New Ads

New ads

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Portland Soccer, February 28, 2013

Kind of the calm before the storm this week, as Portland opens the season at home against New York Sunday at 4:30. There were a couple news items the last few days. Tuesday coach Caleb Porter named Will Johnson team captain for the season. Jack Jewsbury, captain for the past two seasons, will now be "club capain." Porter explained this is a role in which Jewsbury will be an ambassador and representative for the team.

To be honest this move makes sense to me. Jewsbury was hurt in one of the preseason games in Tucson but even when he's healthy it's going to be hard for him to get regular playing time. The midfield is full of quality players and based on their preseason play I wouldn't put Jewsbury ahead of either one and I don't think any rational Timbers fan would either. 

Today the club announced that two players have been waived. Franck Songo'o and Chris Taylor were released and the team is now at 31 players, one over the limit. I'm not exactly sure about MLS roster rules (nobody who watches or covers MLS is), but Bright Dike is out for the season with a knee injury so I would think he'd be taken off the active roster but still remain under contract with Portland. That would give the Timbers their 30 players. 

Taylor got mostly reserve team minutes and probably wasn't going to get much more than that this season. Songo'o, on the other hand, was a regular starter and did some good things last season. The problem seems to be that he was looking for more money than the Timbers were willing or able to spend. He looked to be on the way out for most of this month, training with Houston while the rest of the team was in Arizona. The club wanted to see if it could get something in trade for him but with the season approaching it was time to let him go. I liked what I saw out of Songo'o but I also trust Porter's judgement in believing he has players who can play out wide where Songo'o used to. 

Finally, the Timbers will reveal their new kits for the season at Last Thursday on Alberta street tonight. Based on pictures and rumors around the internet I don't think they're as cool as the kits they wore in 2011 and 2012. The good news is, if you don't like them there will be new ones in another couple years. The other  good news is that the regular season is finally about to start. I'll be back next Tuesday with my thoughts. 

No comments:

Post a Comment