To begin with, there was Bafana Bafana’s Siphiwe Tshabalala scorcher starting the party off right . . . France and Uruguay putting up a total snoozer . . . Dark horse South Korea making themselves known against a messed up Greece . . . Maradona’s Argentine boys taking it to Nigeria . . . Keeper Robert Green’s butterfingers giving the US 1-1 a tie with England . . . Algeria’s Abdelkader Ghezzal pretending to be a wide receiver thus giving him the fastest two yellow cards in World Cup history . . . Serbia’s Zdravko Kuzmanovic’s spot on imitation of Ghezzal and gifting Ghana a PK and a win . . . and finally, Germany’s utter mandhandling of Australia.
The US turned in a spirited effort producing a 1-1 tie against a loaded England squad. It was a story of two goalies with the Americans’ Tim Howard stalwart play giving him Man of the Match honors vs. England’s Robert Green having some handling issues. The US could have won it all with Jozy Altidore’s shot being knocked off the woodwork late in the second half.
Having said that, the two favorites to progress from Group C managed to escape each other without too much of a problem. For the US, a tie felt like a win (Thank you NY Post). For England, the tie felt like a loss and led to the requisite national handwringing. Also notable was ex-OSU Beaver Robbie Findley and ex-U of Portland Pilot Steve Cherundolo both being included in the starting eleven.
Back in Stumptown, the game was broadcast in Director Park in front of a merry World Cup crowd who also witnessed the unveiling of the new Portland Timbers crest at halftime.
- Alex McDougall
- The new Timbers logo.
More on the logo reaction after the jump.
To say that this unveiling was met by the crowd with some mixed reactions would be diplomatic. At best. (If swearing is frowned upon at your workplace, then I suppose this is NSFW-ish.)
As it was, the logo actually leaked via the internets the night previously when Timbers fan Steven Weldon walked into a Dick’s Sporting Goods in Tualatin looking for a US team jersey. “However, when I walked in, the new Timbers logo shirt was staring me in the face. I knew that this was not supposed to be shown until tomorrow, so I had to have it being a Timbers fan,” he said. After getting home, Weldon tweeted a photo of it with Timbers related hashtags. Before long, the tweet had been spread around Timbers fan message boards and reactions were swift.
By the time the logo was revealed in Director Park, there were many in the crowd who had already made up their mind. Negative spirited and NSFW-ish chants came flying out from certain areas, countered by positive chants led by the team’s Timber Jim and Timber Joey. The Timbers Army fan message boards lit up for pages and pages of comments, suggested tweaks, confusion, rage and frustration with issues ranging from color selections, to choice of designer, to historical reverence, to overall graphic layout. However there were some fans in various corners of the boards and on Facebook that liked the logo or felt it was growing on them. Given the overwhelming number of negative comments—including many on some national boards and blogs—those liking the logo would appear to be in the minority.
- Alex McDougall
- Timber Joey rallying the crowd.
Logos are tricky things—for any organization—let alone a sports franchise. They can communicate brand, emotion, and connection to an audience. In the case of many expansion sports franchises, logo unveilings can be met with much trepidation and wariness in part because it’s the first public presentation of what a team will hope to aspire to. There is no history. There are no memories. There are no victories. Yet. So when one sees the logo, no one knows what to expect and the feeling can be a bit hollow. There is no actual team built to inhabit the new identity.
However, the Timbers are not an ordinary expansion team. They are not starting from scratch. There is some thirty-five years of Timbers-lore and with that comes history, memories, and victories. Add to that some of North America’s most passionate fans and changes can sometimes feel, well, difficult. That said, logos come and go. The team remains.
Other changes were presented over the weekend with the Timbers launching their 2011 season ticket set-up with a very snazzy stadium view feature on a new website. Ticket packages range from $99 for the nosebleeds, to $360 for the raucous Timbers Army sections, to $1500 for posh east stands and many more options in-between. Plus, in a Portland-esque touch, you can select transportation preferences between game day all zone Tri-Met passes, buying a parking pass for $85, using secure bike parking, or electing to walk to matches and having the Timbers contribute $25 in your name to the Timbers Community Fund.
The new website provides simulated seat views as well as showing where the angle of sun will hit at various times of the day or season. There are virtual walkthroughs of the new stadium club and more detailed views of the whole new east stands.
As I look at this overall layout, what I find most exciting is the re-positioning of the field. With no need to accommodate baseball anymore, the north end of the pitch can move closer into what was the old home plate area and former third base dugouts. Also, the transfer of the old west-end beer garden—presumably over to the soon-to-be built east stands—means the western sideline is un-obstructed and more in view of the action. There’s some south end seats too and I love the P-O-R-T-L-A-N-D along the east stands. All in all, it’s beginning to look and feel like a real soccer stadium.
But with all this going on this weekend, perhaps lost was the fact that the current USSF Division 2 Timbers were defeated by Miami FC Blues 1-0, which dropped them to fifth place in the division. That development in and of itself leaves me ponderous and fretful. And yet, there’s plenty more World Cup to watch . . .
- Alex McDougall
*Special thanks too to our new Timbers photographer Alex McDougall.
As a casual Timbers fan, I couldn’t tell the difference. This one looks fine to me, what exactly is the problem?
I don’t get it. What’s the hubub about?
After looking at the old logo, I’m actually kind of pissed at the kind of person who would consider this a shouting-obscenities-at-a-family-friendly-World-Cup-viewing-venue level offense. They’re practically identical logos.
The Timbers Army is full of over-priveleged hipster-assholes. They whine and moan about every little thing if it’s not exactly what they think they deserve.
Not that anyone cares. Graham…broad generalizations aren’t exactly correct. I know the same exact things have been said about Mercury readers. I am neither over-privileged and am far from hipster. I dislike the badge remake a great deal. The reason is it looks like a cartoon. The front office has been marketing this thing with the phrase, “You Can’t Fake This.” It’s a subtle dig at Seattle’s instant fans that magically appeared when they rolled out MLS and couldn’t get people to attend USL games. Then they went and used Milan, Liverpool, and Barcelona as cities we’ll be on par with. There isn’t anything cartoony about classic badges. I dislike the new logo because it will look dated in 10 years.
One of these things is not like the other.
http://img25.imageshack.us/i/circularfootb…
The tactics may not have been the best. Certainly they were offensive. The sentiment though. That’s real.
@BO: See, your response was the response of an adult. The people screaming and cursing and behaving like hipster-hooligans are the people we’re confused by. You should save quotes from the angriest people on SCUSA and remind them of what they said in a year or so. Too many of members of the TA act like over-priveleged assholes.
@ BlackedOut, they sure picked a weird way to differentiate themselves from Seattle – both logos look like the now-defunct Supersonics’ if you squint.
I’m kinda surprised Graham’s top-drawer trolling hasn’t drawn out the more letssayvocal fans, but at 1 pm, they’re probably still in bed in the basement on their mom’s old futon, watching Italy’s WC game on justin.tv.
@Graham
I saw the thing the night before, had formed an opinion, and had also heard the Timbers front office’s response to anyone expressing concern about the new badge in an adult manner which was pretty much, “fuck you you don’t know what you’re talking about.” That message was heard loud and clear by a very vocal group.
@CC
It totally resembles old Supersonics stuff.
it IS different, and it DOES suck.
@EC: Why does it suck? We already know that the hooligans in the TA hate it, but what we need are their motivations.
not sure I can find the right words for it, but I’ll try…
it looks like something from arena football, or that lacrosse league that was around for a while (or still is?). it’s “kinda disco”, in a bad way. I think that it’s trying too hard. it’s apparently the job of graphic designers to come up with “something new”. personally the old emblem had a lot of history, and was delightfully understated. for instance, WTF is the triangular element in the background there for? it harkens back to some elements from the original, but brings them to much to the foreground. why? the old emblem could’ve been updated, and even ‘modernized’ without losing it’s heart. didn’t happen here.
OK, so maybe I’m a little anal about alot of this stuff, but graphic design is sort of a hobby of mine, and I honestly think that most often it’s way too forced. that’s how I feel about this logo. maybe I’ll think on it a little more and update this.
but don’t count on it.
The triangle seems like it recalls Mt. Hood. It’s also on the current timbers logo, isn’t it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/muddyravine/5…
Yeah, I don’t get this resentment at all. The new one’s cheesy like an indoor lacrosse logo – but no more so than it was before. Again, I’m saying this as a casual Timbers fan, not a hater.
As someone who does graphic design (plus IT) work as well as being someone who only really got into going to Timbers games within the last year or two for a variety of reasons (a prominent one being that I don’t normally care about minor league sports so this year was an exception because it’s a transitionary period) I liked the new logo. I might’ve even been the first one on facebook to comment so, although I could tell the Timbers’ social networking gurus were trying to do some damage control since the posts kept coming up and then being deleted.. hmm..
Here’s my take. The old logo had a really ugly, fuzzy looking font. That absolutely needed to be updated. There was also a pretty bad looking color scheme since the old color of green had a really yellowish tint to it. This new logo is really clean and crisp from a color and font standpoint. They also incorporated a lot of white into it, which is really different from the old logo- again this does a really nice job of separating the green from the yellow. Also consider the Timbers’ uniforms- the most prominent color on there is a forest green with white trim. The only yellow on it is from the logo, which from far away just makes it look like a little stamp. I’m more surprised they didn’t entirely eliminate that color, but it is certainly de-emphasized in the new logo in favor of more green and white, especially prominent in the axe which is now all white with some yellow shading. I also like how much vector is used on the new logo; it’ll save the Timbers’ designers a hell of a lot of work and will keep the logo more consistent in all the media they need to use it on. On that note, the one thing I do dislike about the new logo is how warped and elongated the blade of the axe looks in order to stretch it out enough to “break out” of the crest. The one weird thing is that the promo video for the unveiling mentioned the background as “three chevrons” but it seems clear to everyone here that it looks a lot like Mt. Hood, which I like a lot nicer.
Some other things to keep in mind here.. This is fairly consistent with how the MLS logos look: http://www.mlssoccer.com/league/clubs . And no matter what you think about the Timbers’ logo, it’s miles ahead of the Columbus Crews’ and the New England Revolution. It’s also in line with how American sports marketing looks like; aside from baseball and to a certain extent American football (which didn’t come into its own until the 50s/60s itself) there’s not a sport which is firmly entrenched into this particularly country’s history much like those other circular badges that BlackedOut had the audacity to compare the Timbers to.
And again, as for me, being a casual-but-getting-more-and-more into-the-Timbers fan, you’re going to need a logo which will attract enough people to not think of the team as “minor league” and can fill up that stadium to capacity. I know the Timbers have a great attendance for the USL (only second to Montreal!), but they’re still averaging 8.6k even after that incredible opening of nearly 16k. PGE Park is going to have a capacity of 22k. They’ve got a long way to go there, but the logo is a good start.
el cubano,
This logo is minor league. The old logo was classic. Look at baseball for a guide. The Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and Dodgers have the strongest brands: all simple, classic, understated logos. The teams with the weaker brand identities have flashy, bold, hypercolored logos that look a lot like what most minor league baseball teams sport. Look at the NBA: the Lakers and Celtics have the strongest brands. Teams that are constantly trying to keep up with the latest fashions have the weakest. This is a fail, plain and simple. Classic may not be the most exciting choice at any given time, but in the long run, consistency is what gives you a strong brand identity. And you can’t have consistency with this logo, because it was unveiled on Saturday and four days later it already looks dated.
The Celtics have a fat Irishman winking and twirling a basketball as their logo. What’s your point?
Teams that are constantly re-working their logo are not failing as a result, it’s the other way around. I gave several graphic design related reasons why the new logo is better than the old one and you counter with saying the old one was “classic” and thus better. Yes, it was also bush league and looked like it was designed in Photoshop 6.0, which is likely given that was when it was made and it looks like a bitmap image.
this logo isn’t THAT bad. Yes, one can go comparing this logo to all the others, but in football, who really sees the logos? if one looks at man u, sunderland, barcelona, or even a lower team like millwall, the teams are seen by their kits, not by their logos as much. so we should be hoping that moving to mls doesn’t give us jerseys that rival uo’s football setup.
i like the new logo. not as much as the old logo, but it could have come out much worse. like the previous timbers logo from 2002 or so.