The Portland Thorns and the Chicago Red Stars were preparing to kick off in the 2021 NWSL semifinals when, in the North End of Providence Park, a tifo emerged from a sea of supporters dressed in red.
Immediately evident was a farewell to the Thorns’ coach Mark Parsons, transcribed in Dutch, surrounded by the six trophies won during his time at the club. On the other side of the tifo was a poem written by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1863 which read:
Labor with what zeal we will,
Something still remains undone,
Something uncompleted still,
Waits the rising of the sun.