Away - 4/22 Portland

[LionNYC]

New York City FC at Portland Timbers
Providence Park
Sunday, April 22nd 6 PM ET
FS1, WNYC 91.5 FM, WADO 1280 AM
Stream on Fox Sports Go (with cable subscription)

We’re still undefeated after a trip to Atlanta and picking up a point. We’re going across the country for the second time thus far this season as we take on the Portland Timbers.

 

[Kjbert]

Happy to be playing them now. Savarese hasn't figured them out yet and vice versa. Happy for them that Adi is back. Always a difficult place to play.

 

[DeGrozz]

POR won't be in this bad of form all season, let's hope we take advantage of their early season search for form. This is a really big 4 games coming up and getting 7+ points in them would be excellent.

 

[Jon]

Do you think there's some benefit to us having just played on turf this weekend and now heading to Portland?

PS. Turf fucking sucks!

 

[Midas Mulligan]

PS. Turf fucking sucks!

For real. ATL seemingly has their turf figured out and use it to their advantage.

It really is a different game on that garbage.

I’m starting to sound like a damn Brit, but I have grown to just freaking hate watching footy on fake grass. It is abysmal.

 

[mgarbowski]

For real. ATL seemingly has their turf figured out and use it to their advantage.

It really is a different game on that garbage.

I’m starting to sound like a damn Brit, but I have grown to just freaking hate watching footy on fake grass. It is abysmal.

It is a different game. It should not be allowed. Our field has its issues, but the turf quality has gotten better since 2015, and it's a joke that it has a worse reputation than any of the plastic crap.

 

[adam]

It is a different game. It should not be allowed. Our field has its issues, but the turf quality has gotten better since 2015, and it's a joke that it has a worse reputation than any of the plastic crap.

There you go again using the word turf for both grass and the artificial variety.

 

[Kjbert]

Sorry. We play on a stamp. It's just MLS. It's a terrible quirk but I've come to love how MLS has these quirks. It's like the Green Monster at Fenway.

 

[The Toe]

I'll be very disappointed if we do not score at least twice in this game. Portland has talent, but it isn't in their back 4-5.

 

[Gotham Gator]

I am glad we have a full week off after last night. It’s going to take time to recover emotionally after that one.

 

[mgarbowski]

There you go again using the word turf for both grass and the artificial variety.

Both?
I only used it once, correctly.

 

[adam]

I am glad we have a full week off after last night. It’s going to take time to recover emotionally after that one.

For you or the players?

 

[Gotham Gator]

For you or the players?

Ha! Both!

 

[canchon]

Supposedly Portland has the best turf in the league. When Henry played for RBNY he wouldn’t play on any turf field except for Portland.

Not sure how Atlanta’s turf quality compares to that. But one thing I will say is that the ball rolls really fast and you can see how Atlanta uses that to play extremely vertical to use it to their advantage.

 

[Kjbert]

Supposedly Portland has the best turf in the league. When Henry played for RBNY he wouldn’t play on any turf field except for Portland.

Not sure how Atlanta’s turf quality compares to that. But one thing I will say is that the ball rolls really fast and you can see how Atlanta uses that to play extremely vertical to use it to their advantage.

I know Merrit Paulson has been very vocal on how their surface plays. They've spent a lot of money (according to him) trying to perfect and experiment.

 

[Keith Putnam]

It's a shame we're too late for a Berget v Borchers Beard Battle.

 

[Ulrich]

Supposedly Portland has the best turf in the league. When Henry played for RBNY he wouldn’t play on any turf field except for Portland.

Not sure how Atlanta’s turf quality compares to that. But one thing I will say is that the ball rolls really fast and you can see how Atlanta uses that to play extremely vertical to use it to their advantage.

Yeah, their outlet passes were 30m into space, like barren space with nobody close, and they just let their guys run a track meet to get there first. It’s a novel tactic since Martinez, Almiron, Gressel, and now Barco are speed demons. They were playing 8 men back to jam us on defense and then would literally spray a ball out to the one area our defenders weren’t in and everybody had to hoof it to chase.

It’s brilliant for their stadium, but can be partially nullified at every other field by letting the grass grow high to slow down the ball and their players.

 

[Gotham Gator]

Good points all, and it only underscores how ridiculous the criticism of our pitch has become.

 

[dannd23]

On the topic of field turf, never understood why teams went that route and not grassmaster which is what the Packers use. It's a synthetic mixture that plays just like real grass without all the work to maintain and far less ACL injuries.

 

[twsj91]

Why is the Portland field turf? Because of all the rain? They didn’t have proper drainage installed when the baseball stadium was built years ago? Just kind of odd.

Also they’re pitch is incredibly small since they renovated the stadium to be soccer. I remember when I first started watching MLS it was around the same time PTFC was coming into MLS existence and people complained about it constantly. Kind of odd all that talk has died down. I guess we saved them from that?