Timbers Top Victory, 1-0

If you were not in PGE Park Friday night, you surely missed the best party in town. Was it the fine weather, the fact that it was Friday night, the knowledge that we were being televised, the two weeks since the last home game? The North End was packed full and as loud as I've ever heard. The bobblehead Timber Jim statues were awesome. The two people who threw sodas on the pitch (for heaven's sake, at least be man enough--even if you are a woman--to throw beer) were wankers: this is a lame way to express yourself, and when you do things like this, you hurt the whole Timbers Army and the North End. I know that isn't fair, but going to a match in PGE Park is kind of like being back in grade school again, when the whole class would get punished because of that one annoying kid who wouldn't shut the hell up during assembly or whatever.

In our 1-0 victory over the California, uh, Victory (goal scored by Bryan Jordan off a great pass from Scot Thompson), the Timbers even had a pretty move or two, particularly about half an hour in when an attractive backheel from Higgins to Bagley was deflected by the keeper, Eric Reed. Reed in fact deserves to play for a better team next year, because that was some nice goalkeeping. I think Scot Thompson must have cloned himself, because he seemed to be everywhere I looked, part of every play. And Josh Wicks continues to impress me--he only had to make a couple of saves last night, but he is currently setting a new franchise record for consecutive clean sheets and moreover, he is exactly the kind of keeper I love most: fearless, aggressive, risk-taking, racing out to meet the ball rather than waiting on it to come to him. Plus,
It's a Wicks...house!
He's mighty mighty
Lettin' it all hang out!

Coach Gavin Wilkinson deserves enormous credit for taking a squad that finished in last place only one season ago and turning them into championship material. The Timbers are riding high indeed: second place in the USL table as of this writing, one point below Team Evil, the Seattle Sounders, with four fewer games played. In other words, they are poised to take the number one spot with a win tonight over the California Victory. And here's where you come in: come out and help be the twelfth man on the field for the Timbers, tonight at 6 p.m. Because it's a Sunday, I doubt it will be quite as rowdy as Friday night, but I've been wrong before (and you can help make me wrong again). Plus, it's the teddy bear toss! Think of the children!

Go here for a full match report and pictures (and be sure to check out the links there to other reports, including this fellow who caught half of the game on FSC and praises the soccer-loving locals); more pictures here.

Meanwhile, if you can get to a television with GolTV, be sure to check out the Copa America final today at 2 p.m. Pacific Time, my beautiful beautiful Albicelestes versus Brazil. Local scuttlebutt suggests good possibilities for viewing the game in Portland (always call ahead) include Kells downtown, On the Deck on NW 14th and Lovejoy, the Matador or the Marathon on W Burnside, and Zach's Shack on SE 43rd and Hawthorne.