Freestyle, live, or televised: Great week ahead for soccer aficionados

I’m heading to Pioneer Square at noon Thursday to catch the RedBull Wingers Freestyle Street Squad performance. According to the Pioneer Square calendar,

The Wingers are an Elite group of highly-skilled soccer “street ballers” and freestylers based out of Los Angeles CA. Equally versed as soccer players and entertainers, they possess an arsenal of sick freestyle soccer moves, along with the ability & the appearance that are the essence of street soccer. Wingers members are world travelers who thrive on turning any location or situation into an edgy soccer performance.

So I guess that means they’re the Harlem Globetrotters of soccer (sans the New York Nationals)?

Then at 7pm Thursday the Timbers take on the Minnesota Thunder at PGE Park. Coming off a 1-1 draw in Minnesota Saturday, the Timbers will want to dominate and score early to keep on top of the standings. Also, it’s Thirsty Thursday!

Back to PGE Park on Friday night, also at 7pm, to watch Club Guadalajara Legends vs. Club America Legends. This match is a showcase of retired players from each team, but the rosters really do include some “legends;” Ramon Ramirez and Alberto Coyote play for the Chivas and Gonzalo Farfan and Isaac Terrazas suit up for Club America. The match is also a fund raiser for the MECha/Latino Club at Tigard High School for scholarships for Latino students.

And can you believe it? Back to PGE Park at 7pm on Saturday too. The Timbers are up against regional rivals Vancouver. The Timbers are out of the Cascadia Cup race due to last week’s loss to Seattle, but still in first place. After a monster trade with Montreal, the Whitecaps will look quite a bit different than the last time we saw (and defeated) them. The Timbers have also since added Matt Taylor from Chivas USA, so this will be a compelling match fraught with unknowns.

Whew! Starting in the wee hours Saturday, and continuing Sunday are the opening matches of the 2007-2008 English Premier League. Lots of good matches to check out.

I think that’s it. Is that enough for you?!