Timbers came out fired up forcing Seattles keeper to come up
with some big saves. Big differance from game one in Portland
was starting Fadi. The first 20 minutes of the match belonged to
the Timbers. After that the game was a toss up. Seattle looked
strong once again in midfeild with Gregor (native of Portland)
having great control. Then Portland was lead into a sleep as the
Sounders took control of the match in the last 20 minutes
resulting in two Sounders goals.
On a positive note the Timbers Army showed up in good
numbers. 18 to 20 loyal Shed heads plus 5 others which
included Dan Aotniuk's brother which we hope will join us in the
Shed.
To be out of the Open Cup by losing both games to Seattle is
once again a hard to take. This year at least the score was
better. Afash and Antoniuk looked good on the front line as well
as did Tennyson and Alvarez when they subbed in. The problem
is getting them the ball in good areas so they can score. So once
again like in years past the weak center mid is haunting the
Timbers once again. The back line looks stonger then in past
seasons and this is the main reasons Seattle was held to 3
goals in two games. Once again the strong play of Gavin
Wikinson and Bryn Ritchie with the addition of Lee Morrison and
Nick Downing will help keep the score down this season. Curtis
Spiteri has some big shoes to fill this season with Matt
Napoleon retirement in Goal. He has had two outstanding
games with some amazing saves. The Timbers should be
looking into filling the void in the middle of the pitch. We got away
with it last season and with Greg Howes being gone makes the
job even harder to solve.