Category Archives: TIMBERS!

Our last regular season game was on October 22, 2011 and I’ve been meaning to do a love letter wrap-up to my Timbers ever since.

I’ve followed World Cup for years and years but I’ve never followed a club team before. I’ve never followed any sports team before. I’ve pretty much avoided going to sports. I have been to a few Trail Blazer games that were fun.

I had seen Timbers a bunch of times since I’ve moved here but I didn’t go regularly until the 2009-10 season before we moved up to Major League soccer. I never paid attention to the away games.

Hannah warned me that I would probably get pretty into it. She was partly correct.

I lost my mind.

It would be impossible to convey how much I loved this season of Timbers.

Here are some things about me: I hate waiting in line. I hate crowds. I hate events at stadiums. I don’t spend my money on random crap.

I did not hate any of these things when it was a Timbers match. Every single home game I was like a kid on Christmas day. I spent time planning my Timbers outfits. I bought plastic pants so I could sit in the rain and watch soccer. I bought two jerseys, a scarf and 5 t-shirts.

I saw 25 matches at home including U.S. Open Cup, exhibition and reserves. I saw 1 away match. I had a blast at every single time. And it’s not like we’re the greatest team. Well, we are the greatest team but we don’t win all the matches. I think we placed 12th out of 18 teams.

Losing to Seattle at home after being ahead was heartbreaking. That giant losing streak mid-season was rugged. I referred to them as the disappointing boyfriend I couldn’t give up on. Losing the last game at home was a bummer.

Winning our first home game ever was amazing. Beating LA Galaxy 3-0 was one of my favorite games of the entire season. And then Futty scored in stoppage time of our last game in Salt Lake to tie it up so we ended on a high note.

I know the team is going to change and every year is going to be different but this inaugural team will always have a special place in my heart.

Can’t wait until March.

Yesterday I did the most rockstar thing I’ve ever done in my life.

I flew to Vancouver, BC for the day for a soccer game.

You could see the BC Place, the stadium, in this photo if you had incredible vision and a better photo.

Ticket partner used miles for one ticket and we split the cost of the second so then the price seemed “affordable.”

We bought our game seats through the supporters section but we didn’t travel by bus or train. There were only about 10 other people on the flight up who were on their way to the game.

The trip up went smoothly. We found another fan on the Skytrain and then as we were walking toward the stadium a few more fans founds us.

I was hoping that more and more fans would join us and when we got to the stadium we would have a giant group that could all do a big synchronized song and dance number.

As it turned out, the supporters had already been let in. I think it’s a league rule to prevent violence, which as far as I know isn’t really a problem in Major League Soccer.

So when we got to the stadium, we went right in and the place was empty except for 500 Timbers fans packed into two sections, some poor security guy whose ears were turning red and Groundskeeper Willie raking the turf.

I’ve never sat with Timbers Army. They are intense.

As always, we cheered our faces off from the time we got into the stadium, until the time they let us out, 20 minutes after the match ended. I didn’t realize how many songs I didn’t know the words to. I know them now.

My favorite, a new one for this game, to the tune of She’ll be coming ’round the mountain:

“Please don’t burn your town down when we win.”

This poor Grandfather tooks his grandson to the game and had the sad luck to sit in front of the Timbers Army.

It was a little concerned that I would find the supporters section too much, but nope. It was perfectly awesome.

The Whitecaps are the other expansion team to MLS this season and they’ve had a rough go of it. This was their first game in the newly renovated BC Place. It is a gorgeous stadium and they had a big turnout.

Sadly (for them) we denied them and won the game 1-0.

After the game I got to see my friend Pritpaul from my writing workshop, who I haven’t seen since we left.

And then we headed back to the airport.

A perfectly fabulous day. Gorgeous weather. Great city. Awesome stadium. Fun fans. Terrific game. Catching up with a beloved friend.

Is there anything that could make this day greater?

Maybe: having the guys from our team wander into our airport gate and say hello and ask if we enjoyed the game?

THAT HAPPENED!

Three times I had to get up and dash across the concourse because my head popped off and bounced away from the excitement.

I won’t bore you with all the details because I know you already stopped reading, except for Hannah and I’ll send her an email later. Not because she’s a Timbers fan, but because she’s a Fan Girl fan. Fortunately, the only person I know who is as big a Timbers fan as I am was there. So we’ve spent the last 24 hours going over it in minute detail:

Me: So then he took out his earbud and said, “What? Oh. Thanks.”
Ticket partner: Right. Then he went and sat down.
Me: I can’t believe he talked to us!

GREATEST DAY EVER.