Editor's Note: As part of the Portland Timbers celebration of their 10th season in MLS, Timbers.com will be doing unique content throughout the year that looks back at some of the more memorable moments of the team's history.
Mike Donovan, resident "StatMan," has been doing a monthly series that highlights some of the more curious numbers, stats and moments of the #TimbersX years. For this edition, he looks at some geographical facts about the Timbers and where they've all come from across the country and around the world.
1 Having played for the club in both the USL and MLS eras, midfielder/defender Lawrence Olum holds the distinction as the first MLS player ever from Kenya. Since Olum's league debut in 2011, only one other Kenyan has played in MLS.
3 In the 2018 FIFA World Cup, three current or former Timbers players represented their nations at the competition. Andy Polo was named to Peru's World Cup roster and David Guzmán started three matches for Costa Rica. Former Timbers midfielder Rodney Wallace also saw action for Costa Rica.
4 The Timbers have had four players born in Oregon on their roster in the MLS era of the club. Currently, that includes defender Marco Farfan who is from Gresham, Ore.
8 Prior to joining MLS, the Timbers had never had a player from Argentina. That all changed with the signing of Diego Valeri in 2013. Since then, Portland has now had eight Argentine players in their MLS era.
14 Defenders Mamadou "Futty" Danso and Pa Modou Kah were both born in the African nation of The Gambia. The centerback pairing, which was nicknamed The Great Wall of Gambia, started 14 regular season matches together in 2013 and 2014 with the Timbers losing just twice in those 14 matches.
17 In the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, the Timbers selected forward Schillo Tshuma, who was born in Bulaweyo, Zimbabwe. Tshuma's birthplace is 10,043 miles away from Portland, which is the furthest distance from Portland that any Timbers player has hailed from.
25 The Timbers have had players born in 25 different states in their MLS era. The most recent new states are Georgia, which is where defender Chris Duvall was born, and Idaho, which is the birthplace of midfielder Blake Bodily.
37 Head Coach Giovanni Savarese is the first MLS manager to ever be born in Venezuela. When he made his debut on the sidelines for Portland in the 2018 season, Venezuela became the 37th nation to have an MLS manager.
2015 When the Timbers won MLS Cup in 2015, two of the players on the field became the first MLS Cup Champions from the countries they were born in. Midfielder Darlington Nagbe was the first MLS champion born in Liberia while goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey (above) was the first MLS Cup winner born in Norway.
4,659 In the 2014 CONCACAF Champions League, the Timbers traveled to Georgetown, Guyana to take on Alpha United with the two cities being 4,659 miles apart. Portland was the first MLS team to win a match on the continent of South America since Kansas City defeated Ecuador's Barcelona SC in 2001.
