Portland Timbers International Sites and Sounds: Defenders Edition

And another international weekend comes and goes. While no Portland Timbers were involved, yet again, I feel like I should update you guys a bit on the USMNT as well as how our guys did who were with their national teams.

So first, before we get to the players, the US team!

The USMNT played twice this past weekend (and then some) first against Honduras and then against Ecuador. The good news is that our national team finally won a game, their first under Jurgen Klinsmann, against Honduras. So that was the bright spot there. Unfortunately, the bad news is that they lost 1-nil to Ecuador last night. A defensive gaffe by Tim Ream caused quite the ruckus on the interwebs...

So one win and one loss for the Nats. Hopefully they get better sooner, rather than later.

Turning back to the Timbers, our guys had quite the successful international weekend! Diego Chara, Steve Purdy, Futty Danso, James Marcelin, and Brian Umony all played for their respective teams. Here's the breakdown:

Steve Purdy

Starting with Purdy because I feel like his experience was the most impactful. Not only did Steve Purdy start for the El Salvadorian side but he also recorded his first international goal for the CONCACAF nation helping them secure their fourth win in the 2014 World Cup Qualifying stages.

Obviously this kind of experience is huge for any player, but Steve Purdy, especially, can probably take this experience and bank it for the Timbers. As a bench player currently, he's not seeing much time in the first team. As such any international minutes he gets is huge. Especially when he scores a goal. As a right back that's already pretty rare, so it's doubly nice to see this time.

Diego Chara

Chara's World Cup Qualifying match was less exciting than Purdy's but probably more important for the Timbers as he's a regular starter.

Coming on in the 69th minute, Chara was the first Colombian MLS player to get the call up since 2009. He successfully helped Colombia in their 2-1 victory over Bolivia.

Despite not starting, I think it's important for our players to get higher quality call ups like with Colombia. As most of us know, the South American conference (CONMEBOL) is much more challenging than CONCACAF so his experience down south could be integral for the Timbers in the future.

Futty Danso

Futty also scored a goal for his Afircan side, The Gambia to help the team secure a draw in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Apparently his goal came off a stoppage time strike, but aside from that news is pretty scarce.

It's also a little harder to quantify Futty's experience over the weekend as he's a centerback which means goal scoring isn't really an objective of his.

There's also some issues regarding whether the Gambia will qualify or not depending on another national player's eligibility. Very odd. Read about it here.

James Marcelin

Marcelin once again took up the call for Haiti in a couple games. While he didn't score this time around, he did help the Haitian side win 7-nil against the U.S. Virgin Islands and the 2-2 daraw against Curacao. Marcelin started the first game and came on as a 46th minute substitute against Curacao.

Brian Umony

Umony played for his native Uganda in a game which ended 0-0. Unfortunately for Umony, the draw ultimately cost the Ugandan side their spot in the Africa Cup of Nations.

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So there you have it. A brief wrap of what some of our guys were doing these last few days. Congratulations to them all, even if they didn't win their respective matches. Simply getting the call-up can often be huge for a player and a motivational factor in their club games.