Tag Archives: balls flying in my face

Result: 0-0

Nope. I haven’t improved my camera situation. More of the unfocused and poorly exposed photos doctored with heavy-handed Photoshop that you’ve come to expect.

Our team is injured to the point of comedy, if it were funny that your team had so many broken people. But we got to see a few new faces and they did fine. First time out – not the prettiest match – but we’ll take it.

One exciting part was when the guys sitting in front of us got a stern talking to from security because one of them had too much to drink and was, let’s say, confrontational. They didn’t have to leave but loud guy shut up and then pouted while looking at his phone. They left 15 minutes early. Please stay home next time.

My stamina is still off and this hour we lost isn’t helping. Off to try to get the garden organized.

Oh, so you thought the endless nattering about the Timbers was over just because soccer season is finished?

Nope. Not yet.

This is the Timbers’ Shrine at the office. Co-worker is my ticket partner and they give season ticket holders a lot of gifts but only one per pair so we keep everything at the office. Remember the story about my axe photo? That’s the poster. I finally got it framed. The signed t-shirt and signed photo co-worker won in auctions.

The mini-soccer ball on the left is something the players throw into the stands before the game starts. I had to elbow a little kid in the head so I could get that, thrown by Darlington Nagbe who won Goal of the Year.

They also give away things at the games. We missed the t-shirts and the plastic replica of the stadium (darn!) But that big thing on the right is a skateboard deck. I was going to take it in and get wheels put on it but I was afraid the urge to then try to ride it would be too great and I’d break my neck and feel like a moron.

I don’t know where we’re going to put the stuff we get next year.

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.