Portland Timbers

The Portland Tribune, Apr 18, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

OLUM

Next: The Timbers’ second match is 7 p.m. Thursday at PGE Park against the Minnesota Thunder. It will be Minnesota’s season opener, and the Thunder have to play at Vancouver on Saturday night. (For a complete story on Thursday’s Portland-Puerto Rico game, go to Localnewsdaily.com.)

• Coach Gavin Wilkinson routinely has said that 23-year-old Kenyan midfielder Lawrence Olum has as much potential as anyone on the Timbers. Olum was a First Division rookie last year from Missouri Baptist in St. Louis. He played 956 minutes in 20 games, notching three goals and one assist.

“I kind of know what I’m doing this time,” Olum says. “At the beginning of last season, I was a little bit scared, but I can control the play now, and I think I’m a little more fit.”

• What does Olum see in new attacking players Chris Brown and Takayuki Suzuki?

“A lot of goals.”

• Talking with Taka (snippets of an interview conducted with Japanese-language interpreter Robert Rice):

Tribune: How long will you stay here?

Suzuki: I’d like to be here as long as possible, certainly through the season. Then I’ll decide whether I’m here or elsewhere in America. I’m not thinking of going back to any country, including Japan. And being in the MLS doesn’t matter. To me, it’s really where I’m feeling best. Any place would be fine.

Tribune: You’re 31, how has your game changed since, say, you scored in the 2002 World Cup?

Suzuki: I don’t feel like there’s much difference.

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