Nibbled by Goats, Gored by Steers

My beloved Timbers are not having a good July.

First the original first-division coach got the sack a couple of weeks back.

That wasn't entirely unexpected. John Spencer, good man that I believe he was, simply wasn't coaching for the 21st Century. His "tactics" seemed to be designed to see how much like the St. Mirren side that barely avoided relegation to Scottish Division 2 in 1963 we could play. Direct, naive, crude...that was Spenny. Nice guy; funny commercial. Just not ready for U.S. first-division prime-time.

But...

His replacement was this guy.

I'd watched Gavin Wilkinson coach the USL Timbers back when we were in the Second Division. He was, fundamentally, Spencer with 90% fewer overlapping fullback runs. Crude? Yep, he was crude. Direct? Like a 2 by 4 upside the head his teams were direct.

So when the owner put him in place of Spencer I have to admit that my hopes weren't...high.

But I really didn't expect anything like this.

Or - worse - this.

As I've written before this; the 2012 season looks to be a truly awful one for the Timbers and, therefore, for us, their fans.

Now let me say this; I still love my Timbers. There's a song we sing after the enemy scores; "Rose City 'Til I Die, Rose City 'Til I Die, I Know I Am, I'm Sure I Am, Rose City 'Til I Die."

And that's how it is; win or lose, I and the other true supporters I know will be there singing for the Boys, for brighter and better days. We have to hope and believe that those days will come.

But it hurts. It hurts to see them play like this.

Onward, Rose City!