It was ten years ago this month that Prost Amerika reported on its first game.
Seattle Sounders’ home opener in 2007 was against local rivals Portland Timbers in the USL. 8247 fans didn’t pack CenturyLink Field as it was then, like they do now, but the ferocity of the Seattle/Portland rivalry has not diminished.
In those early days, we were a German language site recommending Cascadia as a tourist destination, covering soccer and the arts in German.
Prost Amerika’s first match report was in German and it saw Sounders beat Timbers 1-0.
Not many of the 8247 would have understood the report although, unbeknownst to us, a trilogy of Sounders did.
Club captain Danny Jackson, although a proud Yorkshireman, had a German mother. Head coach Brian Schmetzer and Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer both come from a fairly recent line of German immigrants and were both able to read the coverage.
After the 2007 USL triumph, the site switched to English starting with coverage of the 4-0 win over Atlanta Silverbacks which secured the USL trophy.
The site has since covered over 50 Cascadia derbies since including Vancouver Whitecaps, Kitsap Pumas, womens and reserve matches in a period that has seen the launch of the NWSL and the growth of women’s soccer, as well as a plethora of trophies come to the region.
Kitsap Pumas, Portland Thorns, Seattle Reign, Portland Timbers, and Sounders FC have all won national championships of some variety in the USA in that period, with the Whitecaps finally belatedly snagging the Voyageurs Cup in 2015.
In 2007, MLS was just two years in the future for the home side although few knew it then. The other Cascadian sides were soon to follow
Some things have not changed.
Brian Schmetzer was Sounders head coach that day and he still is, barely looking a day older. Merritt Paulson and Hanauer are still majority owners of the clubs who played that day.
Some great characters have come and gone in Cascadia; John Spencer, Sigi Schmid, Freddie Ljungberg, Will Johnson, James Riley, Seb Le Toux, Eric Hassli, Kenny Miller, Steve Cronin, Kalif Alhassan and Jay Demerit are just some of the names who have illuminated the soccer scene here in that decade.
Other great soccer personalities like Bob Lenarduzzi, Roger Levesque, Pete Fewing, Adrian Hanauer, Taylor Graham, Kasey Keller, Zach Scott, Steve Zakuani, Merritt Paulson, ‘Timber Jim’ Serrill, Gavin Wilkinson and Ross Smith are still contributing to soccer in the region.
A third group notably broadcasters Arlo White, Ian Joy and John Strong have risen to national prominence in that field. Let’s not forget the contribution of Supporters Group leaders who give up their free time to organise displays and support, help people attend away games and keep the soccer culture thriving between games.
There have been some great moments in the past decade.
Seattle Sounders won the 2007 USL title in our first year under Brian Schmetzer, in a year where Le Toux become the first player we interviewed.
Sounders FC winning the US Open Cup in DC in 2009 remains a highlight, as does the Portland Timbers fan invasion of Columbus and the triumph that followed, which eventually launched the site’s book writing ventures, including a book on women’s soccer. We think Mr Paulson eventually forgave us for stirring up enough of a whirlwind that he felt obliged to get the log to Columbus.
The USL Cup Final was our first report written in English (and some French!)
A less known highlight was the Kitsap Pumas unlikely win in the USL PDL Championships in 2011. If nothing else, that squad had more complete “dafties” in it than any other, but they truly were a wonderful bunch of guys.
There have obviously been controversies.
We took on the Vancouver Whitecaps Front Office when they gave the Southsiders’ away derby tickets to a corporate sponsor in 2011 and took on all three clubs over the issue of restricting away travel in derbies. Seeing full houses of hundreds and hundreds of away supporters at those derbies since is especially rewarding.
And most infamously, we exposed MLS’ attempt to trademark the term Cascadia Cup in a Toronto court. We’re not quite sure we’ve been forgiven for that one. And we ragged incessantly at the Sounders to be brave and go it alone.
The Southsiders got their tickets in 2011, away fans are now welcome, the Sounders are now forging their own path away from the NFL, and media access at all three Cascadia clubs is better than the national norm.
Still, we are waiting for Zach Scott’s name to be entered on the Ring of Honor at the Clink. Call it our first campaign of our second decade.
Beyond Cascadia, the site has now spread across the league with correspondents at every MLS club, (except the two that are doggedly determined to obstruct access). There are too many great photographers that produce great pictures every weekend from Los Angeles to Toronto, and Atlanta to Cascadia. Thank you to them.
The ECS pay tribute to Zach Scott but is it time for his name to go on the Ring of Honor?
We’ve had some great guest columnists over the years; currently Terry Butcher, a man who captained England and Seattle’s Matt Pentz who has just joined. Ian Joy’s journalistic career went through us with his “Once a Cascadian” column.
We’ve had an MLS Cup winning coach in Colorado’s Gary Smith and a man who won the League in England, Alan Hinton. Two other Englishmen complete the list, Nigel Reo-Coker and veteran of the BBC Richard Fleming, all of whom have provided alternative voices to our readers.
After a decade of coverage, we would just like to thank all of them, our readers, the owners who make soccer possible, the players, our correspondents, the coaches – but most of all you the fans. Without you Cascadia would not be the soccer bio-region it has become and the site would never have spread nationwide.
Thank you for traveling this soccer journey with us.
PROST!
