The Timbers Will Have a League to Play In

The diplomatic efforts of the United States Soccer Federation have paid off in the form of a Second Division league for 2010. The dispute between the United Soccer Leagues First Division and the rebel clubs of the new North American Soccer League reaches tentative detente with an agreement that effectively creates a single league with two parallel, pan-continental conferences. The Portland Timbers, who did not join the mass walkout from USL-1 that sparked the mini-crisis, will play in the new division’s USL Conference alongside Austin, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Rochester and Tampa Bay. The mutineers will play in the NASL Conference: Baltimore, Carolina, Miami, Montreal, St. Louis and Vancouver.

Federation officials promise that future negotiations will establish a lasting peace in the turbulent world of lower-division AmerCanadianBoriquan soccer. Meanwhile, Portland and Vancouver are both slated to ascend to Major League Soccer in 2011, pending various stadium complications too tiresome to enumerate here.