The Portland Timbers will visit New England for the only time this weekend. In fact, this will be the only time these two teams play eachother in 2012 unless we meet in US Open Cup play or the MLS Cup Finals. The Timbers are in their second year in the league and our New England Team is in the first year of our current rebuilding project.
The Timbers play fast and direct. That’s earned them 1-0-1 record so far. They have opened at home against Philadelphia winning 3-1 and played FC Dallas in Texas for a 1-1 tie. The Timber’s injury report from early in the week has listed three players as out: ‘Futty’ Danso, David Horst, and the Eddie Johnson who used to play for the Austin Aztex (who left us to become Orlando City). None of those injuries will change John Spencer’s line up or choice of available substitutes from last week. They have attacking options and a few vulnerable spots. The Revs will look to exploit those weaknesses and show that traveling across the continent is as difficult for Portland as it has proven for us. Meanwhile, our Revs have opened the season with two losses on the road, players serving suspensions each game, and injuries.
Everyone on the pitch for New England, the coach and the players talk about possession soccer and bringing our game against the opposition. It is a refreshing discussion of style and so far more of an aspiration than an effectively executed gameplan. Let’s not rehash a discussion of the absences from our game in San Jose or Kansas City. That still leaves far too much to discuss for our home opener. A home opener is traditionally a celebration of early season hopes. Indeed, this year the Revs will share our official victory song with live halftime performance by Josephin of her song, “New England Revolution (anthem).” Josephin is a ten-year Revs season ticket holder and she wrote the song two years ago. I think that background only adds to the total awesomeness of the song. If you would like to hear a few clips of the song check out The Rebel Alliance Podcast. This week, to honor and get excited for the home opener, we feature the official victory song and a discussion of tifos and the Revs with @hoover_dam.
We have players who could play the possession soccer that we have heard about but not really seen. An incomplete roster to start, suspensions, and injuries have all conspired to limit our opportunities. This week we’ll miss Steven McCarthy to suspension and our injury list is a bit frightening. Darrius Barnes, Zak Boggs, John Lozano, and Sainey Nyassi were all listed as out early in the week. Barnes and Lozano will be missed either as starters or defensive subs. Also on that same injury report, Benny Feilhaber was listed as doubtful, and he tweeted out a picture of his foot in a medical boot! Argh! Shalrie Joseph and Matt Reis were both listed as probable and I hope they come off of Friday’s injury report. In more hopeful news, a certain Columbian striker is expected to (finally) join the team this week along with defender Florian Lechner. Of those two, Flo is more likely to see time against the Timbers. So, at this point whoever is in our lineup, we’ll have to communicate in hopes of both stopping Portland and scoring our first goal.
Given the travel and their form last year on the road, Portland looks like a good candidate to provide the Revs our first win. The Timbers, though, would love to change their reputation on the road – and a tie in Dallas suggests that that is possible. The Revs will field a third new line up in our third game and, as the line up suggests, we will be looking to display some stability. If everything comes together for us, possessing the ball, putting shots on goal, then we will have a great chance of scoring and even winning. That is as far as I can go with any sort of prediction this week.
(image courtesy of revolutionsoccer.net)
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