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| Credit where it's due. Now, fix EVERYTHING!! |
The Major League Soccer regular season schedule
dropped…recently. Here it is, and for all teams (link to each and all, etc.). I
imagine that people are picking through, circling games to get riled over,
organizing his/her drinking schedules, acquiring various cable plans, streaming
services, etc. I finally looked at the Portland Timbers' 2017 schedule, but my
first review focused exclusively on one thing: the day of week and time of day
for each Portland Timbers kick off. And, as tweeted a couple days back, I
broadly approve of this year’s schedule.
Yay!
I’ll hoist an appropriately-timed beverage to honor the
schedule as they come, but today, and with the aid of the most-updated-to-date
Transfer Tracker, I’m going to pick through the Portland Timbers and see if I
can’t outline some sense of expectations for the upcoming 2017 regular season.
Actually, the full list of sources for this are as follows: the Timbers’
Schedule, the Transaction Tracker, my memory, and, when I feel like I need
them, any given team’s roster. The weak link in there should be easy to pick
out, but here goes…one game at a time.
Friday, March 3, 2017, 6:30 p.m.
Portland Timbers v. Minnesota United FC
Expectation: Win.
With Minnesota a work in progress and a Timbers team close
to last year’s shape and make-up, basic continuity and home-field advantage should
be enough to carry the Timbers to a Week 1 victory. Assuming Minnesota’s
huntings abroad were worth the effort, Minnesota should kick off with a
competent defense, but that shouldn’t be enough to keep out an attack that
fired well enough through 2016.
Sunday, March 12, 2017, 4 p.m.
Los Angeles Galaxy v. Portland Timbers
Expectation: Unknown, leaning LA win
As shown by the LA Galaxy roster, they return a
solid core, and all over the field. It’s safe to assume they’ll add a player or
two, maybe even another dos Santos, but LA already has enough good on their
current roster (whatever it’s made of) to beat the current/near-future
incarnation of the Timbers on any given, if not most, days. Especially until
Portland works out winning on the road.
