—by Lucas Grzybowski

After a super-charged, bliss-filled day of singing, eating, drinking, and soaking in it, during which all the Timbers Army boys and girls behaved themselves impeccably, and the Timbers Boys left qwest field with a well-earned point, this is the image that lingers in my mind.

photo by Craig Mitchelldyer, amazing shoop skillz by yours truly

Thoughts, links, stuff, et cetera (I'll add to this list as things emerge from my subconscious):

• Bus rides can be stressful. Bus rides to seatle can be...worse than stressful. Saturday's bus trip - a full 10-bus convoy of shrieking TA love - went off without any real problems. OK, there was apparently a weird t-shirt crush at Centralia, and one of the buses needed a jump to get us out of fishville after the game; but for what was the largest bus trip the TA has ever undertaken, and the most logistically complex (unnecessarily so, thanks to sounders moronic and cowardly front office), it was smooth as a Jack Jewsbury set piece. So here's a big fat THANK YOU to the 107ist travel committee, to the bus captains, to the bus drivers, and to the traveling TA for making this happen. As our fearless Presidente tweeted in the midst of the madness: "I love everybody right now."
• Merritt Paulson's impromptu largesse from the luxury suite during halftime. The TA said "we have no nachos!" MP replied, "Let them eat hot dogs!" and hurled a bag of hot dogs from the suite's buffet into the adoring throng, along with some bags of potato chips and, my favorite, a bottle of mustard. I had a bite of one of the hot dogs; the bread was hard, the meat was cold, and I ended up with mustard all in my beard; it was the best bite of food I've ever had. I think it was a kosher beef dog.
• sounders fans should be commended for showing up in large numbers, game in and game out, in pouring rain etc. Numbers don't lie, and 36k+ is impressive. But their supporters section — the rowdy people who stand and sing and jump around the whole game — is teeny weeny and soft as shit. It looks slightly smaller than the Woodshed ca. 2007 (which, to any sounders fans reading this, is before soccer was invented). Add the piped-in (or amplified) crowd noise, and you can color me wholly unimpressed with the atmosphere at qwest field (however, I will admit that the leveque banner gave me a giggle, well played there).
• I have a personal friend in FUTTY. Flying along on a wing and a prayer, who could it be? Believe it or not... it's just FUTTY. If it wasn't already apparent, our man FUTTY has joined the Pantheon. Seeing him make "Pissbags" Keller look foolish on the equalizer was a moment I'll cherish for always. Futty...Futty...FUTTY!!!