Geoff and I were privileged enough to be invited to see the new stadium ahead of Thursday's home opener. I could not believe how different it feels walking into the stadium. The pitch just pops when you walk down the tunnel from the concourse. The preexisting seats have been touched up and really look much nicer than they ever did when it was PGE park.
The Jewel of the stadium is now the East Stands. All I can say is WOW. They went all out and really out did themselves. Everything meshes well with the atmosphere already in place and there seems to be a buzz even with only media there. I can't wait to see what it will be like with 18k of my closest friends.
Seeing the pitch was great but so was seeing the Timbers out on the Pitch.
Some observations from the training session:
- Nagbe looks great and looks to be back on track after the injury
- Perkins is still wearing a knee brace, I highly doubt he will play Sunday
- Every time I go to training Cooper just shows his class. He is always the first one out there and the last one off the pitch
- Eddie Johnson looked like he is challenging for playing time
- Brian Umony was not training today, not sure why
- Pore was playing centrally not on the wing and he looked so much sharper and into the game.
- The teams looked good and were really going at it during the scrimmage
Futty:
Most are kind of like excited moment, like I want to see.... Everyone is just waiting to see how the fans how noisy they are.
I don't think most of them have any idea. The only idea they have is against Chivas and that was 3,000 or 5,000. That was not even close to what they are going to experience.
I mean it will help in many ways, I mean kinda like boost of moral confidence. You confidence will get up.
It is pretty crazy really, the U-23 is a good level for college and the MLS is a good level for professionals. The step up has been pretty dramatic. The big instance was the first goal they scored on me in Toronto, that would never happen in the PDL level. It has been a big adjustment but I am taking it in stride.
It's good. I like that fans getting behind me it gives me a lot of confidence moving forward. I really appreciate it. I've got a long ways to go to prove myself as an MLS keeper. 2 and a half games is a start, the very very beginning of a start. I'm definitely not at the Troy Perkins, Adin Brown level who, veterans, who have showed it through countless, a lot of years of playing. It is a good start, but to really break through I have to show consistency, keep playing and keep playing well.