The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake MLS regular season match on April 22, 2022, ended with a scoreless tie. The lack of luster of both teams in the last third of their offense contrasted with strong performances from midfield and defense.
The biggest highlight did not happen on the pitch. One more time, fans from the north end, the part occupied by the faithful supporters group, The Timbers Army, showed their disgust with the handling of the abuse cases by the organization’s leadership. The cases of former coach Paul Riley, who managed the sister team of the NWSL Portland Thorns, accused of abuse of players Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly, and the handling of the domestic violence accusations to the dismissed Timbers midfielder Andy Polo. In both cases, the leadership has been accused of covering up their actions.
The protest consisted on banners and flags displaying a strong messages against current Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, and president of business Mike Golub, and president of football Gavin Wilkinson, the top three. Messages ranged from “you knew”, to asking Paulson to sell the team and leave.
There were messages of support to Madison Shanley, the woman who had been singing the national anthem at providence park since their MLS debut in 2013. She was at the center of the latest chapter on the tensions between the leadership and the fans when she resigned a couple weeks ago, in protest with the clubs actions.
Shanley, in her last appearance before the match against LA Galaxy on April 3, wore a shirt with the words “You knew”, and made bigger headlines than the 3-1 loss the Timbers suffered that day. Moments before she was supposed to sing, Mike Golub, aware of what was about to happen, had attempted to talk her out of it, by calling her father asking him to have a chat with her. Golub and Shanley, finally talked before the singing of the national anthem, and while Golub did try to convince her to not wear the protest t-shirt, he did not prevent her from doing so.
Portland Timbers
