With the success of the Timbers, overflowing support of the Thorns, and plethora of youth soccer organizations in and around the Portland area, one thing has become clear: this city loves its fútbol.
When it comes to soccer, I’m a fringe fan at best. I never liked it as a kid, thought less of it as a teen, and until recently thought of it as purgatory for Momma’s Boys exiled to the land of contactless sports. But with a little help from an old roommate, a little more from the World Cup, and now a hometown team to invest some time in, I’ve become engaged for the first time and had my eyes opened to the degree to which this city loves this game.
While soccer still lacks the mainstream popularity of this country’s “Big 4,” the “City of Roses” seemingly can’t get enough. In its first season last year, and throughout the early stages of 2013, the Timbers have been a gold standard of what MLS franchises should strive to be. Jeld-Wen Field, while small in comparison to places like Seattle’s CenturyLink Field, provides an atmosphere unrivaled by any of Major League Soccer’s 19 franchises. Be it a Cascadia Cup rival, league also-ran, or minor league friendly against an international bottom-feeder, fans of the game root on their Timbers with the zest found frequently in the sno-cone line shortly following a Little Guy weekend jamboree. No game is too small for the Timbers’ Army, Timber Joey, or anything else Timbers when the lights go on at 18th and Morrison … and now that includes the Portland Thorns.
Since their impressive debut in April, when they had more than 16,000 people show up to see the inaugural Thorns contest, Portland’s representative in the latest version of women’s professional soccer here in the US (NWSL) has dominated the conversation regarding the type of backing this league needs to survive. The Thorns have averaged more than 13,000 fans in their 4 home games, while the league average hovers just over 3,000. It helps to have an iconic soccer star the likes of Alex Morgan, whose good looks and marketability is rivaled only by her proven acumen on the pitch, both professionally and with the U.S. National Team. And Christine Sinclair, who’s powered the Canadian National Team for years and, oh by the way, starred here locally at the University of Portland. But it’s more than just talent, notoriety, and pretty faces that fuels this product in this town; it’s the game and the excitement around it that resonates in a town which prides itself on being different. The Thorns have become a slightly lesser alternative to their major league male brethren, and while many scoff at the women professional product, this city has used it as another example of their love for all things soccer. It’s more than a childhood right-of-passage here; something many outside of here wouldn’t understand. I didn’t. Not until now.
It may not be basketball, baseball, our football, or even hockey quite yet. But what many cite as a childhood memory of shin-guards, their first pair of cleats, and orange wedges & Kool-Aid has been and remains much more to the city of Portland. Why? Maybe it’s our thirst for something beyond Blazers. Maybe it’s just something new. Or maybe, just maybe it’s a little of the former, a little of the latter, and little more of what kids in this town grow up playing on cold, wet, and wintery Fall afternoons … with the help of a mini-van or two.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
