Away. Derby. Come-from-behind victory. Nothing better in sports!
I joined the Emerald City Supporters on one of the largest league match away fan trips ever organized in the history of Major League Soccer. The clubs allowed just 500 tickets (double the normal amount) allocated to the Seattle supporters group. ECS had 430 of those tickets. Seattle - Portland is both a huge and historic rivalry going back to 1975.
Trip summary - The morning went as planned, Left the house at 6:40am to walk to the light rail station, met some fellow Columbia City ECS along the way. Got to the Seattle ECS rendezvous area at the Tukwila light rail station at 7:15am. The ECS had 430 members on this trip, the balance was filled in by GorillaFC and North End Supporters. Nine buses total.
ECS provided one keg per bus (Manny's Pale Ale on our bus) plus a couple cases of water (for which everyone was very grateful post-game).
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| The beer arrives |
Our seven buses rolled out around 7:50 to meet up with the other two from Tacoma and Olympia at a rest stop at mile post 11. On the way various activities were encouraged with keg stands and mooning the other buses being the crowd favorites. Most creepy item about the bus trip: Our driver, southern accent and all, had a ring tone on his phone that was of a squeeling pig. Cue "Deliverance" theme! The "no deuce" rule on the bus was broken by a few brave soles.
It's quite a scene to see 500 happy, green 'n blue clad fans exit the buses and run for the treeline for some relief.
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| Southbound rest stop |
Singing in the rest stop parking lot:
Arriving into Portland was incredible. Fans greeted our caravan from the freeway exit to the stadium entrance with scarves and fingers up. This was an accurate premonition as to the number of points the Timbers were going to take off of the Sounders this season. Even a few lonely folks with no team to support held up their "ACES" scarves. So sad.
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| The locals greeting our caravan |
Busing in:
Next we unloaded at the back of the stadium into the supporters entrance. No problems here, security was tight and our happy mob proceeded cooperatively, all the while enthusiastically singing. While in this group I bumped into Pete Fewing and Alan Hinton. I asked Pete for his opinion for the day and he said he very excited and was up at 4am and couldn't wait for the match.
Now in the stadium, 90 minutes before the match. As you can see the Timbers fans were well accounted for, many waiting outside the stadium since the night before. The ECS took no time to get the drum going and the capo lead us through the ECS standards. Above us you can see is a small balcony at the end of the sky boxes. Arlo White made his way down there to wave at us and the ECS sung back "we love you Arlo, we do" . Security was everywhere, in front of us, and watching from above. I chatted with Greg Mockos, ECS co-president about his view of how this was meeting his vision. Not content with 500, he wants to see more than double that next year, and we should be allowed if everyone behaves themselves. He added that nearly 800 total Sounder supporters would be at this game, including the 300+ that bought tickets by means outside the ECS.
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| 90 minutes before kickoff. TA and ECS in full voice. Not a player to be seen. |
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| View from the Press Box (photo: Josh Meyers, Seattle Times) |
Mercifully, they had a trained singer to lead the anthem. Green boxes were for fireworks.
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| Introduction and anthem |
Now is the time the Timbers Army needs to display a tifo worthy of this historic derby. This is it. Besides the King banner, the rest was re-used. Some say the king looks like Roger "the King" Levesque, you decide. (pic stolen off the interwebs)
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| King of.... just what again? |
For comparison here's what the ECS did earlier this year when Portland came to town:
The ECS had a banner and each row held up green or blue fabric. I have no idea what it looked like as I was in it.
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| In-tifo view. Pregame. |
You can see what the flag display and tifo looked like HERE
Once the match started it was all flags, singing, shouting, flags, singing, shouting repeat.
Take 'em all a ECS favorite:
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| Second half tifo display |
It should be noted, the first six or eight rows of the visitors section was reserved for SoundesFC friends and family. ECS was a little dissapointed as the ECS would not be the first thing you see on TV. You can see this in the first pic above.
The game: First half, tight, stressful and a bit sloppy. Sounders were playing with verve, unlike the last time we played the Timbers, that was evident. Second half when I was taking these two-pole pics the Timbers scored. It was the loudest I had ever heard a stadium. Impressive. Thank god Montero had his lucky boots on (no help from the rat-tail) he equalized - equally loud from within the group. Repeat two more times.
On ESPN the TA's song "oohooohoooh Portland Rose City" was frequently heard. Actually more times than not, it was the ECS with their own version:
Most epic 45 minutes in soccer ended as it should. In the stands, we were stressed, The capos let us loose on "go sounders go" for the last five minutes. Noone on or off the field let up.
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| Sounders salute their supporters |
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| Awesome sight for Sounders fans |
And the police report (Thanks Daniel for asking)
Outside the stadium before boarding our buses, the ESPN on-air crew were chatting with fans. I asked both John Harkes and Alexi Lalas if the match "was a good show". Both agreed enthusiastically.
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| The Portland PD escorted our caravan out of the city, with a perfect view of the local fauna |
Final thoughts: A win made this a very memorable trip. Besides that, traveling with 500 strangers, that share a passion for the same thing is really fun just on its own. Everyone on the trip was happy, overtly helpful, extending a hand if needed, sharing food, water, high-fives, you name it. Not a cross word thrown other than at the Timbers, their fans and the at times the referee. The group was about 50/50 core ECS vs. newbies (like me) and one and all got along just fine. Again - I highly recommend the away-trip experience. You won't forget it.
