Portland appears another step closer to MLS membership and participating in the Heritage Cup and renewing its regular rivalry with the Sounders.

All of this because the city approved renovation of PGE Park into an MLS-quality soccer-specific stadium.

Here's a report from the Oregonian, which is pretty thick on the financing side, but you can survive it if you skim a bit, and the bottom line seems to be good news for the Timbers.

D.C. United president Kevin Payne was "surprised and disappointed and offended" at the Adrian Hanauer's comments from yesterday's blog and today's TNT questioing how the U.S. Open Cup final was awarded to D.C. United and RFK Stadium (where the game drew fewer than 8,500 fans last season.)

(I will add this: I interviewed Kevin Payne before United visited Seattle. He's one of the key figures of MLS, he's been key to building what may be its most successful franchise, and he is understandably proud of that.)

The cross-country return fire comes from Steven Goff's Washington Post soccer blog.

Here's the blog item.

(And at the very least, this could add some fire the final. Clearly it's become a little personal, clearly there is an element of MLS royalty resenting the young upstart.)

Fredy Montero said "incorrecto" today when asked if the English-newspaper reports quoting him as expecting quick transfer to Fulham are correct.

Montero said his thoughts are fully with the Sounders and the MLS race at this time.

Following up on the earlier report, yes, Sounders GM confirmed today that his bid for the U.S. Open Cup final would have been for an afternoon game at Qwest.

Yes, part of that is because there is a Seattle ordinance that limits the number of times two events with an anticipated combined total attendance of 65,000 or so can be held at the same time at Qwest and Safeco.

However, Hanauer notes that the Mariners often draft big weekday afternoon crowds -- especially in the summer -- and he's sure that the Sounders playing for a couple final could have drawn something close to a lower-bowl sellout even on a weekday afternoon.

Also, on a previous issue, Hanauer said his expectation is that the Open Cup winner will go on to Champions League, but that isn't firm or officially announced yet.

More later.

The Sounders are training at Qwest today, and I'm hoping for direct access to Fredy Montero there. Naturally, I'll pop back in here with anything that adds to the Fulham situation reported yesterday.

Meanwhile, a couple of items out of Portland.

This apparently is the day that the city council there will give final thumbs up -- or not -- to the plan to renovate PGE Park for that 2011 expansion into Portland.

Also, the Timbers have signed former Sounder Kevin Forrest, thrilling headline writers everywhere with the possible plays on the words "Timber" and "Forrest."