Brian Fiore-Silfvast started the group on a whim in early 2011.

He had recently moved to Brooklyn after spending eight years in Oregon and was gearing up for the start of the Portland Timbers' first season in Major League Soccer. He missed the friends and community he had found in Portland through the Timbers Army and wondered if there were other Timbers fans in the New York area that might be interested in getting together to watch games.

So, he signed into Facebook and created a group for Timbers supporters on the East Coast. He called it the East Coast Platoon.

"I was hoping that maybe there were some people into soccer or into the Timbers around here," said Fiore-Silfvast, 29. "I was thinking it would be a great place to bring the ex-pats together and post meet-ups or talk about the team. We had about 50 members then it crept up to 100 and then it just kept growing."

The group now has nearly 600 members on Facebook, roughly 400 of which are actual fans currently living on the East Coast. The group includes fans from Florida to Pittsburgh to Washington D.C. A large contingent of the group makes an effort to attend at least one Timbers game on the Eastern seaboard every year, while some of the most dedicated fans spend their summers traveling up and down the East Coast to attend as many Portland road games as possible.

The East Coast Platoon was one of the first Timbers Army subgroups to pop up outside of Portland and has helped spark the creation of Timbers supporters group across the country and in Canada. There are at least 20 unique Timbers supporters groups outside of Portland, each with its own individual identity and army-inspired name.

"I think it's fantastic what some of these subgroups are doing," said Harper Morgan-Werner, a member of the 107ist Board of Directors. "From West Coast to East Coast, we pretty much have the whole United States covered with supporters. It's unique, but I think the whole Timbers Army is unique."

Like the founding of the East Coast Platoon, many of the Timbers Army subgroups have been created by former residents of Portland that have relocated across the country.

But in other locations, fans that have simply decided to adopt the Timbers as their team have initiated the creation of subgroups.

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In 2009, Aaron Flynn, a youth pastor from San Antonio, was looking for a soccer team to support. He didn't feel particularly passionate about the Houston Dynamo or FC Dallas, so he went on a BigSoccer.com forum and asked for advice.

A commenter sent Flynn a link where he could watch the USL First Division Timbers take on the Puerto Rico Islanders.

"I saw the atmosphere at the stadium," said Flynn, 23. "Ever since, I was hooked."

In 2012, when the San Antonio Scorpions entered the North American Soccer League (NASL) as an expansion team, Flynn decided to attend a watch party to see the local team's first game.

There he met fellow soccer fans Colin Bloodworth and Joshua Campbell and the men soon started talking about the Timbers. They decided to create a Facebook group and Twitter handle to bring other Timbers fans from Texas together.

Flynn said the group, which now calls itself the Lone Star Brigade, started with around 15 people and now has at least 85 people that attend most every Timbers away game in Texas.

The group often hosts Timbers' watch parties in San Antonio and other Texas cities. At Timbers matches, the Lone Star Brigade always hangs up their "Family Tree" banner, which has been signed by every Texas fan that has attended a Timbers road match with the Lone Star Brigade.

"Going to Timbers games is one of the things I most look forward to in the year," Flynn said. "In 2014, we had over 100 people at the game when the Timbers played Dallas. Everyone is standing and chanting the whole game. It's great."

The growth of the subgroups has provided a built-in community for Timbers fans across the country and in Canada.

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When Nicole Barker moved to Aspen, Colorado from Portland in 2013, she quickly made the decision to join the Timbers Army of the Rockies, a subgroup concentrated in Denver that includes members from across the Rocky Mountain States.

"We're kind of like a support group for each other because most of us are from Portland and are now living far away," Barker said. "The TA was a big part of my life and community before I moved to Colorado, so it has been a goal of mine to increase activity in the TA of the Rockies and bring together as many people as possible."

Scott Brown lived in Portland from 1974 to 1982 and followed the Timbers in their NASL era. When the Timbers entered MLS as an expansion team, Brown bought season tickets, even though he now lives in State College, Pennsylvania and can only make it to Portland to watch the Timbers once or twice a year.

In late 2011, Brown came across the East Coast Platoon Facebook group and, ever since, he has been actively involved in the subgroup's community.

While some of the subgroups often coordinate watch parties at bars, Brown lives in a very remote area and is only able to meet up with his fellow East Coast Platoon members at games. Brown, 47, attends almost every Timbers road game on the East Coast.

"We're so spread out, so the opportunity to get together is really just at games," Brown said. "Facebook, social media plays a really big role in it from the standpoint of coordination."

While the subgroups have their own unique names and logos, the local groups also work directly with the Timbers Army.

The subgroups often remotely support the TA's charitable endeavors. The Southland Irregulars, a Timbers Army subgroup based in Southern California, put together a charity T-shirt sale in 2014 in honor of former Timbers player Jimmy Conway to help raise money to fight Alzheimer's disease. The East Coast Platoon helped raise $1,200 through their proceeds from scarf sales to support Operation Pitch Invasion's Bless Field, a 9,000 sq. ft. turf field in North Portland.

Many subgroup members also pay dues to the Timbers Army and, in the weeks leading up to away games, the Timbers Army works with the local subgroups to coordinate tailgates and logistics.

"We do have people in the regional subgroups that are our contacts in whatever city we're playing in," Morgan-Werner said. "There's communication back and forth between the Timbers Army travel committee and whoever steps up and acts as a liaison for the away group."

As the Timbers Army subgroups grow, fan support at road matches continues to swell. Often fans traveling from Portland meet up and join the subgroups at away games to spend the matches together standing and chanting as they cheer on the Timbers.

"I think it's awesome how many city and regional groups have formed," Fiore-Silfvast said. "There are other seriously intense fan bases, but there's something so unique about the Timbers supporters community."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg