Pictures of the banner displayed at Royal Brougham Park (aka CenturyLink Field for the more corporate minded) by the Emerald City Supporters (ECS) have started to emerge. It says ”TamU-K up to Nelon! Onnea!” where the last word of course is the Finnish word for ”congratulations”. Somehow the ”en” got dropped at the end of ”Nelonen”, but as many have said, it’s the thought that counts. And indeed, based on some of the first comments and the numbers of likes on these pictures on Facebook, I’m not the only one who was truly taken by the gesture.

The friendship between the ECS and TamU-K supporters must be one of the most unlikely ones in the entire world of football. The friendship is nothing official, but we have had visitors travel both directions across the pond, as well as message banners displayed both in Seattle as well as in Tampere.

On this occasion I had an opportunity to stand among the ECS, and the last picture shows my own vantage point when the banner was displayed. Have to say seeing the message go up really made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The previous day one of the founders of ECS had let me known that a banner had been made and was going to be displayed,

Only it was too bad spelling was not the only thing that went wrong that day. The Seattle Sounders ended up losing 1-4 against the bitter rivals Vancouver Whitecaps. Even a tie on Wednesday would have secured getting the Cascadia Cup back into the hands of the ECS, but now the Sounders need to win away at Portland Timbers on Sunday night to secure the famous supporter cup. I will travel down with the ECS on one of the seven buses, and I have a feeling that back home in Tampere a number of people will wake up for the 4 am Monday morning kickoff.