Sacre bleu! And that's enough stereotypical French speak for now... In any case, it appears that today's pre-season friendly against the Montreal Impact was not quite as fruitful as their previous game against the LA Galaxy earlier this week when they won 4-1 against the former MLS Champs.
In any case, as with the previous game we don't have too much information to go on for this match since we weren't there to actually cover it.

BY ADAM SERRANO

CARSON, Calif. -- Cameroonian midfielder Franck Songo'o stole the show for the Portland Timbers as the trialist set up a pair of goals to help lead the Timbers to a 4-1 win against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Tuesday in the first MLS pre-season match for both teams.

Ryan wrote yesterday about the formation likely to be the most common in 2012, based on John Spencer's almost exclusive use of the 4-4-2 in 2011. It's true, Spencer likes the direct approach to the attack, a strategy that uses lots of speed and doesn't require much in the way of possession.

But part of me wonders if Spencer felt limited in choosing his formation because of a lack of depth on the bench.

The season is just over a month away and the roster is almost completely set. Of course there is still the possibility of adding a few more pieces or dropping a few of the newer players. For the most part the Timbers have the core of their starting line-up signed. With all the changes to the roster will John Spencer go away from the 4-4-2 formation or will he go with a different formation?

Having now had time to digest the news Kris Boyd rejected an offer from Houston Dynamo that Dom Kinnear and the front office worked on diligently only to later accept a reportedly hastily-assembled one from Portland Timbers, it's time to flesh out possible reasons why. Granted, there's still a bit of acid reflux felt by some fans of the Naranja, but at least getting a first round draft pick out of Portland soothes the situation like Pepto Bismol.

Despite being a closed session today without any tasty tidbits from John Spencer to chew on, today's Timbers practice was an interesting one none the less.

Although Kris Boyd was, not surprisingly, not yet practicing we were told that he would likely join the team in around ten days while they are in California.

As we all know by now Kris Boyd is the newest addition to the Portland Timbers Roster. He makes his way to the Timbers through a free transfer after terminating his contract with Turkish side Eskisehirspor because they had not paid him since his transfer to the club.

Before his short Time in Turkey he spent 1 season in England with 2 Championship teams, Nottingham Forest (John Spencer's Brother-in-Law's team) and Middlesbrough where he really failed to impress after the manager who brought him in was fired.

The league's newest DP is a haggis fan, presumably. Think John Spencer, a former Scottish striker himself, had any play in this deal? Toughie. I love that the YouTube description of that first video begins with "A wee collection..." Love the Scots. One plump, juicy fact to get you excited if you're a fan of the league itself: Boyd is only 28.

Some quick news notes:

• Oh Boy, Oh Boyd!

holla'Portland...

Kris Boyd he of the recent excursion to Dynamo country is not earmarked for Stumptown USA, the Portland Timbers. Boyd will join as a designated player.

The flip from Boyd to Cooper will be contrasting for P-Town fans as Boyd's game more closely dovetails with Diego Chara's a little bit of nastiness and a whole lot of go-go-go.

And then there were two Scotsmen! While we were still wrapped in all the controversy and tension from the Valencia fiasco it seems like the Timbers FO was able to quietly get the third designated player deal all wrapped up in a nice little package. In an abrupt press announcement today, the Timbers announced that Kris Boyd will join the team as the third designated player, joining the likes of the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York Red Bulls as having used all three spots.

When Jorge Perlaza first joined the Portland Timbers, he was very much alone. Being the only member of the team who did not have a basic understanding of English, it was an intimidating experience. If you take language out of the equation, he says, you can adapt to just about anything anywhere. But not being able to understand what people are saying makes every aspect of life more difficult.

First week's training has finally concluded. It was a good week and I hope you guys enjoyed our coverage of it. We really tried to get to as many trainings as possible and, I believe, we only missed one so we were able to cover most bases. Heading into next week we'll try something similar, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep up the same pace.

Former Portland Timbers stalwart defender Cameron Knowles has been hired by the his old club as an assistant coach to replace Trevor James who left in December. Knowles joins the coaching staff lead by head coach John Spencer and assistant coaches Mike Toshack and Minnesotan, Amos Magee . Knowles, an Auckland, New Zealand native, attended [.

The Portland Timbers announced another signing today, to the coaching ranks, in Cameron Knowles. Cameron as many of you know played for the Timbers during their USL era from 2007 until 2010. During that time he played in 77 games and was an integral part of the defense.
John Spencer says:

"I'm really pleased we can add Cameron to our staff.

The Portland Timbers reached back into their USL history for their latest assistant coach hire after Trevor James left the team in December. Cameron Knowles, a defender for the USL/USSF D2 Timbers between 2007 and 2010, will join Coach John Spencer's staff effective immediately.

The Timbers practice today was an uneventful one on the field but saw several developments on the sidelines. Once again Jose Adolfo Valencia was missing from practice which was yet again explained as being further fitness testing. John Spencer went on to say that as soon as he was done testing we would see him back on the field.

The Portland Timbers held a lively practice today, playing some of what could actually be called soccer for the first time this preseason. After the usual warm-ups and passing drills, the Timbers played games of 9v9 which was a deviation from last season which saw the Timbers doing purely fitness and passing drills for their first several weeks together.

The Portland Timbers took to the field for their second practice of 2012 today. At Jeld-Wen it was rainy and cold and perfect for football. Lucky for those of us in attendance, we were able to join the players out in the Oregon weather and observe practice.

Drills focused on basic fitness and regaining the touch lost in the soccer-less off season.

So it's been quite a while since anybody here at Stumptown Footy convened at Jeld-Wen Field for a training session. It was good to get back out there and, more importantly, it was good to get back out into the stadium. Forgot how much I missed that place!

Anyway, today's Quotes and Notes edition might be a tad shorter than usual.

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The Mark Hughes Era Begins: Good luck to Mark Hughes.

The MLS Player Combine continues today with a second round of games available to stream on the MLS website. With the first games out of the way and two more days of practice together for the teams, expect today's games to be much more interesting as the invitees get to know each other.

The first game of the day, adiPower vs adiZero at 11:30 am, will feature several names that the Timbers will want to keep an eye on.

As you no doubt have seen already, the schedule has officially dropped and now we all know where everything stands and how we should go about planning our various soccer vacations. It's quite exciting to get the schedule so early as compared to previous years!

In any case, we'll have a more in depth piece on the Timbers schedule a bit later.

The Portland Timbers filled their recent coaching vacancy for goalkeeping coach, as Mike Toshack joins the Timbers from Toronto FC. Not only does Toshack have a wealth of coaching experience at various levels, but he has also coached with current Timbers Coach John Spencer when they were both in Houston.

So you guys have already seen the new third kit. Personally, I'm very impressed not only with the design (which we already had an idea of anyways) but with the way they went about making the kit. But more on that a little bit below...

First some pictures! You guys have already seen all the pictures from the official Timbers site and the store I'm sure, but I've gone ahead and took some of my own.

The similarities between the most populous city in Oregon and Spencer's birthplace do not end there. The 41-year-old is now living in another football-crazy town. "Portland is the home of soccer in America," he says. "The game is so popular here. The playing fields are packed at the weekend.

It is that time of the year to start speculating on exactly what the Portland Timbers' roster needs are for the next year. For starters we need to take a look at the most used formations by John Spencer and the Timbers and then fill in what the Timbers still have on the roster.

Formation(s):

The Timbers employed a 4-4-2 for almost the first half of the season.

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(Photo from the Bushman archives) - Next: Norwich vs QPR - Players who played for both Clubs
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In case you guys didn't see it, yesterday was SB Nation's mock Expansion Draft. Some of you will also notice some, er, confusion on our part from the draft. Essentially Jake Gleeson was picked when I meant for him to be protected. What happened was I made a late addition and the SBN editors wouldn't allow such a late change.

Los Angeles Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena was named MLS Coach of the Year for the third time, winning the 2011 award after leading the Galaxy to the Supporters Shield as the team with the best record in the MLS regular season. The Galaxy's 19-5-10 record was also the second best record in league history.

If John Spencer says it, it must be true. "They're winding down. We try and keep the tempo as high as we can, but professional athletes are geared toward training and playing games that mean something to them, so this time of year you can't help but switch off a little bit."

The trialists playing with the Timbers were running on all cylinders, though.

And so it begins. With Gavin Wilkinson flying all over the world and John Spencer herding in a new set of trialists I think it's safe to say, at this point, the Timbers office is 100% focused on 2012. Not that I would have expected anything else, mind you.

First up it looks like the Timbers will host tryouts, once again, in January.

Yesterday we were hearing unsubstantiated reports that the Colorado Rapids were looking to poach head coach John Spencer from the Portland Timbers. At the time I honestly suspected that they were highly speculative and based on very little. As it turns out, however, they were true!

Luckily, it looks like Spencer has decided to stay on with Portland next year.

Behind the Axe looks closely at the MLS playoffs, postseason awards which includes a Timbers honor, news surrounding Timbers coach John Spencer, and more efforts to land a USL team in Eugene, Oregon.

Well the first 24 hours after the Smith announcement has brought some interesting fall out.

• Nick Thomas tweeted that Paul Bravo is not a candidate for the job.
• The Rapids asked for, and were denied, permission from the Portland Timbers to speak to John Spencer about the job.
• ESPN's Jeff Carlisle dug into the story a bit to find out what the real issues were.

Photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com

It appears that Frank Rost's time in Major League Soccer has come and gone.

Hans Backe told the New York Post Tuesday that he expects New York's midseason acquisition and Designated Player goalkeeper to return to Germany, leaving the Red Bulls with an unresolved situation in goal yet again.

Colorado Rapids might be going after John Spencer

Article from the Oregonian from Geoffery C Arnold about Colorado looking possibly to hire John Spencer away from the Timbers

The Timbers continued their post season training today, playing an 8v8 scrimmage which occasionally featured an extra attacking player going either way.

Bright Dike, James Marcelin and Steve Purdy worked off to the side with the Timbers strength and conditioning coach Karim Derqaoui early on before leaving the field early.

With the Expansion draft less than a month away it is time to decide who we, the Stumptown Footy Community, would protect. The goal is to create the top 11 players whom you want to protect through a vote by comments. We will not be following the international player rules as it gets super complicated if you want the rules go here.

The Timbers' off-season started just days ago, but Gavin Wilkinson is already scouting for 2012. That means he'll soon be going on another adventure.

"Just going to a few different countries," Wilkinson deadpanned during the Portland Timbers' training session at Jeld-Wen Field on Tuesday. In the coming weeks the team's General Manager and Technical Director will be traveling to Colombia, Ghana, Togo, Europe, and even the faraway land of Los Angeles, scouting new talent for the Timbers' second year in MLS.

"Please be careful of Eddie Johnson," Coach John Spencer announced just before a 7v7v7 scrimmage at Jeld-Wen Field, as Johnson laughed sheepishly and shrugged. "You touch him, he bleeds."

Indeed, Eddie Johnson did make his triumphant return to the training pitch on Tuesday, wearing protective headgear as a precaution after the concussion he suffered earlier in the year.