... And something is spreading throughout the city. Earlier, at the grocery store, the checkout guy asks about the "Rose City Til I Die" emblem on the front of Derek's Unofficial Timbers Army T-shirt (made by capable capo Loose Charm) and referred to the Timbers as a football team. ("Did you hear?" I said excitedly on the way out. "He said 'football'!") Last week a neighbor saw our scarves as we headed out to a game and immediately knew them for Timbers scarves; last night another one, who didn't recognize them, got excited about the prospect of a game and said he was going to get out and see them play.
After the match, the singing carried on as the stadium emptied; through the concourse, out into the night, car horns honking, knots of people still singing, and up the hill past the Chevron station a woman stopping at the pumps to get gas calls out her window at us, "Did the Timbers win tonight? What was the score?"
If winning is what it takes for P-town to wake up, rub its eyes, and notice there's a soccer team in town, so be it. Winning we got.
Such a good (and wholly new, as a Timbers supporters) feeling to go down one goal and never doubt you'll pull out a win. My only bad moments came during the completely insane and seemingly endless almost-six-minutes stoppage time (nearly two minutes beyond the already-inexplicable official four). The Timbers faced a tougher opponent last night, the Vancouver Whitecaps, who've had our number plenty of times in the past. But Gavin Wilkinson's boys--who surely had tired legs for their third game in eight days--were more than a match for them, as Andrew Gregor and Lawrence Olum put two balls into the net and gave the Timbers a five-point lead in the USL table above our nearest competitors, the Montreal Impact. A proper match report and photos here. (Of all the fantastic pictures Allison makes, my favorites are the wistful empty-stadium shots like this one.) Check out more great photos here.
And, on the heels of my mention of the homeless soccer fans in my last post, this Guardian piece on the U.S. National Homeless Soccer Team. Because soccer heals wounds and is good for the soul.
2 comments:
I spent a frustrating 30 minutes waiting for the #6 bus today, a trial eased only by the slightly crazy-seeming kid with a temporary Timbers tattoo on his face. A few days ago, I stopped at Walgreens and saw a guy with a sweet "TIMBERS FOOTBALL" shirt. It is starting to pop.
Yes! We are spreading, viral-like! Uh, like a good kind of virus. You know.
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