Timbers Tid Bits: Women's World Cup Edition

by Geoff Gibson on Jul 18, 2011 9:16 AM PDT

Disappointing. Heartbreaking. Deflated. All words I've seen people use when discussing the loss to Japan yesterday in the Women's World Cup final. It was disappointing for a number of reasons, but, primarily, because throughout the USA were consistently the more dominant side. In fact, within the first half hour or so, the US easily could have been up 3-nil. The fact that they kept going up a goal and failing to maintain the advantage added further heartbreak by the end.

But that's the beauty of soccer. A team of Japanese women who largely play in a semi-professional league in their home country were able to win the whole thing. Hopefully it helps to unify their nation in light of the tragic earthquake that struck them earlier this year.

Enjoy the morning news!

Timbers specific news

Timbers Army improving local soccer fields
While the Portland Timbers were in Chicago snapping a long losing streak this weekend, their fans were working on a community project in Southeast Portland.

Portland Timbers defeat Chicago Fire 1-0, snap three-game skid
Jack Jewsbury scores on a penalty kick and helps the Timbers end a seven-game winless streak in their first road win of the season.

Chicago Fire refusing to blame referee for Portland Timbers loss
As a Timbers fan, even I'll say that said referee was being a little generous.

Timbers get first road win
Cap'n Jack's PK earns Timbers first road win.

League news (after the jump)

2011 Women's World Cup: Japan Victory Inspires A Nation
Still heartbreaking, but it's nice Japan gets to have something to unify them.

Women's World Cup: U.S. Soccer's Loss To Japan Draws Huge TV Ratings
8.6 average. Not bad at all...

Is MLS soccer Tucson’s major league opportunity?
The possibility of Major League Soccer coming to Tucson for its annual spring training is a good news and bad news situation.

Rained Out in Vancouver
Saturday's M.L.S. match in Vancouver between the Whitecaps and Real Salt Lake was postponed because the temporary grass field placed over the turf for an exhibition match was deemed unplayable.

Agudelo and Bravo Added to M.L.S. All-Star Team
Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber added Red Bulls striker Juan Agudelo and Sporting Kansas City captain Omar Bravo to the league's all-star team on Saturday.

Impact stadium expansion delayed; some MLS games moved to Big O
Looks like Montreal might be in a similar situation as Sporting Kansas City was earlier this year.

Whitecaps players excited about Man City friendly
Given the disappointment over Saturday's washed out Major League Soccer match between the Vancouver

Despite Heartbreaking Loss, U.S. Women Give Soccer a Boost
Despite the loss, US Soccer came out ahead because of the Women's World Cup.

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Comments

There are so, so many reasons why the Tucson spring training idea won't work

The Kino Sports Complex was built in 1998 as a way to attract baseball teams to Spring Training in Tucson, as Hi Corbett was the only real stadium/complex in town. Problem is, the KSC was built nowhere near anything in Tucson – it’s down by the airport, in an industrial area with no bars, restaurants or hotels around it, and it’s incredibly isolated from the rest of the city. It was supposed to be built downtown or close to the university, but politics got ahold of it and it ended up in the middle of nowhere.

The White Sox and Diamondbacks trained there until last season, and then they both decamped for Phoenix because they couldn’t draw people down to KSC for games. MLS would have the exact same problem, coupled with the fact that MLS and soccer in general does not have the Spring Training culture that baseball does. Part of the attraction of Spring Training baseball is that there’s workouts you can watch during the day, but there are actual baseball games every single night for the whole month of March.

MLS doesn’t have enough teams to support this game-a-day model, and teams won’t want to play multiple friendlies a week I wouldn’t think, so they would presumably cluster the games at weekends. This would have the effect of just being an away game – if you’re a Timbers fan and you only have one weekend to go to MLS Spring Training, you’d go on a weekend when the Timbers are playing, and maybe see one more game beyond that but that’s about it.

Maybe a handful of people go to an MLS pre-season training session/friendly, and I can’t imagine people wanting to go down to Tucson in big enough numbers to make it economically viable.

by pdb on Jul 18, 2011 9:40 AM PDT reply actions