Welcome to the New Digs

The question is, why change?

Yes, I pulled the plug on Cream of Soccer Ball. I never liked the title. In fact, I blame that crappy title for the site's struggle to find a unified aesthetic. I did preserve all of the content, which is a first and a sign of progress. Even if I'm not sure what toward.

I build Conifers & Citrus on the Indian burial ground of that former site (lucky!). In a departure from that past, this title speaks to this blog's content:

1) Conifer represents the Portland Timbers, this site's official Sporting Organization; and

2) Citrus represents orange wedges, the regenerative brain-food of halftime.

After putting up a post or two up between tonight and tomorrow, I'm going to pause to prepare for the Saturday, February 14th launch of a major exercise in optimism, namely, 2015 season previews for each and every club in Major League Soccer (MLS). The format remains TBD, but the schedule has been optimistically set for one a day (HA!). As for order, I'm going with the extent that club interests me as we round into the 2015 season. You'll see that after the jump. In most cases, my personal ignorance will grow as I progress, but that's the point of the project – i.e. growing less ignorant.

At any rate, it seems like a good idea to stay busy and positive while my parents are working through their divorc...I mean, while CBA negotiations progress to a mutually-satisfying, dare I say glorious, resolution. My childhood bedroom will never, ever change. Never.


And now, the order in which the previews will roll out:

1. Portland Timbers (February 14...the rest of the dates follow)
2. Seattle Sounders
3. New England Revolution
4. Columbus Crew
5. Red Bull New York
6. Los Angeles Galaxy
7. Toronto FC
8. Chicago Fire
9. Sporting Kansas City
10. Colorado Rapids
11. Houston Dynamo
12. Vancouver Whitecaps
13. New York City FC
14. Real Salt Lake
15. Orlando City FC
16. San Jose Earthquakes
17. DC United
18. Montreal Impact
19. FC Dallas
20. Philadelphia Union

Looking forward to learning and sharing and hoping that the auto de fe of just producing this thing brings a "come-to-Jesus effect" to the CBA negotiations.