3,000 Fans Turn Out As Portland Timbers Give Eight-Year-Old Cancer Patient His Dream Match (Video)

By Chris Wright

After a round of chemotherapy treatment caused eight-year-old cancer patient Atticus Lane-Dupre (now that’s a name) to miss the final game of his beloved Portland Timbers’ season last year, the MLS club made sure that they made it up to him by laying on a very special treat.

In conjunction with the Oregan Make-A-Wish Foundation, Atticus – along with the rest of his U9s club, “The Green Machine” – were invited to take on The Timbers at their Jeld-Wen Field stadium in front of 3,000 fans.

With Timbers coach Caleb Porter switching sides and taking charge of The Green Machine for the day, Atticus’ side ran out 10-9 winners, with Atticus himself scoring four goals – including the last-minute winner when he diverted in from a late corner kick.

You couldn’t have scripted it.

This from ESPN:

“The Timbers Army supporter’s group turned out en masse and provided songs and chants, tweaked a bit to honor the Green Machine.

“Commemorative scarves were made for the event and the Timbers set up a locker room for their young opponents. Hanging in each locker was a green jersey with the boys’ names imprinted on the back.”

The game marked the first time that the Make-A-Wish foundation had been able to grant a game against a professional sports team, and spokeswoman Tracey Lam was also taken aback at just how involved the entire Timbers community had been in making Atticus’ dream come true, saying:

“Atticus wanted to involve his entire team because they have been so supportive of him throughout his treatment.

“That touched our hearts, and the Timbers really stepped up and made it magical for him.”

Lovely stuff. A hearty “well played” to everybody involved everybody, especially young Atticus!

Here’s a few photos from the big day. It looks absolutely brilliant…

(Photos: PA)

Posted in MLS, Newsnow, Videos

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4 Comments

  1. Dan says:

    Well done the Portland Timbers, this would never happen at any league team in the UK or even Europe. Good luck and hope you G.W.S Atticus.

  2. dusty bottoms says:

    to clarify – he ended up missing HIS team’s final game, not the Timbers’

    lucky to attend. really special day for atticus, his team, the timbers and portland

  3. TravisKOP says:

    I live in LA and am an avid galaxy fan but i can tell you now that portland has the best fanbase in the mls by a far margin

  4. John says:

    Things like this reaffirm my faith in people after things like Boston and 9/11 shake my faith in people.

Leave a Reply to John