Timbers Thoughts from Colorado:

Timbers Thoughts of the Week:


The Portland Timbers reported back to town this week to begin preparation for their 2nd MLS season, with the message to the players being that they will make the playoffs this year. Portland narrowly missed out of the MLS playoffs during their expansion year.

Former Timbers Forward Kenny Cooper celebrating a goal. Cooper was traded
to the NYRB's for a draft pick.

The Timbers have made a lot of changes to their roster for this season, including signing more Colombian International players, trading star forward Kenny Cooper to the New York Red Bulls, and drafting Andrew Jean-Babtiste in the first round of the MLS Super Draft.

There are many familiar faces in training camp too, including Futty Danso who has been with the Timbers since their pre-MLS days.


“All the players I’ve talked with want to be stronger than last year and want to improve on where we were last year,” Danso said. “Everyone I’ve talked to during the offseason, the first thing they say is that, ‘I’ve been working out, and I need to make a difference this year.’ So I think everyone has the mentality of I want to make a difference this year. We all definitely want to have a good season.”


The Timbers 2012 schedule has also been released, and is front-loaded with lots of travel to the Eastern Conference. That means the Timbers will play the bulk of their western conference games in the second half of the season, which could be good or bad news for the club because western conference teams are more talented.


The Timbers will play Seattle twice at home and once on the road. They open their season on March 12th in Portland against Philadelphia. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

The Timbers recently finished their first Dribble-Oregon event, where players were sent out all over the state to conduct soccer training camps for kids, meet the locals, and host pub parties to get to know the fans. The event demonstrated the teams commitment to the community and their power to bring people out and get them active.

“We think the Timbers have become and will become even more so Oregon’s team,” said Golub. “Many of our games are broadcast throughout the state, we’re looking to increase that distribution of our games on radio and TV. Papers around the state are covering us more and more. We’re introducing our Academy and Olympic Development Program so we’re involved in player development on a state level.”

2012 MLS Rapids vs. Timbers!

Rapids Thoughts of the Week:


With the end of the Broncos season coming to a disappointing but overall satisfying end my attention has turned to the Colorado Rapids and Portland Timbers beginning their 2012 seasons.

The new unbalanced schedule in MLS means that the Rapids and Timbers will play three times, twice in Colorado and once in Portland. Thanks to a fun and unexpected trip to the PNW this summer I'll get to see all three games!

Last year's two games were two of the best of the season. The first game was in Colorado as the season-opener and the Timber's first ever MLS game. DSG Park was packed as Rapids fan's celebrated the MLS Cup Championship and Timber's fans flooded the stadium for their first ever pro game. The atmosphere was unrivaled to any other game in Colorado.

The game in Portland was very hard fought by both sides, as the game went into a 0-0 draw for extra time. The Rapids scored a miracle goal on a scramble for the ball in the box a minute into extratime and were able to come away from Portland with a win!




I can wait for August when I get to experience the atmosphere at Jeld-Wen Field in PDX! Even if it is as an away supporter. I'll have to get to another game during the season as a Timbers fan.

Top 10 Live Games Attended in 2011

1. Bears vs. Broncos

2. Jets vs. Broncos

3. Timbers v. Rapids

4. Diamondbacks vs. Rockies

5. Union vs. Rapids

6. Bengals vs. Broncos

7. Giants vs. Rockies

8. Earthquakes vs. Rapids

9. Columbus vs. Rapids Playoff Game

10. Sabres vs. Avalanche

Note: Only 14 days into 2012 and I bet that the Denver-Pittsburgh playoff game will top my list at the end of this year!

How to Fix the MLS Playoffs

The MLS Playoffs have always been controversial. Many US soccer fans feel the league should scrap the playoffs and have the winner of the Supporters Shield be crowned the MLS champion like in European Leagues. This is to reward the best team over the stretch of the season, instead of the best team in a playoff competition.

In the 2010 NFL season, the 8th best team of the regular season, The Green Bay Packers, beat the 4th best team in the Superbowl. The playoffs represent not only the best team down the stretch, but the team that preforms the best in high pressure situations. They pit the best of the best teams against each other in a loser goes home situation. In football though, one mistake may send the better team home.

In baseball, hockey and basketball, the playoffs involve seven game series to demonstrate which team is best over the course of many games. If the better team has an off-night and loses one game they have the ability to rebound in the next game and demonstrate their superiority.

The MLS playoffs involve a one game wildcard match, a two-game semifinal's series determined by aggregate goals, and then a conference finals and a championship match of one game each. Each series has different rules. Plus the many times the best teams in the league play each other early in the playoffs, which doesn't allow them to meet in the finals. Many times teams from the western conference ends up playing in the eastern conference's playoff bracket or vis verse. This can give a team from one conference an advantage because had they played in the other conference they would have finished the season ranked higher. For example the western conference is usually much better than the eastern conference and the fourth ranked team in the west may be better than the first ranked team in the east.

With all this confusion in the MLS Playoffs there's no wonder why there is so much controversy.

The MLS does need a playoff system for two reasons. First, many American fans will not understand the appeal of giving the best team in the league at the end of the season the championship. All our other sports have playoffs and soccer should have one too. Second, the US is a big country and MLS is expanding. It will not be possible to play a balanced schedule much longer because it would require too many games and too much travel. This means that every team in the league will not play every other team.  If two teams never meet in the regular season I don't think it's fair to give the championship to the team with the best record.

Many people have begun to recommend a World Cup type system for the MLS playoffs, and I fully support this. In this system the top four teams in each conference would move on to the playoff tournament and be placed in two groups:

Group A	Group B
West 1	East 1
East 2	West 2
East 3	West 3
West 4	East 4

Each team would play every other team in their group once. The first ranked team plays all three games at home. The second ranked team plays two of three games at home...etc. This gives the higher seeds home-field advantage.

The two teams in each group who have the most game-points move on to a semi finals round that looks like this:

Semi Finals 1	Semi Finals 2
Group A 1 vs. Group B 2	Group B 1 vs. Group A 2

In the semis the top seed from each group plays the second seed from the other group. This forces them to play a game against a new team and still allows the best two teams in the league (who may have originally been in the same group) to be able to meet in the finals match. The semi-finals would be played as a home-away series, with the top seed playing the second leg of the series at home.

Finally, the winners of each series would move on to the MLS Cup finals, a one game winner takes all competition.

Had this system been in place this year, my Colorado Rapids would not have made the playoffs. But I still think it's the best system for US Soccer. This is what the Group Stage of the playoffs would have looked like this year under this proposed system:

Group A	Group B
1. LA Galaxy (67pnts)	1. Sporting KC (51)
2. Houston Dynamo (49)	2. Seattle (63)
3. Philadelphia Union (48)	3. Real Salt Lake (53)
4. FC Dallas (52)	4. Columbus Crew (47)

Now The Rapids finished the season with 49 points, for 5th place in the Western Conference. Had they played in the East, they would have finished 2nd with 49 points and made the playoffs in this system. Sure there will be people who say it's unfair because Colorado is a better team than Columbus. Why do they have to miss the playoffs? I don't like seeing the Rapid's out of the playoffs, but the same happens in other sports playoffs systems.

Last year in the NFL the Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs with a record of 7-9 to become the first playoff team in history with a losing record. New York and Tampa Bay both missed the playoffs last year with a 10-6 record, one that is much better than the Seahawks. Yes, the NFL playoffs system probably needs reforming too. But this is just an example that not all playoffs are fair. However, this proposed system seems to be the best and fairest way of hosting a playoff tournament when MLS moves to an unbalanced schedule.