It's a move that had been in the works for over half a year. Back in December, during the MLS offseason, the Portland Timbers were preparing to sign Ghanian goalkeeper Adam Larsen Kwarasey as their starter for the 2015 season and beyond.

That meant that the club had to move their starter at the time, 37-year-old Jamaican Donovan Ricketts, who won MLS Goalkeeper of the Year in the Timbers' banner year of 2013.

One club was especially interested: The Los Angeles Galaxy, where Ricketts had played and excelled from 2009 to 2011. The Galaxy had a solid goalkeeper in Panamanian Jamie Penedo, but Penedo wanted a new contract that the Galaxy didn't want to give him.

In the end, though, it was expansion side Orlando City who snapped Ricketts up in the MLS Expansion Draft to serve as a stop-gap for the first ten games of their maiden MLS season until their penciled-in starter Tally Hall was fully recovered from a knee injury.

So Ricketts started the season for Orlando, but made way for Hall in the middle of May and hasn't seen the field in competitive play since. It appeared as if Ricketts might spend the twilight of his career on the bench. But not anymore.

Back in Los Angeles, Penedo—after missing the first two games of the season—returned to Galaxy goal with a $40,000 raise. But negotiations on a long-term deal for the 'keeper never really got going, and that, coupled with a standout performance in front of international scouts at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, convinced Penedo that he needed to leave LA.

The Galaxy granted his wish, and immediately turned to Ricketts as the only readily available goalkeeper inside MLS ready to start for a contender immediately—with the added benefit of Ricketts' familiarity with LA and visa versa. Orlando, who could use the cap space, was only too happy to play ball.

So now Ricketts, at age 38 and possibly in his final season as a professional, is thrust right back into the crescendo of an MLS Cup chase as the likely starting goalkeeper for the presumptive title favorite. Bruce Arena, the Galaxy coach, has a track-record of bringing in his old players at key moments during a season: Last year it was Alan Gordon, and Edson Buddle returned to the StubHub Center earlier this year. LA is the league's premier organization. There is no better place to be traded to.

The opportunity for Ricketts is an incredible one: He's about to team up with Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard, Gyasi Zardes, Giovani dos Santos, and Omar Gonzalez, under the best MLS coach of all-time.

It's no more than Ricketts deserves. The big goalkeeper never quite won Orlando over, mostly because the team around him struggled during his tenure in net, and, with his reputation somewhat under siege for his fragility and age, this move presents Ricketts with a chance to finish his career on top of the mountain.

It could also be a happy ending of another kind: In 2009, Ricketts' first season in MLS, he backstopped the Galaxy to the MLS Cup Final in Seattle. But during the final, Ricketts was knocked out with an arm injury, and his backup Josh Saunders couldn't prevent the Galaxy from losing in a shootout to Real Salt Lake.

In 2011, Ricketts struggled with injuries and international absences all year and watched from the sidelines as Saunders played every minute of the playoffs en route to an MLS Cup title—LA's first in the David Beckham era.

Now, Ricketts can win a Cup of his own. If he does, it'll be the perfect bow for a player that did the Timbers proud, and has done himself proud along every step of his soccer journey.

Ricketts stands now to face the Timbers once more this season, in LA in mid-October, and then possibly in the playoffs. Ricketts' first game against the Timbers this year, on his return to Providence Park, was his best performance in an Orlando shirt: A commanding shutout and victory that saw a fearsome goalkeeper in turns tower over and acrobatically protect a goal that the Timbers rarely came close to scoring on. An all-too-familiar sight for the home team.

Sometimes in sports, things fall into place. There's no telling how this journey will end for Portland's greatest ever goalkeeper, but it already beats whatever was to come in Orlando. Now amongst all those stars in LA, a Timber has the chance to write a perfect ending to a brilliant career.