PORTLAND TIMBERS

League: United Soccer League First Division
City: Portland, Oregon, USA
Founded: 1975
League Champs: Never

Founded in 1975 as part of the NASL, the Portland Timbers quickly became a loved staple of Portland. In their first season, the team managed to get all the way to the NASL Championship, losing to the Tampa Bay Rowdies. However, like the rest of the NASL, including the original Seattle Sounders and the New York Cosmos, the team folded in 1982 because of phenomenally high salaries.

“Soccer City USA” got its second chance to be home of a team in 1985. The Timbers became a member of the Western Soccer Alliance and included recent University of Portland graduate goalie Kasey Keller. The team and the league only lasted until 1990, when it too folded.

In 2001, Portland was awarded a new team by the USL First Division and the love affair between the city and team was as strong as ever. Playing in PGE Park, the Timbers are supported by the Timbers Army, a supporters group of soccer crazed Portlanders. While many other supporter groups find them offensive and uncreative, Timbers Army is none-the-less a passionate fan base that creates a hostile environment for any visiting team. This passion is most evident when the team matches up with its most hated rival, the Seattle Sounders. The I-5 rivalry usually involves many cards, much blood, and no love.

The current team includes many past MLS players (Shaun Higgins and Chris Brown), a former Japanese national player (Takayuki Suzuki) and the Timbers all-time leading scorer (Bryon Alvarez). While they are still searching for there first league championship, the Timbers have managed to make the playoffs on a fairly consistent basis since their current creation in 2001. This years team is managed by former Timber and New Zealand national player Gavin Wilkinson who hopes that his team will one day take home a title.

UANL TIGRES

League: Primera División de Mexico
City: San Nicolas, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Founded: 1906
League Champs: 1978, 1982

Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León is one of the youngest teams in Mexico's Premera Division. Originally known as the Jabatos, Tigres were created in 1960 by the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon. The school ran and organized this professional team for almost 40 years. The team started small, in the country's more amateur divisions and was finally was promoted to Mexico's Premera Division in 1974.

The high points for the franchise came during the early part of its history. By 1982 ,they had won two championships and been runner up twice. In 1979, Tigres partook in what some consider the best match in Mexican soccer history. UANL battled their bitter rivals, Cruz Azul, to a 2-1 loss in the league's championship game.

Things changed in 1996. After years of corrupt management of the state-controlled university, the team was regulated to second division. The team had had so many mediocre and sometimes appalling records that they finally played themselves out of premier soccer. To fix the problem, the team was privatized and sold to CEMEX, the world's third largest producer of cement and things began to turn around. The team was promoted back to Premier division and they have stayed there ever since.

Last season UANL finished 14th out of 18 teams, running the risk of being demoted soon. Under former Mexican national team coach Manuel Lapuente, the team hopes to regain late 1970s form but things don't look good. Besides captain Lucas Ayala the roster lacks any type of notable players. None of the Mexican born players currently play for the National team and there are only 3 current players on the roster who play for their home countries national team (two from Paraguay and one from Panama). However, the team has booked a heavy friendly schedule, spending a good portion of summer 2008 in America playing USL and MLS teams, hoping to gain experience and skill.