I tuned in late tonight to the Timbers' away match against Sporting KC. By the time I had found the channel, the team was already in a 0-1 hole. And the oppressive, dark feeling of being down in a well with the water rising surfaced back in the corner of my mind. But I truly want the good to prevail, and so I found myself jumping up and down on the couch, heart pounding, and trying to respond to my relatives who share the game around the state via text message. Yes!! It was mostly all Yes!!
I am wary of defining 'turning corners' until years after the event. I am wary of wanting to have a scary great team creating legends until the legends are already carved in stone. I am wary of hoping too much from a simple football match. All that being said, I was enchanted by this game. The players showed courage, energy, poise. They were hungry. They were creative. They were fierce. And nothing seemed likely to stop them.
When Futty went down---I exhaled a string of expletives. How many times has that happened? Just when we hit our stride we're hamstrung by the hobbling of a key player. And Futty's injury was not a small loss in a team that looked much as a winning team should look.
Despite that, we took home a win. We saw what was possible. We sent a tremor, I hope, through the ranks of the storied teams of MLS. PTFC. It's gonna be the brand you see streaming by you.
I can't wait for the next match.
Portland Timbers claw out a victory in KC
