Time to look forward to an epic Portland Timbers experience

Now that the American “football” season has come to an end, we can finally devote our attention to real football and our local love, the Portland Timbers.

The Timbers will face more grueling competition as they keep pace against four of the fiercest clubs in the Western Conference this March – the first month of the regular season. The Timbers will face Real Salt Lake, LA Galaxy, Sporting Kansas City, and the Vancouver Whitecaps.

There is new expansion in Major League Soccer (MLS) this season, which is bittersweet. At this rate, it’s thrilling to see the soccer industry in the U.S. boom and seep into every corner of urban America. Slowly, we are witnessing the rise of soccer in place of the (American) football and baseball dynasties. As a result of the addition of Orlando (Florida) FC and New York City FC this year, two of the stronger Eastern Division teams, Sporting Kansas City and Houston Dynamo, have edged their way into our neck of the woods: They have been shifted to the Western Division. So, we get to face Sporting KC  (2013 champions of the MLS Cup) thrice, oh what joy! Though, I’m sure if our stars align and the Timbers dominate their first four matches with 2-nil wins, like they did in their preseason match against Kansas City a week ago, it should be very easy sailing from then on.

Winning big games likely won’t be easy for our guys without the help of midfielders Diego Valeri and Will Johnson. It will be interesting to see how both key midfielders fare this season after recovering from injuries that snagged both of them from the field late last season. Valeri, who tore his ACL in the last game of the 2014 season, is hopeful to return from rehab and be back in action this May. Johnson, the team captain, who sustained a broken leg, should be back sometime near April.

You also should know the Timbers have acquired a fresh new line of players to complement our veteran classics: Fanendo Adi, Johnson, Jack Jewsbury, Maximiliano Urruti, etc.

The Timbers seem to be looking ahead: They’ve added a new goalkeeper: the younger (age 27) Adam Kwarasey to replace Donovan Ricketts (age 37), who will guard the nets for Orlando City this year. The backup for Kwarasey will be 31-year-old MLS veteran Andrew Weber.

The roster also includes some newer, obscure names. I don’t think I’ve heard of Jeanderson before (he’s from Brazil, so it’s one name: Jeanderson). I’m assuming many of our newbies are going to be placed into T2, the Timbers’ developmental club.

It’s worth mentioning that Chivas U.S.A., our greatest rival and the hub of football culture and talent in America, (cough, cough – sarcasm) will be totally removed from MLS this season. The franchise will focus on rebuilding its image and re-branding itself sometime in the future.

One thing Timber adherents are not thrilled about are the leaked views at the new Portland kits (game jerseys), which remind some fans of, say, their old high school’s junior cheerleading squad’s getup. Opposition to the new uniforms is bubbling all over websites such as Stumptown Footy in the form of outraged tweets. It is still not clear as to if these kits are the real deal.

One last point to keep in mind: The Timbers are hosting free fan axe photo shoots at Providence Park to commemorate their fifth anniversary in the MLS, and their 40 anniversary, overall, in Portland.

The classic photo shoots will take place over two weekends, starting today and continuing Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The shoot is open next weekend, Feb. 14 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, and Feb. 15 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Individual Tickets for the Portland Timbers’ regular season – starting on Saturday, March 7 – go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 20.

You can purchase tickets online at http://www.timbers.com/tickets, or at the Providence Park box office (18th Ave/KeyBank plaza only.)