Portland 0 - 0 El Paso

A match report with 11 game photos and 3 video clips:

http://www.soccercityusa.com/timbers/elp061902.htm

On a personal note.. please, please, please is there anything that will ever get the Patriots to stop the dives, and rolling around on the pitch like they have a broken leg every time someone touches them? At least a dozen times tonight Patriots players stopped play for a least a minute to roll around like they had a compound fracture. The only player who actually got hurt was the starting keeper, who got kicked in the nose by his own player.

It gets really old after awhile, and it really degrades the game, and the league. Your backup keeper looked sharp though, and made a few great saves.

Video clips? Brush off your desk Allison, looks like your getting back to back "commies" this year.

One of the previous posts talked about Latin soccer "at its finest"...That's one of those things. It's how they slow down matches; on the road especially.

Thanks for your website, Allison. It's pretty darn cool.

Incidentally, the "backup" goalkeeper, Jesse Llamas, is actually the starter, who I guess had to come back from a leg injury a little sooner than expected.

I saw one yellow awarded for "diving" in a Battery match this year - must not have caught-on on the left coast. Great stuff A-llison.

Nope. Might as well get used to it. (Heck I have)

I thought it drew the match out a little too long. C'mon the announced injury time in the first half was 8 minutes, which probably turned into 15 minutes from all the falling babies after the 45th. At one point of the match there where 2 players down in two separate areas of the pitch. Is this a normal behavior of El Paso? I remember last year they did close to the same "tactics", at least the ref gave the keeper a yellow for wasting time while playing with his hurt leg. Also, what's up with the El Paso trainers taking so long to come on the pitch after a player is down? What a waste of time. I guess they know their players are going to roll around and cry for a few minutes and then get up like nothing happenend. Well there is my rant. I hope the diving comes to a stop, it takes away from the level of play. At least dive if it's going to work, if it doesn't don't roll around crying until someone sees you!

If you've lived in South Texas very long and have been around soccer you have heard the phrase "the romance of the game" repeated over and over again. Part of the "romance" is the play acting. It runs rampant through the Latin teams. A few players in MLS bring it with them but lose it fairly quickly...except I thought El Matador soaked it a lot, even doing some dives in the WC this year. You don't see it much in MLS despite the number of Latin players because, I would hazard a guess, of peer pressure.

LOL.

I have been going around the net and reading some of the Timber's fans responses about the game. I don't know maybe its me, but I think it is damn funny how some of these people seem so "offended" by our tactics, like if it were someting new. By now everyone around this league knows that El Paso's road behavior is nothing but shameful displays of respect for the game. Everyone, including some of the followers of this team have condemmed this crap. There is nothing we (the fans on this forum) can do to get our players to stop pulling this crap.

As a huge fan of the Pat's, I have accepted this, maybe some people around the league should as well (Some fans from Vancouver have, or so it seems) - The El Paso Patriots are (and probably always be) the worst behaved road team in this league. It obvious the Pat's are not embarassed by their antics, because on every road trip they pull this crap.

Also stop asking if we can do anything about getting them to stop pulling that crap. As long as they stress this whole "latin" game crap, it will still remain.

Excessive diving may be good tactics on occasion
BUT it does kill the fluidity of the game and bores/annoys spectators.

Teams seem to forget that pro soccer is sports ENTERTAINMNET. Coaches and players lose sight of this big picture and think only about the competitive aspect of the game. Even if it means playing ugly soccer (dives, excessive defensive tactics, etc...) They forget that happy fans will come back, fill the stands and provide the necessary gate money to pay their salaries IF they are entertained by good quality soccer.

This is one of many reasons why the sport isn't growing as fast as it should. The entertainment value just isn't there. While soccer purists may find some redeeming aspects in boring but result-oriented soccer, a great majority of new fans fail to appreciate these finer points and are often disappointed by a poor show. Hence, we lose them to some other form of entertainment...

I, for one, would rather watch an exciting, action filled game EVEN if it means that my team loses in its effort. At least, I can say that they tried hard and came up short. I was entertained and WILL come back for more...

Am I the only one out there thinking this way ?

We're actually talking about two distinct points here: diving and the, for a better word, "acting like I've been killed" foul.

The first is not great but the second sort of bothers me more. The four or five roll with the player sneaking a looksee to see if the Ref has bought it...and, of course, holding the wrong body part...like the guy from Brazil did early on the the WC that netted him a card. Then, of course, he's back up in 20 seconds.

Actually, Ferry, isn't THAT part of the entertainment package in Mexican soccer? Sort of like the WWF show. Fans know it isn't real but act as if it is. As a Ref, I knew the really bad injury was when the player WASN'T moving around.

Now, as a former ref, something that IS starting to bug me are the players who are going down when barely touched by another player...yes, they are technically fouled, but so slightly as to be a bit humorous since they go down so easily, them being great athletes etc. Seems to be the easier way out...go down instead of really having to work to stay in front of the player. Seeing a LOT of this in MLS. Whose fault? Refs are to blame to a great degree since they ARE making the calls.

One added point: when I was taught to ref (I was in it big time in S. A. for a while and it even helped support us to a degree), I was told that when a ref gave "the advantage" that he couldn't call it back if it didn't work out...so be careful when calling it. Seems now that the "rule" is that if it doesn't work out, the ref can call it back...maybe several yards back.

I Don't like that.

jfl, I have seemed to have lost your e-mail adress. E-mail me so I can get it again. Sorry I haven't answered you back in a while.

Ok y'all lets just talk about this for a minute!!

There ain't a player alive that hasn't been whacked and gone down. Getting kicked hurts. yeah the pats may seem to go down alot and stay down. let's take this Portland game for example. that was by far the most physical game I've seen in 9 years!!! not a dirty physical where players are trying to hurt each other, just plain good old fashioned physical. a good physical. Unfortunately, EP gives up 2 inches and at least 20 pounds to every team they play. that will tend to send bodies flying. EP has to play with speed and quickness to get around some of these guys, yet they wont back down to a physical game!!!

Look at the game. Estrada leaves witha broken nose. Martinez has to leave with a groin injury. Schell has stud marks embedded in his back. LLamas gets smashed with studs to his ankle on the goal that got called back. and lets not forget Greg Hoews leaves the game after colliding heads with Dos santos with a mild concussion and sydnei stays in. Hey, there wasn't enough ice after the game!!!! so to speak.

don't get me wrong here. I'm not whining that we get beat up. I'm just saying sometimes when a player goes down he DID get whacked. Most of the time he gets up and keeps going. and a bit of a rest sure don't hurt much either.

Y'all just gotta know that there is a difference between a dive and getting whacked. I've seen some pretty good dives come from every team we play as well. y'all just started pointing a finger at the pats and maybe you should look at some of the other teams as well.

It does seem like there are an awful lot of finger pointers, especially in our own division and conference. We actually got more positive road reviews from teams in the south.

The Patriots are not a physical team. Most of the other teams in the A-League are -- and maybe, because they're so much larger, they can't help but be. But I agree -- too much yapping about gamesmanship. Not necessarily the views from an official like JFL, those are always refreshing, and, yes, Latin teams "Take the Nestea Plunge" more. But if the other teams and their fans are frustrated, it just might be something else.

Dociceit, you sound pretty close to the situation...