There is only a month remaining until the start of the MLS season, when Seattle takes on Los Angeles in the season opener at Qwest Field on March 15. Although it feels as if the MLS Cup playoffs just ended, the preseason is well under way. The United States showing at last summer’s World Cup coupled with more national and regional coverage of soccer and the MLS around the country are both potential boosts to the MLS’ fan interest for the upcoming season.
Another, less discussed, factor that will increase interest is the introduction of two new MLS franchises to the league. The Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps have both joined the MLS and will give Seattle and other Western Conference teams two tough, prominent teams to play against throughout the season.
Mostly unknown and steeped in tradition, soccer in the northwest will finally be on a stage for more than just those in the region to appreciate. It won’t be long until the growing MLS fan base receives a taste of what NW soccer fans have been enjoying for a big part of the last 30 years; a large, intense, passionate and European-esque rivalry that the league has never seen before. The attendance and atmosphere at Sounders’ matches has already become a league-wide story. The crowds and fans in Vancouver and Portland will be eager to show that Seattle is not the only show in town in the northwest.
The Seattle-Portland rivalry has spanned across multiple leagues such as the USL First Division, A-League and NASL and will now continue in the MLS. Freshman Portland has fired the first shot at their twice MLS playoff making rivals in Seattle with a billboard sign they put up in Seattle. Just a few blocks from Seattle’s home at Qwest Field the Timbers bought space on a billboard that read “Portland, Oregon. Soccer City USA” with a large Timbers logo next to it.
Those two teams, along with Vancouver, will again compete for the Cascadia Cup. Co-created by fan groups of the three teams in 2004, the Cascadia Cup goes to the team with the best record in the season series between the three rivals. This season will mark the first time since Seattle jumped from the USL First Division to the MLS that all three NW teams will compete for the crown. Vancouver leads Seattle and Portland, winning the trophy three times.
These three teams will also compete with another former NASL member, the San Jose Earthquakes, for the Heritage Cup. Teams that have continued the tradition of their NASL city and team name into the MLS compete for this cup, which has had a fairly low-key start. Only Seattle and San Jose competed for the cup since its creation in 2009. Hopefully, with two more teams added to the fray, the Heritage Cup will gain some steam and add some flavor to west coast and northwest American soccer.
The release of the MLS schedule, albeit rather delayed, last Thursday finally put a date on these northwest derby matches. The first of which is, fittingly, between Seattle and Portland. The two rivals will play in Seattle at Qwest Field on Saturday May 14 and will have the game shown on ESPN2. The matchups are evenly split throughout the season, with one game between the three each month for the final six months of the regular season.
Even though all three teams are relatively young franchises, including two new ones altogether, northwest footy fans are hoping that they will all be competitive and start these rivalries off right in the MLS. How good the teams will be is yet to be seen, regardless of record the northwest fans will be there, singing loudly for the full 90 and showing the rest of the country what the MLS has been missing out on.
-Complete list of NW MLS regular season matchups:
Por @ Sea- 5/14
Van @ Sea- 6/11
Sea @ Por- 7/10
Van @ Por- 8/20
Sea @ Van- 9/24
Por @ Van- 10/2
Heath Harshman is a sophomore Communication major at Washington State University. He has written for the WSU student run newspaper, The Daily Evergreen, where he had a weekly sports column. Heath also has a weekly political-media radio show Thursdays from 11a.m.-12p.m. on KUGR.org. He hopes to have a career in public relations and is currently the media relations coordinator of minor league baseball’s Tri-City Dust Devils. Follow Heath on twitter @heathharshman or add him on facebook. Thoughts or comments can be sent to Heath at heath_harshman@yahoo.com
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