Cascadia Cup

I was impressed with the Timbers ability to keep the ball, move it, and create chances tonight. They didn’t dominate, but Darlington Nagbe looked better than I’ve ever seen him. I was also quite impressed with “new” goalie Donovan Ricketts who made a couple of wonderful saves.

On the negative side, another mental lapse in extra time just before the half ended resulted in a Whitecaps score, but the Timbers fought back winning 2-1.

Had some “expensive” seats given to me tonight, but would have much preferred to be standing in the mayhem of the Army. I’m sure they were hurling insults at us up in the “stuffy” seats, but I didn’t mind ‘cause the lads on the pitch were playing well.

Hey! We’ve now got a good chance at the Cascadia Cup…much more important than any MLS trophy.

DoubleDipper wrote:
Hey! We’ve now got a good chance at the Cascadia Cup…much more important than any MLS trophy.

Washington State Timbers?

So, RUMOR has it the Timbers have offered the head coaching position to Caleb Porter who as recently as 2010 won the national championship at the U of Akron. Go Zips! (I've always wanted to say that.)

It sounds a reasonable choice given the average age of the Timbers players and the number of players Porter has guided to the MLS, including Darlington Nagbe.

It would be a fantastic addition, Porter runs the Zips squad like a pro level youth squad, and his results with player development speak for themselves. If management wants to go the youth development route for success, it only makes sense to have a guy who is one of the best in the college ranks for that.

Some of the better coaches in MLS i.e. Schmidt and Arenas both come from the college background, seems like a pretty solid model to follow.

DaTruRochin wrote:It would be a fantastic addition, Porter runs the Zips squad like a pro level youth squad, and his results with player development speak for themselves. If management wants to go the youth development route for success, it only makes sense to have a guy who is one of the best in the college ranks for that.

Some of the better coaches in MLS i.e. Schmidt and Arenas both come from the college background, seems like a pretty solid model to follow.

This is a bold move for the Timbers but even though he hasn't been in charge of an MLS club he's achieved as much as anyone with his college program. I've heard the "but he failed in Olympic qualifying" line a few times but some coaches are better at national team football than others. I actually feel pretty good about this move.

I feel like this win was marred a bit by the "vocal minority" of Gavin Wikinson haters... I understand the sentiment of all of these "#GWout" folks, but I am not ever going to call for someone to be fired under these circumstances.

RipCityPilot wrote:I feel like this win was marred a bit by the "vocal minority" of Gavin Wikinson haters... I understand the sentiment of all of these "#GWout" folks, but I am not ever going to call for someone to be fired under these circumstances.

Under what circumstances? The banners went up before and after the match. They didn't interfere with the main display before and they went down once the players came over for the log slices afterward. During the match? All about supporting the team, as it should have been.

I thought GW Out tifo spread throughout the North End looked awesome. Message sent.

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:

RipCityPilot wrote:I feel like this win was marred a bit by the "vocal minority" of Gavin Wikinson haters... I understand the sentiment of all of these "#GWout" folks, but I am not ever going to call for someone to be fired under these circumstances.

Under what circumstances? The banners went up before and after the match. They didn't interfere with the main display before and they went down once the players came over for the log slices afterward. During the match? All about supporting the team, as it should have been.

I thought GW Out tifo spread throughout the North End looked awesome. Message sent.

I will say it: it would be a dumb move to fire GW during or after this season. Not until we get a coach with at least half a season of MLS experience under their belt. Now is not the right time to ask for him to be fired, in my humble opinion.

So its a dumb move to fire a coach/GM during or after the season? Uhhhh, isn't it always during or after the season? Really there is no GOOD time to fire the head of your organization. But at this point the team is already at rock bottom, why would you let a guy so inept stick around when you can let a new guy go to work right away?

And further, asking someone to be fired as a fan, in season is really the only time you can effectively do that and make a public display. You can rant on twitter and online all you want, but in no way is that nearly as effective.

And sorry, but you need a good GM in place before you even think about hiring a coach, thats the only way you can ensure they are both on the same page and go after the talent that matches the style of play.

You missed my keywords: "THIS season."

So, people are calling for GWout and then we are left with who? Merritt Paulson? I agree you need a good GM before the coach, but when you have NO coach currently, firing the interm coach/GM makes no sense as a business move. It would make fans happy, but would cause the team to tank for another season.

Even including "this" season I really don't see how that changes the argument. If the problem is talent recognition, why would you want Gavin to stick around and just keep bringing in substandard talent? It makes no sense to just keep him around if he isn't capable...

Paulson has other executives that would be used to hire a new GM (And install one of them as an interim GM in the meantime) and you put one of the assistants in as the coach for the rest of the season. Heck, the Blazers just did it this year. And as far is bad business, hahaha losing is just as bad when it comes for a sports franchise...

I just don't think that the Timbers have hit rock bottom yet to where that is a reasonable move. Also, there is no comparing MLS and NBA franchises because the two businesses operate in different styles. Just sayin'...

How are they different? Owner, board, GM, coach.... Sure the financial situations are different (Harder salary cap, DP situations), but MLS structure is very similar to that of the NBA, and not so much as the international model.

So you want to see them actually get to rock bottom? They are 2 years in and won't make the playoffs, allowed the most goals in the West, have yet to win a road game, the fan base is grumbling... loudly. You really want to get lower than that? Can you honestly say the team has a chance of improving under him? If not, thats the time to cut the cord and move on...

To be perfectly honest, I love the timbers in their flailing state, nothing makes me happier. But I know it isn't good for the league, GW isn't capable at this level, and the fan base (the very fan base which is a primary reason for getting a team at all) deserves much, much better.

I think Paulson is as much to blame. The timbers are about the lowest in the league as far as player salaries. If you want to win, you got to pay for talent.

To answer all questions I would reference: Soccernomics

The Timbers beat Vancouver the other night, right? They also managed to beat Seattle while Spencer was on his way out? They have a couple of draws on the road? You still have a passionate owner that most people regard well? You have a fan base that still comes out to games day-in and day-out regardless of the state of the team? You have a city yearning for more and better?Not rock bottom yet. The Atlanta Thrashers hit rock bottom; the Timbers have not. Also, I do not want to see rock bottom. Suggesting that I would is inflammatory.

I have to agree with the Paulson thought. Teams with higher salaries win. No doubt about that, but it is about having the proper talent that is worth the money, and not just paying players more.







I'm also done talking about this at this point.

Give a call to Paulson and tell him Juan Román Riquelme is looking for work. He is only 34.

Only if that contract involves Larissa.

As far as the GM position, you can't get rid of the owner, so something has to give... And pointing out individual wins over the course of 2 years is kind of a short sided and narrow definition of success. The fans may be there now, it is all relatively new... If the ineptitude and low quality of play continues, the fans will turn inevitably; whether that comes in the form of protest, as was seen at the last game, or in the form of people not showing up.

Merritt has a long way to go before he turns into James Dolan or Donald Sterling, but he needs a GM who knows talent (Its pretty evident GW lacks that, plus he's one of the key figures that hired Spencer int he first place) and needs to be be willing to shell out more for decent players (not just euro re-treads). But Merritt is going to have to come to the reality that if he wants to win, he will need to spend more... Not just complain about the refs on Twitter.

I'm not calling it success; just not utter failure.

Fine, I'll settle on calling it diet failure. Great in the stands, horrible on the field (And only half the calories!) But not utter Tampa Bay Mutiny failure.

From KPAM:

The Portland Timbers wanted Caleb Porter, and the second-year MLS club has reportedly gotten the coach they set out to hire as their permanent replacement for John Spencer.

Portland radio station KPAM 860 reported on Tuesday night that Portland would announce Porter as the team's new head coach on Wednesday. There are no details yet on when Porter would take over as Timbers head coach, but there is a possibility Porter will be allowed to finish out the current 2012 NCAA season as head coach of Akron, the current No. 1 team in the SBI College Soccer rankings.

Sources have told SBI that Portland considered some other veteran options, such as Preki, Mike Lapper, and some other familiar names such as Claudio Reyna and Richie Williams, but ultimately settled on Porter. Sources say Timbers owner Merritt Paulson was the driving force behind the selection of Porter over more experienced options.

Everything I've read states Porter will finish the season with the Zips before coming to Portland.

Is the money and the prestige better to come here to Portland for the MLS? I just would be ready to give up a highly successful program like Akron's and good job security, I guess.

Coaching is not a profession where job security is the first thing that springs to mind.

Well, unless you are Mark Few and like things as they are... I guess it all depends on personal aspirations... MLS is has been a springboard toward national team duties (a la Bob Bradley and Bruce Arena). It will be interesting if a US coach ever makes the jump from MLS to another coaching league.It could be challenging since the rest of the world combines Coach with what we call GM duties into one role as Manager.

But as Geez said, coaching and stability are not typically willing bedfellows, at least not anymore...

.. Except that Porter is apparently leaving a 300K per year 10 year contract.

Well in that case, he's bored with dominating college soccer and might want a bigger challenge... I'd say building the Timbers from essentially scratch (Save a few players and a rabid fan base) would be such a challenge. ORRRRR he's about to be found in violation of NCAA rules... ORRRRR Merritt is opening his pocketbook a little bit... or a lot a bit....