Tag Archives: soccer

Timbers Away, Kansas City Version

This is part 3 in our series of Timbers away adventures. When we were in KC someone asked if we were going to all the away games. I thought that was a crazy question but they met someone at the match who was doing that very thing. We try to do one away game a year. We’re limited on when we can go so it depends on how the schedule lines up. We’re still hoping to go to Chicago, New York and Toronto.

If any MLS fans or Timbers fans find this and are wondering about away matches, we had a great time in Philadelphia and Montreal and highly recommend.

We were told that the Timbers Army were invited to tailgate with the KC Cauldron but it was raining so that plan was scrapped and instead we were invited to hangout in their special clubhouse at the stadium. The stadium is in Kansas and is way the hell out there. You need a car to get out there. Bob found a bus that ran once an hour. I didn’t want to take a bus that runs once an hour.

The stadium is super nice. The KC fans were 99% super nice. We lost the match but we had a fantastic time.

After the match we walked over to Nebraska Furniture Mart which is gigantic (according to the website 450,000 sq ft) and has a See’s Candy inside. We just wanted to see what it was like. There’s a big outlet mall out there, too, and we walked around there. Then we had barbecue and custard and got a ride back to the hotel. That concludes the Timbers part of our trip.

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Philadelphia Part 3 TIMBERS!

Here I am bonding with a cow outside the stadium. Looking at that t-shirt, I’m not sure this cow is in the right place.

The inspiration for this trip was to see the Portland Timbers play the Philadelphia Union.

In case any Timbers fans or MLS fans are here and thinking about visiting Philadelphia for a match: DO IT! We very highly recommend. I also recommended Montreal Away after our visit last year.

The only snafu was getting to the match because we didn’t want deal with a car rental and the stadium is out of town a bit.

Bob came up with the brilliant plan: Pub bus.

We were walking over to the pub and I saw a tour bus but when we got up there Bob said, it wasn’t the right address. We kept walking. We saw a school bus. Bob said: I think that’s it.

That was it.

Here’s where the what the heck with the liquor laws Philly goes to the next level. We had not one, but two, kegs on a school bus.

Pour them in the front. Pass them back!

Also, something went wrong so there was no food. I am generally very careful about drinking anything without eating. At my advanced age, this has become critical.

But when are you going to be on the Union Party Bus again?

It was really fun. I want to say I’d do it differently next time, but I probably wouldn’t.

The stadium is beautiful. It’s a great location. It has a wonderful tailgate scene which is something we don’t enjoy in Portland.

Here’s my team, going to the slaughter.

We lost 3-0 but I wasn’t devastated since we left a significant part of our A team at home and we had 2 guys starting in their first ever MLS match.

Also, GREAT fireworks show. I think someone said there was a problem the previous weekend so they saved them for this match.

My parting comments are: it was a great trip. I would love to go to Philadelphia again. It’s a great city to visit.

The project of mid-August as of today:

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Opening Night

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.

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Montreal Part 2 Match Day

To reiterate just in case some Timbers (or any MLS team) supporters find this by accident: Montreal is a great place to visit and totally worth going to an away match. Bob was walking around during the half and he said people were super friendly and asking him about Portland and how we were liking Montreal.

I came dangerously close to working on the pants of shame this afternoon but I thought I’d do another Montreal post, instead.

Since the Timbers joined MLS we have been wanting to use an away game as an excuse to visit a place we’ve never been but it seems like anytime there is a match in a place we want to go, it’s at a time we can’t travel. So when the schedule came out and we saw Montreal in July, we planned our whole summer around it.

The match was at Stade Saputo which is located at the Olympics site and very easy to get to on the Metro. But once we got there we got a little confused about where we were supposed to meet the other fans. We wandered around and there was mud involved and we found some Impact people and they said: your friends are over there.

And they were.

Originally the tickets were supposed to be emailed to us but then someone volunteered to hand them out but I guess he was coming from Boston or someplace that involved a border crossing and traffic and then wandering around until they found the same corner where people were already waiting.

You do not want to keep a group of Timbers fans in limbo. Fortunately it all worked out and we were let in and herded into our corner.

During the game there was a giant downpour. Insane downpour.

The seats at the top of the sections, like where we were, were protected but the rest of the seats were in full downpour.

Impact fans left their seats and came charging up to the protected areas, either finding new seats or standing in the aisles. I also saw lots of people going to buy big plastic ponchos.

A bunch of Impact fans ended up sitting with the Timbers Army. Later I saw an article that said that Impact Fans were leaving in droves. Not true. They have very loyal fans – they just didn’t want to sit in a deluge.

We won the match which was also fun since my beloved team is not winning at home much. Or winning. Loving a sports team is never easy.

This photo used without permission from Hannah. Great eyes to find us because I DVRd the match and watched it when we got home and I couldn’t find us. I bet Hannah has a nicer TV than we have. I think I’m about 3 years away from being able to donate my TV to a museum. It is that old. But I hate change and I like my caveman TV.

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MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER ALL STAR GAME

Tonight was the Major League Soccer All Star Game v. Bayern Munich and it was just about as perfect a giant event that you’ve been looking forward to for months could be.

I don’t even know where to start.

And I have to work tomorrow so I have to go to bed.

My Major League soccer guys were great. There was a little bit of sloppiness that you’d expect from a group of guys who have never played together and are used to playing against each other. But they showed up and it was not for a friendly

There was a special moment to honor the guys who played for the US Mens national team in Brazil and it was amazing to see them playing together again.

A half dozen of my German rock stars from the World Cup team were there and I got to watch them play for 10 minutes (because they only came on at the end) and that was amazing. Oddly, as thrilled as I was to see them, I was 200% rooting for my MLS guys.

The weather was perfect. The atmosphere almost perfect. The game well played.

The story is that Thierry Henry is going to retire at the end of the season and he got a wonderful send off.

There were so many terrific moments it’s hard to list them all. Nick Rimando is a beast. It’s hard to believe he was #3 on the bench at World Cup.

It was such a fabulous night. We didn’t even have total weenies sitting behind us and talking the whole time.

And that isn’t even the only major event of the day. The other event is that my entire immediate family purchased plane tickets to visit Tante Hilla for her 90th birthday. More on that later.

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FIFA WORLD CUP GAMES 63 and 64

Brazil v. Netherlands

This game wasn’t pleasant to watch. I had my phone and looked at twitter and youtube clips of kittens playing the piano before I realized I could be doing something else and I moved on. Ending up 3rd or 4th in the World isn’t bad from a big picture perspective but neither team had anything to celebrate.

Germany v. Argentina

Yay! My team won. About an hour after the match I was up to my elbows in everyday life stuff and I looked up and thought: we won!

Great game. No major controversies. Both teams played their hearts out. Great goal from Götze. The only bad part was having to watch sad Argentines suffer through the second place ceremony. I don’t know a better way of doing it but it seems mean to make a losing team stand around and watch the celebrating people lose their minds.

Phew. My team won. I am not familiar with this feeling. They won in 1990 which I saw. And Euro Cup in 1996 which I did not see. Could you even watch Euro cup games in this country in 1996?

When I talked to my Dad he said, “Whew, it’s over. We can take a break from soccer.”

HA HA Because the Timbers are in Seattle tonight. I have another game to get through. I really loved hearing Ian Darke pimp the game during the WC broadcast. “If you’ve enjoyed World Cup, you will enjoy Major League Soccer.”

You know it!

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FIFA World Cup Games 61 and 62

Wow. Germany v. Brazil.

What can you say? After the 3rd goal I said, I don’t understand what’s happening. I thought I was watching a replay or some sort punked version of World Cup. Then the TV showed a lady in Brazil colors making a “I don’t understand what’s happening face.”

I wasn’t alone.

Having watched my team get humiliated on the pitch, I feel for Brazil. I was glad I was Team Germany.

Argentina v. Netherlands

Historically, I’ve been a Netherlands fan but I haven’t been enjoying them lately and I wasn’t sad to see them go out. I can’t even imagine what that 3rd place match is going to look like.

I’m still Team Germany but I wouldn’t be unhappy to see Argentina raising the trophy. Let’s hope for a good match and no PK final.

Remember the dramatic baby raccoon rescue in our backyard?

This morning I saw a mama and three fuzzy baby raccoons on the way to the park-n-ride. They were waddling across a busy street so I didn’t have high hopes for the family but hopefully I’m wrong. (Edited to add: every time I read a previous post I find a typo or bit that doesn’t make sense because I do everything in a hurry. I always think I should fix but rarely do. In this case I need to point out that the raccoons were not on their way to the park-n-ride. They were crossing the street. I was going to the park-n-ride.

And my final note, today I was answer lady at the bus stop. One lady came up to ask me a question and then argued with me when I answered her. I finally said: I don’t know what you’re asking me. And she told me she thought her bus was coming soon. Lady: an express bus comes about every 7 minutes until 6:30pm. That’s not a daring assumption you’re making. (I know I shouldn’t be mean. If you don’t normally take the bus, it’s easy to panic. But don’t argue with me.)

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What I Found Today

I’m successfully finding things I’m not looking for today.

I came across these when I was trying to find a greeting card. I did 15 seconds of research and am going to say they’re from 1998.

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FIFA World Cup Games 59 and 60

Only 4 games left! Last night we were getting ready to go to the neighbors for dinner but it was too early so I sat down and found myself watching Houston play New York. “I can’t believe I’m sitting here watching soccer,” I said.

My team played at 8pm and for the first time I skipped it because we were out front makes things explode. I was pretty excited about our selections but compared to other fireworks going off in the neighborhood, we were piddly. I can’t believe regular people can buy that stuff and shoot it off in the front yard. Must have been the $699.99 Big Bang. It was still fun and we had a great time shooting our flaming balls.

I checked my team’s score at around the 55th minute and it was 0-0. When I went to bed I saw it was 2-2 and figured I’d watch the 2nd half.

The World Cup games today were Argentina v. Belgium and Netherlands v. Costa Rica.

I liked the Argentina game. I thought Belgium played great, they just couldn’t get any scoring together against Argentina.

I don’t know what to tell you about Netherlands. It used to be one of my favorite teams but I didn’t love the way they played in the final in the last World Cup and I’m not loving the way they’re playing now. They hit the ground really easy. And that thing where they spin around. I’ve never been tackled while I was running really fast and kicking a ball but it’s hard for me to imagine that I would roll over and over like a hot dog on a stick. I really wanted to see Costa Rica go through. Couldn’t we have one surprise in the semis?

No. I have to watch Germany play Brazil on Tuesday and Argentina play Netherlands on Wednesday. Either of these would make great final matches.

After all that soccer I watched most of the second half of the Timbers game on my DVR. Then I went back and watched the end of the Brazil v. Columbia match that I turned off in a snit fit the other day so I could see the end.

Then I was finished with soccer. No soccer tomorrow. I’m going to sleep in and have a lazy-ish day.

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FIFA World Cup Games 57 and 58 and 4th of July!!

I thought the Germany v. France game was the second game and Brazil v. Columbia was the morning game. I decided to sacrifice the Brazil game because I had so many errands to take care of. Then I checked the schedule and Germany was first. I scrapped all my plans except for the 9am dash to fireworks lane.

I have lived here 20 years and I have never been to a major fireworks seller. I’ve been to a few stands but never the ginormous hangars filled with everything but grenade launchers. Maybe they do have grenade launchers and I don’t know what they look like.

I should add that I grew up in Southern California where depending on where you live you can have either tiny “safe and sane” fireworks or nothing. I still can’t get over how much of this stuff there is.

First we went to Black Jack because that is the destination brand. We were there at 9:02am and it was like Macy’s a half hour before closing on Christmas Eve. People were stacking shopping carts full of this stuff. Bob said there was already stuff out of stock.

You can’t tell but the Big Bang costs $699.99.

We’re total noobs and had no idea what to buy so we left and went next door to the warehouse which was much less crowded but no less overwhelming. I had a very nice young man come over to help me. Clearly he’d been partaking of something else legal in Washington because he enthusiastically told me about the awesome colors and varieties of whatever I was looking at. If we could figure out a way to combine fireworks and pot we’d be billionaires. (Probably, someone has already done it.)

We bought some fountain somethings and some variety something that the kid said was a good choice. I’ll try to take photos.

Last year on the 4th there was a spontaneous party with the neighbors out front and I think there has been some slightly more organizing going on. I don’t know because I’m not on Facebook and I’ve been stuffing my face with World Cup for two weeks. I made a pie and a salad to bring and Bob has grilling stuff.

So back to the games: Germany in another nail biter. I had to watch it delayed so I turned off all my electronic devices and hoped the phone wouldn’t ring until I found out the result. I only watched part of the Brazil v. Columbia game. It was choppy and I wasn’t enjoying it and decided to do some chores instead. I gave up at the 70th minute. I guess I missed the best part. It’s like that Doctor Who with the vicious angels that only move when you aren’t looking.

Two big games tomorrow and then only 4 games left.

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