P is for the Portland Timbers

P is for....

The Portland Timbers

I am a HUGE soccer fan, have been since I was a child, and was incredibly stoked when Portland won the bid to host an MLS team, the Portland Timbers, a couple years ago.  I mean, poor Oregon...we don't really have any professional teams aside from the Trail Blazers, who might as well be a high school team the way they've played this season.  Finally we have something!  Back in the day we had a semi-professional team with the North American Soccer League, but that became defunct in the early 80s.  When talk started going around about adding another team to the MLS roster, Portland jumped at the chance to be their new home.  The Northwest, and Portland in particular, are hotbeds for soccer supporters and investors knew that having a team would be a lucrative business for the city and the state as a whole.  One of the conditions was finding a suitable playing field in the area.  Enter PGE Park, home of the Portland Beavers minor league baseball team.  After a complete renovation in 2011, Portland was selected as the new home for the MLS team and, because of how the stadium was renovated, the Beavers were relocated to Tucson, Arizona.  The Timbers now play at the newly renamed Jeld-Wen field in downtown Portland.  The way the stadium sits actually puts the field below street level because of the slope of the landscape.  I find that pretty interesting.

How the Timbers celebrate goals.

The fans, called the Timbers Army, are some of the most dedicated in all of MLS.  You'd have to be to sit through an outdoor soccer game in the weather we continually get.  Despite its relatively small size, Jeld-Wen practically vibrates with noise from the moment fans start arriving.  A sea of green greets the visiting team and spectators.  Very reminiscent of a European football match, the Timbers Army sings songs, chants, beats drums, waves flags and scarves, and yells throughout the ENTIRE match.  Also, Timbers Joey, the mascot, is a pretty terrifying sight.  Wouldn't you be afraid of a large, lumberjack of a man welding a live chainsaw who cuts rounds from a giant log for every goal the home team scores?!  Combined, Timbers Joey and the Timbers Army are a formidable sight.

Timbers Joey preparing to cut a round after the Timbers score.

Whew...I think that's it for posts about Oregon.  Though I haven't been following any type of theme for the A-Z Challenge, these last three posts were a pretty solid one.  Hope you've enjoyed :)  Happy Wednesday all!