De Martin is the hero!

Tonight's scramble between the Timbers and the Islanders was nowhere near as fun to watch as the game earlier this week between the Timbers and CP Baltimore.   If I had to guess it's in part that our crew can't pull off the creative, diverse offense that makes them look good against the best teams in the division.  Puerto Rico is one of those teams and the game tonight looked evenhanded but not at all pretty.  Doug De Martin is the hero of the match in my opinion because it was his little piece of 'one on one' out in the left corner that led to his being free to make a sterling cross for Ryan Pore to put in the goal.   Pore gets much credit for being there on the receiving end, but De Martin's moves in the corner were worthy of the best players in La Liga or Serie A.   

The bottom line for our guys is whether they can hold the line and play staunch defense against four good teams on the road to bring home a playoff berth.  I wish them all the best.


Meanwhile, back in the stands.  The Army's territory looked like Day of the Triffids with the dangling stalks of thousands of sunflowers brought for the purpose of illuminating 'You are my Sunshine".   The stalks talks....


In our section of the world, disputes broke out between fans who wanted to sit in their seats and fans who thought that standing up at any opportune moment was good,  as for example for quaffing a beer or hiking one's crimson kilt upward around the tropic of corpulence.  The reality for selling mucho tickets to MLS is that never the twain should meet.  Standers should sign up to get their bona fides and report for duty in the Timbers' army.   Many fierce Timbers supporters who are not thirty years old should be able to find a seating area where standing through the game isn't mandatory to see something other than the tattoo on the back of the head of the goofball in front of them.   For friends of mine this isn't a 'choice' it's a reality for attending matches.   A little empathy here, Army folk?  But when all was said and done,  folks were enjoying the match.  And that's a good sign.