Less about the actual soccer, more about being a Portland Timbers fan.
Check out this surreal screen cap of an old CONCACAF video of the Timbers CD Olimpia match. This match made me so very angry. This is right after the CD Olimpia player faked getting kicked in the face. The screen cap caught the video in mid screen transition wipe, and resulted in some vaguely creepy imagery. It reminds me of Munch’s The Scream with a touch of Hieronymus Bosch. (Yes, I keep these things on my hard drive for some reason.)
The Timbers front office response left a lot to be desired, but Dino Costa has finally lost his job in Portland. There are limited number of these patches available. A set of 2 sells for $5, with $4.50 going to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
You’re looking at virtual clothing for avatar’s in the virtual reality world Second Life. Not limited to Timbers supporters, however. You can also buy other (unlicensed) virtual team gear as well.
Two good interviews with Caleb Porter this week. The first on FourFourTwo is quite lengthy, with Caleb about his past coaching experiences at all levels, and what he’s learned. He’s talked about it briefly in other interviews, but not in such detail. The second interview is in actually in the Soccer Made in Portland podcast, which I listen to regularly. Unlike previous SMIP interviews with Porter, this one took place with everyone in the same room instead of being phoned in. (OK, there was a Caleb Porter appearance on the live broadcast of SMIP in 2016.) Porter talks a lot about T2 and development, as well as the first team starting 11 positions as injured players become available. He weighs the benefit of Valentin vs. Powell, and Vytas vs. Miller. What starts out as a cut and dry answer to the question of further moves in the summer transfer window get’s a little interesting. Somebody might be shopped, and there’s a position where Caleb definitely wants an upgrade. Usually the best (and rarest) part of any Caleb Porter interview involves him breaking into laughter. If you only listen to one part, tune into the 17:00 mark to hear Porter on Harold Hanson’s first appearance for the Timbers (in a regular season game).
Caleb Porter, One-on-One: I had it all figured out, then I got punched in the nose
Read it: FourFourTwo
Soccer Made in Portland: 2017 Episode 28 with Caleb Porter
Listen to it: Soccer Made in Portland
X = out due to injury.
Red rectangle = Red card suspension.
Scribble = Unavailable due to international duty.
Out of the 14 guys available to play, 2 of them are backup goalies…
Alternate post title: Rostarmagedon. ( Roster + Armageddon )
[Graphic: Alpha Wilson]
I thought it would be easier to track down the year of this car by the taillights, but I couldn’t figure it out. It would be great if it was a 1975 model, but the taillights seemed closer to 80’s. I spent way too much time looking at Trans Ams and Firebird’s. The minute after I posted this, I realized realized it’s probably a Camaro… 1980 from the looks of it. I’m a Mopar guy myself., but this is pretty sweet. I don’ think I could pull it off though.
[Photo via a friend of Natalie Bleibtrey]
I don’t know who made this. The one floating around Facebook has other “rivalry” teams switched. There are some guys I would never want to see in a Timbers uniform, like Dempsey, but Morris… that kids alright, but seeing Diego in a Sounders kit hurts my stomach. There’s a version floating around with some text that says Diego looks terri-bule in rave green…
Yes folks, he actually said that on TV, cementing his place in Timbers lore. I hope the fine wasn’t too harsh, cause EVERYONE loves it.
Here’s couple new renders of the proposed Providence Park expansion as posted on NextPortland.com, along with a short write up detailing not much of anything. We finally get to see a close up version of the new homeless camp pedestrian arcade. Check out Chatterbox for a far more interesting article on how the expansion plans came to be, including options for the roof materials and a word or two from a representative of the MAC club. I may be exposing my architectural ignorance here, but I was surprised to learn they didn’t have the details of the roofing materials figured out when they designed it. Turns out it could be made of steel, or fabric. Hopefully they’ll plan for the once-a-decade heavy (for Portland) snow accumulation.
In stadium expansion news, the Oregonian published a confusing and inaccurate account of the potential new deal with the City of Portland and the Timbers. Stumptown Footy addressed those issues in detail, and it appears the original Oregonian article has been largely re-written.
Nagbe to Dempsey: Say ‘what’s up Portland?!’ ? #RCTID pic.twitter.com/Es8PWn7ypd
— Timbersmania (@Timbersmania) June 11, 2017
This patch from Tender Ghost seems tailor-made for a Timbers and Thorns supporter, but it turns out it’s unrelated.
The Timbers/Thorns patch gallery I built for PTFZine.com has become the official online archive of PTFC Patch Patrol, and has a new home at PatchPatrol.com. Updates have been happening solely on the new site for a while now, which is a group effort. Aside from adding new patches as they are released, a lot of the updates fill in missing information for older patches. At the time of this posting there are 381 patches in the archives! Check it out!
I decided to take a poke at some data visualization by tinkering with Chart.js, which is pretty powerful. Even though it has a lot of documentation, the examples are sparse and it took me a while to make it look right. You can see I've charted our conference standing, supporter's shield standing, and MLS Power Rankings after each game. Notice, this isn't by week, it's by games played. Standings are noted at the end of the weekend, or if it was a midweek game, after all midweek games have been played. I prefer that to weekly updates because I think it gives a more accurate and interesting picture.
Because we were in the same position in conference standing and Supporter's Shield standing for several weeks, it's kind of boring to look at, and unfortunately where they overlap it doesn't exactly show it. Ideally I would think the lower layers would be positioned slightly lower so you could se it, but I can't figure out how to make that happen. Another issue, the highest standing you can achieve is a 1, but if I don't start the ticks around 0, the line thickness gets cropped. Fortunately I can turn of the label for that first tick. I'll be fiddling with the settings a lot so if you come back later I may have learned thing or two and it may look somewhat different. (UPDATE - Keeping an updated version of this chart over here.)
So... are we in a slump? Sure looks like it. You can see the individual graphs after the jump.
You know the Key Bank Club. We all love to hate them because they show up late for the matches and the TV camera’s show empty seats. I knew they got free hot dogs, but they also get free doughnuts. Not just any old doughnut, but fancy, match specific Voodoo Doughnuts. It’s like they sail their yachts on see of money over there… They finally have a sectional patch called the KBC Donut Destroyers, made by one the wise guys who sits in that section, who assured me is always there before the match starts. UPDATE: I’ll be adding subsequent team doughnuts to this post when I get pics.
An uncredited Liam Ridgewell meme floating around the inter webs from the frustrating Atlanta United FC match. If only they had finished them… Despite few recent wins, we’re still only one point out of first place. At least we got to see the first Ridgey Roll of the season.
OregonLive.com posted some additional renders of the proposed expansion of Providence Park. Another baby step, the plans have been presented to the city’s Design Commission, and were met with “general support.” The more I see of the renders, the more I like it. Still not crazy about the strip mall feel* from in the inside view, but the exterior is looking good.
*As I scroll down to look at those first renders, I realize I no longer have any objections to the way it looks on the inside. Must have just been the initial shock of seeing them for the first time.
The Portland City Council passed a resolution expressing formal support for the stadium expansion plans, opening the door for the rest of the things that need to fall in place as well. Three things of note, there will be a special exemption from the competitive bidding process, I assume because construction is being paid for by Peregrine Sports. The second thing, and one that has a few people grumpy, is that the 4,000 new seats would be exempt from city ticket taxes for a period of 10 years. Some see this as a government subsidy, while most reasonable people feel it’s a fair concession considering tax dollars won’t be spent on construction. The final point of interest, Peregrine’s representative would not comment on the time period required for the Timbers to recoup the investment, because the project had not been finalized yet. The section of the hearing relevant to the Timbers starts at around the 2 hour and 13 minute mark and runs for about 35 minutes. Some of the mechanics of the deal and the different ways it can be interpreted are fairly interesting.
The Timbers have what they call a fine wheel in the locker room. If you’re late for practice or have some other minor infraction you have have to spin the wheel and receive judgement. What’s good for the goose is good for the Gaffer, because Caleb Porter had to spin the wheel and was forced to put on a full Timbers kit for a training session. It caused quite a bit of laughter in the locker room, if you’re able to find the video that Alvas Powell posted, for a while at least. He was asked about it during a media briefing, and you’ll notice he goes out of his way tiptoeing around what the back of his jersey says, a reference to being a full kit wanker. It’s great see Caleb laugh, he always looks so serious.
Today the Portland Timbers released renders of the proposed new stadium expansion that would add 4,000 seats to our current capacity. It’s safe to say the entire fanbase is excited about adding more seats, but reactions to the renders are somewhat mixed. Personally, I don’t think it fits very well with the style of the existing stadium. I had a feeling this was going to be difficult to achieve, and I’m sure many people felt like the current Key Club section didn’t fit in very well when it was new. To it’s credit though, the roof style did have a connection to old park. This new one, not so much. In the release they compare the new stadium addition to the “iconic” La Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires, that quite frankly looks garish and tacky in the picture they chose. More like a stacked strip mall than anything I’d want to brag about. I showed the interior shot to my 9 year old thinking he’d be excited, and his first reaction was “It’s ugly.” Hey, it could be a lot worse. It could be Soldier Field.
However…. it’s already grown on me since the first time I looked at it earlier in the day. I’m excited about it, top-heavy or not. The biggest surprise is that this huge addition only adds 4,000 seats because it looks like so much more. The best news is that the whole thing is going to be privately funded! An extra 4,000 seats and the new $10 a beer price tag ought to help out some. Projections say the work can take place during the off-seasons with a completion date as early as 2019. Let’s hope the NIMBY’s can be kept in check. I imagine the neighborhood will want to talk about parking.
The sooner we get started, the sooner we can work on that South end too! Merritt, on the off chance you’re reading this, don’t forget to add hooks for tifo rigging, and thanks for picking up the tab in Columbus!
This is a cartoon from the Willamette Week pointing out the irony in our goal celebrations, and even our team name, considering the pro-environmental leanings of many of the citizens of Portland and much of the state of Oregon. It falls kind of flat, but the tofu log is slightly amusing.
A few years back Mamadou “Futty” Danso was my 6 year old son’s favorite player. I suspect it mostly had to do with his name. He would sit in the kitchen doing his homework and you could often hear him muttering “Futty” repeatedly under his breath. I hated to break it to him when I found out he had been traded, because I feared he would take it hard. He did, in fact, start crying after I told him. In the past few years he often still chooses the Montreal Impact when playing Fifa, even though he knows he has moved on from that team too.
Futty recently responded to some fan questions on Reddit, mostly Timbers-centric. If there can be any doubt why he was was a bit of a fan favorite, read his responses here. I would have taken Futty over anyone named Taylor in 2016…
[Photo: Google image search via OPB.org, however the image doesn’t show up on the page.]
My friend Tim Peters has been messing around with Microsoft Power BI, but I won’t hold that against him since he’s made few Timbers related visualizations that can be found here, and here. Maybe one day he’ll be convicted to contribute here. When he’s not geeking out on Timbers stats, Tim geeks out on the Beer Intelligence Project.
I’ve added over 100 new patches to the patch gallery since the last time I posted abut it. This gallery will be mirrored on the forthcoming official new web site for PTFC Patch Patrol, to be unveiled in the near future. Lot’s of other things have happened since the last post, but this is the quickest/easiest update to make. I’ll get back in the swing of it soon.
It wasn’t pretty (except for that first 8 minutes) but we have 3 points on the road for the first time since 2015(!) and start off the season with 2 wins for the first time since… USL? The downside is that Ridgewell is still out, Vytas is still questionable, and we may have lost Guzman for the next match. and meanwhile Ridgewell. Silver lining? Farfan seems up to the task, and the LA Galaxy social media team gave us a video that was supposed to be snarky, but has the unintended effect of making Timbers fans smile like Chara… MLS is not very happy about it, although you’d think they’d spend more time worrying about consistency of the refs. We’re lucky we didn’t get a man sent off ourself.
Some sights and sounds from the opener, including footage of the Minnesota away support group, whom I assumed were all members of the Dark Clouds, until I recognized the capo and learned they had another group called the True North Elite in this article.
I had chance to help pull up the tifo for the first time. Glorious! How, you ask? In the chaos before the opening day kickoff, I was walking back to my section and I overheard someone say they are short handed. What luck! This year I also got back in the swing of volunteering at the tifo painting sessions. Somehow I went the entire 2016 season without helping, and I missed it. If you’ve got an extra hour or two to help out, I highly recommend it.
2016 hangover is officially over. What happened in the off season? Not so surprisingly, we learned that Nat Borchers and Lucas Melano would not be returning, while Rodney Wallace’s return to MLS did not go as many hoped. We raided Saprissa for David Guzman and Roy Miller. An all too familiar preseason, season-ending injury to Gbenga Arokoyo sealed the fate of Jack McInerney. We managed to keep Darlington Nagbe off the Celtic roster, and saw him return to the USMNT after Klinsman got fired. We added a former teammate of Diego Valeri in Sebastián Blanco, a player who in preseason already looks like he’s been with the team for a year. Meanwhile, completely unexpected Superdraft acquisition Jeremy Ebobisse has been quietly tearing it up in the CONCACAF U-20 Championships. Developing talent or developed talent? It’s an odd numbered year, so we’re already in a good spot, but things sure are looking rosy! Bring it on!
I added a Timbers and Thorns patch gallery to the site. It’s a work in progress. So far, 209 entries, which includes patches designed by the Timbers organization, No Pity Originals, and unaffiliated supporters. There are lot of gaps in the information, but this is a good start. Patch culture, designing and trading is a strong subgroup of the Timbers Army community. Check out the Patch Gallery. You may notice one of the categories is called “Merritt Badges” instead of merit badges. It’s not a typo, rather a reference to owner Merritt Paulson. And just like merit badge you get in a Scouting program, you have torn these too.
Stumptown Footy with news and analysis of roster changes and the expansion draft.
Timbers Announce First Round of Changes from 2016 Roster; Trade for International Roster Slot
Read it: Stumptown Footy
MLS Announces Expansion Draft Protected Lists
Read it: Stumptown Footy
Ahh.. Nutmeg News. Thanks for this.
Despite Excitement Over MLS Cup Win, Sounders Fan Decides To Not Re-Watch Game
Read it: The Nutmeg News
Well that sucked. The Sounders winning the MLS Cup is the doggie doo icing on the crap cake that was the 2016 season. Absolutely zero shots on goal, but they win in the PK shootout. It’s as if Toronto won the popular vote but the Sounders weaseled in via the Electoral College. I knew I could count on The Nutmeg News to bring levity to the situation.
Sounders’ Victory Spawns Protests As MLS Supporters Say “Not My MLS Cup Champion”
Read it: The Nutmeg News