What John Spencer's Statements Taught Me About Myself

It does come across as whining at times. But, it is refreshing that he is honest in how he feels instead of just spewing coach speak all time.

I like how Spencer’s answer to Sigi is to take whining to an entirely different level. He whines more than Sigi could even imagine. But, as I said about Sigi, it is refreshing that Spencer is honest in how he feels instead of just spewing coach speak all time.

I think the rivalry is hitting on all cylinders right now and that is great.

Dave,

This is not the first time that you’ve allowed passion to overtake common sense. Don’t beat yourself up over it. We’re all just humans.

Me, I could care less about what John Spencer says and I think that you should start caring less about him too.

What bothers me about sigi is the way he nearly ALWAYs answers a question by starting with ‘nah, yeah’ when he means ‘yeah’ and ‘yeah, nah’ when he means, ‘no’.

This is only vaguely related but I figure I should say it now because it always bothers me and I am not sure it will ever fit any closer to any other thread.

Outlets like Twitter make it extremely easy to vent without giving you time to filter what you’re saying. It’s something everyone in the online world has to learn to deal with. It’s healthy for you to be a fan and in fact I’d have to assume that all the fantastic work you put into this site wouldn’t happen without that. You seem to be pretty clear on what kind of balancing act is required to be a fan/journalist regarding the team so I wouldn’t beat yourself up further.

As a Portland fan I’ve quickly noticed that Spencer shoots pretty straight. Remember, when the Timbers were hammered by LA he said they broke down mentally. He didn’t sugar coat it. Also, when the national press was falling in love with the Timbers he essentially said that the fans don’t win games, they don’t score goals. If his observations were only aimed at Seattle it would be easy to accuse him of being hypocritical. But the truth is that he aims his criticisms wherever he feels they are needed.
Right now I love it. And I don’t think it hurts the derby. But ask me again in a few years if it is still as entertaining if/when the Timbers aren’t winning. All coaches are destined to be fired.

We’re the Sounders ands we’re building a championship franchise. We need concern ourselves with LA, NY, and RSL.

We shouldn’t overly concern ourselves with the random rants of a much too sensitive coach for a lesser side.

For the past week I’ve been dealing with a vaguely familiar sense of anger. Whenever I thought about the Sounders I found myself quick to take offense and quick to see conspiracies: the league is bending its rules in favor of RBNY and LA in order to screw us.

At the game the anger gave way to, well, rage. And I remembered where I had felt it before. You see, I grew up in Alabama, and I’m well versed in the insanity that is the Alabama/Auburn rivalry. I remember all too well how crazy people got about the rivalry. It was, and is, unhealthy for all involved because the rivalry has drained away the joy of the game. Neither side is having any fun because the “stakes” of losing are seemingly so high. (Who wants to get taunted for the next year by one’s least favorite brother-in-law.)

The upside of the rivalry is that it has pushed both Alabama and Auburn to excel. The downside of that pressure is that both schools are always just one step ahead of the NCAA. And everyone once in awhile the NCAA posse catches up to them. More importantly, the pressure to win has caused both schools to make stupid, short term decisions around coaching.

As I reflected on the game, and thought about Spencers’ comments, I realized how easy it would be to fall into hatred of the Timbers. Because, as God as my witness, I’d have stepped over my own mother if we could have won that game by a score of 4-nil. But that level of intensity only damaged my enjoyment of the game.

At the end of the day it’s a kid’s game played by adults in an entertaining way. And what any of us, including Sigi and Spencer, is meaningless. The only thing that matters is the actions the team takes on the field, and the actions that each club’s front office takes in player acquisition.

Sigi need not respond to a guy popping off via the press. As the Arab saying goes, “The dogs bark but the caravan rolls on.” Let’s let our actions on the field, in the front office, and in our scouting, do the talking. Let’s win that game in Portland by a score of 4-0, then move on like pros. Beating Portland will be delightful, but it only matters in the sense that each win propels us to our goal of winning league titles and cup competitions.

And at the end of the day, it is only a game.

It’s true that injuries have hurt the Sounders and it’s true that Portland is good on set pieces. It’s not like Sigi was appealing to the league for an extra two points, he was expressing some valid views on Saturday’s game. Just because he’s Seattle’s coach doesn’t mean he should always, always be as hard on the team in the media as possible.

The media sound bite game is a lose-lose affair. The overall tenor of Sigi’s comments was not that the Timbers didn’t earn the tie. The overall tenor of Sigi’s comments was not that the Timbers are a bad team. It wasn’t even that the Timbers are worse than the Sounders, even though it would be completely valid for Sigi, as a member of the Sounders, to feel that he’s put in a lot of hard work and that his team might win if the game was played a second time. (Indeed, how often have we seen Keller come off his line and not get to the ball? It’s not hard to see the Sounders stealing a win on Saturday even if their overall play didn’t especially merit a win.)

At any rate, Spencer seems a bit full of himself at the moment, we’ll see how full of himself he feels in a few years.

And delusional, in the sense that anyone who watched the game or looked at a box score could tell you that the Sounders had the better of the match and were unlucky not to come away with three. Still, I think he has a reasonable point about about excuse-making, and, whatever my pessimism for the rest of the season, I do worry that Sigi’s quotes indicate an attitude that he will accept the injuries and whatever other misfortunes as an excuse for merely average play. I wish we’d see some of Spencer’s uncompromising nature in Sigi, though given their records it’s impossible to doubt that Sigi’s the better coach.

Yes. Irresponsible, to the red line and beyond. The words don’t sting me at all (because Sigi’s always been a little bit of a whiner). What bothers me, is that apparently this rivalry was a little too nice to suit Spencer. He wanted to drag it down to the level of an English Derby, where chaos reigns supreme and violence is just one insult or spilt beer away. Because now he’s pissed off every single fan in Seattle. He’s stoked the fire and with it, the possibility that this thing will ignite. Beyond any weight his words may have had, the man has simply opened up, much wider, the possibility that this rivalry could turn nasty. For that, I’d fine him, tell him to shut the hell up, and let him know that in America, we’d like to keep it civil. Can’t believe an American is having to say that to a brit.

The idiotic remarks about the Portland fans being more “authentic,” complaining about Sigi whining…

All he’s doing is…
A) trying to appeal to the hipsters in Portland
B) trying to be a dick to Seattle fans (which is, incidently, the entirety of Portland’s soccer brand – just look at their iPhone app).

Those are both things he has to do to feed the fan base in Portland, because that’s all they have: an overgrown sense of their own elite-ness / authenticity and a burning hate for Seattle fans.

Like most hipsters, though, the sense that he’s trying a wee-bit too hard just confirms that they AREN’T “more” authentic, just trying to appear so. We could ask why, but it’d be pointless.

I think Sigi was pointing out some things that really did have an impact on the game. I don’t think any of those were intended as excuses (i.e. he wasn’t saying we shouldn’t have been able to win that game) but rather as a way of encouraging his team (a tie at home against a rival can be disheartening; remembering the context of injuries, weather, and that we owned the run-of-play can be encouraging and keep spirits up).

Spencer’s retort served his own fanbase. Sigi’s comments served his.

Honestly, all that this has done is two things:
A) Make Spencer look like a dick
B) Make Sigi do what most Seattle fans do in the face of Portland dick-ish-ness: blink, sigh, and say “Whatever…”

Spencer would say he was happy with a draw on the road. Someone explain to me the difference between being happy with a draw because the other team had home field advantage and being happy with a draw because your team was beat up?

Step 1: Rationally explain your argument.
Step 2: Do not continue to feed the trolls!