Timber to play Sounders, Whitecaps

The Timbers announced a NWpreseason face-off with our rivals.

They play the whitecaps on March 4, and the Sounders on the 5th.

http://www.portlandtimbers.com/news/2011/01/timbers-play-seattle-vancouver-preseason-cascadia-summit

Two questions:

Can I spend two days in Tukwila, and what do I do with my WCC basketball tourney tickets?

Mmmmm Tukwila... I mean if urban sprawl and strip malls is your thing, then absolutely!

Nothing like watching bench players fight for roster spots in a meaningless game when you could see the Pilots in Vegas!

I'm not quite sure if this conflicts with the dates of the WCC basketball tournament in Vegas, but, it will be a great event for local soccer fans. It will be March 4th-6th:

http://www.soundersfc.com/News/Articles/2011/01-January/Cascadia-Summit.aspx

Ooops! I posted the same topic...but, from the Sounders FC site. Haha. Maybe someone can clean that up...

I got my tickets. Didn't even get $crewed by Ticketma$ter like the Seattle fans...

I actually feel a little bad for ECS after hearing how things are going down.

Is this event sold out yet? As much as I'd like to see the Pilots in Vegas, I'm going to wait and do that with my girlfriend next year...

Yeah, sold out a week ago... Well, unless of course you know someone...

But they are selling a weekend package to both games up north with bus transportation. I just got an email last night ( unfortunately deleted)

The place to go is cascadiasummit.eventbrite.com

These tickets are for the Timbers supporter section only.

DaTruRochin wrote:Yeah, sold out a week ago... Well, unless of course you know someone...

My peeps at 107ist hooked me up.

Well yeah, that works too... Hahah I have a wedding that Saturday and I'm not ultra enough to attend preseason scrub matches

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:

DaTruRochin wrote:Yeah, sold out a week ago... Well, unless of course you know someone...

My peeps at 107ist hooked me up.

Yeah, the announcement i saw was for people OTHER than TA folks. IT told TA people to go through TA.

There's live streaming for this event:

http://www.soundersfc.com/News/Articles/2011/02-February/Cascadia-Streaming.aspx

Between this and BYU tv for the WCC tourney, it should be a fun week...

Ouch. Timbers beat Sounders FC 2-0.

Great to see our lads come off winners. Did you see the rain freezing on Kenny Cooper's arms? That's due to the ice in his veins. Stoppage time goal. WGWTL.

Yeah, I hate to say it, but, Cooper is a heck of a player...

A 1-1 draw with Vancouver today. Pore put away a shot that rebounded off the post, then VWFC equalized off a defensive mix-up.

I think Portland played an entirely different side tonight, about half of them likely first-teamers. These guys are good. The skill level here is WAY above what we saw in the USL and that alone has me excited for the season.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:The skill level here is WAY above what we saw in the USL and that alone has me excited for the season.

Yeah after watching an MLS play, the few Timbers games I caught showed a pretty distinct talent gap... Hahah there's a reason for the bump in ticket prices

DaTruRochin wrote:

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:The skill level here is WAY above what we saw in the USL and that alone has me excited for the season.

Yeah after watching an MLS play, the few Timbers games I caught showed a pretty distinct talent gap... Hahah there's a reason for the bump in ticket prices

The skill level is better. I'm not sure if it's necessarily WAY better when a team really plays together though. The Puerto Rico Islanders absolutely destroyed the Galaxy in CONCACAF last season. You could come up with excuses like national team commitments or whatever, but, it happened. I think the bigger advantage of the MLS vs. the USL is the marketing and financial stability of the league. It's great to have a business savvy commissioner with NFL roots running the show. He knows how to build a league the right way.

They destroyed a Galaxy lineup consisting almost entirely of scrubs though... Guys who hadn't seen actual game play in weeks, or in some cases, months (And it wasn't just Nat. commitments, Arena was fielding a 2nd team, at best)

That said, they should have won that game, and yes USL has been rife with HORRIBLE leadership including ownership coups, shaky sponsorship and huge turnover... I'm sure Timbers/Caps fans will be very thankful for the relative stability of the MLS. (Heck their business model has actually been the focus of FIFA as they try to figure out what to do with the wild spending gaps between Euro squads. But I'd hate to be the person to tell Abramovich and the latest oil shiekh that they can't spend their money as they choose.)

Garber met us at a Q and A last year and said Michel Platini has complimented him on the MLS model. As you know UEFA wants to control club spending.

On the other hand, Garber is not a fan of a single table, can't put together a playoff format that's easy to understand, and wants an unbalanced schedule.

Argentina's Mauro Rosales was recently claimed as a discovery player for Sounders FC. A little past his prime, but, that's the kind of player the MLS is able to go after...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sounders/2014368467_sounders02.html?prmid=obinsource

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNMz8qrwLp8

You can add, "Hosted the Portland Timbers' first competitive MLS match in Portland" to Merlo's history. Open Cup tie with Chivas USA March 29.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Garber met us at a Q and A last year and said Michel Platini has complimented him on the MLS model. As you know UEFA wants to control club spending.

On the other hand, Garber is not a fan of a single table, can't put together a playoff format that's easy to understand, and wants an unbalanced schedule.

Yeah, I have mixed feelings about the single table format myself. The MLS really needs the best, most affordable talent possible and better media exposure. There's clearly a lot of potential for growth of the sport in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. My question is: What happens throughout the rest of the country once this next wave of expansion is done? The additions of Portland, Vancoover, and Montreal will clearly make the league better, but, plenty of stadiums in other states are struggling with their fan bases. The west coast and Canada are going to earn the lion's share of the league's money for many years to come...