PORTLAND, Ore. – Most of the idea was in place last year, long before the two organizations met in 2018’s MLS Cup final. So when Atlanta United FC visited the Portland Timbers this weekend, it representing, on the clubs’ community engagement sides, over a year’s worth of plans coming to fruition. What started as brainstorming in an Atlanta United Foundation committee meeting ended with 40 high-school aged youth from opposite coasts learning about each other at Providence Park.
“We were just trying to think about high school youth and some of the different challenges that they’re facing and what that looks like,” Marissa Ahrens, Atlanta’s manager of Community Relations, says.