Portland Timbers vs. New York Red Bulls Match Thread [4:30 pm]

Today the Portland Timbers will take on the New York Red Bulls. It's an impressive team that the Timbers will be up against lead by the most expensive player in the league, Thierry Henry. That said, the Red Bulls are just as much a rebuild squad as the Timbers are and nothing is set in stone, especially considering that New York has yet to be a completely dominant team in any season since Henry joined.

Here's the information for this evening's match:

General Information

Watch it on: ESPN2

Kick off: 4:30 pm at Jeld-Wen Field

New York Red Bulls: 0 points in the East, currently unplaced

Portland Timbers: 0 points in the West, currently unplaced

Starting Line Ups

Portland Timbers:

Donovan Ricketts; Ryan Miller, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Mikael Silvestre, Michael Harrington; Diego Chara, Diego Valeri, Will Johnson -C; Kalif Alhassan, Ryan Johnson, Darlington Nagbe.
Subs: Timbers Subs: Gleeson, Tucker-Gangnes, Wallace, Nanchoff, Zemanski, Zizzo, Valencia

New York Red Bulls:

Luis Robles; Roy Miller, Heath Pearce, Jamison Olave, Kosuke Kimura; Dax McCarty, Ruben Bover Izquierdo, Junihno, Tim Cahill; Fabian Espindola, Thierry Henry

Final Thoughts

No single game will make a season and just as the Portland Timbers won 3-1 last year in their home opener, but eventually fell into disarray, today's game will certainly not be indicative of the season at large. Still, it's important to build confidence by winning your home opener. Of six games played yesterday, only three home teams won their home openers. Keep in mind that today's match is certainly not guaranteed.