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Dan HajduckESPN
Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein once said, in Portland, you work half as much and live twice as well. Portland Wood Fans hope that’s especially true this Saturday, when Rose City will host the MLS Cup for the first time in football’s history. (3 p.m. ET, live on ABC).
For the Wood Army and the like, it’s been a long time. In history, Seattle Sounders – with two MLS Cups and two runners-up in the previous five seasons – have dominated Cascadia and the Western Conference, but this is Portland’s third final since 2015. On the other side of the table, let’s go. wait. New York City FC. out of Portland’s book.
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NYCFC has some of the deepest pockets in the Main Football League was part of the brilliant City Football Team. The Timbers are owned by Merritt Paulson – son of former US Treasury Secretary and Henry Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs – who bought the Timbers in 2007 and brought them from the United Soccer League (USL) to the club. MLS poster set.
NYCFC, unlike New York Red Bulls, which acts like a Double-A affiliate for their big European brothers. Veteran stars are enjoying a winning round at the end of their careers like Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard and David’s Mansion both sides Angelino, Jack Harrison and Yangel Herrera before young people run away (like many losers) to the greener European grasslands. (Both Angelino and Harrison were transferred from Man City after being loaned out; Herrera has been loaned to four different clubs, including NYCFC, since City signed him in 2017). .) The Timbers are not an intense test for better football, and their squad still boasts the legendary club Diego Valeri and Diego Chara, both with over 250 appearances for Portland.
NYCFC’s stadium talks are going on again, much more so than Ross and Rachel have been in the past, and they appear poised to continue squatting at Yankee Stadium over the holidays by Bronx Bombers. However you feel about the House Jeter Built and its relevance to football, it’s at least a unique viewing experience. Portland’s soccer-specific Providence Park, which boasts a recently ended ticketing streak of 163 games, all but a loss to the coronavirus pandemic, is arguably the most enthusiastic environment for games in water – but let’s not forget that it started life as a baseball stadium and hosted the 2009 Triple-A All-Star game, with more than 75% of MLS teams playing in ball-specific stadiums. rock, the Timbers are a more sustainable representation of what the next iteration of the MLS should be.
It’s been almost 15 years since David Beckham came to the United States and the Designated Player Rule was established. The MLS has acted as a fitting association for some of the greatest players of all time (Thierry Henry, Kaka), international players’ careers stalled start (Carlos Vela, Sebastian Giovinco, Zlatan Ibrahimovic) and Americans (Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey) as well and it was a lucrative landing for many others (Steven Gerrard, Rafa Marquez).
In order for the league to really thrive and leave its status as the winning lap or starter tournament for youth teams, clubs like Portland must be the norm. MLS can’t just be a place where talented players start or end their careers.
The DPs’ days as off-field ambassadors are generally in the past, while wunderkinds like Alphonso Davies or Tyler Adams or Gianluca Busio show they are not long in the league. Ricardo Pepi, Caden Clark (who will leave New York for Red Bull branches RB Leipzig in New Year), Daryl Dike and Cole Bassett (who refused to transfer millions of dollars to Benfica this summer) will be next. See them when they’re out and about and be glad you did, because soon they’ll be knocking the flanks for you. Bayern Munich, Leipzig or Venice like their predecessors.
But there’s something remarkable about the all-star NYCFC team that’s been around since the 2015 season. It already boasts Villa, Lampard and Pirlo, but also… Ned Grabavoy. Long time Real salt lake quarterback spent just one season in the Bronx before heading west to Portland, where he retired and moved into the main office as the Timbers’ chief of staff and recruiting under GM Gavin Wilkinson. Since then, the Timbers have won the MLS Cup twice in five seasons.
The Timbers, although there is still room for improvement in pulling from the USL side, at least they have one and make a sensible transfer. Belong to Felipe Mora, Dairon Asprilla and Sebastian Blanco (Portland’s top three strikers), Blanco was the most expensive transfer with a fee of $5 million.
NYCFC, with the appearance of young dynamic DPs with high potential like Jesus Medina and Valentin Castellanos – and the Brazilian’s recent signing Talles Magno, who took NYCFC to the championship after Castellanos’ red card in the semifinals – are on their way into their next chapter. Since signing James Sands for the first Homegrown contract in NYCFC history in July 2017, they signed five more, including, most recently, 14-year-old Christian McFarlane, born in the UK in September.
But, more than two decades on, if we are talking about which club best represents what is the best of Major League Soccer and what could it be? It is, and has been for a long time, Portland.
