Timbers Turf

Coming for your ankles, knees, and the MLS CUP 😈

[Stumptown Footy @StumptownFooty]

If you’re tuning in to your first Timbers match after the World Cup, yes, this is how they play every week. Keep watching! #RCTID

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

Phil punching the air rn #rctid

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

We're so back #rctid

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

In Germany, a talented 14-year-old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year.

That single inversion explains why "we will not" is the most accurate line ever written about US soccer.

FIFA built a global system for this. Training compensation and solidarity payments send a cut of every transfer fee back to the clubs that developed the player, from age 12 onward. Develop one future pro and your academy gets paid for a decade. Barcelona's La Masia, Ajax, every Bundesliga academy runs on this logic. The kid is the asset.

US Soccer refuses to enforce those rules. When Seattle's Crossfire Premier claimed its $60,000 share of DeAndre Yedlin's transfer to Tottenham, it got nothing. Claims on the Dempsey and Bradley transfers died partly because the federation couldn't even produce the youth training records.

So American clubs earn zero dollars when a kid turns pro. They earn when a kid enrolls. Which makes the parent the customer, and the product is whatever keeps the parent writing checks: travel tournaments, hotel weekends, $500 showcase events, private training at $100 an hour. Elite pathways run $8,000 to $20,000 a year. A comparable academy spot in Italy costs about 120 euros.

Follow the incentive one level deeper and it gets darker. A club dependent on fees can't cut its weakest paying players, so rosters optimize for retention over development. The scouting pool shrinks to families who can afford the cliff, which appears around age 11, exactly when development matters most. The country runs a talent filter sorted by household income instead of ability.

Every four years someone proposes fixing this. The proposal always requires the people profiting from the $15,000 model to vote themselves out of business.

They will not.

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

Soccer Made in Stumptown column??
@StumptownFooty @ChrisRifer

#RCTID

[Chris Rifer @ChrisRifer]

This place has lost a lot of its joy for me. With SMiP in an interregnum, I’ve been considering reviving The Morrison Report irregularly and either retiring from social or migrating.

Thorns/Timbers folks, are you interested in longer-form but informal blogging? #RCTID #BAONPDX

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

The way I had to double check to see if this was FastPass commentary

#Shapeland

[Dylan Marron @dylanmarron]

happy halloween

[Dylan Marron @dylanmarron]

happy halloween

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

@SportsGuyJeremy NGL it's also refreshing to hear spontaneous-ish banter songs. Cracked me up fr #rctid

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

No way we're getting far in the playoffs with performances like our last couple but at least we have the Cup #rctid

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

@dieworkwear @ranastrans Unexpected Arrested Development??

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

And with a "BEAT/FUCK SEATTLE" The TA sends the timbers off from Providence Park #RCTID

[Stumptown Footy @StumptownFooty]

Me, watching the Thorns continue to spiral but then seeing that the Timbers made the playoffs #RCTID #BAONPDX

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

Nonsensical subs. No hustle. Consistently caught off guard. No reason we should've lost to this team

NEW GM, NEW FO, NEW COACH NOW #baonpdx

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

Every team that wants to beat us just has to sit deep and prevent getting caught on transition #rctid

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

All gas no brakes only works if we actually play like we have gas #rctid

[Ryan Clarke @RyanTClarke]

A giant in world football whose career spanned a transformative period in the women’s game. Never one to seek the spotlight or credit. The greatest international goal-scorer of all time.

Deserves every possible honor at Providence Park, including a statue. #BAONPDX

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

I #VoteEvander for @MLS Player of the Matchday!

[Alexa Lin @AlexaLin0hk4c]

The real ones know that Taylor Twellman is a twat. #RCTID

[Timbers Turf @TimbersTurf]

All love for the Magic Man 💚💛 @OficialEvander

[Tacos Y Timbers 🌮🌲🌵 @DesertCorpsPTFC]

Remember when @OficialEvander was a “major doubt” and on a possible minutes restriction then goes 105 minutes and sends an absolute dagger screaming past Burki? Dude is MLS MVP and world f*cking class. Ultimate love and respect to you, Evander! #RCTID

[Kamal Miller @KMillz_00]

This referee 🤦🏾‍♂️ Incredible scenes