Welcome to the first blog post for the Timbers Army of SW Washington, a.k.a. Northern Alliance. This first post is to let you know who we are, what we're about, and where you can find us, and future posts will be current goings-on in the TANA.

You might not have been aware of our group, but you've probably seen us around, talked with us in line or at tailgates, high-fived us after a goal. You may have seen one of our two flags waving at home matches, designed by John Acerbi. You might have seen some of our cool patches around. And soon you'll see the Northern Alliance scarves, which have arrived and been distributed in the last few weeks.

The Northern Alliance is the brainchild of Kelly Dews, who first created the Facebook group and started searching out TA members north of the Columbia early in the season. Along the trail the Northern Alliance picked up Troy Maxcy, the other half of the leadership team. Together, Kelly and Troy have organized most of the events of the Northern Alliance which have taken place. Some of our other notable members include the famous Brent Diskin and contest-winning photographer Bradley York.

The first group event planned for the Northern Alliance was a simple viewing party for Seattle Away, which took place at the Smokey's Hot Oven Pizza in NE Vancouver. It wasn't a large draw, but it was a humble beginning. Family-friendly (i.e. kid-friendly) viewings still continue there. Subsequent events have been held at Dublin Down, on Main Street in downtown Vancouver, which is a Tier-1 Timbers bar and shows every match. We've had a couple of auctions at Dublin Down during matches, and have raised money that are earmarked for use to benefit youth soccer in SW Washington (exact details to follow in the future).

The Timbers U-23 squad played two matches in Clark County this season.  I won't lie, we dropped the ball on the first event, but for the second the Northern Alliance gathered a good showing of Timbers fans for the match, with a pre-game bash in downtown Camas, followed by a short drive to the match at the Camas HS stadium. A few of us even did a couple of chants for the guys, showed them they had some TA support (even if we did draw the ire of an entire girls soccer team, disgusted that soccer fans could MAKE NOISE during a match!).

While most of our members are located in SW Washington, some members are Portland-based and others live in as well as north of S**ttle, and we're growing; We're approaching 170 members on the Facebook page as I write this. We're looking forward to making more noise in the future.

Feel free to venture across the bridge to the 'Couve (which, by the way, is the ORIGINAL Vancouver, not that other city up north) and join us for a viewing party.  There's plenty of fun for all.

And so, as every post shall close, Cheers and RCTID!