Know Roots, Know Fruit (July 2023)

A club’s culture truly emerges when it has enough history that it’s no longer necessary to only define itself chronologically. Sure, it’s important to know the order of things—'that happened because that happened' is foundational and indeed an essential part of the process. But put enough thats together over time, and time itself matters less; thats become this.  

This is who we are. 

The essay looking at July 2023 does a bit of both: three sections sliced from the month’s events, a few thats to say, This is what it means to be a Portland Timber. 

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1: Every Cup Has Its Thorn

Everyone starts somewhere. 

For the Leagues Cup, it was in 2019 as a 4-team tournament between 2 clubs each from MLS and Liga MX. After a year’s break because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 field expanded to 8 teams. Another one-year break later, this time due to domestic league schedule congestion to accommodate the men’s World Cup November start date, the Leagues Cup returned exponentially larger, with all 47 teams in both MLS and Liga MX participating. 

This July, the Timbers' maiden voyage into the tournament involved hosting the first two matches of a three-team group stage at Providence Park. After beating the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0, they lost to Liga MX side Tigres 1-2 but reached the knock-out stage of 32 after Tigres won 1-0 at San Jose’s PayPal Park in the last group-stage game. All things considered, not a bad start to a new experience. (August was a bit more cruel, as the Cup run ended immediately in a 0-1 home loss to Monterrey, which, as it turns out, wasn’t the worst thing to happen in August.)

It’s a start, and there’s no telling what the Leagues Cup could become over time. 

Take the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, for example. That competition (née US Open Cup, née National Challenge Cup), is the nation’s oldest soccer tournament, having started in the 1913-14 season, with the then National Cup going to Brooklyn Football Club, who bested Brooklyn Celtic 2-1. That first championship match, in what’s now a 121-year-old tournament, was played at Coat’s Field Pawtucket, Rhode Island, a location that is currently home to a Price Rite. 

Our club has never made it to a final of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, the farthest reach being the semifinals in 2013 and again in 2019. Hopefully, the Timbers we know today will find that kind of success in the Leagues Cup before the tournament’s century mark—though we have time; I’m sure there’s no threat of Providence Park becoming a regional supermarket. 

Taken together, it’s something to see these two Cups and think we could possibly have our club’s name etched on those trophies. We’re watching our history happen here, be it in something that’s currently 5 or 110 years old. 

Lest we need something to tide us over while we wait to lift one of those cups, we can always hang our hats on the 153-year-old FA Cup across the Atlantic and the first American woman to win one of those. She’s one of us, and she currently works at 1844 SW Morrison Street. 

On May 4, 1997, now Portland Thorns FC Director of Coaching for the Academy Tracy Nelson (née Osborn) lifted the trophy after her Millwall Lionesses beat Wembley, 1-0 at Upton Park, the same stadium Nelson’s college coach, Timbers’ Ring of Honor member Clive Charles, plied his trade in the 70s for the Hammers. 

When I interviewed Nelson for an essay about Charles, she talked about the poignancy of the day. “I knew walking in there that, oh my god, this is where Clive played.” The connection in the moment was not lost on Nelson. “It was super emotional, walking in there,” She said of playing at the Boleyn Ground. “But it was the best thing ever.” 

When Nelson started faxing European federations just a couple years prior to that, looking for a place to play, letter of recommendation from Clive Charles in hand, who knew her start would lead to that. 

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2: Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Somebody should have called Ted Howard. 

That’s what referee Dante Maglio did on May 27, 1977 when the Portland Timbers hosted the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Three minutes before halftime, with the Strikers up 2-0, the stadium experienced a power outage from a blown transformer nearby. 

After the teams waited almost an hour in the dark, the Canadian Maglio called then-NASL Director of Administration Howard and told him, “[T]here is not enough light in [Civic Stadium] to continue.” 

Howard, who would later go on to serve as General Secretary of CONCACAF and, in 2003, be elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame, acted on a league directive covering power failure (that had just coincidentally been enacted the week prior) and ruled the match complete because it had reached halftime. Full points went to Fort Lauderdale.

According to a report in the Fort Lauderdale News, “A police car then drove around the field and an official with a bullhorn told the 14,000 fans that the game had been concluded.”

On July 4, 2023, when the match between the Timbers and Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park was abandoned at halftime due to severe weather in the area, nobody called Ted Howard. So, instead of a Commerce City Police car telling match goers the game had been concluded, referee Pierre-Luc Lauziere, who is as equally Canadian as his 1977 counterpart Maglio, had to return to Colorado 8 days later, Timbers and Rapids in tow, to play the second half. 

A game that took roughly 192 hours to complete yielded nothing much more than 4 second-half yellow cards. You can view the full match “highlights” of the 0-0 draw here:

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3: Old School 

On July 15, the Timbers returned home from that Rapids match to play on 2 days’ rest, riding a 5-match, month-long winless streak, and sitting 3 points out of the playoffs in the West. 

Conversely, their opponent, Columbus Crew SC, the team that would eventually win MLS Cup 2023, came into town on a week of rest, riding an 8-match unbeaten streak, and sitting near the top of the Eastern table.

In other words, Portland had Columbus right where they wanted them. 

In the 28th minute, Dario Župarić assisted a Diaron Asprilla strike that recorded the team’s 600th regular-season MLS goal.

And at halftime, Diego Valeri, the club’s all-time scoring leader, became the first MLS-era Timber to be inducted into the club’s Ring of Honor. Flanked by the previous members—Timber Jim Serrill, Mick Hoban, Noeleen Conway (representing Jimmy Conway), John Bain, and Jeff Gadawski (representing Clive Charles)—Valeri started his speech with words we can all identify with: 

“When I arrived here, for the first time in Portland,” Valeri said, “I came to the stadium, about 10 years ago. I didn’t know much about the club or the city, but I had a special feeling in my heart.” 

That’s a theme I see over and over in this project: people tend to enter 1844 SW Morrison Street with a special feeling in their heart. 

One reason is represented in what happened after half. With the score level at 2-2, the game played out the only way it could have: Valerie’s friend and former teammate, Sebastián Blanco, scored what would be his final goal as a Timber. It was the match winner at his friend’s induction, in the 80th minute—a Sunshine Goal, in front of the singing Timbers Army.

“I know how the Timbers love Diego,” Blanco said in the post-match press conference. “And Diego loves this club, this community. For me to score a goal and win the game on this special day…it’s more than I can expect.” 

“Also, it’s the old school,” Blanco added. “Dairon score, I score, Chará yellow card. Everything perfect today.”

Perfect it was.

Photo Credit: Portland Timbers/Craig Mitchelldyer

There was even more magic from the night. Craig Mitchelldyer, Timbers and Thorns Director of Photography, captured a moment the team honored Valeri post match. Mitchelldyer’s photo went on to win the Match Action category award at CLUBELEVEN’s 2023 Photo Contest. 

This is who we are.

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Portland Timbers Ring of Honor on Green Is the Color

Diego Valeri: 

I’ll work on getting a Diego Valeri podcast episode. Until then, here’s his halftime speech from his induction:

#RCTID