Match Vs. Bayern Munich II and a Change Around Here

It was a bit unusual lining up on the SW 20th side of PGE Park, as we got ready to attend the Timbers - Bayern Munich II match on Thursday night. The Timbers just completed a tough, draining match versus FC Flounders on Wednesday with a loss, and there were many Timbers Army sitting this one out. Girl and I usually move to another part of the park for a match just to get a different view of things, so we decided to try and sit in the Beer Garden at PGE Park. It's an area at field level on the left (or west side) of the stadium, and you are basically 10 feet from the pitch. What we were surprised about was our regular Row N companions dublix, S3K, Firestarter and Dirk Danger were wanting to join us. So it became Row N in the far side of the park.

I didn't know much about Bayern Munich II, except they played in Eugene a few nights ago and they have some very good, but extremely young soccer talent. I didn't even have time to do a match preview, but in sitting at field level, I was able to get quite a bit of pictures and video. For pictures, go ahead and click here, while videos are at my home on You Tube. I did get a few good shots, I thought, and it was nice to be that close to the pitch.

The Timbers played nearly an entire team of reserves, only using regular starters Steven Keel and Keith Savage, who had played on Wednesday, Tony McManus and Ryan Pore started as they recover from injury and Scot Thompson came on as a substitute late, but for everyone else, it was a chance to play in a game in front of fans and show something. Most of the guys have played here and there in league matches or other games, but for many, this was their first real significant action for the year. GK Brian Visser got the start, with Danso, Nishimura, Keel and Higgins in back, Savage, McManus, Nimo and Pore in the mids, and Jallow and Forrest up front. Keith Forrest was a guest player, who had been in camp for FC Flounder but was cut late, and wanted to catch on with a club, so he came down to try out. And he netted a very nice goal in the 8th minute that made an impression. Jallow added a tally in the 55th minute, while the Timbers generated some other chances, including a sitter that Scot probably wished he had back because it was pretty and he skied it over the cross bar. Overall, the team did very well, especially after the tough night the previous night.

Alex Nimo impresses me with his speed and vision, and he was really all over the pitch last night. He made some great runs and passes, and probably should have had a goal himself with his work. Danso was very solid in the back, giving us really 5 good backs to use, and Cameron Dunn and Nishimura also did well in stints back there, so really, our defense is 7 deep. Higgins was solid, if unspectacular most of the night, he didn't make any mistakes but he was really non descript. Pore and McManus seem to be rounding back into form, while it was nice to see Jallow get some work to get his fitness up. And we should sign Forrest if we haven't already, he's big, got a good touch, and a very good work rate. But my man of the match was Brian Visser, who made some quality saves all night, and really held his own in the box. He was on top of his game, and really, his play gives me hope that if Cronin becomes injured, we've got a good fill in to fall back on as needed. Overall, it was well played.

Well, and it's with this post that I'd like to announce a slight change around here. I've been blogging in relative obscurity and anonymity for a while now, and have some regular readers, which is nice to hear, but I've wondered about expanding my audience a bit. Well, a good friend of mine, Rick, had enlisted to help resurrect the Oregon Live Timbers Blog a few weeks ago, and when I approached him to offer help, he asked about whether I would be interested in directly contributing to the site. After careful consideration and the incredible support of my wife, I've decided to start offering my help to Oregon Live to blog about the team, starting in the next week or so. This opens up a wider audience and lets me still do what I love to do, although I lose a bit of my anonymity and I have to keep the content of each blog exclusive. But what I can do is really provide my expertise and thoughts after watching this team for almost 9 seasons and seeing the good, the bad, the ugly, and the hideous. So, as I post there, I will link something here so you can read my work there. I'll still blog here and provide my insane thoughts about things, but the blog will probably become less Timbers centric and more sports in general, but it's an evolution so we'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, enjoy your Fourth of July holiday and look out for the bees at your sporting events.

Post script - I have added a few videos and pictures from Wednesday's match to my sites as well, so you can find pictures on Flickr and videos on YouTube. Enjoy!!

It's Been A Rather Fun Start to the New Year..

Well, 2008 has gotten off to a crazy start so far. We had a small gathering of folks here for New Year's Eve, mostly Row N folks and a few other TA folks as well as some of my friends from the bank showed up. The party was an open house format, with the first few hours being family friendly and alcohol free, but then after 8 pm, we opened up the bar and let loose. I don't have any problem with family friendly events, and for the most part, the kids yesterday were very well behaved. Some of the families were a bit scared off by the 8 pm bar opening, but our invite was pretty clear that the first hours were going to be quiet but then notched up a bit. The last guest left at 2 AM which left a few hours for girl and I to clean up. We passed out about 4:30 AM or so, and slept most of the day.

But something of a big event occured earlier on Sunday, as I shaved off my goatee and am now clean shaven. This hasn't happened for at least 10 years, as I've had some form of beard on my face. It started with the movie Clerks, and the character Dante who had a goatee and I thought it looked cool. So I grew one, and have kept it until Sunday.

At first, it was itchy but I thought the facial hair was cool and I wasn't dating anyone at the time. However, my mom hated it. My mom never hated much of anything, except the beard, so I had to listen to her object through many a visit why I grew such an ugly beard. She eventually grew to like it because my friends and sister actually thought it was pretty cool. But admittedly, I was told by many of my dating prospects that the beard was a nice touch because my smile wasn't very good and it covered that up. Not exactly the nicest thing to share with someone, but since self confidence wasn't something I had much of at times in my life, I went along with it.

Then many years later, I met girl and she grew to love me but admitted on many occassions she didn't like facial hair but knew it was me so she didn't mind. But my beard was getting more filled with white and grey hairs, and at points, it felt like 200 grain sandpaper and there were points I was scratching her face pretty bad. She had never seen me without my beard, and it had been a while since I was clean shaven, so on Sunday I took the plunge.

This wasn't something I just did because she asked, but it was more of me realizing the beard was nice, but it was also a bit of a crutch to hide what I thought was a bad feature. I had even admitted to many friends for years that the goatee was a way to hide my face, and hadn't put that all together until Sunday. I have to admit that while my face is still a bit dry and not used to being without hair, it's been a nice change of pace. I can always grow it back at some point, but now that it's not there, I find myself smiling a bit more. Plus, I think I look a bit younger without all the grey hairs on my face, too. While my age isn't something I concern myself with that much, I do want to look good for girl because I want her to feel special when she's with me. Yea, even after all these years, I'm still smitten with her. Not a bad realization to start 2008..

Row N Holiday

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y2/groundskeeper/?action=view&current=1938ae23.pbw

The other half of my Thanksgiving holiday was spent at McMenanims Edgefield hanging out with my friends from Row N. Before I talk about the events of the weekend, perhaps I should start with a little background.

The Timbers Army stands near section 107 of PGE Park in supporting the USL First Division Portland Timbers soccer club. In 2004, the section wasn't even a quarter filled, but it was loud and boisterous. Folks started catching onto the fun of standing in the section and chanting the songs. It was at that time that my friend Obi and I stood in the back of section 107 and then joined a road trip north to watch the Timbers take on our fiercest rival, the Seattle Sounders, in a playoff game. We lost the game unfortunately, but we were both hooked. We ended up meeting some of the TA at a few events in the offseason, and eventually became members that stood in the back of the group. Sometimes, it was Row N, sometimes row L, but always towards the back. Girl (my fiancee) had returned from teaching in England, and posted on the board she wanted to watch soccer here and she stood in Row N. On July 2, 2005, girl met Obi and GK, and Row N was born on that day.

Along the way, we've had some folks join the happy group, and they are able to come to games now and then schedules permitting. Obi now spends much of his game time on the field, but will wave at us from there. Harrison and Firestarter joined us soon afterwards, and Firestarter stuck around showing off his talent for drinking multiple beers at the same time. Harrison was able to stay around for a few games, but he and his lovely wife just had their first child, and so they have been back a few times. NBorders and Daveknows have come to many a match, old school supporters from the back when and they found our row inviting. We were joined by steeplechase3K this past year as he left his seat up front to sit with us, and our good friend Hoss stops in now and then to say hi and watch a match. We've now had greensailor and her boyfriend join our happy collective this year as well.

What started as folks sitting near us simply in random seating turned into something more in the course of talking, as we found out that we had a lot of stuff in common. We all loved soccer, obvious with our being there, but we all loved pie more than cake. We also found in many conversations that we all hate clowns. This became a common thread through many of our stories to the amusement of many of the other TA. We have also discovered other things, like most of us hate spiders, love the Trail Blazers, love this town a lot, and drink a lot of alcohol. Games became our times to meet up, share stories, and generally get to know each other better. I've heard stories of folks that bond as family during sporting events, and it happened in Row N because of footy, a love of pastry and a hate for clowns.

Our group has become sort of the destination for souls that look for goofiness in celebrating the game. We have our own banner depicting Bob Ross, the Happy Trees painting guy, and there's also silly string, streamers, and other assorted things being thrown from our area. We also have a green toy chainsaw that I carry for every home game, plus we also have some crazy banners depicting our love of pie and beer. The most famous Row N banner is Got Wood? in the Got Milk font, and we display that when Timber Jim cuts the log after a score. We've also brought in an inflatable whale for a prop, and fed part of the section with homemade pie that was brought into the park. Yea, not gonna tell you how we did that.

What's funny about this experience is that meeting up for soccer had led me to meet some of the most amazing people and the love of my life, and as silly as it sounds, it started over soccer and hating clowns. Since soccer runs through the summer and fall, we've started meeting up during the offseason to gather, share stories, and have fun. Our first Row N gathering really wasn't a true official group thing, but it was a party for my 40th birthday that lead to a late drinking night at Edgefield. We met up there again in May for a weekend of fun, golf, drinking, and being up too late, and our third official gathering was during Thanksgiving weekend. Our next gathering will be in April during my wedding to girl, and we'd like to continue doing this for as long as we can.

Along the way, we've met graceless and fenrus, who don't stand in Row N, but bowl with us each Tuesday and share our loves. We also have honorary members like Hornman, KC, and Nic that have shown up to games, and occassionally meet up to share pie stories. The love of footy has led to now lifelong friends who share a common bond, and it's amazing.

Our weekend was filled with drinking, laughing, and generally relaxing as we forgot about the trials of work and the world, forgot about the Timbers postseason loss, and looking with optimism towards the 2008 season. Can't think of better folks to hang with, actually.

Anyway, my point in this rambling is that finding your place is something everyone of us needs to do. Sometimes it's as simple as finding a group of folks that are as crazy as you are about the things you love, sometimes it's more difficult than that. But we all keep trying because at the core, we all want a place to be happy, be loved, and accepted for who you are. And it can happen in the most unlikely of places, but when it does, cherish it for all it is worth because being part of something bigger than yourself and sharing in a group experience like this is one of the greatest gifts life has to offer. Until next time...

-K