One year ago today, Portland hosted the largest pro sports all-star game in city history when Bayern Munich took on the MLS All-Stars at Providence Park. The match was a culmination of an event-filled week and lived up to the hype after a summer of 2014 FIFA World Cup action.
In the runup to the Aug. 6, 2014 match, the city hosted numerous events from concerts at Pioneer Square and Waterfront Park to the first ever Chipotle MLS Homegrown Game. Bayern Munich came into the match one year removed from its fifth Champions League title and featured six members of the 2014 World Cup winning Germany team. The MLS squad had three Portland Timbers on it including Will Johnson, Diego Valeri and Liam Ridgewell.
On a beautiful Wednesday night at Providence Park, the match was played in front of an amped up crowd of 21,733. Early in the match, the Pep Guardiola-led Bayern had the edge in play, constanting forcing goalkeeper Nick Rimando into action. The RSL goalkeeper denied Robert Lewandowski in the seventh minute, but could not hold out the Polish International as a minute later Lewandowski dipped a blasted shot over Rimando for an early Beayern lead.
The remainder of the first half was filled with Rimando heroics and New York Red Bulls forward Thierry Henry picking out passes from all over the field to his teammates. Henry almost tied the match when he lashed a volley over the bar.
After wholesale changes at halftime, the MLS All-Stars now featured an intimidating center midfield of Cascadian rivals Osvaldo Alonso and Will Johnson. Two minutes after the restart, Henry received his curtain call and was replaced by Landon Donovan. Though it was not known at the time, both Donovan and Henry would retire following the 2014 MLS season with Donovan announcing his decision the next day in Los Angeles. Both players received hearty applause from the Providence Park crowd.
Just minutes after Henry's departure, his RBNY teammate Bradley Wright-Phillips sent a thunderbolt of a left-footed laser into the net to bring the game even. The tie score set up for one of the most memorable goals in MLS All-Star Game history.
Representing the hometown Timbers, midfielder Diego Valeri found himself unmarked with the ball at his feet just inside Bayern's half of the field. The Argentine maestro played in a curling ball forward that Donovan chested down at the edge of the area. Donovan fought off two defenders before depositing the ball in the back of the net past World Cup winning goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Immediately after scoring, Donovan was subbed off for Dom Dwyer and received an ovation from the crowd for his "walk-off" goal. Donovan's strike held up to give the MLS All-Stars a victory over the German giants and the LA Galaxy player took home the game's MVP trophy.
It was a memorable night in the Rose City.
