Most American Soccer fans were excited about Sunday because the US Mens National Team, so long the butt of jokes around the world, had pulled off an improbable win (3-0 against African Champions Egypt), followed by a Holy Fucking Shit Did That Just Happen? win (2-0 against European Champions Spain, whose squad collectively earn something close to $1billion a year in salary), to put them in the Confederations Cup Final against Brazil, a country so famous for it's Soccer prowess that international friendlies against them often degenerate into Globetrotters vs Generals games.
For Timbers fans, however, that match was only the beginning of a magical day of footie: the Timbers Army sponsored a Timbers U23 match and BBQ (a portion of the ticket sales went to charity), followed by the Timbers Senior team playing the Montreal Impact, who we beat at the last moment earlier this month.
To put the US vs. Brazil game into a bit of perspective, if you compare the transfer fee of the most recently moved Brazilian player, Kaka (65 million euros) against the lifetime earnings of every player on the USMNT, Kaka's about $20million ahead. For more information about what I just said, click here.
The USMNT fought valiantly and played far above their pay grade to actually lead by two goals at halftime, but the inevitable happened, and Brazil carried the cup, 3-2.
Disappointing, perhaps, but also encouraging, since the boys showed heart and never looked like they didn't belong there. Timbers fans poured from bars and their homes to go watch the Timbers U23 match, which was a thrilling but low scoring affair. The Lil Saplings prevailed 1-0 with a goal in the 88th minute.
What followed, the Mighty Portland Timbers vs the Montreal Impact, was a sight to see. To put it simply, Keita knocked one in in the 9th minute and after that, well, it sure looked like we had a boot on their throat, never letting Montreal off the turf, it was a thoroughly dominating performance. After two easy second half goals (another from Keita and one from Farber), Gav the Gaffer started subbing people off to save their legs. An own goal against Montreal trickled in around the 77th minute and the Impact were down, demoralized and completely out. Out to the point that Gavin subbed Goalkeeper Steve Cronin off for rookie Brian Visser. Cronin wasn't injured, tired or playing poorly.
Let me put it this way: that's an insult to your competition. We kicked the shit out of Montreal, plain and simple. At least Montreal kept their composure and took their beating without picking up tons of cautions or ejections (unlike Minnesota a week ago).
The Timbers have scored 9 goals in the past two games, and are thoroughly outclassing the competition, just in time for their Wednesday match against the Shittle Sounders in the US Open Cup.
Allison's match report and photos
Groundskeeper Kip wrote something
