Portland Soccer, May 7, 2013

Normally one point from two games would not be a very good weekend for the Timbers. On May 2 they played the New England Revolution to a 0-0 draw. While the Timbers had many more chances and lots of Timbers had good games they weren't able to find a goal. New England, to its credit, came in with a plan of staying back to defend and they did it well enough for a point. These kinds of nights will happen to even the best teams. It's a sign of how far the Timbers have come that neither the team nor the fans were satisfied after the game. Portland approaches every game as if they can win it, thanks to the new attitude coach Caleb Porter has brought this year.

All the attitude in the world, however, could not prepare the Timbers for their game the day before. They faced the Green Machine of Mt. Tabor Soccer Club, a team of 8-year-olds, on a sunny afternoon. Atticus Lane-Dupre, captain of the Green Machine and cancer survivor, chose a game against his favorite team, the Timbers, as his wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It may have been in the middle of the day but many fans of the Green Machine, about 3,000 in all, came to see the big game against the Timbers. Portland was not taking their opponents lightly, however, with a starting lineup that included the likes of Mikael Silvestre, Darlington Nagbe, and Will Johnson among others. 

The Green Machine opened the scoring early, with Atticus tallying the first goal. The match was a tense, back-and-forth affair, with the Timbers coming back several times. In the final minute the Timbers tied it at 9-9. The Green Machine had one last chance. Who better to look to than their leader, Atticus, for a moment of brilliance? His run through the entire Timbers team, capped off with a fantastic shot through the legs of Sebastian Rincon, lifted his team to a 10-9 win with the last kick of the game. The stadium, full of more Green Machine fans than Timbers supporters this time, celebrated with their team as the Timbers could only admit their opponents were the better team that day.