I love the story and lore of the 35-yard shootouts from the middle years of the NASL and early seasons of MLS. I’ve lived through them, and I’ve written at length about them here on this site. It’s possible things I probably should know and remember have been forcibly evicted from my hippocampus by pretty much all there is to know about something as trivial as starting 35 yards from goal with 5 seconds to get off a shot when the game is on the line. I’ve even tracked down the exact Washington DC-area house where the idea was hatched, and, soccer friends, it connects across time zones and years and sports and puts the man who came up with the 35-yard/5-seconds plan for this beautiful beast right at 1844 SW Morrison Street at a different point in his career. (But that’s a story for a different time.)
I also love Timbers’ history. One of my favorite Timbers’ NASL goldmines is the 1980 season, when Vic Crowe returned, and Harry A. Merlo sent his team on an end-of-season trip to Ketchikan, Alaska as a token of appreciation for battling through a very odd, trying season that included a winless streak of five matches in the middle, coached by GM Peter Warner who had no business being in the gaffer’s seat.
So when I received the full video of Warner’s last match from the collection of Dave Brett Wasser—a match that happened to end in a 35-yard shootout at Civic Stadium—I knew there was only one way to fully appreciate two of my favorite things coming together in digitized VHS glory: share it here.
The full shootout from the June 14, 1980 match between the Timbers and Sounders can be seen in the main video of this post. And I’ve also included audio from interviews with four Timbers talking about the shootout, in their respective sections.
Jim Gorsek
John Bain
Willie Anderson
Appendix A: MLS 1.0
USL Timber, Portland native, and MLS Cup champion Chris Brown was introduced to the shootouts in his rookie season, 1999, when he was drafted by Major League Soccer’s Kansas City Wizards.
Chris Brown
Appendix B: Ash and the darling buds of May
When I looked in the 1980 binder from the NASL Timbers archive to get a good look at this match, I found, as anticipated, the scoresheet with the shootout and match stats. I wanted to include it here, but I would not be fully doing this document justice if I did not point out “cool & ash” as the official weather conditions listed, a reminder of the May 18 eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Can a Cascadia derby get more Cascadia than Portland and Seattle battling it out amongst Mt. St. Helens ash?
#RCTID
