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If the San Jose Earthquakes could forget about April 14, 2013 or have a "do-over", I'm sure they would jump on it. From losing to the Portland Timbers 1 - 0, from Alan Gordon getting shown a second yellow and asked off the pitch, to the Alan Gordon / Will Johnson run in where the Quakes forward said a derogatory homophobic slur the latest news coming out of the City of Roses isn't smelling too sweet.
Per Oregonian writer Helen Jung, the Portland police are looking for witnesses who have video or photos of San Jose Earthquakes fans that allegedly attacked Portland Timbers' Army member James Decker, 40, of the Portland suburb Lake Oswego. Jung's article has a video of Decker explaining that while stopped at a red light, he waved his Portland Timbers scarf and yelled "Portland" and "Go Timbers" at a large group of 100 or so Quakes fans who were walking towards Jeld-Wen field at 5:30p on Sunday night. A 5 feet 6 inches tall Hispanic woman in her 20's ran up to his car, punched him in the face, swore at him and tried to take his scarf. Decker said that the light turned green so he started to drive away, but the woman slipped and fell to the ground so he stopped to see if she was okay and then 10 to 12 men allegedly ran over to Decker's car, jumped on the hood and kicked in his windshield. Then one of members of the group punched him through the drivers' window, while another allegedly opened the passenger door and continued to punch him.
Per KGW news: "The confrontation came into 9-1-1 as 60 or 70 soccer fans jumping on cars. The men involved wore San Jose scarves over their faces."
Decker said that he tried to help the police find the suspects, but since they all were wearing identical San Jose Earthquakes clothing and he couldn't see their faces through their scarves, he couldn't be sure who was involved for them to make an arrest. He estimates that the damage to his car is at least $1000 and that the bright spot was that his girlfriend and her kids weren't with him when this all went down.
Finally, Decker said that he was very sad that he had to miss the entire match due to having to deal with the police.
UPDATE:
The San Jose 1906 Ultras have issued the following statement regarding the incident:
The 1906 Ultras pride ourselves on an intense devotion to the San Jose Earthquakes and supporting our Boys in Black and Blue. However, we do not condone violence or criminal conduct.
We are troubled by some of the things we witnessed and have heard about before and after the Quakes-Timbers match at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland on Sunday evening. We are in the process of investigating what transpired, and if and to the extent any Ultras members were involved, they will be removed from the group.
Additionally, if and to the extent any innocent victim(s) were actually damaged by improper action(s) of Ultras members, the 1906 Ultras intend to see that such innocent victim(s) are fully compensated, either directly by the individuals involved, or, failing that, indirectly by the 1906 Ultras as an organization.
The 1906 Ultras leadership will fully cooperate with any police investigations and will seek to ensure that events like those that transpired yesterday do not occur again.
Signed,
The 1906 Ultras Leadership
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The Portland Police Bureau would like to hear from anyone who has specific information about this suspect and/or who might have pictures or video from the attack. Anyone with information on this case should send it to CrimeTips@PortlandOregon.gov, reference Portland Police Bureau case #13-29732.
Link to the full article by Helen Jung:
Link to the full news story from Portland TV station KGW:
http://www.kgw.com/sports/Timbers-fan-says-he-was-attacked-by-mob-of-San-Jose-fans-203023951.html