Timbers Grab Dallas By The Horns

Another match at Providence Park and it was rather chilly for a June day. However I was assured by the locals that the weather really doesn't become 'summery' until July-August. Never-mind, I am here to watch some football and my adopted local team take on FC Dallas 96. Thankfully they are not called Dallas Burn still.
Once again the first half was a series of disjointed passages of play from the home side. The visitors from Texas were like sharks though, sniffing around trying to latch onto any mistake which came a few times in the middle of the first half. A brilliant goal line clearance from the scrambling Timbers defence just cleared the ball only a mere couple of millimetres from crossing the line.
The home side managed to get on the scoreboard and open their account in the 31st minute. While I was told by the locals sitting around me, that the side had been hit hard by injuries and national team duties, was no excuse as squads should be able to cover these issues.

Portland played much better in the second half, much like the first game I went to. However, I have drawn the conclusion that artificial turf is just not suitable for playing football on. The ball just kept bouncing and bobbling. The players continuously kept playing the ball high in the air and heading the ball up like a group of seals playing tricks. While I can understand with the cold weather conditions of the Pacific North-West being very cold with snow etc, for top flight football this just isn't suitable.
Through the dominance of the home side, the Timbers doubled the lead with a few series of errors from the Dallas defence which resulted in an easy tap in. The game ended in a 2-0 win to Portland.

The food, well I had pizza as I didn't have time to go to Hot Lips outside of the stadium. Which is a shame as they were delicious last time. The stadium pizza was nice but of course it is expensive. If I were to be living in Portland I would eat at Hot Lips or at a bar before coming. I doubled up as I didn't want to leave my seat during the game so 4 slices of pizza was 24 dollars and 2 bottles of cherry coke was 8 dollars. The only flavours of pizza were cheese or pepperoni, so limited for choice. The pizzas were actually not too bad, but the price was hurting. While excessive, I didn't want to make multiple trips and miss the game or be held up by long lines. The game was well attended, id say the figure would be almost 20 thousand.

There concludes my second Major League Soccer game in Portland. I had a great time as the Timbers army this time were in full voice and certainly built the atmosphere. Hopefully I can try to watch a US Open Cup game in Seattle next week. But, my travel plans may get in the way of that.