Portland Timbers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 11, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

SUZUKI

Next: A brief preseason concludes at 7 tonight at University of Portland with a match against the Pilot men. The Timbers will have had only one full game against a professional team, the exhibition against MLS San Jose, before next week’s United Soccer Leagues First Division opener.

“People wonder why we’re not playing more, but we’ve got to be careful of how many games we throw at these guys –they’re not greyhounds,” Wilkinson says. “The season is up to 30 games (from 28), and with exhibitions and so forth, we’re looking at maybe 40 games in six months. They just can’t go at that pace.”

• The regular season starts at home against Puerto Rico. Kickoff is 7 p.m. Thursday. Wilkinson cautions fans that it might be hard to re-create Portland’s fast start (11-2-3) of last season and says the most important thing is being in top form at the end of the year.

“It was very important to get points at the start of last season,” he says, recalling how the team was looking for some momentum after tying for last place in 2006. “And we had some fortuitous wins, which I don’t know that we can count on getting again –the start we had last year was incredible.

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