Before I get into the standard post with my slightly pithy comments and some pictures, I wanted to explain how this game actually falls into the Sounders schedule.
This is the US Open Cup. The Sounders play in the Major League Soccer or MLS. The Portland Timbers play in the United Soccer League or USL. In US Soccer hierarchy MLS > USL. But this game today was outside of the league, it was the US Open Cup.
This is a straight knock out competition; win and you move on, lose and you are out. The closest analogy would be the NCAA basketball tournament. But instead of playing all at once, the games are spread throughout all the teams regular league seasons. The US Open cup has been around since 1914, it is the oldest soccer competition in the United States.
Now that we attempted to clear that up, on with the post. Required pre-game beverages with Natalie:
The game was held at PGE park in Portland. The Sounders had Six full buses of traveling supporters organized by the various groups that follow the team. It was a really impressive showing of away support. We had three entire sections of the stadium.
Self portrait to try to capture the atmosphere in the stands. We stood through the entire match and I was told that you could hear our chanting on the TV broadcast.
Halftime photo with Natalie, her friend Jamie and myself:
Yes, I am now one of 'those guys with the scarves'.
In the end, the Sounders won 2-1. As you can see from the pictures it was a packed house. I really don't think there is a better environment in the US right now for soccer.
The city of Portland have taken to calling themselves 'Soccer City USA'. Where they get this idea is anyone's guess. But the offshoot is they have this big chip on their shoulder when it comes to Seattle's soccer squad. It is very much a little brother/short man complex that Timbers fans are sporting. Thus there was a bit of fan violence, but it was what you would expect of any event with 17,000 people, beer, sun and a competitive sporting evironment. As you can see I sported my Rave Green Sounders jersey all night long. And besides the occasional 'accidental' jostle getting to my seats and then leaving the stadium in glorious victory, I was just fine.
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