about Brad Evans – RB.

I thought Souter looked OK, Ljungberg is still the most creative player on the field, Hurtado is still one of the top defenders in MLS, and Vagenas is still a waste of a roster space that could go to someone younger and cheaper.

The whole thing brought up bad memories of the home scoring drought last summer, but at least they were creating opportunities, unlike many of those games. Late in the second half they were parked in the Timbers box and seemed a bit unfortunate not to put one in.

I remember at least twice (3X?) in the 1st half someone got behind the defense on the wing, but got cut off in the corner and couldn’t do anything because no one was making a hard run towards goal. I get yelled at by my teammates on my over-30 rec league team if I take a play off instead of looking for the cross at the far post. I hope Sigi had some words about that because it seemed particularly inexcusable.

If he can replicate the kind of goal scoring prowess the highlight videos show, he’ll be just what the Sounders need.

to be there, and that makes 180 scoreless minutes vs. lower division teams.

They were in the box a lot, but the shots never came. Or they came too late. All of a sudden there would be nine white shirts clogging the area. The Sounders never had a chance as good as Portland’s. There were close ones, but not clear, easy chances.

It was nice to stand in the fifth row, though. It felt fancy. But I like the 214.

was really nice, I thought. That’s how we dominated possession. But the finishing was more of the same.

The problem is, MLS teams are happy to clog the box too.

Portland has a BIG team. We looked like a bunch of midgets out there against them.

I thought Portland played a good road game. Hunkered back in defence, didn’t allow much in terms of dangerous opportunities, and scored on a counter. Should have had a second near the end.

I thought Evans was our best player, he looked good both at right back and when he moved up into the midfield (I’m not sure why others are being critical). Parke also looked good. I thought Gonzalez played well in the second half. Estrada really looked nervous and kind of out of place out there. Souter looks fit, but clearly hasn’t played with the team much and often looked a little lost positionally, in one case Evans made a really good overlap and had tons of space but Souter didn’t pick up his head and spot him. But he does look like he has the ability to be an MLS player (I say all this and have no idea about his background…where did he come from?).

Montero had some chemistry issues with others out there. In one case Ljungberg made a good run and Montero decided to shoot it and Ljungberg looked more than a little peaved. In another case Zakuani played it into the middle and reacted like he expected Montero to be there (instead, no one was there and it looked bad). Generally, Montero didn’t move the ball fast enough after he received it and it often seemed to kill momentum.

Sturgis and Fuctio didn’t play. I was hoping to see both of them.

Only other thought I have from that game is there is no way we can ever make that one up. Portland walked into our house as a tier 2 team and walked out with a win. They’ll always be able to hold that one over us…

That Jeff Parke looked fantastic in the back, he even contributed quite well on the offensive side of things. We should sign him for sure if we can. I might already be willing to put him ahead of Tyronne in the pecking order. He really looked that good. Great in the air, he had a sweet leave off in front of goal.

I was really impressed with Parke – he really looked good out there – and I also thought that Estrada did pretty well. I think he’ll see a decent amount of time as a sub this season. He was faster than I thought, for one, and made a couple of decent runs off the ball that I noticed as well as passing well and keeping possession well. I think he’ll be a good signing. Give him a couple years to develop and he could be great.

I think that what really happened here is that the off the field issues is affecting the on the field play. How could it not?

The players just voted to strike and it was announced yesterday. The strike date is just a few weeks away. I can guarantee you, that not every player’s head was in the game.

For Portland, this was a HUGE game for them and business as usual. There is no strike for them and they will go back to playing in their piddling (but still playing) league.

Does anyone on this team know how to run onto a cross? Evans sent cross after cross into to box in the second half (I was in the southeast corner so this occurred right in front of me), only to have it met by guys standing flat-footed, trying to nod it in with no velocity.

We might have a great defense over the course of a season, but holy crap, they seem to make at least one mid-bogglingly dumb error per match.

Keller must have been going nuts back there, he was probably doing nothing for about 88 minutes, with the other 2 having Timbers running right at him.
 
Yep, tonight, we got Evil Fredy. Got frustrated early, stood around alot, didn’t contribute much of anything. That said Levesque couldn’t generate much either despite all his effort.

Souter did nothing to impress me, looked mildly clueless. Yes, he’s new with no familiarity with the team, but might as well stick with Sturgis in my mind.

Estrada has good speed and some nifty dribbling skills. With the ball skills, he could be a step up from Le Toux and is much cheaper. He’s got to learn he can’t dribble past 4 guys at this level though.

I agree with the other posters, Parke should make the team easily. He was winning headers in the midfield consistently, made some good runs out of the back, showed good touch on his passes to Evans up the right side. He’s our #4 centerback in my mind.