SoccerBlogs

In celebration of the return of Andre Villas-Boas to the Premier League with Tottenham, Ginge Talks the Footy presents a short art series dedicated to our second favorite Portuguese manager.

Ginge Talks the Footy presents:

"AVB Crosses the Alps"

"AVB Leading the People"

"AVB Crosses the Delaware"

Some will still point to the Cal FC loss as the worst game in the Timbers history as a Major League Soccer club, but last night's 5-0 loss that knocked the Timbers into last place in the league has got to be up there. Positives were few and far between and even the optimists here at Stumptown Footy had a hard time picking out someone to praise.

Player ratings for Sunday's match won't be quite as in depth as you're probably used to. This is primarily because we four writers here at Stumptown Footy are running into ourselves trying to finish up the post game coverage of the Colorado game while also getting all our preview game material ready for tomorrow's game.

As the derby weekend approaches, Stumptown Footy wants to make sure you're fully informed about our rivals to the north. Tomorrow, Ryan will offer his analysis of what the Portland Timbers need to do to win, and Geoff will follow that up with the usual 3 questions of Sounder At Heart.

But first, we'll give you a rundown of what to expect from these Sounders.

Yesterday we saw the departure of Troy Perkins to the Montreal Impact. Truth is, he was a great player who both really loved the team and the city that we all endear so much. It's for this reason that he became such a huge fan favorite here in Portland, even if he wasn't the best keeper in recent months.

After a 1-0 loss to the least inspiring team in MLS, it certainly isn't easy to single out any one player for their contributions. The defense gave up numerous soft chances, the attack never got going, and the midfield was culpable all around. Still, the Stumptown Footy editors put our heads together to pluck our picks for Man of the Match out of the morass of the Timbers' performance.

Earlier this year it was announced that MLS would adopt an unbalanced schedule to adapt to the Montreal Impact joining the league. Said announcement was met with groans and sighs from soccer purists all over the country. Fans who enjoy the European leagues seemingly felt the frustration more than the rest of us for the obvious reason that it brings another degree of separation between MLS and the sport standard.

Here's a bizarre little anomaly.

So far this year, the Timbers have not lost to a team that had won its previous match, nor have they beaten a team coming off a loss.

Even weirder: every time the Timbers have lost this year (six times), the winning team has gone on to win its next game.

So here we are again, another Euro 2012 match with this one pivotal in deciding the fate of the trophy the second Semi-Final match, with Germany facing Italy. The winner of this match will of course be heading through to a final against Spain, who overcome a valiant Portugal side last night eventually winning on penalties.

I really should have posted this yesterday, but got wrapped up in silly stuff like school. In any case, continuing on with our "coverage" of the Euro 2012 competition going on, here's Stumptown Footy's OFFICIALLY unofficial discussion thread for the weekend's games. The idea going forward will be to have a new discussion thread every few days for the games if people actually use them.

It's been an exciting past few months for those of us who write for SB Nation as we've been keeping quite a big secret under our hats. It shouldn't come as a surprise that our current design is a bit dated, to say the least, and as of today we can officially unveil that this tired old design won't be around for too much longer.

Hello everybody and welcome to our Thursday post-Independence Day Hangover edition of Musket Rounds! Despite taking the last two days off, we actually don't have too many interesting or relevant links to bring you. It could be that news has been slow, it could be that I need to start casting a wider net, or it could be that I'm tired and can't be bothered to be thorough.

Well, that was disappointing wasn't it? I could talk about the fact that the Timbers were run ragged, or that the defense that has been the toast of the town let in three goals, or that nobody know what the heck happened with Franck Songo'o in the 38th minute, but I will try not to; that is for the recap and the player ratings.

The Timbers' win over the Seattle Sounders yesterday was an epic one. There were goals, there were fights, there was an epic tifo, and in the midst of all that there were some fantastic performances put in by the players. With that in mind, the editors here at Stumptown Footy thought we should recognize those performances by each declaring our man of the match.

The Brotherly Game spoke with Ryan Gates of Stumptown Footy about Jorge Perlaza and Danny Mwanga. The following is the transcript of the chat.

The Brotherly Game: Today's trade of Danny Mwanga for Jorge Perlaza leaves a lot of questions on both sides for how the deal benefits both sides and how the players will fit into their new teams.

With just about two weeks to go until our next MLS regular season game, we're getting a little light on stuff to write about here on Stumptown Footy. I mean, practices are interesting and all, but without some sort of action, game, transfer etc. to back it up with they can get a little dull. As such, we'll be incorporating a bit more off topics discussions and in depth analysis over the next couple weeks starting today!

By Chris Wright

Someone obviously hasn't let South Africa go yet...

Oh Patrice, c'est dégoûtant!

Via our very favourite French footy blog, the ruddy brilliant Cahiers du Football