Timbers vs Los Angeles Aztecs (Indoors):
When we score, everybody roar!
This Match Day* post takes Green Is the Color to the wonderful world of indoor soccer, in a mostly-visual exploration of the first-ever home Timbers indoor soccer match—and a timely chance to say, Happy Birthday, Portland Pride (RIP)!
On November 16, 1980, the Portland Timbers played their first-ever home indoor match, an 8-4 win against the LA Aztecs, a victory pleasing to Portland sports fans (The Oregonian’s Bart Wright excluded).
On February 3, 1993, the Portland Pride indoor soccer team was born—though, like the Timbers in '75, the franchise came into the world without a name.
Both teams played in Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Both teams featured John Bain. (And, Jim Gorsek!)
The Portland Timbers’ first home indoor soccer match for the 1980-81 NASL indoor season took place on November 16, 1980. The team promoted the game in its “Indoor Soccer. It’s a scream” campaign (above).
Below is the news release for the game, from the desk of Jim Finks Jr., Timbers Director of Media Relations. Canadians Dale Mitchell and the brothers Gant (Brian and Bruce) were not allowed to participate in this match because, as noted in a mention of the Timbers next match at Seattle, “They are Canadians.”
[NOTE: Green Is the Color, like fans of soccer in Portland, loves Canadians. (See: Anyone with the last name Gant, Christine Sinclair, Rob Baarts, et al.).]
Having said that, it’s important to turn the focus to two names that are in the depth chart for this Timbers home opener: John Bain and backup goalkeeper Jim Gorsek. Both will appear again in the same arena when the Portland Pride play their first game in 1993.
The full Portland Timbers 1980-81 indoor roster (Canadians included):
Below is the line-up match sheet from this first Timbers indoor home game, with two standout names on the Aztec’s side: 1975 Timber Chris Dangerfield and Portland Timbers fan favorite Željko Bilecki. (See: Hvala Hrvatu (4: May 2023))
According to the NASL Official Scorer’s Report from that match, Portland’s Stuart Lee made his presence known, registering 5 goals in the game:
According to the NASL’s official media release of the week, Lee’s 5 goals tied the NASL indoor record for goals in a game:
Even The Oregonian was (mostly) impressed):
While the LA Times checked the match report off their to-do list:
The Oregon Journal (RIP) gave the game its due attention, courtesy of John Nolen:
And, as was typical of the era, The Columbian was here for the Portland Timbers:
NASL indoor soccer in Portland lasted two seasons, with the 1981-82 campaign being the franchise’s second and last, as the team never returned indoors after the outdoor version folded in 1982. When indoor soccer did return 13 years later, it would be in a familiar place, with some familiar names.
The new Portland indoor soccer team tabbed John Bain to lead the charge on the field and from the bench. And like Portland’s NASL soccer franchise nameless limbo of January 27-March 8, 1975, it just needed to find a name.
Cue a naming contest:
“No names of furry animals or wimpy birds, please.” (The Portland soccer world would have to wait five years (and another league, another franchise) to follow those rules, when the 1998 indoor Portland soccer franchise sported the name Pythons.) But in 1993 “rules,” unlike banning Canadians from playing indoor soccer in the US in 1980, left some room for negotiation.
And so it was that the alliterative Portland Pride came to be, with equally alliterative Louie the Lion, a fur-bearing feline, as its mascot.
The first player signed by the (furry) Portland Pride was none other than Jim Gorsek. For the 1980 indoor Timbers, Gorsek wore the number 22. But, for the 1993 indoor Pride, the American 'keeper sported 25—which can be seen on some later versions of the team logo, with the furry, alliterative Louie the Lion donning 25 on his sleeve in homage to the first franchise signee:
The team also brought things full circle when it drafted Paul Conway (son of Jimmy Conway) and made things right our neighbors to the north, adding Canadian Rob Baarts, who would go on to star for both the Portland Pride and (equally alliterative) Portland Pythons.
When we score, everybody roar.
Watch Rob Baarts, Jim Gorsek, and the Portland Pride in the franchise’s first-ever CISL indoor soccer game from 1993 (courtesy of Rob Hawksford’s YouTube page):