The First Big Test

Monday night was fantastic. It was everything we’ve come to expect from a match night at Jeld-Wen Field. Passion, Noise, great tifo, and most importantly, a win. Our home field advantage is only growing as more fans become more knowledgeable and passionate about this great team. My voice was gone for more than a day after that one. Now we need to forget all about it, because on Saturday, the season really begins.

Last season, we were just dreadful on the road. Fourth worst in the MLS away from home, the 2011 Timbers notched only 2 wins, in Vancouver and Chicago, and grabbed a total of 12 points from 17 away matches. Our goal difference was +8 at home, and -16 on the road. And no road trip was rougher on the Timbers than the trip to Dallas.

We left Dallas on June 25, 2011 with our tails between our legs, after being crushed 4-0 on goals from four different FC Dallas players. It was our worst loss of the season, and will hopefully long remain the worst day in our MLS history. This year, thanks to unbalanced scheduling, we have to make this trip twice, along with two strolls down to LA, where the Galaxy beat us 3-0 last year. These four road trips, more than anything else, will show us how much we’ve grown since last year.

This first one is hugely important, because there are a few things working in our advantage. First, Dallas is not yet as oppressively hot as it was last June. The temperature for that game was reported as 95 degrees, but on the pitch, it was well over 100. We can’t blame the heat – we were roundly beaten from the start – but it drained us that much more in the second half. Mid-March is a much more comfortable time to play soccer in Texas.

Then there’s FC Dallas’ player issues. Brek Shea is gone with the US under-23 team, and Castillo and Ferreira are out injured. We saw how a very sub-par New York team gave them a game in their opener last week, and that was with Shea. We have our own injuries to deal with, but we aren’t facing a full-strength FC Dallas.

Finally, in the good news column, there’s the return of Hanyer Mosquera. Andrew Jean-Baptiste had a decent game against Philadelphia, but he still had his shaky moments, and from what I’ve seen so far, Mosquera-Brunner is our best center back pairing. At least we’ll have the option of AJB off the bench this time, and we’ll feel a little less trapped at center back than we did against Philadelphia, where we had really no sub to go to in an emergency.

I think we can take points from this Dallas team, but I’m going to stop short of predicting a win. My call is a 2-2 draw with our goals coming from Boyd and Jewsbury (if I repeat that enough, it will happen), and theirs coming from Blas Perez, who was by far their best offensive player in week 1. Then again, it’ll be St. Patty’s day, and so the boys in green might find themselves a little luck to clinch a win. RCTID.