Portland celebrate their advance to MLS Cup / Photo: Ziro Castellanos (Prost Amerika)
Who will be the Cascadia Corner Player of the Year? Find out on Wednesday
Cascadia Corner: At last, our boasting is real!
It would not be an over reach to say that the Cascadian presence has been a major boost for Major League Soccer. To say Cascadia re-invented or revitalised the league are probably an over reach – but we said such things anyway.
Being Cascadian, it was often phrased as MLS 2.0 or some such Microsoft-themed term, just to remind the rest of the country that we didn’t just invent soccer, we invented computers, too. And technology.
What is not arguable is that our collective and highly irritating bluster about inventing everything, be it the best atmospheres or massive attendances, has not been matched on the field. It is also unarguable that it seriously pissed off the rest of the country. They’ve been pointing at Cascadia and laughing for a good six years now.
Let’s be honest. We’ve all been internet blowhards (this site included). Cascadia has been the center of the footballing universe. In that time however, LA Galaxy and the mid-west were actually winning the damn thing. In fact, they’ve won the last seven. Cascadia was not the best in the country but at least was the best at saying it was the best.
The wins in Vancouver and home to Dallas were tactical triumphs for Caleb Porter.
Sounders FC have been the region’s leaders since the green, white and blue invasion but sadly being swatted away like a fly by LA Galaxy in the play-offs constituted the best our region had to contribute.
Even with those painfully closer eliminations, few would have contended that any club outside Seattle would lead the first serious charge to the final.
This year, Sounders inched a tiny step close to the gain line by finally overcoming the Galaxy.
Trading Jaime Penedo away to be replaced by Donovan Rickets looked a glaring error after that match; well as glaring as it did the minute we all found out and issued our best version of the Taylor Twellman catchphrase “You gotta be kidding me.”
Vancouver set a very early pace and looked a revitalised side with some of their trades bearing early fruit. By the end of the season though, opponents had become wiser to their style and they looked jaded.
As their curve of progress flattened, something very sudden began in Oregon.
With just three games left of the regular season, many Timbers fans were bemoaning another year of missing the playoffs – a viewpoint they sometimes spell #gwout for brevity.
Then came the last three games and nine points in eleven days. That followed a period of 18 days without a single point.
Although the five goals hammered in at a fading LA Galaxy side will be the most remembered, it was perhaps the scrappy victory in Salt Lake that was the more important subliminally. It reversed the gloom and, with the bottom club Colorado at home to come, showed a clear and attainable path to the close season.
[LA Galaxy 2 : 5 Portland Photo Gallery]
Moreso it contained the first clue that the bounce of the ball and that bit of luck was at their back.
Referee Juan Guzman might not have awarded a penalty kick to Portland in the 18th minute as Jamison Olave’s foul on Lucas Melano was perilously close to outside the penalty area.
He might also have split the difference and allowed Olave to escape with just a yellow. But he awarded a penalty and dished out a red, leaving Portland a goal and a man up for the remaining 72 minutes. The events and the points began to dissolve the stereotypically Portland fatalism as well as handily eliminating one of the key rivals for the top six.
San Jose’s late petering out was not within Portland’s control but it happened anyway.
By the time they met Vancouver in the quarter finals, Lady Providence had delivered them a penalty shoot out win courtesy of a Sporting Kansas City spot kick that hit both posts and refused to cross the line. Portlandians, in one of America’s most atheist cities, started to be believers.
The Cascadian flag will be in evidence at MLS Cup.
Luck had been cruel to SKC all year but it had set up camp in Portland at just the right time. Portland were on the way up, blooming with confidence and their top players all seemingly fit. Vancouver had been unable to retain or regain their superb early season form.
In the end, the Timbers’ 2-0 win was comfortable and deserved. In fact, it was clinical enough that some observed that the road win may have been the smoothest ever performance by a Timbers side. Portland also seemed to be the only side in the West improving with every game. They no longer needed luck because they had turned into a very good side at the right time.
The win over Dallas was as much the product of tactics as anything. FC Dallas are lethal on the break, especially away from home. Ask any Houston fan. In Portland, Caleb decided to nullify that by refusing to over commit in attack, and when defending make Dallas poke and prod with short passes into small gaps. It didn’t suit the array of talents at Dallas coach Oscar Pareja’s disposal and he could find no answer to a crowning victory for Caleb Porter. No handkerchiefs were exchanged.
That is how we arrived at an MLS Cup where the Doug, the Cascadian flag of green, white and blue will be prominently waved. Portland have been allocated 900 tickets but don’t be surprised if there’s more green than that in the Columbus Stadium.
Cascadia Corner: #sigiout is a sticking plaster for a bigger wound
Cascadia Corner: What is wrong with Seattle? What is right with Vancouver.
Who will be the Cascadia Corner Player of the Year? Find out on Wednesday
Canadian northwest to the ocean so blue
Roll on Columbia, Roll on
