Veteran MLS midfielder/defender Lawrence Olum, now entering his 12th season as a professional, first joined the Portland Timbers in 2007 and spent two years with the club, then in the USL. While much has changed since then, both with the Timbers and in Olum's own career, some things remain the same.
“The club had a lot of culture already [when I arrived in 2007],” Olum said. “It was probably the most watched team in USL back then. So I could tell for sure that they already had a lot of things going on.”
After a standout college career at Missouri Baptist University, Olum was discovered by then-Timbers head coach, now general manager president of soccer Gavin Wilkinson at a USL Player Showcase. Olum signed with the team in 2007 before going on to make 44 appearances for the Timbers and scoring six goals.
While the passion in the stands remains stronger than ever, Olum notes that the stands themselves have physically changed.
“The team [has] a lot more fans than the last time I was here playing on that baseball field [in the pre-MLS configuration of PGE Park]...now it's just nice. The fans are closer to the game than they were before. They can actually interact with the players.”
That will mean more to Olum this season than it has in the recent past. Having been acquired from Sporting Kansas City in the preseason, the defender is now on the receiving end of the Timbers Army's support for the first time in nearly a decade. He knows from experience just how hard it can be to play in a stadium as hostile to opposing teams as Providence Park.
“We knew that every time we came to Providence Park...it would be a long, difficult game,” Olum explained. “Which is good when you're the home team, but it's also tough when you're the team on the road.”
It's been a circuitous path back to Portland for the native of Nairobi, Kenya.
Since he left the Timbers in 2008, Olum played over 80 MLS matches–including a brief stint in Malaysia–as well as winning a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (2012) and MLS Cup (2013) with Sporting Kansas City. But all of those travels and experiences have been a part of Olum's growth, both as a player and as a person.
“With age [comes knowledge] of the game at any level of competition,” he said. “The thing that I can say has changed the most...is knowing how to get yourself out of certain situations and that just comes from being an older human being. I'm smarter than I was back when I started.”
That level of hard-won intelligence means that Olum is now more prepared than ever for the challenges of integrating into a new team and contributing as another experienced leader on the club.
“Since I've been around the league for a little bit now, I know what it takes to win,” he said. “Sometimes when you're not winning – how to deal with that adversity. Hopefully that type of experience and leadership and camaraderie, which I think I can bring to this team, can only make us a better team.”
In the team’s 2017 MLS regular-season opener against Minnesota United FC last Friday, Olum quickly made his mark scoring the first goal of the match as part of a 5-1 victory.
When asked by reporters after the match if he would have picked himself to score the first goal of the Timbers season–a player with only five career MLS goals coming into the night–the affable Olum laughed.
“Of course!” he said with a smile. “I was just happy with our overall team performance. It’s been what we’ve been working through. It doesn’t matter who scores first, but if we get the win and everybody does a good job, that’s a great feeling.”
