By now, you've probably seen the stills of the Tifo display that was unfurled at Saturday's Seattle Sounders-Portland Timbers Cascadia Cup match. But to really appreciate it, you need to watch this video. The first thing you'll notice is that the video is 2:31 long. While it didn't take quite that long for the set-up, it was close, probably about two minutes. That's because there was reportedly more than an acre of fabric used on it.
You'll also notice that there are nine parts to this thing. Any one of those sheets would have made for a perfectly adequate and, frankly, pretty impressive display. Just as a point of comparison, check out this video from last year's U.S. Open Cup final.
Anyway, watching this thing live was pretty amazing. After each sheet, I was saying to myself "Oh, that's pretty cool." And then another sheet or two would appear. Finally, the coup de grace came at the very end, when Roger Levesque's grinning visage was hoisted up with the words "48 seconds" where his name would have been. While the first eight sheets were keeping it pretty classy by paying respect to both past and present Sounders, that one was all about taking a shot at Timbers Army, who considers Levesque public enemy No. 1. Levesque's most recent transgression against them is scoring 48 second into their 2009 meeting in the U.S. Open Cup.