- Jason Davis

John Spencer, the fiery Scottish head coach of the Portland Timbers, is, at the most understated end of the spectrum, expressive. On the sidelines, he's nonstop action; a whirling, cursing, maelstrom of a man alternatively exhorting his charges and berating the referees, adequately meeting every generalized notion of Scottish soccer coaches to which a wide-eyed American soccer public ascribes. Off the field, he doesn't hesitate to let loose with white hot eruptions of pointed commentary invariably tinged Timbers' green and gold. If it didn't seem like he was calculating every word, no matter how sensational they seem, we might call him "volatile."

From Dropping Timber. There's a time commitment involved, but this is a nice peek at the buildup to the Timbers' first home MLS game.

- Jason Davis

Jared and I reconvened yesterday to survey the American soccer landscape. What we saw both frightened and enthralled us. We therefore decided to record ourselves talking about it for just under an hour, with bits on everything from the Timbers home debut to Henry's defiant celebration interspersed with snazzy music. Lucky you.

Borrowed from NASLjerseys.com

-Jason Davis

American soccer history exists, it's just sometimes in the eye of the beholder. Or, more accurately, it requires a bit of looking. Thanks to the hands-off-history approach of MLS for the first decade-plus of its existence when it came to soccer history, connections to anything pre-1996 were under-informed or absent all together.

-Jason Davis

The Portland Timbers unveiled the returning Kenny Cooper, their highest profile signing to date, at a press conference yesterday. Cooper comes back to MLS after spending a predominantly disappointing season and a half on the books of 1860 Munich of the 2.Bundesliga. Although his European adventure didn't pan out, Cooper is a proven MLS goal-scorer, an asset worth the investment for the Timbers.

-Chris Ballard

Following soccer in the United States can be difficult when you’re a relative newcomer, and finding a team to call your own even more so. I’ve wanted to find a time to root for most of my time here. It’s all very well staying aloof to the vagaries of the club season, but supporting a soccer team is fun, and I don’t want to miss out.

This topic was one I originally intended to tackle, and in much greater depth, months and months ago.  Unfortunately, that would require research I just don't have time for at the moment, and so you get this fired-off ramble instead of a properly told story. Joy.

Weekend fare. Not a tour really, but a question and answer session on the Timbers stadium renovations with the ongoing work in the background. Video courtesy of Steeplechase3k on Twitter.

The Portland Timbers, USSF Division 2 version, were knocked out of the playoffs last night by the Vancouver Whitecaps when they won 1-0 but lost the two-legged series 1-2 on aggregate. While the Whitecaps will continue on in search of one final second division title, the Timbers have played their last game as a minor league outfit.

Don Garber must be a pretty intelligent man to have reached his current station.  Former NFL executive, shepherd of Major League Soccer 2.0, leader of men and maker of decisions.  Don Garber has got it together.


And Don rarely says anything without weighing out the consequences.  He always has his PR conscience on his shoulder, monitoring his words and making sure that nothing is said out of turn.  You can ask Don a question, but don't be surprised when the answer reveals nothing; it's Don's job to control the league's image as much as is humanly possible, and information is always embargoed.  You'll know when you need to know, or when Don wants you to know.

I'm rarely one to pile on, and lord knows every blogger and their mother have commented on this particular story, but what the hell - it's too good to pass up.


The Timbers planted their flag in Sounder Land via a billboard this week; the advert in question is the latest shot fired in a rivalry that has everyone with an interest in MLS drooling in anticipation for 2011. Timbers and Sounders fans just plain don't like each other, and their mutual animosity will finally be on display at the top level next year. From a neutral standpoint, the two (presumed) matches between the clubs next year will be must watch events.

I've been wondering for some time just how Portland plans to have PGE Park upgraded and ready for MLS play come next spring. The Division II Timbers are still playing there, the city's minor league baseball team is still playing there, and my admittedly under-educated-when-it-comes-to-construction brain has troubling reconciling the timeline with all that needs to be done.


Luckily, there are newspapers who publish stories about this sort of thing. From The Oregonian comes a story on everything going into PGE Park and the projected timing of the refurbishment process. I'm incredibly excited about Portland entering MLS, and much of that is down to Timbers fans and the stadium they'll inhabit; PGE may look much different next year, but that's a place with history that's perfect for soccer and in a downtown location. There isn't another place like it in the league, and may never be again.


Character is hard earned. RFK has character even if it is a terrible place for United to be. A few other stadiums across the league have a chance to build it through years of soccer not yet played. NFL stadiums, even the ones like Qwest that are filled with loud, passionate fans in large numbers, bring nothing to the table in that vein. PGE Park will be a different animal; half old, half new, part face lift, part call back, it's a building that has existed in one place long enough that there likely aren't too many Portland residents who remember a time when it wasn't there. Keith Hickey waxed poetic about stadium soul just a few weeks ago.


The highlights of the plans include a plaza that overlooks the field; even when there's no event in the stadium, the plaza will be open to the public. This integrates the stadium into the community visually. Rather than just a cold edifice detached from the day to day lives of the people that pass it, PGE will be accessible on a multitude of levels.


If only they weren't putting in artificial turf.


Here's the timeline if you're interested:


Work completed: Placed deep foundations; widened south access road to field; added restrooms behind Widmer Bar area; improved concourse restrooms.

Under way: Removal of landscaping and preliminary structural work.

September-October: Complete structural and interior demolition; remove scoreboard, underground plumbing and electrical work; perform preliminary structural work for new east-side seating structure.

October-November: Erect steel structure for east-side seating and buildings; place concrete on decks; fire-proof structure; begin construction of building "skin" (the framing of east-side seating structure and new team store, club restaurant and plaza); begin remodel of locker rooms and press box.

November-December: Continue work on east-side seating structure and buildings, including roofing, glass, and façade elements; place major mechanical and electrical equipment in east-side structure and buildings, team locker rooms, press facilities; continue interior remodel work.

December-January: Interior work on existing and new buildings and structures.

January-February: Continue interior work; complete building skin on new facilities; begin elevator installations; start mechanical systems for east-side additions.

February-March: Complete elevator installation; complete interior work; place concession and kitchen equipment in new east-side facilities; continue east-side mechanical work, place seats on east side; install playing surface and video board.

March-April: Perform final inspections; move in furniture; apply finishing touches.

Excuse us as we take a short break from our extensive intermittent World Cup coverage here at the uncomfortably odd environs of MFUSA to discuss a kerfuffle in the world of American soccer club logos.


It seems the soccer-obsessed denizens of the lovely city of Portland (I've never been myself, but I hear it's beautiful) are none too happy about the snazzy new logo their team has adopted for their entry into Major League Soccer next season. When Pitch Invasion is highlighting the issue, you know it's moved beyond the "grousing" stage.


And let me say, fair friends of Oregon, I'm with you. The thing is fairly hideous, what with its slick shading and fighter jet-inspired lines. Is this a soccer club or an airline for lumberjacks? The look screams "minor league", and not in a campy look-at-us-we-don't-take-ourselves-too-seriously way, but in a we're-modern-and-hip-and-soccer-is-uber-cool way. The first approach isn't fit for an MLS team unless you're the Red Bulls (oops) and the second approach falls flatter than most of Keith's tired Robert Green jokes (sorry Keith). All it really says to to the existing fan base in Portland is "The old way isn't good enough."


I'd imagine that's a tough pill to swallow for some of the most committed soccer fans in the country, fans that have filled a rickety baseball stadium week in and week out to watch their second division team play the likes of the Syracuse Salty Dogs and Richmond Kickers (no offense, Kickers fans) for the past ten years. Never mind the heady NASL days of the late 70's and early 80's, when Portland soccer was first big time and the city hosted Pele and the Soccer Bowl.


Throwing out the past, even for something as seemingly innocuous as a logo, is a dangerous proposition. You'd better get it right, or the dogs will have no compunction about attacking en masse; remember the ill-fated San Francisco 49ers logo redesign of the early 90's? It didn't go over so well, and the team smartly listened to irate fans and dropped the change post haste. I'm not sure the Timbers organization would turn back at this point, but if a large portion of your fans are voicing their disgust, the prudent thing might be a slight tweak.


The Whitecaps got it right, with a simple, clean, and aesthetically pleasing logo that isn't over-the-top or outrageously stylistic. The Timbers simply went a step too far, incorporating too much flash in their design. K.I.S.S. is the applicable bit of acronym wisdom, I believe.


Luckily, I'm here to help. Mr. Paulson and associates, if you're reading, perhaps you'd be kind enough to take my suggestion for your MLS logo, one I think you'll like:



Bottom line, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

*Update*

Adding the compromise logo Jonk brings up below. This isn't terrible.

Details on stadium renovations to Portland's PGE Park that will transform the stadium into soccer-specific facility have been released, reports The Oregonian. The design, which carries a $31 million price tag and will be funded by Timbers owner Merritt Paulson and the City of Portland, will put game day capacity at 20,000, with an auxiliary seating area that would allow that number to reach 24,000 for special events.


While the deal to fund the project has yet to be finalized, the release of these renderings should be heartening to fans of the Timbers and fans around the league looking forward to their entry. The stadium will be unique in MLS as a urban facility with history and intimate feel.


Again, provided the deal gets done and the funding comes through in time for renovations to be completed for the start of the 2011 season.


The most disappointing element of this news, unfortunately, is that Portland will play on an artificial surface. Because the stadium will also be used for high school and college football (how that makes it a "soccer specific stadium" I'm not sure), grass would be unable to stand up to the wear and tear. The climate of Portland doesn't help, either, with rain coming frequently during the spring and fall months. The FieldTurf surface to be installed is specifically designed for soccer, and though anything but grass is ultimately a disappointment, other concerns make the decision somewhat justifiable.






Full details of the renovation plans, plus additional renderings, are up at Portland's website.

Lost in the recent excitement over Philadelphia's team building and ongoing CBA drama is the plight of the Portland Timbers erstwhile stadiums renovations; PGE Park needs upgrading for the Timbers 2011 MLS debut, and the political wrangling over the deal has yet to reach a satisfactory conclusion.


Willamette Week has the most recent update, reporting that Mayor Sam Adams has tabled a zone code change that would make allowances for a new plan to get the renovations started.


This is not good news. Merritt Paulson's efforts to get the stadium project off the ground have come to naught, and the scheduled construction start date is a scant two months plus away.


Portland's travails, which now include a decision over where to play their final non-MLS season, are gray-hair inducing for even those not connected with the club. Fans and executives alike must be losing sleep on a nightly basis thanks to the unresolved stadium situation, and I imagine Don Garber is none to thrilled himself.


Where does Portland and their stadium fall on the list of concerns for a league facing labor turmoil? A critical concern only a few months ago, the profile of the Timbers civic negotiations has faded into the background noise of a busy close to 2009. MLS has remained steadfast in their requirements for PGE Park, and while Paulson appears to be looking for every possible way out, none has proven to be the magic path.


I don't expect to hear anything out of MLS on the matter, but the readiness of the Timbers for 2011 is slowly become a very real problem.

It's been six days since US National Team forward Charlie Davies was seriously injured in a car accident that took the life of a young woman. As I've written, and as others have reiterated, the situation Davies finds himself in is sad and unfortunate.

But by no means is Charlie's plight a "tragedy", at least not in the way I understand the word. Davies will make a full recovery, and still has a good chance of returning to playing high-level soccer. The tragedy in all of this is the death of a young woman, Ashley Roberta.

To better remind us comes a brief profile piece on Ashley Roberta from the student newspaper of her alma mater, the University of Maryland.

• The Portland Timbers, despite their ongoing stadium renovation drama, are getting down to the business of marketing the team for the 2011 move to MLS. The Oregonian gives a glimpse of the campaign, which involves a subtle early approach to better avoid burning out the community on something that won't be coming for almost two years. Part of that subtle approach involves branded foosball tables in locals bars and restaurants. Clever or just plain odd?

• The USL/TOA drama should be bigger news in American soccer circles; the resolution (whatever it may be) could have serious long term ramifications for professional soccer in the United States. Of course I'll keep covering it in this space, passing along what I know or find elsewhere. There is an update, indicating that a breakaway league seems more likely than a reconciliation with USL on the part of TOA. Several other teams below the USL-1 level are dissatisfied as well, meaning that the saga has taken on a new wrinkle. I'm of the opinion that MLS will have a part to play in the final act, I'm not just not sure on what level it might be.

• I get a kick out of "fixing soccer" pieces; I know it's a weakness, I just can't help myself. There's a masochistic element there too, as I'm generally cursing the writer in anger by the third paragraph. The inane attempts to "Americanize" the game never fail to suck me in, and I never fail to get angry; so here's a good (bad) one, to which I say STOP IT!. On the flip side of that coin today is a piece that takes elements of soccer (rules, pro/rel, player transactions) and applies them to the NBA. We started heavy, we should probably end light.

Deep Cuts appears every weekday, and highlights American soccer-related items from around the web. If you have a story for Deep Cuts (even shallow ones), you can send it along to matchfitusa@gmail.com.

Courtesy of OregonLive through WVHooligan comes an update on the Portland MLS efforts: Timbers owner Merritt Paulson is talking tough about a potential stadium deal with the city of Beaverton for his minor league baseball team, claiming the MLS will not be coming to Portland with out the ballpark deal.

It certainly sounds like posturing from Paulson, especially as the Portland City Council were surprised to hear of his position. For his part, Paulson maintains that he has been consistent in saying that joining MLS is contingent upon his ability to find a new home for the Beavers baseball team.

After the two projects, the renovations of PGE Park for the Timbers and a new baseball stadium for the Beavers, were split by Portland leaders, soccer fans were likely under the assumption that things were settled. But delays have plagued agreements between Paulson and the city, and this recent lashing out in regards to the baseball teams throw a wrench in the process. Whether or not Paulson is tough-talking without any real intention of backing out of MLS is unclear.

For their part, MLS isn't giving any indication that they're worried. Dan Courtemanche's statement to OregonLive makes no reference to the ongoing stadium squabbles, instead indicating that the league is in regular contact with Paulson and looks forward to the debut of the MLS Timbers in two years time.

Portland, as potentially wonderful a Major League Soccer market as it might be, continues to be a thorn in the side of the league. If Paulson is in fact posturing, he might be playing with fire. In the meantime, soccer fans not in Portland yet excited to see the city join the league, are wondering what exactly is going on.

Paulson "clarified" his statements to Portland officials, perhaps caught in an embarrassing situation after his comments to Beaverton city leaders.

If you have insight as to what exactly is going on with Portland, or if you would like to share your comments on the ongoing struggles to get renovation work started there, do so below.

The United States has qualified for every World Cup since breaking their forty year drought back in 1990. That's six in a row, a feat that is impressive in itself, no matter their ultimate performance at the tournament proper. As the proverbial "sleeping giant" though, the focus of the fans (and writers) immediately turns from the high of securing a spot to angst over what they'll do next year; already, two days after the US took the bull by the horns and won in Honduras, we're seeing the first volley of "qualifying isn't enough" pieces.

Grahame Jones at the LA Times describes it as "job half done". It's accurate and it's fair, but it just spoils the buzz. I think I might wait to write my obligatory piece in this area till next spring, when the anticipation is at its height, the US is playing warm-up matches, and we see the typical struggle between the we've-got-a-chance crowd and the everyone-is-overrating-the-US crowd. It's all so tiresome, but I recognize it's a fact of life modern American soccer.

• It truly is unfortunate how few people were able to see Saturday's match, because it was a great moment to be a fan. Paul Oberjuerge relates one fan's quest to see the game online, something that I'm sure closely matches the experience of thousands (millions?). Reading the story only reinforces my belief that I made the right decision to pay a $20 cover; I would have likely broken some of my own things if I was surfing for a stream and had trouble, and that's just not productive. What American soccer needs is a wealthy benefactor, an ardent fan who has some cash to splash around and can step in when games look to be unavailable to the masses. If you are a uber-rich footy fan who loves the Yanks, drop me an email and we'll have a chat about it...

• Don Garber has taken to giving Sepp Blatter's repeated statements that MLS needs to switch to a traditional European schedule a little lip service. You'll likely see this story referenced in several places around the web today, and I'm sure some will do lengthy write-ups on it; but it honestly doesn't deserve one, because Garber's words are easily parsed by people on this side of the pond. The MLS commissioner is attempting to placate Blatter and co. with talk of "roofs", but American fans are keenly aware that indoor soccer stadiums are a pipe dream here; when several clubs have trouble getting stadiums built without roofs, there's simply no chance that any enclosed facilities will going up. No indoor stadiums means no schedule switch, which makes Garber's statements worth nothing. I suppose they could shut up Blatter on the issue, maybe, and that's something we can all get behind.

• The saga continues in Portland over the renovations of PGE Park. Deadlines have passed, Merritt Paulson's other sports franchise, the AAA baseball Beavers, still needs a new home, and yet the club is pushing forward with ticket sales and marketing. Portland's problems, which remain despite months of negotiations and several false resolutions (from an outsider's perspective), appear worse in contrast as Vancouver looks to have settled their BC Place roof drama. I doubt MLS would threaten to pull Paulson's franchise unless things were extremely dire, but they surely can't be happy; time is ticking away, and the Timbers will surely want to maximize excitement heading towards 2011. That's a much more difficult task with the stadium renovations yet to get the green light.

Deep Cuts appears every weekday, and highlights American soccer-related items from around the web. If you have a story for Deep Cuts, you can send it along to matchfitusa@gmail.com.

No clever title today, and I'm in a bit of a rush to get this out, so you're going to have to take what you can get.

Eddie Johnson is desperate for a loan move away from Fulham according to the London Informer. After returning from Cardiff, where he spent last season on loan, Johnson has not figured significantly in manager Roy Hodgson's plans; without playing time, Johnson is an extreme long shot for the US World Cup roster next year. I'll admit to having a soft spot for EJ, so I hope he can himself into a first team somewhere..

• The issue of immigration and soccer has come up again. This time, a progressive political website is refuting an earlier piece we linked to that suggested the lack of immigrant representation on the US Nation Team proved immigrants have trouble assimilating into American culture. The Center for American Progress argues that Latinos have added much to the soccer scene in this country, and it's hard to argue against them.

• The Portland Timbers just completed their penultimate year as a USL-1 side (or maybe not, there's is that little TOA business still lingering), and while it was ultimately a disappointment thanks to their playoff ouster at the hands of future fellow MLS expansion-mates Vancouver Whitecaps, there is plenty to celebrate. Here's a nice rundown of the Timbers' 2009 campaign.

• I'm still working through this because it's epically long, but American Jack McCormick attended two Premier League matches, and runs down the differences between the two experiences. One was at Fulham's Craven Cottage, the little club that could and one of the smaller venues in the Premier League, and the other was at Manchester United's Old Trafford; in typical American fashion,when discussing these things, an analogy is used. " Fulham Fans : Stanford football fans :: Manchester United fans : SEC football fans". The number of people he might offend with that statement are numerous, but I'll admit that it made me chuckle.

Deep Cuts appears daily and is an attempt to bring you soccer news and commentary from off the beaten path or of particular interest to American soccer fans. If you come across something you think would make a good Deep Cut, please send it along to matchfitusa@gmail.com.