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San Jose Earthquake fans unveil banner that appears to be boasting about an incident last year where San Jose Earthquakes fans assaulted a Portland Timbers fan.

(Jamie Goldberg/The Oregonian)

San Jose Earthquakes fans stirred up controversy with a banner Saturday night.

The fans unveiled a banner during San Jose's loss to the Portland Timbers that appeared to be boasting about an incident last year where a group of San Jose Earthquakes fans assaulted a Portland Timbers fan.

The Earthquakes' supporters group, the 1906 Ultras, unveiled the banner that read, "911 solutions for 107 problems" before the start of Saturday's match between the Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium.

The formal organizational name of Portland's supporters group, the Timbers Army, is the 107ist.

The San Jose fans responsible for the banner said that it was referring to the Timbers Army allegedly calling to report one of their own fans to police at a U.S. Open Cup game this year and banning him from attending future away games.

The San Jose fans were attempting to point out that there had been infighting within the Timbers Army.

A spokesman for the Timbers Army said that the fan in question was arrested at the Timbers U.S. Open Cup game against the Seattle Sounders at Starfire Sports Complex on July 9.

The fan was kicked out of the stadium by Starfire security for being overly intoxicated and was later arrested when he tried to reenter the stadium, the Timbers Army spokesman said.

The Timbers Army did not call the police to report the fan's behavior, the spokesman said. The group did ultimately ban the fan from traveling to away games with the Timbers Army through 2015 for his behavior.

Timbers fans did not recognize the banner as referring to the U.S. Open Cup incident when they saw it unveiled Saturday night.

Instead, the highly publicized assault came to the minds of many Timbers fans when they saw the Earthquakes fans unveil a banner referencing the 107ist and police action.

Timbers fan James Decker, 40, of Lake Oswego was assaulted on April 14, 2013 after he waved his Timbers scarf at a group of San Jose Earthquakes fans while sitting in his car before a match between the two clubs in Portland.

Californians Jennifer Marques, 29, and Uriel Vargas, 21, were arrested last August following the incident.

After Decker waved his scarf at the group of San Jose fans, Marques, 29, ran toward Decker's car and hit him in the face, before trying to grab the scarf, police said.

Decker began driving away, which caused Marques to fall. When Decker stopped to check if she was okay, a group of men jumped onto the hood of his car, smashed his windshield and attacked him, police said.

A spokesman for the San Jose Earthquakes said he did not know who approved the banner.

The banner was taken down 22 minutes into the game.

This is not the first time that San Jose fans have unveiled a controversial banner.

On July 27, 2013, fans in the 1906 Ultras section displayed a banner that directly referenced the assault on Decker. The banner read, "Only in PDX, running over a female makes you a victim."

At the time, in response to the controversial banner, the San Jose Earthquakes suspended the 1906 Ultras' tifo privileges.

-- Jamie Goldberg | @jamiebgoldberg

Update: This story has been updated with additional information provided by San Jose Earthquakes fans, the San Jose Earthquakes organization and the Timbers Army.