'Passionate' Providence Park awaits NYCFC in MLS Cup vs. Portland Timbers

YES Network NYCFC analyst Ian Joy has a unique perspective on what the team is getting itself into this weekend in Portland: he’s been on the other side.

The color commentator for local broadcasts since New York City FC’s inception, Joy spent the final year of his playing career with then-USL power Portland Timbers in 2010, the club’s last season in the lower league before joining Major League Soccer. Strong soccer culture has existed in Portland for decades and was evident during his stay there, Joy told Newsday.

As NYCFC visits the Timbers in MLS Cup 2021 at 3 p.m. Saturday on ABC, Joy said the atmosphere at Providence Park has become one the nation’s most intense since the move to MLS, making it an optimal setting for the league’s biggest match.

"One of the most passionate venues I've ever been to in any U.S. sports," Joy said. "And obviously I've been to NFL games, baseball games, but to see a soccer game with such passion, it had a European feel to it, which was obviously familiar to me, but a unique feel with it being in the United States."

Born in California and raised in Scotland, Joy represented the U.S. at the youth level before a professional career across Europe, plus stops with Real Salt Lake and the USL Timbers. In that last season, he took note of the atmosphere of 20,000 fans led by the Timbers Army, the club’s raucous independent supporters’ group. Renovations to Providence Park have made it a more modern facility, with more than 25,000 expected for MLS Cup. But the general admission area dedicated to the Timbers Army has maintained its influence on the building’s character.

"Very, very passionate, very loud, electric atmosphere," said Joy, whose allegiances lie with City for Saturday. "Everyone wants to stand. Everyone wants to make noise. Everyone wants to have a flare and wave their scarf. It's a special feeling."

NYCFC has won twice in hostile road environments these playoffs, but this specific experience will be new to all but a handful of players. The club visited Portland just twice in its first seven seasons. City won the first game in 2016, 2-1. None of the 18 players with the team that day remain. Five players from the club’s second Portland trip, a 3-0 defeat in 2018, will be involved on Saturday.

"It's never easy to win games away, especially in playoffs, but we are ready for that," said Chanot, who started that 2018 loss. "We've shown in the last two games we are able to win away. So obviously, it would be better if we played a game at home, but that's the rules of MLS. We're ready for that and we're ready to compete."

Homegrown player James Sands said Thursday he’s not bothered much by loud environments such as Portland, calling them "a lot of background noise," and something to be embraced.

"I've never played here but I've heard great things about the atmosphere," Sands said. "As a player, these are the games you kind of look for and you want to be a part of. I think I'm for sure excited to experience it, and I think it being the final, it's going to be even more special."

Appreciating the crowd instead of allowing it to intimidate, Joy said, will be crucial to NYCFC.

"I think discipline is the key word, especially for NYCFC players, they've got to be focused because it's very easy when you've got 30,000 fans making a noise, you can't hear one another out there on the field, it's so loud," Joy said. "After the discipline problems we've had this season, it's so important that the players remain focused, they stay happy, they enjoy the occasion.

"Don't lose your cool. Don't lose your temper. Don't give the referee an easy chance to send you off or produce a yellow card. I think it's really important that we remain with 11 players on the field if we want to have a chance to win this game."