It’s official, we finally have a new DP signing. This is exciting, because it’s not a case of a young guy with a lot of of potential, but rather a proven goal scorer in Liga MX who is still young. Icing on the cake? He’s in mid season form and physical condition. He does come with some baggage, notably that in 2015 he “tested positive for a banned substance” as stated diplomatically by Richard Farley, as well as an extremely recent meltdown on and off the pitch on his last game for Club Necaxa. Here’s hoping that the he knows what the front office and the Timbers Army expect character-wise from anyone who wears the green and gold. The player announcement was also posted separately in Spanish, which is either a first for the club, or quite possibly, something I just haven’t noticed before.
One the one hand, the MLS launched the Don’t Cross the Line anti-discrimination campaign in 2017. On the other hand, Don Garber seems to be more worried about avoiding a potential NFL-stlye backlash from the MAGA hate, (excuse me, I meant hat…) wearing middle America wallets. His wishy-washy response to the infiltration of white supremacist fans in New York City FC supporters groups and the new MLS Code of Conduct that prohibits among other things, any political language or sign seems to be the MLS equivalent of “There were good people on both sides.” Many people inside and outside of the TA have been wondering how this was going to affect tifo displays in Portland, AKA Little Beirut. With a 12 game away streak starting the season, anticipation had been building. The Vancouver Whitecaps had already ejected Seattle Sounders fans displaying an anti-fascist banner in 2017. Interesting now that’s come to light that the Whitecaps have a human-rights issues. There have been reports of people being asked to remove anti-racist and anti-fascist banners this season too. (Citation needed. Do you have one?) What’s that mean for Portland? We regularly fly banners and flags with political messages. The entire fanbase may not agree with them, but they do define a large part of our supporter’s culture, and it would be hard to fathom the Timbers front office rolling over on this. (Sure, insert your derisive snort if you want to…) Well, now we know, according to this release from the Independent Supporter’s Council.
The Portland Timbers front office has confirmed to 107IST/Timbers Army that they will definitely allow anti-racist and anti-fascist words to be displayed at Providence Park.
This Dale Mitchell photo comes courtesy of the Facebook group 1970s Soccer USA, your one stop location for NASL golden era ephemera, and the indoor soccer decline years. The button on the right is from the collection of Chris Conrad who loaned it to me to photograph.
What a weird match that was. Our new coach plays our old coach for the first time. We were at the very bottom of our conference and the entire league while Columbus was 2nd place in the East. Jeff Attinella is making all kinds of 2015 MLS Cup Steve Clark blunders while Steve Clark sits on our bench as a backup keeper. The Root Sports broadcast barely showed Caleb Porter on the sidelines, and we missed the handful of Timbers players greeting him either before or after the match. It’s a win that couldn’t have come at a better time. OK, actually last week, or the week previous would have been a better time, but hey, we’ll take it. Let’s keep this 2 game streak of playing well and keep going!
No, no, no… I’m not talking about the end of our chances given the poor start to the season. I’m talking about the end of the construction. The outward facing bits are mostly done. The rest of it appears to be mainly cosmetic, apart from the interiors which we can’t see. It looks like the hard work has been done. If you want a more, err.. ahh… in depth but not necessarily factual report, check out this episode of Soccer Touchdown.
Online sticker manufacturer Sticker Mule is using a Soccer City USA sticker in a video promo for their removable bumper sticker product. Looks like SCUSA has gone mainstream. Why would you ever want to remove it?
Looking back at that 2-1 loss to the LA Galaxy, by the letter of the law those 2 penalty kicks were earned by Zlatan. But if the same letter of the law applied to him equally, he wouldn’t have been on the field in the first place.
PTFZine is back!Going through some changes, both design and content wise. Working on it live, so expect it to look wonky until it doesn’t! If you’re wondering why, see this post.
