It would have made no sense to those who weren’t following the soccer scene closely, but most Sounders fans understood the taunt. Major League Soccer had awarded an expansion franchise to Utah, bypassing Seattle once again.

Fans traveling from Portland will have to come up with something different Saturday night, when the Timbers visit Qwest Field for the Sounders’ season home opener. MLS has finally welcomed Seattle into the fold, while Portland is left waiting.

That makes this the final season of the long-standing Sounders-Timbers rivalry in the United Soccer Leagues.

“It’s a fabulous rivalry and I think it’s even going to be heightened this year, given the fact that this is the last time we’re going to (meet in the USL first division),” said Merritt Paulson, Timbers president. “For us personally, in terms of the rivalry, that’s a loss, no question about it.”

The Timbers will continue to have a Northwest rivalry with the Vancouver (B.C.) Whitecaps.

Sounders fans, meanwhile, will have to look for new MLS rivals to get their blood boiling. Western rivals will include San Jose, Los Angeles and Colorado.

“I imagine that the West Coast is sort of natural,” said Adrian Hanauer, owner of the USL Sounders and general manager/minority owner of Sounders FC. “The Earthquakes and the Sounders certainly had a good rivalry back in the NASL days. We’ve also had pretty good rivalries over the years in U.S. Open Cup. That, I think, will be interesting.”

Many believe that Seattle’s soccer rivalries with Portland and Vancouver will simply pause rather than end. Both Northwest neighbors have active hopes of eventually joining MLS. And they both have allies in the Sounders FC front office.

“That would be a great thing,” said Gary Wright, Sounders FC vice president of business operations. “I think any time you can establish a natural rival, that’s a good thing. I could see a team in Vancouver, a team in Seattle and a team in Portland. Our geographic area is big enough to support our team, I’m not worried about that.”

Vancouver’s expansion hopes are based on USL Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot’s willingness to fund his own soccer-specific stadium. It also can’t hurt that Toronto FC – the only MLS franchise in Canada – has been a dazzling success. However, governmental issues have stymied the Vancouver stadium project.

Portland has the benefit of perhaps the USL’s most enthusiastic fan base, and a willing potential owner in Paulson.

“We’re extremely much in the MLS running,” he said last month. “There was never a situation where Seattle and Portland were mutually exclusive. In fact, it’s probably a net positive. MLS likes the idea of a Pacific Northwest rivalry.”

Paulson indicated recently that rising MLS expansion fees are adding some urgency.

And then there is a complicated stadium situation which involves not only improvements to PGE Park in downtown Portland, but also in finding a new home for the Portland Beavers of Triple-A baseball’s Pacific Coast League.

While Vancouver and Portland work through their issues, other expansion candidates are stepping forward. St. Louis is widely thought to be next in line after having been beaten out by Philadelphia for the 2010 expansion team. There is talk of a second team in New York. Montreal has just opened a soccer-specific stadium that could quickly become MLS-ready while also providing a Canadian rival to build on Toronto’s success.

The MLS sees the value in a similar rival for Sounders FC.

“The Northwest is going to be a terrific territory for Major League Soccer,” FC Dallas general manager Michael Hitchcock said last summer. “I think Portland could be successful as a big fish in a small pond. But I think Seattle is an amazing market as well. … Someday, it would be great to have a team in both Seattle and Portland, similar to the NASL days where you have a great rivalry there.”

Tonight at Qwest Field, that rivalry ticks down one game closer to at least a temporary end.

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Roots of A rivalry?

Five potential MLS rivals for Seattle Sounders FC:

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: The nearest MLS city to Seattle geographically. This season’s expansion team vs. next season’s expansion team. And a history dating to the days of the North American Soccer League.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY: The big media center down the coast has the high-profile David Beckham and ambitions of becoming the glamour team of North American soccer. “Beat L.A., beat L.A. …”

TORONTO FC: If Canadian fans come down to Qwest Field for TFC in the same way that they follow the Blue Jays to Mariners games at Safeco, well, traveling fans always juice up a rivalry.

NEW YORK RED BULLS: Their first name is “New York” and their nickname comes from an energy drink. How hard can it be to hate them?

COLORADO RAPIDS: Seahawks-Broncos was a fierce rivalry. Sonics-Nuggets and Mariners-Rockies, not so much.

Don Ruiz, The News Tribune