MannyJello

Hey all - been a REAL long time since I've posted on this forum. I apologize for my absence (not that it was noticed, I'm sure), but the combination of work life and an active season for my hometown Portland Timbers has kept me away from the Shed End. My passion for CFC has certainly not waned in the slightest, however! As Mad Mac can attest. I hope everyone has been well. Anyway, remember John Spencer, who played with the club in the 1990's? He is about to be named the head manager of my local club, the Portland Timbers, who will begin play in the American MLS next season. He played in the MLS from 2001 to 2004, and then has been in the assistant manager ranks for various MLS clubs since then. He has been an assistant with the MLS Houston Dynamo since 2007, and they have won 2 championships during that time. He today resigned from the team "to pursue other opportunities," and it has been a badly-kept secret for months now that he has been Portland's top choice. A few players confirmed to the media that he is about to be named our head coach. A pic of Spenny then... ... and now ... (he's the short one!) Cheers, all. Hope to begin contributing again this season. Manny

yes, cheers! We got the team. what a great week this has been. I was at the official rally/press conference/announcement today, what a riot. Singing football songs and getting rowdy while in a fancy hotel room with no football to be seen, except on a television screen. Scott, yes, you definitely have to come down. And yes, there is a corny "Green is the Color" song but the supporters don't sing it. It's piped in over the loudspeakers; best form of flattery, no? One of our main supporters is also a huge Chelsea nutter so he started a version of "Carefree" that we also sing.

just received the most wonderful news and needed to share. Word has just leaked that Portland will be announced as the 18th franchise in the MLS on Friday after Vancouver will be announced as the 17th on Thursday. it was a tough battle -- in order to be awarded the expansion franchise (remember there is no promotion/relegation in America...this will be a Division 1 side getting dismantled and a brand new top flight team being created out of whole cloth), we needed to win a City Council vote turning our current stadium into a soccer specific stadium and building a new stadium for the minor league baseball team that currently co-occupies the grounds with us. last week the City Council heard 6 hours of testimony from a variety of sources -- including supporters like myself -- before voting 3 to 2 to give us the financing needed for the deal. here's a link to my testimony -- just scroll forward to minute 246, and my testimony begins at minute 248. I'm the great looking guy talking about my daughter Lucy and her love of the team. Not to brag, but after the day was done, the mayor of our city came up to me and told me that was the funniest and best public testimony he'd ever heard in his 22 years of being in city politics. It's just 2 minutes long, enjoy... Cheers, mates! Can't wait until Chelsea comes to play in Portland in our new stadium and I get to wear two scarves that day, one blue and one green!!!

yeah, but then again, Belletti identified himself as a "defender"

cheers, loz - appreciate it. i could be watching it at home on HD but i'm stuck offsite all day and need to watching it on my laptop.

any direction appreciated. cheers

i'll say it -- that felt like a victory we used to get with a certain Portugeezer as the coach. 1:0 win, hostile environment, great resolute team play by the lads, strong spine, good tactical manuevers throughout the match, knowing you needed a win before you entered the match and actually *getting* the win -- those are all the hallmarks of our team under JM. as the Special One said (well, his puppet did) during Setanta's Special 1 TV, "You know you're just keeping my seat warm, Guus."

little help here -- what is the song that our supporters were singing at 86'? it's sung at just about every match and i have no idea what it is. thanks in advance from an ignorant yank.

"it's so quiet at the Park" -- brilliant. the traveling support has sounded great today, certainly helped by the fact that Chelsea have been controlling most of the possession and looking the most dangerous.

4:45 it is, on the west coast of the States, and I'm up as well. Come on Chels!!! curious to see if Kalou plays a withdrawn striker role behind DD and NA, sort of like where Eidur used to play? commentators seem to think he might have license to play a floating role, either out on the wing or up behind the two of them....

couver ithem's fighting words. i mean this with the utmost respect -- that is really really really wrong. The portland timbers have led the league in attendance since we got our team back 8 years ago. By far. Vancouver is proud because their "die hard" supporters group numbers 20 or 30 (I can show you a video to prove this) -- the Timbers Army is in the 3000 - 4000 range (and again, this is for minor league soccer...it will explode if we get into the MLS). as for corporate support, that's where Vancouver falls flat. the Canadian corporate sponsorship platform is atrocious. things are much easier in the United States, especially in Portland, where we have the headquarters for NIKE, the north american HQ for adidas, Columbia sportswear, etc, etc. i can go on and on, but if Portland loses out to Vancouver, it won't be because of support -- fan based or corporate. my prediction is Portland and Miami. it will be close, though. lots of political wrangling still to come before it's a done deal.

yes yes yes heard the rumor about this a few weeks ago, glad to see it's gonna happen you know there will the Great North American Piss-Up 2009, even if it's just me and Mad Mac! by the by, the Sh*ttle Sounders are my Portland Timbers biggest rivals, we hate that scum just as much as we Chels fans hate the Sp*rs. it will be much pleasing to the eye to see Chelsea roll over those fvckers like the little leaguers they are. Scott, I'll be in touch with you, mate, we'll definitely sort it out.

well, look -- as Bridgey once said, the important thing is we got the 3 points!

between the Milan derby and the NBA basketball All-Star game yesterday (final score was like 146- 119), I literally saw NO defense the entire day. certainly an entertaining match, and I was on the edge of my seat just about the entire second half, but it was almost as if each team had an agreement to allow the other team to attack for 1 minute before it would take the ball and attack on its own. in Italy you get so much time on the ball, it allows everyone space to make nice moves and fancy dribbling. again, fun to watch, but horribly poor defending.

good God, if that Watford player (McAnuff?) had only lightly chipped the ball, instead of trying to blast it as hard as he could straight ahead, we'd be having a replay. instead, 30 seconds later, Nic has a hat trick. football's a funny game.

sweet finish, we'll only need another 19 corners before we score again!

holy fvck. Roman's not smiling anymore. Mancienne to blame? no, edit, just watched it again, the linesman is to blame.

Mancienne has looked very composed. Done some tidy work in the back, but again, it's against Championship opposition, and he has also had moments where he has bean beaten. Hasn't been a consistent part of the attack like Cole has been, at least not up the flank, a few times he's done well up the center to possess the ball and link up with the midfield and then presented himself as an option. I'd rank him a solid 5.

Mourinho for Wilkins?

alright, here's a stupid tactical suggestion that I don't think I've ever seen tried, but let me float it out anyway. admittedly I'm a bit of a juveline when it comes to football tactics, only really having followed international club football for the past 6 or 7 years, but let me throw this out anyway. when you watch United play, it seems that Ronaldo is at his best when he gets a full head of steam and is running at the defense. the defender(s) usually give him plenty of space, not wanting to get too close to him because his speed and control are so good he could just run right round them. so how to stop that? why not prevent Ronaldo from getting the ball in the first place? My suggestion would be to take one of your players -- not a defender -- and have stuck on Ronaldo's hip from the opening whistle. No matter where Ronaldo goes, the opponent would be right on top of him, between him and the ball. The moment the opening whistle blows, the opponent runs right over to him and sticks to him like glue the entire game. Always. It would prevent those multitude times when Ronaldo gets the ball on the wing and starts attacking the flank. The problem with this strategy would be that you effectively lose an attacker, since that player would be stuck to Ronaldo even when your team was on a counterattack. But if it was effective in stopping United's attack, wouldn't it be worth it? It would sort of be like a 10 v 10 match with Ronaldo out of the picture. Again, not a defender, but some other midfielder whose presence in the defense isn't necessary. So for a team like Chelsea, it would be someone like Kalou, someone who is fast and can keep up with Ronaldo. He doesn't have to be a fantastic defender, he just has to be quick enough to stay with him and have good positioning skills. The other bonus to this tactic is that Ronaldo is so petulant, he would get all worked up and would lose his focus. Think about how annoyed he would get, and how it would affect him mentally. So, like I side, sort of a stupid idea, but just curious if anyone has any thoughts. Anyone ever see another team ever do this to anyone?

that could well have been the first time that Drogba and Anelka had a productive and dangerous interchange. the more time that passes without us putting one in the net, though...

Drogs looks dangerous and actually capable of scoring for -- what? -- the first time this season? come on Chels! (one fear - with DeMerit's penchant for scoring on set pieces, and our weakness on set pieces this season, and our already having given up a few goals to Yanks this season (see: Dempsey, Clint), let's hope we don't give up a sloppy goal, especially since we're controlling 80% of possession)

no, but seriously, it's been said several times already, but why in the hell did we replace RQ with Drogba? my 7 year old daughter knew we should have taken off Kalou instead. the stands knew it too, and serenaded Big Phil with Avram's favorite, "you don't know what you're doing..." for the first time in his Chelsea tenure. really ridonkulous

Our own "Maka 2.0" has had quite a start to the season; with Essien's injury, he has become a mainstay on the pitch, one of the first in Scolari's starting XI. He has played all 90 minutes in 11 of our 14 matches to date, with only Bosingwa, Terry and Lamps playing more. The two things about him about which I am most pleased: 1. The lad only has 2 yellow cards, and hasn't come close to seeing red. Which is a huge improvement over years past. 2. Maka is one of my favorites ever to have worn the blue shirt, but Mikel seems to be 10 times more aggressive in terms of pushing the action. You could almost always count on Maka, with the ball, to make a short side pass but more often a back pass to the defense. Mikel seems to want to pass diagonally up the field first, switch the ball out to wing second, attack the defense with some dribbling next, and only as a last resort play the ball backwards. That has really added a new dimension to our club.

looks like i'd have lost some money if i had placed my bet yesterday about Drogs never again appearing in a Chelsea shirt. i want the old Drogba back, i want to root for the lad, i want him to be as terrorizing as he was in 06-07, but most of last season and all of this season he just seems to be so damn brittle and fragile. if he keeps this up he'll make Arjen Robben look like an iron man.