Golden Gate Fog

New Journal 44 – A football match (soccer) in America – Portland Timbers vs LA Galaxy

As the 90th minute approached, the Timbers were searching for a winner. It had been a hard fought match. Despite the best efforts of a passionate crowd who, to my naive surprise,  could out sing more than a few Premier league sides, the Timbers had failed to find a winner.

A friend of ours, Dana, had given up her ticket so that I could go to the match with Eric, her husband. She had the horrible task of going wine tasting with Rachel for the evening.

Although the atmosphere was passionate in the stadium, it held a distinctly different feel to Premier league matches. It was noticeably less harsh. This seemed to be as much a family affair as anything else. In England, there are family sections but they are the minority. Generally, the atmosphere is aggressive, with the ‘C’ word being used as creatively as is humanly possible.

The national anthem rang out before the match, as the two teams and sets of fans sang in unison – a virtual impossibility in the UK. The idea of having a unified moment with the opposition is something we would angrily fight against. On some occasions, for example during minute silences, we do sit together as one, but it is rare. I once saw a match where Liverpool and Celtic fans both sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” together. That gave me goose bumps.

At one point during Saturday’s match, the Timbers fans started singing ‘You Are My Sunshine’. It seemed out of place. However, it turned out that the song is sang in memory of the daughter of a lumberjack who is strongly associated with the club. As much as any other club I know, the Timbers seem to take pride in their history.

Two players in particular stood out for me in the game, Darlington Nagbe & Donovan Ricketts. Nagbe was a threat all game and rarely lost the ball. Ricketts was a formidable barrier in goal, making 3 or 4 world class saves.

The Timbers conceded the first goal but equalised not long after. With only 30 seconds left on the clock, I was sure the game would end as a draw. Then, the Timbers won a corner. The crowd erupted. This would be the last kick of the game and with it, the last opportunity to win the three points.

A fierce corner was swung into the box that swerved away from the keeper. Jean-Baptiste, a young defender rose highest and directed the ball into the bottom corner with his head. As soon as the ball hit the back of the net the crowd went crazy. The final whistle went. The crowd continued to go crazy. Soon, a strange dance/shuffle took place. Everyone hopped from left to right. I hopped from right to left, knocking into people in the process.

We filtered out of the stadium and into the bars where much drinking was done, a fact I regretted the next day.

With my hangover cured, I’m looking forward to keeping up with the Timbers, my adopted US team, in the future.

A useless fat – as it turns out our host is the official acupuncturist for the team…who knew?!

Today’s Photo – Golden Gate fog

When I took this shot I was intent on having light trails on the bridge. Since it was 5:00am, traffic was more of less non-existent. It took a long time to capture some that were impressive enough.

I chose to create more pinks in the final image because I felt it contrasted nicely with the dark blue sky. I then applied a heavy vignette in Lightroom. For me, some scenes, especially night time shots, are great for heavy vignettes. But I’d rarely add one so strongly in sunrise or sunset shots. They look out of place and add kind of a mirky ring across the sky.

Before the Joys of Post-Processing