The Timbers were in the USL and i think it was 2012, I was rolling with my buddy Finn, who is now the 107ist VP, through a whole long weekend in Vancouver.. Taking the train up, boozing, we had a swanky hotel room booked but only for the Saturday and Sunday night, So when we rolled up on Friday we had to scour the whole city (litterally walked 5+ miles in a fresh pair of Sambas ... Blisters in the first 3 hours there) looking for a place to stay, eventually just hitting the (BLANK) hostel.
We wake up the next day and check into our hotel, shower, I make fun of Finn for ironing his clothes after unpacking and hit the city... That was in the summer, so the weather was perfect, the day couldn't be better, plenty of good food and drinking. At this point you think we're just having a good time on vacation, nothing is going to go wrong. What could go wrong? Well we finish enjoying our day and head back to the hotel to shower up and go get dinner with the whole crew that had come up that day...
The next morning, like any darby day morning, I woke up fucking buzzing, I just had that inkling that epic shit was going to happen. We get breakfast, we meet up with everyone, and head to the bar to start drinking with the Cascadia cup, that Joanne had just brought up. We had won it the year before and it had been living in peoples houses, been lifted by the handles almost exclusively for a year (really we had no idea that they could get loose). At the bar I watch Vince and LTBJ5k shake the shit our of the cup in their ritual of saying goodbye in case it doesn't come back. We get drink enough that we get that Timbers Army obnoxious swagger going. We leave the bar chanting, holding the cup and shouting at tourists and doing Godzilla impressions, got on the train to head to Swansgard Stadium (for all the folks that are new to the Timbers, Swansgard was basically the size of Merlo field at University of Portland and the Whitecaps used to play there... The catch is that it's outside of Vancouver proper... You had to take a train and then walk two miles in the woods to get there... I'm not joking). Seriously here's a pic of us having to take a pee break on the way into the stadium.
So I grab the cup to hold it for the train ride to Swansgard (BTW I'm probably spelling this horribly wrong.), just cause everyone was man handling it and I wanted it to be safe (I really fucking thought this). About five minutes into the train ride we hit a bump, we went up and when we came down the cup was still cradled in my arm like a baby but the handle was in my other hand. Immediate panic, I look over at Shawn (Bickle) with a face that's about to cry and the handle in my hand... "I just broke the cup" I said, Bickle looks at me sympathetically "Shut the fuck up... Well, we can't do anything about it now."
Finn takes the handle for safe keeping and we go onward to the game... Now that's how the cup broke, but this is how karma's a bitch.
So we get to the game, we stand on our little bleacher that should fit 30 people but we're fitting 50 rowdy TA on it. We keep the cup low so no one knows we broke it. To best explain is that when the TA has to stand in bleachers, you would think we stand where you would stand up from the seated position, those low platforms in the stands... No (that's where we put the cup), the TA has to stand on top of where you'd sit your butt, where there's even less space to stand on, and the real possibility of that shit breaking (San Jose away last year). At half it was tied, at 0's, while I was coming in late from smoking I hear the stadium go nuts (the kinda go nuts that you know just what happened) ... goal Vancouver. The worst part is I have to walk through every happy face along the long way back to our little bleacher. On the way I run into Vince who is shirtless and eating a hot dog "what's up dude I just snuck into the VIP seats and got some hotdogs and beers" he says... I don't say anything, I just look sad being a goal down "Dude we totally got this, cheer up." The weirdest thing is I did... Within 10 minutes the Timbers respond and score a goal... Were dancing in the stands, at this point I'm standing at the top of the bleachers with LTBJ5k... Going into the 80th minute the game winner gets slotted home, LTBJ5k grabs me and we start running down the bleachers towards the pitch, and I feel it... I felt the cup leave about a 4-5 inch cut straight down my shin. I was too busy celebrating to worry about it, After the game I could already feel the blood making my pants and socks stiff... I didn't want to look at it though, knowing it would probably need stitches and I didn't want to ruin the night having just won the cup.
The next morning I wake up and Finns like, dude you sheets are all bloody what happened... I'm like oh yeah, the cup fucked me up last night... At that point we're already late to meet up and ride home... So I sacked up stole a towel from the hotel and wrapped it up til I got home... I had to get a shot for a staph infection and have a noticeable scar on my shin to this day.
This past trip was up there wasn't as memorable as the the last one, but it was pretty freaking sweet... The drive up with Mike and Harper was tons of laughs and me controlling the tunes. Tons of great people were up there, the drinking and ridiculous antics are rated X and can't even be blogged... Was a great 2.5 days.
Gameday was something else though, I was so hung over and woke up way late, I was in a 107ists board members room on the couch... She and her daughter had taken off to go hand out tickets. I get on the wifi and try and find some Dim Sum, as I'd been dying to get some since before the trip, I knew it was darby day but I was too hung over to be buzzing, I was more concerned about getting myself right as there were only 5 hours til the game, and we had to be at the stadium in 3. I find a dim sum cart, and pound 3 steam pots while running over to the Railway Club where we had established as home base for the trip. Everyone's there, drinking, hangover killed, and game ready... Seriously if I could give another Blue Ribbon to Pabst it would have been that day, the beer saved my life from a brutal hangover.
It was probably one of my favorite walk-ups to any away game... We had security (though for what it's worth Vancouver is harmless when it comes to the walk up to the game, or after for that matter), we had drums, we had 300 people all rolling together through downtown Vancouver... Good vibes too, can't forget that, a good walk up can tell you a lot about how the games gonna go down. On the way into Seattle this year I knew it was gonna be bad just in the walk-up. We were getting shit on from all angles, people threw stuff, they made us walk around everything so it took forever, and you could tell you were just being led to slaughter. When we entering the stadium I knew 2 things, we were gonna get killed and I probably wasn't gonna watch any of the game.
During the walk up in Vancouver I just believed, and everything felt right, the weather was cooperating (as it had rained non stop before we left to go into the stadium) everyone was in a good mood singing hanging stuff in the stadium... Shit we couldn't do in Seattle, like wearing an ACAB banner like a cape. It was good, just can't say that enough. The game was tense and actually a fun watch... the goal was so unexpected that it made the game so much better and fun. Winning the cup did bring tears to my eyes, watching our boys take that cup from the choche balls in fatigues and aviators was just epic. Afterwards I split to get to the bar, get a drink and take a wiz.. When I came out of the bathroom there was my girl... The cup was all shiny and alone... I went right up and gave it kisses and hugs, I started seeing flashes go off and realized my private moment with the cup was compromised. The beer tasted a little tinny out of it, but by the time everyone had got their photo drinking out of it and Abe was forcing the rest down my throat.. I started to get pretty drunk, Poutine time... but not before we took a picture of us with the cup on a tank.
After that, everything got kinda weird, we stashed the cup and all of a sudden some of the Timbers FO start showing up, things got really fan boy/girly and I was out.. Poutine followed by drinking with the boys at a undisclosed location, bed. Next day was 6 hours of no voice (literally couldn't speak) and smiles while driving home.
It was a priceless experience but it left no scars and it wasn't the USL in a tinpot stadium... I don't think any away day will ever compare to that fateful weekend in Vancouver when I broke the cup. Listening to: the new SNUFF album 1-2-3-4-5-Perhaps which I will review next week, it's really good.
Also we're watching the Cavs in this house
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