of Timbers best looks all game, and passed it up to try to hook up with Kenny Cooper for a header. To quote a great philosopher of sport: Shoot the J! Shoot it!

Pore had a beautiful interception in the 50' that set up Jeremy Hall's great look at a goal. As he gets more comfortable in MLS, I still anticipate big things. Sal Zizzo came on in the last half hour for Pore, but passed poorly and to tell the truth I didn't notice Zizzo's play much.

Peter Lowry 5.5. Like Jewsbury, Lowry hasn't yet played to expectations. The lingering impression is his awful out-of-bounds attempt to connect with a wide open Wallace as time expired.

Jack Jewsbury 5.0. His set pieces were borderline embarrassing and it's almost impossible to point to any meaningful play he helped set up. He's our captain, and that about sums the state of the team up.

Jeremy Hall. 6.0. Hall had a couple of spectacular looks but failed to find net. His passing was improved. After the looks he's had the last two weeks, it's hard to believe he apparently hasn't scored a goal in two years in the league. One of those little facts that should temper expectations.

Jorge Perlaza. 5.5. It may just be my stereotyping of undersized Colombian forwards but he reminds me a little of Flounder Fredy Montero when he first entered the league. He's adjusting to the more physical style of play, and looks tentative and under-utilized. He had a decent opportunity for a header that he missed, and another one in the 70' that he sent right at Stefan Frei. Brian Umony came on for Perlaza in the last twenty minutes.

Kenny Cooper. 6.5. He can't do it all. The lack of fluid attack means he plays with his back to the goal a good amount of time, trying to make it happen himself. I can't wait to see him play off Darlington Nagbe when he doesn't have to be the only source for offense.

(Top photo credit: Javier Martina after scoring his first goal. The Canadian Press, Chris Young.)

What I'll Be Watching This Weekend

We're spending time with the boy's respective grandparental units this weekend, both of which are closeby in the southwest Portland metro area, so naturally that means two of the greatest things known to this young parent: a)free, guilt-less child care and b)uninhibited access to copious amounts of live sports on satellite television. Usually we spend part of this weekend on the coast participating in the SOLV Beach Clean-up, but the combination of my spouse having family visit from overseas, with the 11 AM Timbers kickoff, convinced us to stay valley-ward. You can pick up litter any time, but when else can you combine the kickoff of a foreign country's election season with Portland Timbers soccer?!

WALES v. ENGLAND. I blogged a little about international friendlies last night, and the early morning PST timing of this intra-Britain tilt- effectively serving as the undercard to American soccer fans watching Toronto and Portland- could not be better. Gareth Bale is apparently out for the Welsh, which makes them even more sympathetic underdogs in these quarters.

PORTLAND at TORONTO. Some friend will be joining us to catch the 11 AM kickoff. This isn't a must-win, but I can't see how the Timbers can get through the next two weeks without securing four points at minimum. It should be dry and very cold, and if De Rosario doesn't net a goal and David Horst's mustache doesn't draw a red for causing a Toronto fan to throw herself in the midst of the match, I like Portland's chances. The artist known as M.A.O. has a preview here.

Update: while we'll be watching the match where the food and drink is already paid for, 107ist capo Joanne Crouchman has the scoop on TA-friendly places to get together and watch, and the FO has their own approved list here. Hmmmm... which bars are not on both lists? The TA list is where it's at, personally, although I have a special spot in my heart for Maher's.

ARGENTINA at USMNT. The biggest US friendly since Brazil last August comes back to Jersey. From the looks of things, the New Meadowlands is becoming our new national stadium. I think that's a shame, because new stadiums like the Meadowlands are long on creature comforts that stifle the passion that can be seen in places like Estadio Azteca. Give me a derelict RFK over the New Meadowlands any day. That said, my outrage is pretty muted because it's meaningless and I'll be watching on TV. The U.S. midfield will apparently feature Donovan; Bradley; Edu; Jones; and Dempsey, with Mo Edu playing above Jones and Bradley. Exciting stuff. I think B-team matches like the one last fall in South Africa are just as exciting, but it'll be fantastic to see our top Americans take the field against Maradona's eleven.

Full listings for international friendlies here; and as always, for listings in the Portland-area, see the indispensable DemonJuiceTV on twitter.

(Photo: watching a 5 AM World Cup match with the boy last summer.)

Whither Friendlies

According to Prost Amerika correspondent Cory Ritzau, former USMNT head coach and current LA Galaxy manager Bruce Arena has seen the future, and it doesn't include international friendlies:

"I do think that as we move forward, I think friendlies are going to be dinosaurs. I think as we continue to move forward globally, I think clubs are less and less in favor of having friendly dates. I think its one thing with official World Cup qualifying or Confederations Championships, but clubs around the world have had enough of friendlies. And I think they are going to put their foot down and prevent this from happening much in the future because they invest too much to be having (their top players) traveling to all different parts of the world.”

Bruce Arena is much more plugged in to the world of international soccer, and so I will take him at his word and assume he's making the above statement based on knowledge and not spite that his best player is being taken from him during a crucial league match. Two things on this. One is that the international friendly is increasingly becoming an anachronism that is deferred to where it is most convenient, i.e. western Europe, and openly disregarded where it isn't, i.e. in the Pacific rim and North America. Timbers, for example, have at least three players facing call ups for international duty this weekend. Of those, Kiwi goalkeeper Jake Gleeson has turned down his homeland because his club has only one other functioning 'keeper, and both Futty Danso (The Gambia) and Steve Purdy (El Salvador) will stay with their club through Saturday's match before shuttling off to do their national sides proud. When a player isn't from western Europe and doesn't play in a EUFA league, a co-commitment to team and country easily produces absurd travel results. Futty will have been in Portland this week, Toronto, Canada on Saturday, and will be present in Jamaica for El Salvador's match. Incredible! Timbers play Chivas USA on Saturday in a US Open Cup play-in match in Portland, and it's safe to assume that not only will neither of those guys be playing, but they won't be present. Buon viaggio, amici!

The second point I think bears making is that MLS has shown no intention of providing the respect traditionally shown international friendlies, and it will likely defer less and less as the league grows. With its contrarian and calendar-busting March-October season, which is more constricted than UEFA leagues' September-May season, MLS schedule-makers are less willing to provide the club soccer-free weekends that international friendlies depend on.

Uncompensated international duty is a part of a soccer culture that's quickly vanishing, especially in the States. I don't like that- right now I'm wearing my Deuce USMNT jersey in anticipation of the USA-Argentina tilt Saturday, after all- but as Bruce Arena notes, the writing's on the wall.

(Photo credit: Three Flags, by Jasper Johns, 1960.)

Must-Read from Today's Papers

Randi Bjornstad in the Eugene Register-Guard has a gut-wrenching piece on the Suicide Kits that Sell Death By Mail. Three months ago, a friend-of-all-my-friends who had struggled with depression committed suicide. I had never met him. When I went to the University of Oregon for law school, a lot of the people I liked best were all involved in politics. They all seemed to love him. I think it's possible to love people without knowing them, so I can say without a doubt that I loved Nick Klonoski. As a kid from the Lane County sticks who was actively immersed in Lane County's Democratic politics from an early age, I quickly learned that we all might be liberals, but there are South Eugene liberals and everyone else. I wasn't part of the insular South Eugene world, but people like Nick make me wish I was. I never knew Nick or his family growing up, but I knew about him years ago, and loved his devout commitment to making the world a fairer, more just, more healthy place. I miss him deeply.

As I opened my paper this morning, then, it was with abject horror I read about how his suicide was actively and profitably solicited by a company from out of state. The company, which takes payment only by cash or check (no credit!) publishes a book with its death kits about "helium deliverance." Nick had a signed copy by him at his death. This company facilitates the death of susceptible people like Nick who struggle with depression. There is no level of moral outrage sufficient to respond to these motherfuckers.

Of all the things I struggle with about living in the Northwest, the lassiez-faire attitude towards human life disgusts me the most. I know there are plenty of people who see nothing wrong with the death kit manufacturer's involvement in Nick's suicide. I don't. This isn't an argument specifically with Oregon's Death With Dignity Law- Nick wasn't "terminally ill" and couldn't avail himself of its suicide protections, thanks be to God- but it points out the entirely questionable premise assisted suicide is based on. D.A. Alex Gardner captured the issue perfectly, I think. "It is so awful that somebody could make money, turning someone else's transient despair into death. If that is happening, it's something that needs to be changed." Senator Floyd Prozanski will sponsor a bill criminalizing these groups, the story says.

What I found awe-strikingly touching was the small note in the story that Senator Prozanski's pending bill wasn't initiated by a member of Nick's family. Nick's dad died a couple of years ago, and was the heart and soul of our state Democratic party. He was the state chairman in the early 1980s, and had educated hundreds of state leaders as a distinguished professor in the political science department at the University of Oregon. Nick's mom is Oregon's most prominent federal judge, and a perennial candidate for appointment the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Nick, I'll miss you, and I want to do everything I can so these bastards never kill again.

(Photo: The school logo of Nick's Beloved Wolverines. Nick, rest in peace. I miss you man.)

Here's to You, Major League Soccer

To make a quick point: well done to the media folks at Major League Soccer! As someone who watches a lot of domestic sports and spends a good part of any sport season cursing the NBA, MLB, or NFL for their ridiculous approach to online content delivery, I have been nothing but awed by the first weekend of subscribing to MLS Matchday Live. I caught some of the Seattle game streaming online via Matchday Live, watched the Timbers on a local sports channel at a friend's house, and came home and caught the end of the Chivas match online. All legal. As I reflected on the Timbers match, I referred to my Matchday iPhone application to catch highlights. I watched archived games I missed during the evening as a I typed. Again, all of this was legal. I can't emphasize enough how remarkable this is. With Timbers going to the foreign state where the exchange rate for a visit is three points, then coming home for a US Open Cup game, I feel terrific about the way this season is going.

After the Dick-ing

Well, that was nice. Timbers opened up their first top-level US campaign in years with a match that will probably be remembered, if at all, for the bifurcated quality of play the team produced. Timbers simply got their asses handed to them for the first forty or so minutes. They were down 1-0 on an embarrassingly beautiful Omar Cummings ball to the middle that Jeff Laurentowitz nailed home. Welcome to the big leagues, boys. After another Cummings strike and Jamie Smith's $500,000 Tomahawk missile past Aidan Brown, Timbers were down 3-0 in their initial half-hour as an MLS club. What looked like a very long night was mostly mitigated by a hard fought end of the half, and the ball started to bounce a little more over to the Rapids' side of the field in the last 45'. Kenny Cooper's beautiful drill off a set piece gave the 500 strong travelling Timbers fans something to remember and carry forward. Over all, this looked like a team with soft passes that played on its heels against a superior, impressive side. See you in June, Colorado.

HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC PLAYER RATINGS
Kenny Cooper Towering over Anthony Wallace, he looked like the bionic forward. No dumb shots, muscular, aggressive leadership throughout. 7.0
Jorge Perlaza He put too much on one easy chip over Matt Pickens in the 14' but otherwise looked sharp and responsive, especially to a couple of nasty takedowns where the referee swallowed his whistle. 5.9.
Ryan Pore He looked slow and overmatched against Marvell Wynne. Still hoping for big things from him. 5.5.
Jack Jewsbury I think his play in the first half kind of summed up Portland's status on the field: more aggressive, more methodical and stilted, slower, and less dynamic. 5.7.
Jeremy Hall saw too little of him. 6.0.
Rodney Wallace Ugh. How many times could he get abused in crucial situations? Need to see more from him here. 4.9.
Adin Brown He was hung out to dry by the defense on the Rapids' first two goals, and probably couldn't get to the third even if he didn't look like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Thanks for coming through where you could, man. 6.2.
Khalif Alhassan ("Khalif All-Hass'in" if you're the Whitecaps announcer) What a spark plug. He looked like the exact same player who sparkled at the end of the Timbers' USL season. More of this guy, please. 6.5.

(Photo: a pic texted to me this afternoon from my good friend D. as he entered today's match in Commerce City, Colorado.)

Why Children Should Go to More Town Hall Meetings

Oregon's junior U.S. Senator rolled through town today for a short town hall meeting at Maple Elementary. My spouse needed a break, so I took the boy to meet the Honorable Jeff Merkley. The Tuscon shooting is still in my thoughts, and I think in an odd way that probably inspired us to go. I don't have too many political hobbyhorses and I feel like my views have gotten almost pathetically conventional in the past four or so years, so my intentions in going were mainly to a) have my son meet an admirable guy, b) show up and see which local dignitaries came out, and c) be a witness to the fact that not every person in my hometown is either a political crackpot or a local dignitary. And I wanted my son to be a part of that witness. Admirably, he was. While goateed middle aged men in camo jackets raved about Rand Paul and questioned the Federal Reserve, and obnoxiously bead-wearing peace-niks denounced Citizens United corporate speech, I sat in the back with my son and the Chief of Police, who used to coach my tee ball team. My son waved to everybody who talked to him, and even chatted up the school custodian, who gave him a stuffed turtle. The boy got the giggles as we played with the water fountain in the back, splashing and slurping as some very concerned people passionately questioned the Senator about some very abstract ideas. Eventually, one of the libertarians who unsurprisingly described herself in her remarks (it wasn't a question) to the Senator as "newly awakened" to politics in the last few years came to the back of the room where we were playing in the water fountain. She cooed all over my son. She doted on his curly hair and helped him make the water come squirting out of the fountain, all to the sound of his happy giggles.

That is what politics should be about. The structure of these town hall events generally mean that only the highly ideologically motivated and/or older folks with free time on their hands tend to come out. That's an unwelcome influence on our politics in my humble opinion, because policies naturally skew in favor of the people who get elected and make them: older, motivated wealthy people. As I told one of the Senator's staffers, we need more kids at these things. She smiled at my son and heartily agreed.

We waited at the exit door while Liberty Campaigners tried to debate the Senator about the gold standard. Before he could get in his car and head for the next town, we said hi and shook hands. I introduced my son to him and just gave him a simple thanks for coming to our little city. A train horn went off in the distance, and my son said "train!" The Senator acknowledged the train- I'm pretty certain no one but the boy had even paid any attention to it- and with a weary smile said, 'Yep, that's probably more interesting than one of these things.' Far from it.

(photo: the boy found a tiny plastic confetti money sign on the cafeteria floor, and we took turns licking our fingers and sticking it to our foreheads)

Expectations

As another domestic soccer-less winter departs and MLS arrives, a quick post about perspective. Expectations for the Timbers' oh-my-god-oh-my-god-it's-here first MLS season should be one thing: measured. And with apologies to Protagoras, the measure of all things Timbers in 2011 is Vancouver Whitecaps. Some national voices have implied that for better or worse, the Timbers will be judged by Seattle's successful 2009 debut, and maybe they will be, but I don't think such a marker is accurate. Looking at the early struggles of most first-year teams, from Philadelphia last year to Toronto in '08 and Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA before them, there is no reason to think that the exception in debut seasons should become the rule for Portland. Vancouver is a very talented team with some glaring holes at the top of their attack. In the same way Portland's first 11 can compete with anyone, but our depth will be a concern. Given the abiding structural emphasis on parity in MLS, the fact Portland and Vancouver are similarly situated markets, and the fact that each has prominently signed USMNT stars (Jay DeMerit, Kenny Cooper) while locking up a more anonymous international Designated Player (Erik Hassli, and One Imminent and Anointed Mystery CM) Vancouver and Portland are much fairer foils to one another than any historical analogy, including the 2009 Sounders. I expect the Timbers to beat the Sounders every time the two teams meet, but NW expansion history or no, you'd be crazy to expect the Timbers to make the playoffs. There's going to be some beautiful football, some maddening injuries and the table- besides the team from Western Canuckistan- is mostly for speculation. The only result that matters is Timbers play relative to Vancouver. Measure your expectations accordingly.

This Story Shall the Good Man Teach His Son

Rose City 'til I Die. I'll be watching the above video on more-or-less repeat until 6 PM Saturday. (The Sunflower Goal never fails to get me at least borderline weepy. Here's to three more goals tomorrow for Ryan Pore.) And for good measure:




HENRY: What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Libyan Ambivalence

Wherefore one does not know, one should remain silent, so I'll just briefly recount the things I know. I was opposed to the last major global international military adventure and spent an inordinate amount of time of my junior year at Portland State protesting war and praying for peace. John Kerry has been the major architect of potential US enforcement of a no-fly zone, and he is the senator I probably respect most on foreign affairs. I think Matthew Yglesias was right in his book Heads in the Sand when he adroitly pointed out that we tend to overlearn certain lessons from bad military campaigns, and I'm worried an overabundance of caution on imposing a Libyan no-fly zone is coming from a people like Andrew Sullivan who were dead wrong on Iraq.

Qaddafi can't keep bombing his people, and he's got to go. I know nothing of Libyan politics besides that. I'm not signing up to be the guy with the gun who makes him do it, so for now I'll just a) say that Senate Democrats better demand due process in any campaign for war and b) pray for a just peace.

Now, back to worrying about trans-Pacific radiation plumes and iodine tablets.

(A Libyan rebel fighter readies himself before heading to battle against pro-Qaddafi forces, some 40 kilometers down the road of the northcentral city of Ras Lanuf on March 4, 2011. Forces loyal to Qaddafi have regained control of Zawiyah, near Tripoli, from rebel hands, state television reported. By Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images.)

On the New York Times New Paywall

So, today the New York Times rolled out the details of its new content paywall. Gawker has a quick and dirty take here. I don't have a lot to add, besides that I've subscribed most of my adult life to the Times, and I'm glad the plan tilts in favor of subscribers and people who find articles via social media. That said, I probably wouldn't mind paying for online access alone. As a subscriber I took a nine-month hiatus from March of 2003 to early 2004 because of the insipid and propagandistic Iraq pre-invasion coverage by Judith Miller- take that, Sulzburger!- but otherwise have tried to read it near-daily. I love the New York Times dearly, and even though our subscription has cut down now to just Sundays- thanks for the Christmas gift, mom!- I still read my favorite sections. Those include sports, book reviews, and economic analysis in the Week in Review and Business sections, all consumed with an undimmed quasi-religious fervor.

The paywall to me seems imminently sensible and pretty fairly calibrated. In 2007 I ridiculed the Times' creation of "Times Select", and I stand by it- that paywall was for the benefit of reading opinion columnists the likes of Maureen Dowd and Tom Friedman, who in a modern opinion-dominated blogosphere really have become only as good as their ideas, i.e. borderline marginal. Who cares about opinion: good news content is what's important! I take this seriously as someone who has never tried to function without good sports journalism. And from a sports journalism perspective, the upheaval at AOL Fanhouse and subsequent AOL move to greater nonpaid content creation at AOL/ Huffington Postshows it's become very hard to get people to pay for quality sports journalism. I'm still a dead-tree newspaper addict, but even if I weren't, unlimited free web access only makes sense for the consumer.

(Photo: the Observer and a Sunday pint of Newcastle from my days living in the Cotswolds in southwestern England. Tony Blair's eyes do not require a subscription.)

A Quick Break In Our Soccer Coverage

The SOLV annual Oregon Spring Beach Cleanup is fast approaching, specifically March 26th from 10-1 PM. Additional information here. This is a fabulous volunteer opportunity that we take advantage of every year. The beach cleanup is a good thing in itself that is connected with a truly laudable organization dedicated to making Oregonians better stewards of their state. The cause is made all the more important this year because of the high amount of debris that washed up with the Pacific tsunami last week.

We'll be grabbing trash at a State park beach somewhere south of Newport, just like last year (see photo). It's the Oregon coast, so the weather very likely might not cooperate, but who needs Coronas and beach balls? Swirling winds and a steady drizzle were good enough for the little guy in the photo at left.

And because this wouldn't be a Plain Blog About Oregon without gratuitous references to our favorite Oregonians, here's a hastily snapped cameraphoto copy of Oregon Governor Tom McCall from the 1971 battle to establish the Oregon Bottle Bill. The original photo is from Brenth Walth's must-read Fire At Eden's Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story. McCall was instrumental in the growth of SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism) and made Oregon a national model for waste management & recycling when he signed the SOLV-backed bottle bill in 1971. The photo was taken a day after McCall made his first endorsement of the bottle bill. "I want to put a price on the head of every beer and pop can and bottle in the United States," he said in January 1970, as he announced his support. The next month, he told a group of industry lobbyists the following: "The environmental crisis towers over us like a massive cresting wave. If we establish standards and hold ourselves to them, we resist engulfment and save ourselves- and business- from inundation, ocean to ocean, by bottles and containers... What happens in Oregon is going to set a precedent for the rest of the nation. We are the key state in what I feel will be a domino reaction- and as the key domino, the way we move will set off a chain reaction."

Amazing stuff. Oh, and by the way, McCall was a Republican!

MLS 2011 Power Rankings

As a lifelong baseball fan, one of the highlights of my season is the day my Baseball Prospectus arrives in the mail. Baseball Prospectus is the analytic version of the lost almanac from the future that helps Biff Tannen build his Pleasure Paradise and Casino Hotel in Back to the Future II. It uses rigorous application of statistics to give you an intelligent but blurry, incomplete vision of the future. Baseball is essentially an individual sport, so it easily lends itself to the kind of exacting and distilled analysis that in certain situations can all but predict outcomes.

Statistical analysis for soccer, on the other hand, is certainly a developing field. I don't know a whole lot about soccermetrics, but definitely read what I could find during the World Cup when Alex Beam covered it for the Boston Globe, and Prospectus founder Nate Silver wrote about the metric he developed for ESPN's coverage of the World Cup, the Soccer Power Index. I feel borderline embarrassed to be discussing macrotrends when I'm using little to no rational analysis, but, well, this is all out of homerism anyway and for fun. Our culture's ranking obsessions as a whole are borderline absurd, even if sports whizzes like Silver and John Hollinger makes it seem downright sensible. And a brief note on the folly of predicting MLS standings in March: with the international transfer window not due to open until late in the summer, and at least a few big names bound to change sides during that time, supposed glaring weaknesses for deep-pocketed teams (such as Seattle's apparent newfound striker paucity) will almost surely turn into strengths. Anyway, rankings are dumb and pointless but I thoroughly enjoy participating in dumb and pointless opportunity to speculate on soccer, so shall we?

1. Real Salt Lake. When an American side starts to dominate the CONCACAF Champions League the Supporters Shield is in grasp. As we saw last night in Seattle with the excellent play of Josh Saunders subbing for an injured Donovan Ricketts, depth is the key. Salt Lake has that depth. Paolo Junior blows me away every time Kreis puts him on the field in the seventy-fifth minute. There's not a team as deep, well-rounded and well-coached in the league, and this is an easy call. I'm looking forward to seeing them come to Portland next month.

2. Red Bull New Jersey. My sentimental favorite for the Shield. A deep and compelling team that's had a year to gel after putting together some fascinating pieces in Rafa Marquez, Thierry Henry, Tim Ream and Juan Agudelo. (The fact that most of those players weren't in uniform for RBNY last year when the team opened its arena shows what an exercise in futility these rankings are.) I'm rooting for them to succeed, if only because a league full of half-empty risers in cities like Columbus, Ohio may have been the original MLS plan, but it's not any fun.

3. Colorado Rapids. What does it say about the MLS Cup that with the addition of Sannya Nyassi and more Omar Cummings/ Conor Casey, Rapids are almost sure to be a better team this year, and still most analysts are placing them in the league's second tier? (Silence.) That these rankings are dumb and pointless, obviously!

4. LA Galaxy. Full of depth and well-coached, but their reliance on two of the game's elder statesmen to push the attack, not to mention the collection of guys born in the 1970s on the roster makes me bearish on LA's chances of avoiding the injury bug. Looking forward to a great year out of Landycakes.

5. FC Frisco. It takes an hour to get from FC Dallas's stadium to Oklahoma. With no traffic, it takes forty minutes(!) to get there from Dallas proper. As a name, FC Dallas sounds prettier, but the Dallas (Fuel) Burn was probably more accurate.

Note: if Dallas had even competent roster management around the time of the Expansion draft, they could easily be ranked second or third. By the way, thanks for Rodney Wallace via new DC United captain Dax McCarty, guys.

6. Seattle Sounders. To quote Silky Johnston, "I hope all the bad things in life happen to you, and only you." They're deep, they're going to buy someone big this summer, and... yep... they're fun to watch. Especially when they play Monterrey.




POSTED WITH MINIMAL COMMENT FOR BREVITY:
7. Kansas City. But third with Chad Johnson (kidding!). I love their attack, and Teal Bunbury is going to be my early, contrarian pick for Golden Boot award winner. I have July 2nd circled on my calendar.

8. Houston. Spencer's old side does good with new additions.

9. Chivas LA. I'm a big fan of Heath Pearce and Robin Fraser, and if any two guys could will this punchless bunch to the playoffs, it's them.

10. San Jose. This is much lower than most other places have them, but what of it? Baseball Prospectus's skepticism of late-career bloomers has me doubting a Wondo reprise. They're good, as evidenced by the team I picked to finish directly below them...

11. Portland Timbers. What did you expect from me? This is the highest I could realistically put the boys in green. God, depth is a concern, but with Kenny Cooper, Jorge Perlaza-Drexler and Darlington Nagbe up front, we're going to be more fun to watch than almost any team besides Kansas City and possibly New Jersey.

12. Philadelphia. Le Toux can't be as good as the fanboys say, can he?

13. DC United. They'll make strides, and Dax McCarty will be fun to watch, but I was always skeptical of Cronin as an MLS starter, and overhaul or no, they were terrible last year. I'm over the Charlie Davies sentimentality crap- he skipped team curfew to get in a car with two drunk girls, the car wrecked, with his co-passenger dying and the driver going to prison. A year later he was cited in France for driving over a hundred and twenty miles an hour, but claimed he lied to the police about being the driver. No thanks. Score some goals and do the stanky leg, but you're no Ron Burgundy, buddy.

14. Columbus. Robbie Rogers and what army? This is a hobbyhorse of mine, but the fact that one of the most widely used international club ranking metrics has Columbus ranked as the top side in North America shows what antiquated jokes these methods are. Some rigorous analysis, please.

15. New England. I anticipate them signing someone decent from abroad during the transfer window as a magnanamious gesture of the Most Beneficent Robert Kraft. Otherwise, they'd be down at the bottom.

16. Vancouver. What the hell are they doing? This roster is a legit, top-North American tier soccer side? Color me perplexed, but I do hope for big things for the team playing at a glorified set of risers on East Hastings.

17 (tie) Chicago and Toronto. Willing to substantially revise if Timbers cough up three points in either early match to these teams.

(Photo: this year's 2011 Prospectus and a pint of the good stuff)

First Kick, Now to Beer

Ok, that was a satisfying way to start the domestic soccer season. Seattle proved themselves to be a formidable bunch against last year's actual league champions, and dominated for stretches in the game. Jen Chang badmouthed Alvaro Fernandez on Twitter, but to my mind, Fernandez was Seattle's only consistent playmaker toward the goal, and was warranted for looking like he was about to smash a petite Uruguayan fist through the plexi-glass of the Sounders' bench cover when he was pulled in the second half. Not to challenge a writer for the publication that foisted Rick Reilly on the world of sports journalism, but I found this analysis from MLS Talk much more persuasive. Fernandez's crosses kept Seattle competitive while he was in. Despite the fact that the game was almost more notable for who wasn't there - Juan Pablo Angel & Donovan Ricketts out, Blaise N'kufo going rogue, etc.- and the prodigious amount of missteps that come with an early season match, this may well have been one of the best hyped, prime-time MLS matches in memory. Which is another way of saying our standards are very, very low.

So: beer! Sunday I noticed my local convenience store had replaced its slot of highly marked up Terminal Gravity IPA from distant Enterprise, Oregon with new and decidedly well-designed Ninkasi Total Domination IPA six-packs from next door, i.e. Eugene. Terminal Gravity is one of my favorite IPAs, even if this particular convenience store charged an arm and a leg for it. Meanwhile, Ninkasi does an exemplary job of making people believe in its product- at a Ninkasi tasting Friday I almost expected the pourer to slip me a tract after he gave me his stump speech- and makes a beer that is pretty good and doesn't offend. I guess the relative efficiencies in having Ninkasi at my local store make it a better deal over all, but even at a silly mark up, I'll miss easy access to the way TG sparkled on my tongue.

(Photos: Trying to make a black & tan with Ninkasi IPA and a Widmer Imperial Stout: a chemistry experiment gone totally awry; my son at two months, enjoying some Wallowa Mountain sun at the Terminal Gravity Brewery in Enterprise)

Think of the Children

A question that I've been pondering, made more urgent as we anxiously await the arrival of our US Open Cup game tickets: should I bring my very young kid(s) to games this year? Disclosure: we have a twenty-two month old, and expect a second around the early part of June. (A day before the Colorado Rapids home game, to be exact.)

We've already arranged to have child care for our oldest during the half of home games we hold tickets for. Do I dare bring him to the TA for matches? He's been with us to plenty of baseball games, college basketball games and a Blazers game. He didn't go with us to the couple of Timbers games we actually attended last year, but he does watch a lot of soccer with me. I think he would love it, provided he doesn't go stir-crazy around the 20' and provided I don't go bezerk when some ignoramus starts swearing loudly in his ear. This charming profile of Mia Brammlett in today's Oregon Live has me more seriously considering packing the little man into the North End. If you haven't already, read the whole thing- my favorite quotations are "I always stand in the place where everybody is yelling" and to the question of her favorite Timbers player, "All of them. I love them." Wonderful stuff. I want our boy (and pending child) to grow up with some great experiences of sports, and I want to spend most of my precious weekend time with the kids. Furthermore, he gets in for free this year and next because he's under three. But where do I draw the line with allowing my wife and I to actually watch the matches? Or put more starkly, what's the right age to share with them what makes you nuts? All things being equal, being famous for something like the below photo (a favorite!) isn't really the goal.

(photos - above high left, My little man in the 107ist scarf; above center, the little boy who lives in the hearts of all European football fans)

On Words: Promotion and Expansion

Geoff Gibson over at Stumptown Footy has some thoughtful musings on the meanings of "promotion" and "expansion" as applied to the wacky world of Major League Soccer. Like a lot of relative contentious cultural flash-points, I think the debate over whether MLS needs promotion and relegation to become a great league and join the civilized leagues around the world is more heat than light. As I understand it, lack of pro/rel in American soccer is a historical wrinkle due to a number of factors involved in creating a new league from scratch in the early 1990s. I won't go into it here, for fear of attracting some of the unsavory internet creatures who lurk in dark corners of the web, waiting to bait unwary US soccer fans into furious exchanges of conspiracy theories. Suffice it to say, American soccer has tiered leagues, and even though Timbers are rising from a lower league to a higher one, they're not technically being promoted.

So, expansion or promotion? Geoff has it right in his piece that the semantics really don't matter in the long run. For purposes of this entry, "promotion" is an authentic rising of a lower-league power to a higher class of football. Expansion is more of when money talks, and an ownership group foists its way onto the league with a sparkling new product.

I think Timbers capture the essence of a promoted team, even if the new club is a different league entity and has a much dumber, soul-gutted, office-park approved logo. But as long as new teams are allowed to openly raid the rosters of existing teams, I'm not going to get on a promotion high horse. At the end of the day, I'm just happy to get out of a league that spends too much time in bankruptcy court.

As a counter-example, when people talk about expansion teams, the regular stand-in is Philadelphia, which began the league last year without so much of a lower-level team before then. However, I'd advise you to watch a video (via Mike on Twitter) of Seattle fans in the old, old days of USL. It was before Major League Soccer, before Arlo White, before fans, before almost everything, it seems. (Before everything but the cheerleaders?) This is what a pre-expansion team looks like, ladies and gentlemen.



(photo - Portland Timbers US Open Cup Match July 2010, PGE Park against Seattle - taken by yours truly)

Jeld-Wen Field: Better Than PGE Park, but Only By Default

If the rumors are indeed true and Portland's PGE Park is set to be renamed after the Jeld-Wen Corporation, I have a couple of very mixed feelings. First of all, it's better than having Portland General & Electric ratepayers subsidize the name. Why on earth do mostly non-competitive public utilities need expensive, prominent advertising? "PGE Park" always seemed like a poor deal for everybody involved. At least the City (who owns the stadium) gets an influx of private capital to help finance the deal.

Second, this comes off reeking like a collusion of some of the deepest-pocketed Republicans in the state. Which is fine in the abstract- outside of political campaigns, rich Republican-leaning businesses should be just as freely able to spend their business dollars as rich Democratic-leaning ones. Jeld-Wen has a long, long, long tradition of supporting some of the most conservative, pro-sprawl causes in the state, but they did provide backing to a clear early winner in Democrat Ron Wyden last time around. I guess this is not surprising at some level- with the Hunt family and Phil Anschutz financially providing the early (idiocy-riddled) chapters of MLS, and the Paulsons coming into Portland, rich, conservative white guys have an established money connection with American footy.

I got hell from my friends back in the early days of PGE Park for regularly calling it Civic Stadium well into 2003-04. Like last time, I'm sure I'll adapt eventually, but for now it looks like we're back to square one.

Teams I'll Be Following in 2011 - And A Riff on Edmund Burke

One thing that's struck me in reading the Oregonian's Timbers Fan of the Day feature is how many of my cohorts in Portland's Curva Nord focus their passions solely on the Boys In Green. Sure, everybody loves Sunderland because they brought the awesomest fans stateside six years ago, but no profiled fan has yet 'fessed up to following another domestic team. No, this is not a scientific sample, but I've found the Oregonian's responses intriguing. Based on the results, most hardcore Timbers fans follow one or two international teams, usually in the English Premier League, and really could care less about the state of Major League Soccer. If that's an unfair generalization, I'd love to hear some counter-examples. Essentially, we're OKC Thunder fans, but if basketball was born in Spain.

If you couldn't tell from where this was leading, I really feel almost 180 degrees the opposite. I'm thrilled about the oncoming MLS season for two reasons: the arrival of my Portland Timbers, and the chance to see the rest of the league in action. Since the Timbers have been stuck in soccer purgatory for the last ten years - let's be honest about NASL/USL/USSF/generic-bankruptcy-prone-acronym, shall we? - I followed MLS soccer more than any of the Timbers league opponents. I hate the Seattle Sounders like any good person, but I'm not ashamed to admit I didn't miss a single Flounders game from June on last year. And after a full season taste of MLS as a nonpartisan, there are a couple of teams I'm dying to see this season.

MLS boggles me for a number of reasons. It's a flawed league based on an idiotic premise that (surprise!) didn't turn out to work but has succeeded in spite of humbling missteps. Basically, my understanding of the original philosophical underpinnings of MLS is this: a) Soccer is growing; b) the NFL is successful; c) therefore numerous strategies that should make NFL more successful will make soccer in the US more successful. To anyone who's watched US club soccer in the last ten years, you will no doubt conclude that this line of thought led to embarrassing results.

What I think has worked for MLS - and I'll keep this brief- is its acceptance of soccer as a conservative game that thrives in conservative markets. No, not Houston or Amarillo- I mean conservative in an historical sense, where a highly traditional game finds the most fans possible who have an appreciation for traditional game. In that sense, uber-liberal Portland fits MLS like a glove. Thanks to Clive Charles it has a soccer tradition, which well complements a well-educated, younger demographic that doesn't mind being a test-tube experiment for US importing of European ideas. Mass transit, soccer, bikes and beer: there is nothing necessarily 'liberal' about any of these things. All four are deeply traditional Euro-centric enterprises that Portland have embraced. If Edmund Burke liked sports, he would shed a tear.

I want to be a part of where this league succeeds. I see MLS thriving in the places that are most amenable to the ideas sketched above - dense, modern, Euro-oriented- and stagnating (i.e. Frisco-ing, re FC Dallas) in the rest. The teams I'm most interested to see in 2011:

Vancouver Whitecaps. The Timbers' only real battle this year is against the Whitecaps. The default MLS expansion year is a shitshow. Timbers are going to strugg-a-lug to get to the right side of the table. Thankfully, we see Vancouver in August and again in October, at the tail end of our season. I think the respective approaches Timbers and Whitecaps have taken to roster building are fascinating. The Whitecaps have placed a real emphasis on their academy and defense, while Timbers have adopted a more immediately satisfying "find the best talent on the market" approach. I'm anxious to see how this one turns out in 2011, and will be in the North End on August 20th when Jay DeMerit and and Co. come to town.

(Footnote: MLS does away with any chance the Portland Trail Blazers ever had of acquiring Steve Nash. I love Nash and wish him well with Vancouver, but if the Cascadia Rivalry were 1/3 less exciting and Nash could play basketball for Portland, I'd probably take it.)

Chivas USA. I'm a big fan of ex-RSL assistant and new Goats coach Robin Fraser. I think Salt Lake is one of the most disciplined, exemplary teams in the country, and I unabashedly root for them in CONCACAF games. Chivas last year had some dominant defensive players, and it'll be very interesting to see how rookie Zarek Valentin fits in. Ex-OSU striker Alan Gordon has moved on to Toronto, but there's still plenty to like in Carson's second team. Plus, who ever argued with spending 90 minutes thinking about Corona beer?

DC United. This is sort of a default position, because as long as Steven Goff writes about DCU, this team is in American soccer's media capital. No other writer in American soccer makes his local side so relevant. If you want to know about American soccer, you read Goff, and if you read Goff, you know about DC United. As to the team itself, I'm not a big Charlie Davies fan- I think he's an immature jerk and an embarrassment for the USMNT side, frankly- but as he comes over from Sochaux for just under Designated Player pricetag, he should do wonders for the team that was almost outscored by Chris Wondolowski last year. As I watched DCU in 2010 I thought they were a decent team because of their defense, even if they were shit on a stick to watch. I remember thinking they were one or two strikers away from competing last year, and with another year of development of Andy Najar, and the addition of consensus-top rookie candidate Perry Kitchen, I'm betting on them making strides. My wife is due with our second child right around when DCU comes to Portland. I've already volunteered to miss that game, though you can bet I'll be following it online, probably with my oldest son on my lap from a maternity ward.

Red Bull New Jersey. Agudelo. Marquez. Ream. Lindpere. Henry. I'm rooting for them* to take home the Supporters' Shield, if only as an illustration of efficient market allocation. I really like their team, I really like how they spent their money, and I especially liked how coach Hans Backe called a spade a spade regarding MLS Cup idiocy. I'm rooting for Red Bull to give 'em hell in the East.

Question: Besides your favorite team, who are you excited to see in MLS in 2011?

*Rose City Miracle notwithstanding