This was how it began:

Graphic designer Brent Diskin had long liked soccer, but grew up in a household proud of its support of Oregon State's college football team, and that was his main sporting interest until very recently. So how did Diskin end up producing the posters above, upon the Portland Timbers' elevation to Major League Soccer in 2009?

On Monday, the Portland Timbers announced the signing of Scottish striker Kris Boyd, the all-time leading scorer of the Scottish Premier League, with 164 goals in 296 matches.

The deal was completed pending the completion of a team physical and receipt of his visa.

The 28-year old forward appeared for Kilmarnock FC from 2000-05 before joining Rangers FC midway through the 2005-06 season.

The Timbers Army in conjuction with fellow supporters in Seattle and Vancouver have agreed upon the rules for the 2012 Cascadia Cup, whereby all matches will count equally in the three team competition. Despite the imbalance within the 2012 MLS league schedule, the groups decided this would be the easiest way to ensure fairness while making the process to determine the winner as easy as possible

"It's unfortunate that the league didn't work out a balanced schedule for the Cascadia teams."

Garrett Dittfurth of the Timbers Army

The Cascadia Cup format was announced today with an eye towards the future of the competition. All matches will count in the Cascadia Cup math, with the home/away records playing no part in the tie breakers.

Despite the unbalanced nature of the 2012 Cascadia Cup, the three biggest supporters groups of the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps elected to have each game count equally toward the trophy.

Various options had been discussed, such as counting just one home game for each team or weighting road results differently, but there was apparently near universal support to make the competition's rules as straight forward as possible.

We are a great football club and we boast a good number of websites that honor that fact. The first season of MLS brought us an explosion in Timbers media in many forms for many tastes. We would like to list a few of the sites that you may or may not heard of in organized super random list.

We can all hope that we will see even more Timbers media in our second season of MLS.

Here is a Timbers Army 2011 collection I did. Hope everybody likes it, I'm guessing some people probably won't like the music, feel free to mute it and listen to your own choice. Yelawolf isn't everybody's favorite.

A significant portion of the proceeds ($10 per scarf) from all pre-orders this week of the new Pitch Invasion bar scarf will be donated to benefit the Operation Pitch Invasion charity in Portland, Oregon. Here's why...

When supporters of the Portland Timbers, organized by the 107ist Trust and Timbers Army, announced in 2011 that they were launching a new charity called Operation Pitch Invasion to support the growth of the game at the grassroots level in Portland, Pitch Invasion's interest was piqued by more than just the Doppelgänger.

After Twitter's recent compilation of Twitter Stories, the good folks at MLSsoccer.com took a moment to reflect on the tremendous impact this social medium has had on Major League Soccer and the American soccer experience. We posted a few of our favorites to the site in December, which you can see here.

Major props to MLS for getting the schedule out earlier than ever in recent memory. Supporters Groups can now plan trips to even the early games. I know one the questions at the fore for all of the Timbers Army is if the unbalanced schedule going to help or hurt the Timbers. The answer to that question depends on if Portland's follows the Trailblazers' unofficial philosophy, namely "get energy from the fans at home and win (mostly) but go out on the road and get pushed around.

Back in November, Major League Soccer revealed they are shifting back to an unbalanced schedule for the 2012 season after using a balanced one for the past couple of years. Eastern Conference clubs will play seven of their conference opponents three times each (21 total games) and the remaining two conference opponents twice each (4 games).

There's a nice article in here on the Tmbers Army by iSportsWeb (never heard of em myself) with Garrett Dittfurth, one of the Board of Directors for the TA. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's embellishing what we've become in the north end, I will say, however, that it's a very flattering article.

Trevor James, an assistant coach for the Portland Timbers during the 2011 season has officially departed from the team's technical staff today. Those of you who were with us during this past pre-season will remember that he had spent the previous 5 years as an assistant coach and director with the LA Galaxy, which means he brought a lot of experience from one of MLS's best teams to the Timbers, unfortunately for us.

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The aim of the award-winning international soccer blog Pitch Invasion has been to publish thoughtful, long-form writing that digs well below the headlines, and explores the culture of sport, the engagement of fans with the spectacle of world soccer and the game's forgotten history.

For all of us geography nerds out there... here is the 107ist membership in the Portland area broken down by zip code.

Very, very cool.

[via Timbers Army]

When I first read Ian Joy's tale I was struck with just how personal Joy allowed himself to be. He told his story of depression with no shame and truly opened himself up to what he went through. His candid approach led me to reach out to him.
Initially, I had absolutely no intentions of interviewing him.

Well, with a little time separating us from the season I thought I would take a little time to recount some of my favorite moments from the season, you know the ones that really stuck with me as a relatively new soccer fan. These are sequenced in order of my preference, and are subject to my personal memory at the time.

This is our first Thanksgiving here at Stumptown Footy and, hot damn, it's been a pretty wild ride! Despite each of our fairly hectic schedules between school, work, other sites we might write for, and generally needing to socialize every now and then, we've managed to put together some halfway decent content on the site for you guys.

Timbers Army Represented at Supporter's Summit

TimbersArmy.org has a run down of points discussed.

Kenny Cooper returned to MLS this past season after a frustrating stint overseas. First with 1860 Munich where injuries and circumstance kept him out of the first team, then a challenging loan to Plymouth Argyle. With each team failing to be a positive match for Cooper, he returned to MLS. He did so with great success.

Photo from our first "Better Know A Supporters Group"The Portland Timbers missed the playoffs in their inaugural season in Major League Soccer, but that should take away anything from the incredible support the side saw from its supporters, the Timbers Army (and more).
Check out this short documentary film about the club's home opener against the Chicago Fire.

The Major League Soccer playoffs begin tomorrow without the Portland Timbers, but that does not mean Timbers fans should lose interest. With just over half the league qualified the choices to root for are plentiful.

Reasons to root for or against each team in the playoffs (plus a poll!) after the jump.

So you guys must have heard the news by now. Well not news, but rather the rumors. Rio Ferdinand is going to Chicago! Not really, but it sure does make a sparkly headline doesn't it? Apparently the British media have been having a field day with regards to the transfer rumor. Regardless of whether it true or not (it's not) I just don't see where it makes sense.

With the fast pace of today's websites it often hard to gauge just what readers and users want. Especially for sports fans who all seem to want something different depending on their choice of sport or team. That's why the great marketing gods from on high have blessed us with the magic of surveys.

Strikers fans made the trip to St Pete to support their team only to be disappointed by a 2-0 loss. The Strikers played well, dominating certain moments of the game but the turning point was the red card given to Cristian Arrieta. It was enough to change the tide and give Tampa an advantage that proved too much for the Red & Gold.

Strikers fans made the trip to St Pete to support their team only to be disappointed by a 2-0 loss. The Strikers played well, dominating certain moments of the game but the turning point was the red card given to Cristian Arrieta. It was enough to change the tide and give Tampa an advantage that proved too much for the Red & Gold.

Any day when the Captain of the Seattle Sounders can raise a cup is a good day. When Kasey Keller can raise a Supporters Cup on the grounds of the opposition it seems even sweeter. That he was handed it by a member of the Emerald City Supporters after it was handed over from the Timbers Army increases in power.

As part of an ongoing effort to share the stories of more soccer fans out there, Kristen Gehrke shares her tale of becoming a Timber's fan. If you have a story that you'd like to share, head over to the "Contribute" page.
I was asked recently, probably after an especially raucous Timbers-related rant, how I came to soccer.

Timbers Army Worldwide

Chugger of SCUSA boards started this and I just got wind of it. It is a map of all the TA around the world.

Per his instructions:

It's just a classic push pin map. Right now, I'm probably the only one on there, but in the spirit of the TA, anybody* can contribute to it.

Tonight is the first home game since August 24th. That was over three weeks ago! I think I'm starting to go through some serious withdrawals. Thankfully, tonight's game followed by next Wednesday's San Jose Earthquakes home game should help alleviate any symptoms. I got the shakes real bad...

On a more realistic note, it'll be awesome to get back into the Timbers Army section tonight.

Before the Portland Timbers meet the New England Revolution on September 16, we look towards the final two weekends of Cascadia Cup competition being played in Vancouver, BC later this month. Each Cascadia team has a shot at being the first MLS club to hoist the Cascadia Cup as victors, but at least one team controls their destiny.

The Union may not have won last Saturday, but the Union family did.

Before the game against Portland, Philadelphia Union supporters gathered for a charity tailgate in support of Miles4MJ.

Kristina Whalen, mother of young MJ Whalen, said after the event, "The Sheanon Williams/Miles 4 MJ Charity Tailgate was the perfect example of what a group of people can do when they all work together.

The Union may not have won last Saturday, but the Union family did.

Before the game against Portland, Philadelphia Union supporters gathered for a charity tailgate in support of Miles4MJ.

Kristina Whalen, mother of young MJ Whalen, said after the event, "The Sheanon Williams/Miles 4 MJ Charity Tailgate was the perfect example of what a group of people can do when they all work together.

Been a few weeks since our last look at stadium building, addition and renovation around Major League Soccer. We'll start in Vancouver, where renovations continue at BC Place, with an expected Fall 2011 re-opening. Until then, the Whitecaps will continue to play their games at Empire Field, a 20k seat venue.

The Willamette Weekly has an interesting article on the Timbers Army, 107ist and the power they hold over the Portland TImbers as a whole. I'm not sure how accurate some of the underlying claims are of the Timbers "having too much power" but there are still some interesting factoids and interviews in the article, especially with Ryan Pore and Timbers Army billboarder Abram Goldman-Armstrong.

Fox Soccer may have lost the rights to MLS for 2012, but the Fox family of networks is showing a willingness to throw its weight behind soccer in other ways. According to a press release from Wednesday afternoon, Fox will air four EPL matches on its broadcast network during the NFL season. The network will pair three EPL games with stand alone NFL games and show a fourth game on Superbowl Sunday.

The Portland Timbers FO has revealed the upcoming 2012 season ticket details as we approach the off season and, well, they're pretty much the same as last year. Of course the key word there is "pretty much" which means, yes some thing have changed.

According to the press release, 80% of the season tickets are same price as they were for 2011.

Away Days are where legends are born! This is a nice perspective from a Vancouver noob.

This is my first confirmation that sports road trips do weird things to otherwise rational beings.

The guys marvel at the Timbers Army, fourthousand strong, especially when they sing their Tetris song.

With the first positive impression of MLS on NBC from their promotion of it during Sunday Night Football there can be speculation about how much they are going to run with it. Sure, MLS doesn't have strong ratings (~300k viewers on ESPN2, ~70k on Fox Soccer) to merit strong promotion.
But there's a reason that NBC Sports will promote Major League Soccer in ways that the sport has never been promoted before 2012.

With the first positive impression of MLS on NBC from their promotion of it during Sunday Night Football there can be speculation about how much they are going to run with it. Sure, MLS doesn't have strong ratings (~300k viewers on ESPN2, ~70k on Fox Soccer) to merit strong promotion. But there's a reason that NBC Sports will promote Major League Soccer in ways that the sport has never been promoted before 2012.