Editor’s Note: Throughout the 2015 season, the Portland Timbers have been celebrating their fifth anniversary since arriving in MLS and 40th anniversary since the club’s founding in 1975. This Sunday, when the Timbers host the New York Red Bulls at Providence Park (2pm PT, ESPN), Portland will host an alumni reunion honoring past players from all eras of the club.
We’ll be talking with many of the memorable figures from the last four decades in the lead-up to Sunday. Today's feature: USL midfielder Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar.
Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar had a mission.
The Guadalajara, Mexico native, who in 2001 played his first professional season with the now-defunct San Diego Surf in the USL, signed with the Portland Timbers the following year and arrived ready to make an impact.
“I always felt that I needed to perform and play well, not only for the fans, for the teams, for the teammates and players, but also you have that responsibility if the coach is counting on you, you've got to perform,” Alcaraz-Cuellar said. “With [then-head coach] Bobby [Howe] having confidence in me, I didn't want to let him down.”
He didn't.
In his first season with the Timbers, Alcaraz-Cuellar played in 28 matches and led the team in assists with eight. It wasn't long that he began to feel like he was truly a part of the club.
“Midway through the first season I really identified myself with playing for the Timbers and playing in Portland,” he said. “I felt comfortable. I felt like I fit. With the coach supporting me and the players, then you have the fans saying, 'Hey, it's great to have you here. Hope to have you here for a long time,' that was just a great overall package for me.”
Alcaraz-Cuellar went on to play five seasons for the Timbers. In that time, he vaulted into second-place across all-eras in Timbers history in assists (44), and increased his yearly assist total each season from 2002-2005, leading the league in assists in both 2004 and 2005.
While his favorite team memory was the 2004 season in which the Timbers won the USL First Division Commissioner's Cup—awarded to the team with the best regular-season record—and a campaign where he was the team's second leading scorer and became the first Portland player in the USL era to record double-digit assists (10), what Alcaraz-Cuellar remembers most fondly today are the interactions that he had with the Timbers fans.
“For me, the memories are always going to be after the games signing autographs with fans and them just telling you how great it is to have you and watching you play,” he said. “That's always great because they're the ones that want to watch you play.”
And then there were the games with rival Seattle Sounders.
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Alcaraz-Cuellar got his first introduction to the rivalry in his very first preseason match with the Timbers. The Timbers lost that match but after the game, Alcaraz-Cuellar learned firsthand how much those games, even ones meaningless in the standings, meant to players and fans.
“Some of the Sounders guys were talking a lot of smack and after that game I got a real sense of the rivalry,” he recalled. “As far as playing them with Portland, it was intense. Those games were great. I definitely miss those games.”
Alcaraz-Cuellar's impact throughout his time in Portland was impressive. He was a two-time all-league player, third overall in the Timbers USL era in points (67), second in games played with 132 and holds the USL era single-season record for most assists at 12 which he set in 2005.
These days, Alcaraz-Cuellar is still involved in soccer as a coaching director for FC Alliance in the Seattle area. When he watches the Timbers on his television, a feeling of nostalgia washes over him along with a touch of jealousy.
“I'm jealous. I wish I could play there. And if I could—trust me, just like when I played back then in front of those crowds, you go home and you're dead tired and you don't wake up the next day until two in the morning because you're beat up. You just left everything on the field.”
And he has a message for today's Timbers players.
“There's a great history [in Portland]. As former players, we want you guys to be successful and give it everything you've got because that's what we feel like when we're watching it. We want you guys to be successful and play for the fans, play for the club, the crest and give it your all because when you're done playing, the only thing you have is memories and you want to be able to look back and remember you gave it everything you've got.”
