Allison A Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 Edmonton 1 - 4 Portland P: Gordon 16' P: Alvarez 44' P: Alvarez 60' E: Vignjevic 81' P: Afash 85' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 There goes Portland, beating up on poor old Edmonton again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allison A Posted August 7, 2004 Author Share Posted August 7, 2004 Yep, that's how the game works. You pound your opponent until the final whistle blows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reza Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 It wasn't so much pounding in this case. Edmonton's defence was terrible on all 4 goals. But for what is worth, the goal Nikola scored was a very nice free kick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reza Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 Having said that as well, Portland looked like the number 1 team that they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 Shame they'll be eliminated in the first round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allison A Posted August 7, 2004 Author Share Posted August 7, 2004 My point is you don't deliberately stop scoring when you are trying to build momentum for the playoffs. Since you are always criticising your Whitecaps, and obviously don't think the Timbers are any good, so who is going to win the West this year? Seattle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 I never said the Timbers weren't any good. I think that they spend so much time bashing weak opponents that when they are facing a good team in playoffs they will falter, just like they have in recent games vs the Whitecaps where they can't buy a goal. I'll not respond to the "always criticizing the Whitecaps comments". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 Attendance 375-400, my estimate, Coronation Park, 12 C, cloudy and light wind, occaisonal sprinkles.Unfortunate crowd, combination of weather, and big events like Cariwest Parade and Edmonton Folk Festival in town. The gameclock didn't break down today. Good thing Allison listed the goal scorers, couldn't hear the announcements today. No program today, had a friend there, and got into the smuggled in creamy ale, so no report. Edmonton could not pass today worth two shakes. Still playing that unusual 3-5-2, or 5-3-2 given how the wingers Fraser and Dhaliwal laid back so far. Fraser is our best playmaker, it's a shame to waste him back there. Still trying to attack against a congested centre. Poor defensive coordination and lousy GK positioning resulted in four lousy goals for Portland. Nic Vignjevic had a great free kick two yards from the box that resulted in a goal. Good to see sparkplug Gordon Chin returning, even if EFC had their worst match since the demise of the Aviators. Portland showed why they are one of the best teams in the A-league, good crisp passing. The referee was bad, not as bad as the one last week against Seattle though. At least he called a few fouls against Portland, even if he should have called about 5 or 6 yellows. At half time talked to two young members of the Timber Crew, a couple who were the only ones to make the trip. They were nice. Thought you were going to be there Allison? Interesting bit of stuff before the match. A group playing for some children's charity broke the Guiness world record (old one 24 hrs, new one about 30 hrs) for continuous soccer match before kickoff. Mike Traficante, President of the ASA (good to see they are up to something) presented huge trophy to the "winning side" (as it was, that turned out to be the highlight of the afternoon:(). They had tents all over the endzone where they rested during the subs. Looked like fun, though a lot of the players could barely walk. Oh yeah....Edmonton 1- Portland 4. Next match for the EFC is at Foote Field Tuesday night, august 10, 7:30 pm announced kickoff (they are gonna have to move that up) so far , against the Calgary Mustangs. See if it gets real dark before regulation time. Anybody from Cowtown making the trip up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allison A Posted August 7, 2004 Author Share Posted August 7, 2004 Thanks for the report. Believe me, I wish I was there. I had been looking forward to making the trip for months, but for many last-minute reasons it just wasn't possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 quote:Attendance 375-400, my estimate, Coronation Park, 12 C, cloudy and light wind, occaisonal sprinkles.Unfortunate crowd, combination of weather, and big events like Cariwest Parade and Edmonton Folk Festival in town. If Edmonton hopes to have an A-League team for next year they can't use excuses like that for crowds that small. No matter whats going on in town or what the weather is crowds should be no smaller than 1,200 per game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 quote:Attendance 375-400, my estimate, Coronation Park, 12 C, cloudy and light wind, occaisonal sprinkles.Unfortunate crowd, combination of weather, and big events like Cariwest Parade and Edmonton Folk Festival in town. If Edmonton hopes to have an A-League team for next year they can't use excuses like that for crowds that small. No matter whats going on in town or what the weather is crowds should be no smaller than 1,200 per game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Krammerhead If Edmonton hopes to have an A-League team for next year they can't use excuses like that for crowds that small. No matter whats going on in town or what the weather is crowds should be no smaller than 1,200 per game. This isn't Vancouver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 What makes things so bad here was that it was 2 hours from the end of the game till the supper-hour news. I saw nothing on CFRN or A-Channel and Global only had a 2-0 scoreline from the 2nd half because their didn't have a phone in result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 quote:Originally posted by DoyleG This isn't Vancouver. You could also say it's not all the other cities in the league either. Every city has it's excuses for low crowds, and most teams would consider 1,000 fans a small crowd and crowds under 1,000 unacceptable. This isn't an amateur league, no team should get uner 1,000 for a game. I understand this season there are problems in Edmonton that can't be helped, but geeze the team should still be getting 1,000 a game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reza Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 But I sm not even sure if Coronation can take more then 1000 fans...it looks awefully small to me, both the field and the number of seats in it. BTW, just before the game, some women's soccer team had broken some world record for the longest soccer game ever (26 straight hours)... it's all really sad watching these guys in Coronation...I mean the guys who planned the Aviator thing, must have been the worst group of organizers ever...stuff like this are really a big blow to soccer in Canada and it's not like soccer in Canada needs any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Krammerhead You could also say it's not all the other cities in the league either. Every city has it's excuses for low crowds, and most teams would consider 1,000 fans a small crowd and crowds under 1,000 unacceptable. This isn't an amateur league, no team should get uner 1,000 for a game. I understand this season there are problems in Edmonton that can't be helped, but geeze the team should still be getting 1,000 a game. Everyone has given up on the team here. You would be hard pressed to tell fans the team is still even playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarnCherry Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 quote:But I sm not even sure if Coronation can take more then 1000 fans...it looks awefully small to me, both the field and the number of seats in it. Over on the Edmonton board they were saying that Coronation has a seating capacity of 1,500-2,000. I'd be interested in seeing some photographs from there that actually show the seating. quote:Everyone has given up on the team here. You would be hard pressed to tell fans the team is still even playing. Well that says a lot about the soccer "fans" in Edmonton. Maybe there isn't enough of them to bother keeping a team in Edmonton. If all they care about are comfortable seats and a huge replay screen then they weren't real fans in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 This was a column published in the Edmonton Journal some time ago. Two points for whoever can guess the year before the final two paragraphs. 'Soccer fans stay away' Get out the chalk. Find the old wooden pointer. Pull your chair up close to the blackboard. This may be a good time for Edmonton's so-called soccer fans to sit through a history liesson covering a little more than five years. For at least that long, we've been told soccer was certain to become a major sports factor in North America. It was, assuredly, only a matter of time. In the first phase, there was a North American Soccer League franchise called the Edmonton Drillers, which started optimistrically, then struggled and suffered and died. Just like the league. Along came the Edmonton Eagles and the Edmonton Brick Men. The Eagles died, too. The Brick Men Drillers, the Eagles, and the Brick Men became part of low-profile, low-cost leagues. Joe Petrone and Gary Sampson are key men in a group of dedicated soccer salvationists who figured fiscal responsibility was the only alternative after Driller owner Peter Pocklington's big-spending ways. The new belief was that local fans will watch local kids although they weren't interested in washed-up, high-priced imports. Wrong. Most so-called fans haven't showed up, period. Unless they've been disguising themselves as empty seats. Evidence during the weekend was that things aren't about to change. In their formative periods, the Drillers, Eagles, and Brick Men shared three things in common: ambitious administrators, big hopes and hordes of area residents who bragged that they cared about the sport. The reisdents had somethings in common, too. They proved their interest in a unique way -- by staying away from soccer matches no matter what the occasion. Soccer fans stayed home Sunday, too, as Manchester City of the English First Division handed the Brick Men a 3 - 0 beating. The announced crowd was 2,109. Disappointing. For as long as I've been watching soccer in Ourtown, I've been hearing that good British sides would be sure to draw outstanding crowds. I used to agree. Now, I'm convinced that big crowds for international exhibitions matches are a thing of the past. There's no massive interest in all-Canadian competition, either, which leads me to believe that all the noise about soccer's great future -- in Edmonton and in the entire nation -- is absolutely unfounded. I can hear some of the excuses now. The weather was too good. Pre-game publicity was scarce. Tough (also free) competition was provided by a world-class equestrian competition, an orientering exercise, a major cycling criterium and a well-organized aerobics demonstration. That's a lot of competition for the lesiure time of potential soccer spectators, but it wouldn't be a problem if things were unfoldings as they were supposed to. Because Canada has reached the World Cup for the first time, this is supposed to be the year in which soccer finally breaks through as a major sport for adult spectators as well as for the thousands of youngesters who enjoy playing the game. I don't believe it. History, you know. That column was written by John Short in the Edmonton Journal just prior to Canada's appearance at Mexico 86. BTW, the Brick Men played Dundee United at Clarke Stadium the following week and lost 3 - 1 before 1,320 fans. I'm not as pessimistic as John Short was back then, but this Edmonton thing is really discouraging for what is supposed to be a great sports town. I thought that some of the things that he expressed back in 1986 unfortunately still hold true today. Blair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 If that were to be in 1986, that would put the Brickmen in the old Western Soccer Alliance. We jumped from that into the CSL. Yet the problems always seems to bother us in Edmonton. Play with a good lineup that can win at the expense of proud local fans or a local team and risk driving off the fair weather fan. The same can apply to facilities. The issue of a facility that can host soccer is going to have to be dealt with in the future. We know that Commonwealth is too big but everything else in the city is bush league. Yet we can't count on the city to build us what they need. They never really take care of facilities under their control (This does include Commonwealth). Yet we can also have good crowds and still see owners give up because of too much red ink. We saw that with the indoor Drillers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 Timbers fell Edmonton FC 4-1 SCOTT ZERR, EDMONTON SUN Nic Stankov's competitive nature is both a blessing and a curse. He is a fiery sort whose spirit often keeps him razor-sharp in games and it's the blood-boiler that is behind the assortment of saves he's made since becoming the full-time starter in Edmonton FC's net. His aggression can also be a downfall, as it was yesterday during FC's 4-1 setback to the Portland Timbers before a shivering mob of about 500 at Coronation Park. Portland's 15-7 record moves them four points up on Vancouver for top spot in the A-League's Western Conference, while Edmonton fell to 3-13-6. Warranted or not, Stankov was caught beefing loudly with his teammates at times, arguing with head coach Ross Ongaro at halftime and putting his boot to a water bottle at the end of the lopsided match. His desire to win is unquestionable. The antics, however, have dropped him in some hot water. "Goalies are definitely unique and he is definitely unique," said Ongaro. "There's a lot of pressure on him. It's a tough situation to put any rookie in. Hopefully you give them enough opportunity to improve and learn from their mistakes and keep playing. That's the luxury right now is that he gets to play all the time." Stankov, who came into the game with a 2.41 goals-against average and 33 saves to his credit, was fuming long after the final whistle. In fact, he piled into his truck still in full uniform, seething over the performance. "He's got a lot to learn, but we're working with him," added Ongaro. "As long as he's willing to work and learn, then he's got a chance. He's got the frame (six-foot-six), he's got the foot and he's got excellent distribution." The University of Western Florida product was forced into the starting role when standout Jose Luis Campi bolted from the mess left by the collapse of the Aviators. A native of Victoria, Stankov was expected to be somewhat shell-shocked by the amount of leather fired at him under the trying circumstances of FC's depleted roster. The experience of holding No. 1 duty has been valuable for the first-year pro but the situation hasn't exactly been the best. "He's made a lot of good saves for us and sometimes we don't help him as much as we need to help him," said FC defender Chris Devlin. "He's very emotional and a very intense young man. He's always up and always talking because it helps him be in the game." The outgunned FC lineup was no match for the powerful Timbers, who hold a 16-2 edge in the three meetings between the clubs this season (plus one forfeit victory). Alan Gordon took advantage of a turnover in the 16th minute for his league-leading 17th goal and Byron Alvarez moved into a tie for second spot at 13 with his pair for the visitors. Nik Vignjevic gave FC some life with a perfect free-kick strike in the 82nd minute, but substitute Fadi Afash killed the momentum only three minutes later for Portland. FLIGHT PLAN: Edmonton faces Calgary Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Foote Field. http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/Sports/2004/08/08/573596.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 Both the Sun and Journal had rather decent articles in the paper's today. As for TV, nothing on A-Channel at supper or late night. CFRN had highlights but didn't even show the Edmonton goal. As for Global, they were still waiting for a phone-in of the scores on the supper-time broadcast. The game had been over for 2 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.