Geoffrey C. Arnold - Cascadia Clash: Sounders Versus Timbers

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Geoffrey C. Arnold

All rights reserved

Front cover, top left: Courtesy of the Seattle Sounders; top right: Courtesy of the Portland Timbers; bottom: Anatoliy Lukich.

Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers properties courtesy of Major League Soccer, LLC.

MLS, Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers do not endorse views and opinions published on these pages and accept no responsibility for them. Views and opinions are strictly those of the author, and comments or questions regarding the content should be sent directly to the author.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.863.8

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.642.5

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

The Starting Eleven (Chapters)

FOREWORD

Its a clich, but sometimes you simply cannot believe something until you see it.

So, on the rainy April evening I took Jon Miller, the president of programming for NBC Sports and the NBC Sports Network, to Jeld-Wen Field for the Portland Timbers opening game of the 2011 Major League Soccer season, I knew any words I might use to describe to Jon what he was about to witness would not do it justice.

He had to see it, hear it and feel it for himself. He had to see the capacity crowd standing on their feet, all dressed in forest green, waving their enormous flags as the teams warmed up. He had to hear the Timbers Army lead the crowd of twenty-two thousand in full voice in the singing The Star-Spangled Banner. He had to feel the whole place rumble when the Timbers scored their first goal. And he had to witness one of the most unique fan-inspired traditions in all of sports, Portland mascot Timber Joey firing up his chain saw to cut off a section of log and hold it aloft for the fans to see.

When Jon had seen it all, this veteran sports executive whod been to all of our countrys biggest sporting events, said, Ive never seen anything like this. Im blown away.

And yet I was thinking, If he thinks this atmosphere was special, wait until he sees what it looks like when the Seattle Sounders are in town. Or when Portland visits Seattle.

Soccer in the Pacific Northwest is rich in tradition and long on history. The rivalry between the regions two largest cities, Seattle and Portland, and their teams, the Sounders and the Timbers, dates back to the 70s. Even during the years following the demise of the North American Soccer League, these two clubs found a way to keep the rivalry flowing, putting together teams at various levels to go head-to-head. It was just a matter of time before Seattle and Portland made their way to Major League Soccer.

Going back to the inception of MLS in 1996, a team for Seattle was in the works. When the proposal for the NFL Seahawks new downtown stadium was on the table in the late 90s, it was the citys soccer fans who helped convince the politicians to make the stadium now known as Century Link Field a reality. Our leagues first commissioner, Doug Logan, promised the soccer fans of the Emerald City, If you build it, an MLS team will come. And it did.

Credit the dream team ownership group, led by Hollywood producer Joe Roth, local entrepreneur Adrian Hanauer and television star and comedian Drew Carey, for not only getting the deal done but also for making sure that when the Sounders FC became a part of MLS in 2009, their fans would be fully prepared to show their passion for the game.

Rituals like the March to the Match through the streets of Seattle, replete with the Sounders own marching band, and the Golden Scarf, which is presented before each game to someone who represents the team or the community in a special way, are now known worldwide. When the Golden Scarf is raised before each Sounders game and nearly forty thousand Sounders fans follow suit by raising their own scarves, even the most hardened sports fan cannot help but get chills.

The formation of an MLS team in Portland began in 2007, when Merritt Paulson and his father, former United States Treasury secretary Hank Paulson, began working with the City of Portland on a renovation of Civic Stadium, an old minor-league baseball stadium, into a soccer venue. The fans of the Rose City could hardly contain their excitement when it was announced the Timbers would be joining MLS in 2011. Season tickets quickly sold out, and the club had a season ticket waiting list five thousand names long.

All that was left was for the Sounders and Timbers to meet on the field, which they did for the first time as a part of MLS on May 14, 2011, in front of 36,593 fansincluding 500 members of the Timbers Armyat CenturyLink Field. Songs rang out from both sides. Fans stood throughout the night. The game ended in a 11 draw. A perfect result in many ways because in a soccer rivalry like this, many scores will be settled down the road.

But dont let me tell you the story of the rivalry thats now part of the Cascadia Cup with their neighbors to the north, the Vancouver Whitecaps. Please allow Geoffrey C. Arnold to share this with you, from his exhaustive research and interviews to his eyewitness accounts. Its a story that will touch all those who love soccer, not just those with ties to the Pacific Northwest, the Sounders or the Timbers.

And when youre finished with the book, do yourself one more favor. Try to score a ticket to a game in Seattle or Portland. You wont believe it until you see it.

Don Garber, MLS commissioner

FOREWORD

Rivalries are the cornerstone of sports. Every league around the world has rivalries. Some date back centuries and others are forming right in front of our eyes. These rivalries form for many different reasons. Some of the oldest clubs in Europe have families that have been rivals for generations. Rivalries can be based on factors such as religion, geography, social class or family tradition, just to name a few.

One example is the Celtic-Rangers rivalry in Glasgow, Scotland. The supporters are separated by one of the most fundamental motivators: religion. Celtic supporters are primarily Catholics, while Protestants are the primary supporters of Rangers.

In England, the proximity of the teams is what drives and strengthens the rivalries. The rivalries in England arent limited to the London teams. For example, take the Liverpool-Everton rivalry, where the clubs are separated by a distance of about one mile. A river separates the stadiums of rivals Nottingham Forest and Notts County. One of the big rivalry games that I played in was Millwall versus West Ham in England. This rivalry was started by London dockworkers at the shipyards on either side of the River Thames in the nineteenth century.

While I was playing in Germany, I got myself into trouble when I was playing for Borussia Monchengladbach in the German Bundesliga. We had just defeated our biggest rival, FC Koln, 21 at home. I was handed a microphone and proceeded to proudly sing an anti-Koln song. Our supporters joined in, and we thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. We were having a great time, but Wolfgang Overath, the FC Koln president who attended the game, was not amused. The offended Overath reported the incident to the German Football Association, and I was fined 3,000 (about $3,800) for bringing the game into disrepute. Nonetheless, the incident helped increase the intensity of the rivalry between the two clubs.