Amos Magee – Life in Portland with the Timbers

Amos Magee has spent countless hours at the National Sports Center as a player and coach, but when the former Thunder star returns Saturday evening it will feel like unfamiliar turf. Magee comes back to the NSC not as part of the  Thunder organization but as an assistant coach to the Portland Timbers, a team he used to compete against. Magee took the position last fall after resigning his coaching job with the Thunder in July of 2008.

Things have been going very well for Magee, who now holds a place in the Hall Of Fame for the Thunder, Wesleyan University and the United Soccer Leagues. Portland currently sit in 3rd place in the league with 26 points and a 7-1-5 record. The team has fewer losses than any other club in USL-1 and haven’t lost since their first game of the season back on April 26th. The Timbers also have the biggest positive goal differential with a +14. Head coach Gavin Wilkinson and assistant coach Magee called only 5 players back from the 2008 season choosing to rebuild the team that finished last in the league with a 7-13-10 record.

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IMS: Tell me about your new job as director of player development and assistant coach?

Magee: Director of player development and assistant coach is more about trying to grow the soccer side of what we do with the Timbers and Beavers (Class AAA baseball team) which also shares PGE Park. With the Timbers we are developing a camp program.  Anyone who comes from Minnesota knows the importance of the Thunder soccer camps. So we’re trying to grow that to expand the reach of the Timbers.

We are also trying to build an amateur team in the U-23 PDL team and familiarize myself with the local players, looking at local college players  and who we can recruit into that program.

Then the major piece that we’re doing is trying to build a championship team with the Timbers and the USL first division. We’re also trying to get the team and the franchise ready for MLS  by helping Merrit Paulson and the Timbers put a plan in place for the expansion team.

IMS: You told me last fall that you knew the East coast well and Gavin Wilkinson knew the West coast well and you thought that would help to recruit players to play for the Portland Timbers. Did that play out to be true when you were rebuilding this Portland team?

Magee: I really like this team and the personalities we’ve put together. Our budget isn’t one of the top in the league. It’s a good budget — a competitive budget but it’s certainly not Montreal and we’ve still managed to put a good team together. Also, Gavin (Wilkinson) has done a fantastic job of getting them to play the right way in a short amount of time. We only returned 5 players from last year’s team so the success that we’ve been able to achieve says a lot about his ability to mold the team but also says a lot about the players we’ve brought in.

Beyond the East coast, West coast and Midwest areas, we called on all of our connections to pull in players from overseas. We have brought in two Swedish players, one of them (Johan Claesson) I feel is one of the best midfielders in the league. We also have a Guinean forward Mandjou Keita who is very good and Gavin was able to track him down with his Malaysian contacts. Keita has done fantastic as well. So not just in the United States but internationally we’ve put together a very deep and very good team.

IMS: Former Minnesota Thunder player and indoor star Brian Farber is a person who has ended up playing a major role for you this year. How instrumental were you in getting Brian to the Timbers and tell me about Brian’s growth as a player? When he was with Minnesota we knew him as an outside midfielder and he had speed and could score goals, but we were looking for more assists from him. This year with the Timbers, Brian is getting both assists and goals.

Magee: Brian is a player I am very familiar with having played in Minnesota. We’ve had a good relationship and Gavin knew him because he played at Oregon State. Between the two of us we were able to track Brian down after a year off from outdoor play and make sure he was healthy. He is better than when he was with Minnesota 2 years ago and that’s normal. Players do develop which he has and has been an important part of our team.

IMS: Amos, being a former Thunder player, coach, and supporter, how did it feel when the Minnesota Thunder came out to Portland a few weeks ago and played your team the Timbers?

Magee: You know, in the build up for the game, I was familiar with the Thunder and had spent a lot of time going over notes and scouting reports to give our team every advantage to win. But I really didn’t look at the magnitude of it and how it would be emotionally. You know it was a really strange night for me. I was delighted that we won, but like anyone from either organization I wasn’t pleased with the way that game ended. But it’s going to be another interesting one for me on Saturday because I don’t think I’ve ever been in the visitors locker room except perhaps to clean it up. I’m a Minnesotan and I love the Thunder but I’m a Timbers guy now. There’s no uncertainty of who I want to win or what result I want. I will do everything within my power to help the Timbers win this game.

IMS: Amos, you played in a very special US Open Cup game last Wednesday evening. A tough loss to the Seattle Sounders at home in Portland. Seattle came out of the chute so fast with quality to score that first goal. However, in the end it was a very competitive game with a 2-1 loss. But the atmosphere was amazing with a capacity 16,000 in attendance and separate entrances for the Seattle supporters. Tell me about the lead up to that game and the atmosphere?

Magee: You know I’ve been to derbys in Europe. I’ve been to Arsenal v Tottenham games and I’ve been to Inter v Juventus, which isn’t a derby but certainly has that feel to it. With both supporters groups in force and very strong — chanting, smoke bombs, it had that feel — it definitely had that feel to it. It was an amazing night for soccer in the United States.

Just last night we played the Bayern Munich II team and I talked to some of the players and coaches who were at Wednesday night’s game and they said, this is as good as it gets in Germany. Again, it was that sort of electric atmosphere.

I also talked to Steve Cronin (Portland goalkeeper) who was formerly the keeper at the LA Galaxy and I asked him to match that game up against the Súper Clásico between the Galaxy and Chivas USA and he said it was actually better than some of those games that he played in. So that type of atmosphere, that type of event for American Soccer, particularly for US Open Cup which is often the ugly stepchild for MLS teams, is fantastic. There was no question that Seattle was committed to winning that game. That with the rivalry, the crowd, made it unlike any US Open Cup game.

So all of that was good for soccer except for the result, because if the Timbers had won than that would have been a truly great moment for soccer in the US (he laughs and says) at least in my mind!