Huge crowd at the Portland Timbers game.

[Ace_of_Spades]

Heavy rain, and great atmosphere.

2-0 Portland.

[MarlinsFan2212]

Portland is an elite Sports town as far as attendance goes. Blazers sold out 814 consecutive games, GREAT place to play. Cool to see a lot of Blazer Players are there too (Rudy, Wes, Batum, Mills etc.)

The lumberjack chainsawing the log is a great ritual as well.

[beermankirk]

Portland Seattle and Vancouver all have great fan support and are old rivals from the USL days.

[grzftbl]

PGE Park renovated. Still a sh!thole for Portland St Football.

[EaglesPhan36]

Good looking stadium for soccer though. MLS is getting pretty strong as far as crowd support - albeit it all is from the West Coast & Western US [Colorado-Salt Lake City]. If they could ever get one team to dish out a shitload of money for an overseas star close to being in his prime - I think MLS could get a little street cred. Think it'd have to be kinda what the Nats did with Jayson Werth. Overpay the fukk out of someone to be the star of MLS. Otherwise it's a good draw in the cities it's in, but it won't grow in the TV market.

[Ace_of_Spades]

Good looking stadium for soccer though. MLS is getting pretty strong as far as crowd support - albeit it all is from the West Coast & Western US [Colorado-Salt Lake City]. If they could ever get one team to dish out a shitload of money for an overseas star close to being in his prime - I think MLS could get a little street cred. Think it'd have to be kinda what the Nats did with Jayson Werth. Overpay the fukk out of someone to be the star of MLS. Otherwise it's a good draw in the cities it's in, but it won't grow in the TV market.

Isn't that what the Galaxy did with Beckham. They overpayed, got some crowd, don't know how long it lasted. They need to keep doing that. Not sure what the situation was like with NY and Henry. Apparently Drogba wants to play in the MLS.

[Ace_of_Spades]

3-0 is going to keep the fans coming back.

[VegasInsider]

It's great to see Portland join the MLS. I look forward to watching and betting on more of their games.

[dfberger23]

One of the top crowds in the league, they are a great addition. The MLS was wise to create the rivalries in the northwest with Portland, Seattle and Vancouver.

MLS has a lot of great fans despite the public perception that no one cares about MLS.

[EaglesPhan36]

Isn't that what the Galaxy did with Beckham. They overpayed, got some crowd, don't know how long it lasted. They need to keep doing that. Not sure what the situation was like with NY and Henry. Apparently Drogba wants to play in the MLS.

Beckham wasn't close to his prime though. Nor was/is Henry, although both are still draws. Drogba would be a massive coup for MLS. He's aging, but at 33 still about as close to an in-form player that MLS will ever have gotten overseas. I would hope someone would overstep LA or NY for him. Actually don't see why NY would chase since Henry has been a bust so far. LA certainly would be the team I would expect to be in the thick of any Drogba chase since Beckham is a rental. Donovan-Drogba would be interesting. Realistically, MLS will have to cherry pick players in their 30s from overseas as "Draws" because the studs in their 20s are going to stay overseas for massive paydays that I don't think MLS can compete with.

[EaglesPhan36]

Wild fukking match, good for TV.

[Ace_of_Spades]

Apparently rain doesn't help the under

[EaglesPhan36]

Rain is probably the most over-rated factor for soccer unless it is a total monsoon. I think only extreme cold or extreme heat are big factors for teams not used to it. Rain like tonight in Portland is nothing. Could easily cause slips and easy looks at goals or slippery deflections off goalies that lead to goals. Don't know why anyone would equat rain showers to unders automatically.

[Ace_of_Spades]

Heavy snow couldn't keep a Championship team from scoring over 2.5 goals.