SWOL's own Peter Lowry on the pitch for the Portland Timbers (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)
Let me start off by saying I've never been traded. I was expansion-drafted by Portland, which is an entirely different story, but I've been almost traded a half dozen times that I know about.
Defender A.J. Soares scored the only goal of the game in the 88th minute and goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth made a career-high seven saves to notch his second straight shutout as the New England Revolution closed the 2012 season with a 1-0 win over the Montreal Impact on Saturday afternoon at Stade Saputo.
Montreal poured on a late onslaught, and Marco DiVaio came close to becoming the latest player to burn Toronto FC with a late goal, but the Italian missed a golden chance late and spared TFC another collapse.
Goalkeeper Freddy Hall made some key late saves to help Toronto salvage a scoreless draw against the Impact at BMO Field on Saturday afternoon.
The Montreal Impact took a 1-0 lead on the Columbus Crew in their important Eastern Conference
clash on Saturday, but in a scene that Crew fans have become all too familiar with in recent weeks,
Federico Higuain drove the Columbus attack to a victory.
Emilio Renteria headed home a Higuain cross in second-half stoppage time to lift the Crew to a
2-1 victory at Crew Stadium on Saturday night.
In-form Seattle Sounders forward Fredy Montero put together one of the best games of the MLS
season in an offensive outburst that was one of the best in a week that saw several outstanding
attacking performances.
Montero's hat trick against Chivas USA highlighted a week in which San Jose's Alan Gordon and
Simon Dawkins and Columbus' Federico Higuain and Jairo Arrieta all delivered multiple goals in
victories, earning all five players spots on the SBI MLS Best XI as a result.
Even though the Chicago Fire will be off this weekend, there will still be a few matches this
weekend that should interest Fire fans. All of these matches will impact the Fire's playoff chances
and the playoff race in the Eastern Conference. All Matches are available on MLS Live unless
indicated. A list after the jump.
The Revs midfielders desire to dribble over playing the ball quickly has hurt the team lately.
(Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. It's the same story, just different night for the New England Revolution. The
Montreal Impact came into Foxborough and took advantage of the one mistake New England made, while
the Revolution didn't have an answer for Montreal's defensive shape.
Revolution defender Kevin Alston battles for the ball with Impact defender Dennis Iampichino
during Sunday's game. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – For the third straight home game, the Revolution fell 1-0, this time at
the hands of the Montreal Impact Sunday night in front of 12,857.
Add a lack of communication to the growing list of problems that the Revs are having in this
second half of the season. Tonight's match was perhaps most indicative of that, as the Revolution
strayed and mist-timed pass after pass, ultimately leading to their own demise at the hands of the
visiting Montreal Impact.
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.
PORTLAND, Ore.-It has been 390 minutes since the Timbers have conceded a goal in front of the home fans and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts is one of the major reasons why Portland is enjoying its best run of form since joining MLS in 2011.
The Jamaican International arrived in Portland last August in exchange for fan favorite Troy Perkins.
The Timbers fell behind by two goals for the second time in seven days but, despite applying pressure to the Montreal defense in the second half, were unable manufacture a repeat of the Season Opener and salvage a point.
The Portland Timbers were hosting the Montreal Impact in the hopes to gain some needed points at JELD-WEN Field before traveling in their next two matches. The Impact had other ideas after getting a win in Seattle last weekend, and they scored goals in the 30th and 60th minute to take a two goal lead.
I was reading the review of Portland's 2012 season posted on the MLS website and saw they had a look at the Opta stats. In the Opta stats article they had a link to download the Timbers' passing matrix, and so I did. I wanted to show you some observations I found and see what everyone else thought about the matrix.
Donovan Ricketts started his MLS career with the LA Galaxy in 2009. Having spent five years with League 1 side Bradford City, the lanky Jamaican quickly established himself as one of the best keepers in the league, winning the league's Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2010.
But after spending much of 2011 injured and being spelled by the capable Josh Saunders, the LA Galaxy sent him to Montreal in exchange for allocation money.
Joe Bendik was the Timbers' number two keeper for most of the 2012 season and saw the field five times thanks to injuries suffered by Troy Perkins and his upgrade, Donovan Ricketts. Bendik came on as a substitute twice and started three times, allowing eight goals, two of which were penalty kicks, and making eleven saves.
At the beginning of the 2011 season, both the first- and second-string keepers Troy Perkins and Adin Brown picked up injuries and Jake Gleeson, suddenly the team's only healthy keeper, was called on to start a few games early in the season, including the home opener. In that time, Gleeson endeared himself to the fans and made some thoroughly impressive saves.
The 2012 season has been an absolute disaster in just about every way it could have been. Hopes were high at the start of the season because of the relative success of the 2011 campaign, and many of us scoffed at pundits who dared predict the Timbers might finish in sixth place in the Western Conference.
Perhaps not as glamorous as a marquee striker or midfielder, as what we've come to expect from
MLS teams in the recent years, but I think, if anything, these past two road games have shown that
the Portland Timbers desperately need to bring in a marquee, veteran defender to command and lead
the back line.
It has been ten days since the last time we had a Portland Timbers game to watch, but with the
changes that have been made in the interim, it seems like an eternity. Emotions will be running
high for the Portland faithful today, as, for the first time since April 2011 -- a run of 51 league
matches -- a Timbers game will start without Troy Perkins in goal.
The Portland Timbers have had defensive issues for most of the 2012 season, and it is a reason
they are out of the playoff race in the MLS Western Conference, so it shouldn't come as a surprise
that the team shook up the roster on Thursday with another trade and an international player
signing.
Portland sent Troy Perkins to Montreal for Donovan Ricketts, in a rare exchange of established
goalkeepers in Major League Soccer. "Donovan has been an impact player since he joined MLS and is
one of the top-performing goalkeepers in the league," Portland coach Gavin Wilkinson said. "Troy
has been an important player for us, but we as a coaching staff saw this as an opportunity to
improve the position, while optimizing our budget numbers in 2012.
FIFA to investigate post game comments and footage emerges of a Canada player stomping on the head
of a US player as the fallout from Olympic semifinal continues. US Open Cup final tonight. Union
U-17s in Generation adidas Cup final on Thursday. Bolt wants to be a Red Devil. More news.
Today's training report already had enough going on in it, so I thought I would go ahead and
start a new thread for the day's quotes from Jack Jewsbury and Jake Gleeson. Here we go!
Quotes
Jack Jewsbury
On the Troy Perkins trade
Yeah, it is tough. I saw him before we came out here.
MLS week one is in the books, and we're either patting ourselves on the back or cursing ourselves and sobbing gently in the corner. We begin with a nod to Killer Angels, whose 85 points set the B&RU pace, with the key move being making Graham Zusi the captain, and reaping the benefits with 28 points.
The LA Galaxy dynamic duo of Landon Donovan and Juninho partnered up to help the Galaxy demolish
Chivas USA last Sunday and their exploits made them easy selections to SBI MLS Best XI for Week
23.
Donovan's four assists helped him earn MLS Player of the Week honors, while Juninho fired in two
goals to continue a strong run of form after starting the season in shaky fashion.
Acquired from DC United in exchange for allocation money and goalkeeper Steve Cronin, Perkins was seldom out of the starting lineup during his tenure with the Portland Timbers.
Perkins was known for his awareness in front of goal and the quick reaction saves that kept the Timbers' chances alive.
On the morning of July 9, Timbers fans were whipped into a frenzy of anticipation, as news started to leak that head coach John Spencer would be fired later that day. That anticipation abruptly turned to, well, something else entirely at about 10am, when Geoffrey C Arnold reported that Gavin Wilkinson would be serving as interim head coach until a replacement could be found.
It's been a grim year. With Kenny Cooper being traded to the New York Red Bulls and thereafter scoring goals like a mad man, Troy Perkins (a fan favorite) being traded and publicly dissed by Gavin Wilkinson, and John Spencer being fired it's been a whirlwind of crap that Portland Timbers fans have had to deal with this year.
The Portland Timbers practiced today at Jeld-Wen Field ahead of their Cascadia Cup match up with
the Vancouver Whitecaps tomorrow night. While the Whitecaps are still in a strong position to
compete for a playoff berth, the Timbers only remaining chance at glory this season is a victory
over their Cascadian rivals in Vancouver and Seattle.
With tomorrow's big game the first since the trading away of both Troy Perkins and Mike Chabala,
there's been a lot of opinion and suggestions coming from the fan base on what the Portland Timbers
FO should do with regards to players. Obviously, most of you probably wouldn't have traded Perkins
away, some of you probably would have traded Chabala.
The Timbers held their first practice in Portland in more than a week today, returning from
their two game road trip against Toronto and New York. It was perfect training weather at the
team's Beaverton training facility as next year's designated player, Jose Adolfo Valencia, trained
with the Timbers for only the second time since joining the team and the first time since
undergoing surgery to repair the cartilage in his left knee.
Last Sunday was yet another game at home and, while we didn't get the result we all wanted,
looking back it was a sad occasion for more than just the draw. It was Troy Perkins' last game as a
Portland Timber. Of course, we didn't know it at the time, but with the recent trade, it's almost
hard to remember the game at all.
Week 4 is in the book, and we have a new overall leader in the league, as well as a new addition to the weekly leader list. Allie's Awesome Team scored 77 points, with midfielder Patrice Bernier (MTL, $8.0M) leading scoring with 18 points as captain, followed by defenders Josh Williams (CLB, $5.3M) and Matt Hedges (DAL, $5.
"Perkins, Perkins! Give us a wave!" The loud booming chant by the Timbers Army was heard well enough by Troy Perkins as he wandered over to his net by the Timbers Army. After about 15 seconds, Perkins glanced over his shoulder and gave a small wave... From my view in section 108, I would say that Perkins' wave was almost reluctant.
Troy Perkins, Bryan Namoff, Bobby Boswell (Devon McTavish, 59), Greg Vanney, Marc Burch (Rod Dyachenko, 41), Ben Olsen, Christian Gomez, Clyde Simms, Fred, Luciano Emilio (Nicholas Addlery, 65), Jaime Moreno. These were the D.C. United starters and substitutes that took on the Chicago Fire five years ago tomorrow in what was, until now, the team's last playoff game.
