<i>[There was a Cascadia party at the start of November and Vancouver wasn't invited. With Portland and Seattle battling it out for a place in the MLS Western Conference final, Whitecaps fans could only look on in envy at what we were missing out on.
So what was it like to be a part of the first ever MLS playoffs Cascadia derby? We sent Zachary Meisenheimer, from Whitecaps' supporters' movement Curva Collective and AFTN podcast roundtable regular, down to Portland to get a view of the key derby game as an outsider looking in. This is his story....]</i>
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<center>**********</center><i>by Zachary Meisenheimer</i>
During the second half of this year’s Voyageurs’ Cup first leg at Stade Saputo in Montreal, a small group of Impact supporters brought a banner over to the other side of the ground and placed it on the empty seats behind the dozen or so people there supporting Vancouver Whitecaps. On the white fabric was a stickman-esque painted tricycle with the phrase "Forever The Third Wheel".
It is the plight of all those that give their all in support of football in VanCity. The Whitecaps are both blessed and cursed to be a part of two of the continent’s most meaningful triumvirates…the Canadian and Cascadian derbies.
The blessing comes from being a part of deeply passionate rivalries on the pitch and on the terraces. The curse is that in both cases the two other clubs involved have stronger bonds that have nurtured a greater hatred for one another, resulting in even more intense matches.
Results also play a major factor in things as the ‘Caps have never been able to hoist that Voyageurs’ Cup...even after a dozen tries. On the Cascadia front, the Club was able to claim to be the first to four titles in the decade old supporter created competition that is the Cascadia Cup.
However, the points claimed in their local matches were not enough to propel the ‘Caps into an MLS Cup qualification position in the League table. To make things worse, both Portland and Seattle did qualify for the playoffs and were immediately on course for a first ever MLS era Cascadia postseason clash.
As we all know, the inevitable happened.
Seattle defeated Colorado Rapids in the single elimination "play in" round, setting up the Middle vs. Lower Cascadia home and away quarter final that the media and League longed to see.
The first leg was on Saturday, November 2nd at Century Link field and it could probably be best described in one word: Nightmare.
The nightmare began long before the day of the match, but rather on the day that it became clear that this fixture at the Clink would be played on a pitch also marked with pigskin lines. This was the case because of the ground share with the Seattle Seahawks, who had a game the following day. Seattle would not be the only MLS side to suffer from this abomination, as both New England and Houston had similar visual impairments impacting viewers of their home quarter final matches.
Seattle’s Emerald City Supporters decided to run with the Nightmare theme in the planning and execution of their tifo for the first leg. They choose the phrase "Welcome To Your Nightmare" to attempt to intimidate Portland and their supporters. You can see the display below.
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There are a lot of shiny placards, the word banner, and the ECS skull with a "timber" hanging out of the side of it’s mouth, presumably having just been bitten off of a larger piece of wood.
The problem with using a phrase like this one in tifo is…it can comeback to bite you.
Kind of like the proverbial pre-match comments that get posted in the opposition locker room as a rallying cry, this became a point that united Portland supporters…and they are not a bunch that needs any help in being unified in the efforts against Seattle.
After Ryan Johnson gave Portland the lead 15 minutes into the match, the Timbers Army begun to sarcastically hurl this phrase back at Seattle supporters. The chant gained momentum when Darlington Nagbe doubled the Timbers advantage three quarters of the way through the match (how the TA don’t have a chant for Darlo to the tune of The Beatles "Eleanor Rigby"…I’ll never know!).
Portland coach Caleb Porter, the man credited with turning around the Timbers’ MLS fortunes in one season by having a clearly defined system and getting the most out of the players at his disposal, probably thought that he was having a bit of a nightmare when his defense allowed a 90th minute Osvaldo Alonso strike off of a long throw-in, that made the match seem closer a contest than it probably was. The late goal meant that the second leg five days later in PDX would be another massive match.
Whenever one has the privilege to attend a non-Vancouver, Cascadia derby in either Seattle or Portland, there is this real sense of not belonging (even if you have formed meaningful friendships with your fellow Cascadians). Entering the ground on match day, especially using the same entrance as the away supporters, is like that moment in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, when Indiana and his dad go to Berlin to reclaim the Holy Grail diary despite the obvious potential perils. At one point, Dr. Jones Sr. turns to his son and says, "My boy, we are pilgrims in an unholy land."
The adventure that was my trip down to PDX for this match started off with a roughly 6 hour drive being transformed by traffic into a 7 and a half hour marathon. The lack of sufficient parking meant I had to park on the other side of the 405 and sprint…yes I said sprint…like haven’t sprinted in a long time. I really didn’t want to miss out on the anthem…truthfully, I didn’t want to miss out on the TA’s tifo. I barely made it into ground just as the sides were about to make their way out of the tunnel.
I entered through the away supporters entrance and got to briefly connect with some new and old friends in the ECS. Their spirits weren’t as high as usual, but you got the sense that they believed that the Timbers could choke on the night and chop themselves down to size like the two-stick depicting Timber Joey cutting off his own two legs. With capos down front on the walkway, a drum and quality drummer a row or two back, flags waving; the Seattle supporters were giving their all before the match even started. The atmosphere in Jeld-Wen was electric and that was even before it was time for tifo.
I was able to get to a decent spot in time for the anthem to end and the Timbers Army tifo. Here is a video of how things looked:
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Filming this meant I missed out on the ECS tifo, which was a colourful overhead that was based on The Rolling Stones "Lips" image and "Sympathy For The Devil" lyrics. It read: "Allow us to introduce ourselves…we are a club of wealth and taste". This display was in response to the TA’s tifo from their match on Sunday, October 13th. That day, one which all ‘Caps supporters will remember as the day we became the first club to win the Cascadia Cup four times, the TA’s display was based on the Beatles’ "A Hard Day’s Night" lyrics. The Army was expressing their concerns over the Clint Dempsey situation. It will be interesting one day when all of these tifo efforts are chronicled on A&E’s new series "Tifo Wars: MLS Edition".
Abram Goldman-Armstrong (known as Abe), is a board member of the 107st Independent Supporters Trust, which is basically the leadership branch of the Timbers Army. With so much time and effort provided from supporters on both sides, what did he make of the tifo displays for both playoff matches?
<i>"The 'welcome to your nightmare' message totally backfired on Seattle, and gave us a theme song as they continued to fall apart at the hands of the Timbers. Seattle makes a name for itself with negative tifo targeted against their opponents. While the Timbers Army believes there is a place for that, we tend to focus on displays celebrating our club and city.
"The 'this magic is real' meme is one we have maintained in our displays since before promotion from USL into MLS, so with this as the first time in the playoffs in the higher league we thought it was fitting to revisit that meme.
"Orko the wizard was a fun way of expressing that magic. We wanted to show our faith in the lads on the pitch. Choreos can convey many different emotions, we hoped to inspire our lads to greatness. I think they certainly embraced and embodied the message on the pitch."</i>
When things got underway, it became painfully clear, even from pitchside, that Seattle coach Sigi Schmid’s calculated gamble to play Shalrie Joseph in midfield, alongside Adam Moffat and Ossie Alonso, was not paying off. This was accentuated as Caleb Porter had instructed his players to really go for it. Portland’s combination play wide seemed to be keying a little more on Seattle’s left side that was occupied by Marc Burch.
The opening goal in the match came from this area as Djimi Traore decided to gift Portland a penalty by handling the ball as, former club captain, Jack Jewsbury chipped it ahead of himself and past Traore just inside the area. Current Portland skipper Will Johnson stepped up to the spot and the Canadian sent Sounders’ Keeper Michael Gspurning the wrong way to extend the aggregate lead to two.
Just before the half, it was time for DV8 (Diego Valeri) to take advantage of the left side Seattle’s defence. He slipped in and slid to finish off a nice set up from Rodney Wallace. Just the other side of half time, The Gambia’s Futty Danso was reliving USL memories and ghosting in to head home a Rodney Wallace cross from a quickly taken free kick by Will Johnson.
At this point the 5-1 aggregate score line seemed not to be in doubt. However, Seattle, like their supporters, didn’t give up.
DeAndre Yedlin scored and created (for Eddie Johnson) a goal on the 74 and 76 minute marks respectively that made the night and the tie closer than it probably was.
The Sounders could not muster an historic sized come from behind result that could have pushed things into extra time. I spent most of the final 15 minutes of the match on the catwalk above the ECS and Gorilla FC. It was impressive how much they kept giving in the face of elimination…at the hands of their archrivals.
It was also nice to see no incidents of supporters, security, or mascots being foolish and potentially creating the types of problems all supporters in the region long to avoid.
In the post match press conference it was interesting to hear Caleb Porter stick to his quotes from when he first arrived in PDX. When asked about the importance of beating Seattle, he said, <i>"Probably means more to the supporters, but beating Seattle three games in a row (once in the League, and twice in the playoffs) is a difficult thing to do."</i> He went on to clarify by saying, <i>"I don’t hate Sigi Schmidt or their players, but I think when we can bring some extra joy by beating a team our supporters hate, then I think it is extra special."</i>
The response from the supporters was to be expected. The initial response from a highly involved member of the ECS was: <i>"F!@#$%^&*&^%$k."</i>
I didn’t follow up too much because I didn’t want to rub salt in wounds. Abe’s perspective on this was similarly predictable:
<i>"Defeating Seattle is always a great experience, be it in Cascadia Cup play or post season. I feel that the wheels really fell off the train for Seattle late in the season, so it was a good feeling to push past them in the first round of the playoffs. Winning in Seattle is a rarity, so it was a great home and away series for us."</i>
On the five hour drive home after the match, all I could think about was all the what ifs from the ‘Caps’ campaign…like what if we actually had won the Voyageurs’ Cup…and qualified for the MLS Cup.
It made me think to 2014, where we don’t have to care about being the third wheel…as long as we are leading the way.
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