portland tidbits and stuff

just got an urge to talk sounders/portland.

there have been questions floating about the game, and i will add color to what i know.

- will this game will be televised?… not at all.  it is only a practice game, no matter how important it is to all of us. the fact is,  a practice game just doesn’t draw ratings and for the most part,  everyone that cares will already be there.

- is this part of our season tickets? nope

- why a practice game at qwest, and not the USOC or likely the CCL?

well this is just my speculation, but this game has two purposes. first, it is a great dry run for all the people working at qwest; security, PA, ticketing, concessions etc etc. second, and more importantly for the purpose of this game, this is for charity. you can only get 5k into starfire, and at $10, even $15 a ticket well that doesn’t compare to the 20k that i think we will get at qwest.

don’t over think this one. i have heard first hand how important it is that this is a charity match first and formost.

- mingling

expect the timbers army to be located in the north end; separated from everyone else. what used to be the NES with free nachos, will now be the portland army with smuggled in moonshine.

- what to expect…

well this is the great unknown. this being the first game of the year for both teams ( i think… not sure if i can be damned to know if portland has other games), and with the local rivalry, i expect portland to do everything they can to outnumber the 500 we brought down for the USOC last year. not sure if they can do it.. likely not, but they will still have numbers.

down in portland, the TA were allowed to walk through our section and taunt us as much as they wanted. pushing and shoving resulted, arrests were made, back and forth flares were thrown… it was pretty fantastic if you ask me. i am a pretty mellow guy, but the atmosphere was electric and you couldn’t help but get caught up in it.

i don’t expect quite the situation to play out like that on 3/11, mostly b/c qwest security won’t let it. i expect no mingling other than the one or two jackasses that buy tickets out of their sections. you can expect the odd 1 or 2 idiot TA to walk past fuel or fado before the match… but you know, if they want to do that, well, it will just play out how it may eh?

- who will play?

i will echo marks comments from our original post… we likely won’t see the key players for the sounders. in typical “friendly” type of games, unlimited transfers will likely happen and if we do have a fred or two on the pitch, it will be very limited.

ok, what else…. it is late, and the wine is kicking in…

this season is starting to shape up nicely.

gosounders