Tonight marks the first exhibition game for the Portland Timbers. If you happened to have bought season tickets this game will be marked as "Game A" which is to be used for this match.
I've already explained briefly who Ajax is and why they're important. If you haven't yet checked out that article, I recommend taking a look if you don't really know who the club is. Suffice it to say, however, Ajax is quite a unique catch for an exhibition game so if you were planning on skipping out on tonight's game I'd recommend rethinking your night's plans.
Also remember, tonight's game is all about fun. There's nothing on the line except pride and even that's pretty minimal. Really this is just a great way for we fans to see a team live that we ordinarily wouldn't get the chance to see. So, with that said, let's take a look at the teams:
Assessing Our Team
John Spencer has gone on the record as saying that everybody will get a chance to play tonight. What this means is that you can expect plenty of substitutions. How he goes about it I can't really say. Spencer could play one team for the first half and the other for the second half, or he could just make a string of substitutions every 10 minutes or so. I've seen exhibition games do both in the past.
So, with that said, there's not really much else for me to add. I could attempt to make a stab at a starting line up but that would be a pure guess at this point. Instead, I'm gonna play this Match Thread a little loosey goosey and end it here.Assessing the Friendly
I have very little to say here so I'll make it brief:
Essentially the Portland Timbers are taking on the Eredivisie champions (a very respectable league). Along with that trophy the team is coming over here with 9 of their 11 starters. Now, I don't know what their substitution policy will be but I'd imagine they'll want to sub in and out plenty just like the Timbers.
One final interesting thing to note, Ajax just recently flew in from Washington D.C. where they bested Saturday's opponent D.C. United 2 - 1. Certainly not truly indicative of what we can expect tonight or on Saturday, but interesting nonetheless.
Final Predictions
I said it in the past that I always expect the Timbers to win and tonight's game is no different. Yes, a win doesn't mean anything on any stat sheet and were the guys to lose there would be no repercussions. Still, I like winning and I don't care if the Timbers play San Jose, Ajax or Manchester United I expect them to win. That's not really a final prediction exactly, but it's the best I could come up with given my limited knowledge of Ajax.
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Tonight's game kicks off at 7:00 PM. Watch it live HERE.