While it might seem like Wednesday night’s match will be the first-ever league meeting between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Portland Timbers to take place in the Pacific Northwest, that is only partly true. Yes, the MLS sides have never squared of in the Rose City before, but it used to happen all the time. Both teams take their names from sides that played decades ago in the North American Soccer League, which saw its heyday from the 1970’s through 1984.
Among the league’s fans was a young man growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia who later went on to a long professional career in England before finishing his career in MLS: Earthquakes head coach Frank Yallop.
“When I was 12, 13, 14 years old, I was just mad on it,” he says. “I lived in Vancouver from ’74 to ’80 and I loved it, it was great.”
Yallop has a number of great memories of the NASL sides he saw growing up. “They were the real pros,” he says. “You admired them, wanted to be like them.”
Among his fondest recollections of those days is a rare opportunity to play on Vancouver’s own field. “I played with the select team from my area before the Whitecaps match once. I think I was only 14 but that was a joy to do.”
His favorite season, though, was 1979. That season saw Vancouver finish on top of their conference, beating the much-celebrated New York Cosmos before defeating Tampa Bay in the NASL championship game, the Soccer Bowl.
“I was there for a lot of the games in 1979, when they won it,” he says. “I think that got a lot of players interested — I'm in touch with a lot of players I knew back then and I think it had an influence on all of our careers.”
The legacy of the NASL will be visible on Wednesday night, when the Earthquakes meet the Portland Timbers, but you can also see it every time the Quakes take on an opponent at Buck Shaw Stadium. While most of the team’s players are too young to recall the NASL, coaches, staff, and — most importantly — many Earthquakes fans remember those years and the great legacy that they have provided for the regional soccer community.
