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It's that time of year where rumors start flying around MLS over possible trades and signings. Antsy fans certainly don't want to wait for their favorite clubs to make official announcements.

Well, it turns out that MLS team websites might have a flaw that allows average fans to learn about player transactions a bit early.

Take the Portland Timbers and the case of Michael Harrington.

The URL convention to look up an MLS player's bio is the same across all MLS team sites. For example, to look up Timbers forward Fanendo Adi's bio, you would go to timbers.com/players/fanendo-adi.

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When you try typing in the name of a player on a different MLS team (timbers.com/players/robbie-keane) or a player that competes outside MLS (timbers.com/players/lionel-messi) you get a different message that reads, "There are no players that match your search criteria. Please try again."

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Something different happens when you look up players who are rumored to have recently been signed by the Timbers. Recent credible reports have indicated that the Timbers are signing former Real Salt Lake defender Nat Borchers and Ghanaian goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey.

When you go to timbers.com/players/adam-kwarasey you get a page that reads, "Access denied: You are not authorized to access this page."

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When you go to timbers.com/players/nat-borchers you get the same page that reads, "Access denied: You are not authorized to access this page."

This flaw seems to suggest that players like Borchers and Kwarasey have been signed, and therefore have roster profiles that simply have yet to go live.

A handful of bloggers and fans have used this flaw in the past to check the accuracy of rumored signings and trades.

The same flaw appears across all MLS team websites.

Using the MLS website flaw, The Oregonian determined that a bio page appears to have been created for Michael Harrington on the Colorado Rapids website, suggesting that the Timbers have traded Harrington to Colorado.

-- Jamie Goldberg | @jamiebgoldberg