Uncertainty regarding the status of the Seattle Sounders’ coaching staff, the return of Raúl Ruidíaz, CONCACAF Champions League banner reveal, 2026 World Cup host city festivities, perfect summertime Emerald City weather, and over 47,000 fans in attendance. All the ingredients were there for another epic chapter in the storied rivalry of the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers, a history that dates back nearly half a century. Unfortunately for the Sounders’ faithful, the bragging rights of this chapter of the Cascadia rivalry lie with the Timbers Army, as Portland registered a perfect shutout and tallied three goals to secure three points in the largest margin of victory the Timbers have ever enjoyed versus the Sounders.
The opening 20 minutes of the contest saw solid combination play and promising attacking movements from both sides. Seattle’s best chance came in the 17th minute when a header off a corner kick cross was cleared off the line by the Timbers. Portland drew first blood in the 24th minute off the transition when Sebastian Blanco whipped in a beautiful ball from the right-wing for Jarosław Niezgoda to comfortably head into the back of the net, giving the visitors the 1-0 lead. “We know what Portland’s about,” head coach Brian Schmetzer stated after the match. “Transition moments, they’ll defend deep, they’ll cede possession, and Niezgoda’s goal in the 24th minute was classic Portland.”
In the 39th minute, Nicolás Lodeiro was chopped down in Portland’s 18-yard box. Despite the appeal from Seattle’s captain and the Sounders’ faithful at Lumen Field, referee Chris Penso did not award the penalty kick nor did he elect to review the sequence using VAR. Players and analysts watching the match, such as OL Reign’s Jessica Fishlock and FOX Sports’ Stuart Holden, were of the opinion that the challenge should have materialized into a penalty kick opportunity for Seattle, or that VAR review should have been utilized at the very least. It is also worth noting that the VAR for Saturday’s game was Daniel Radford, a referee that members of the Sounders community remember all too well from the infamous “Red Card Wedding” game between the two sides seven years ago. In fact, Radford served as the VAR for another Sounders match back in May 2019 against Orlando City, and performed a review of a Seattle goal in that game that Professional Referee Organization (PRO) themselves went on to rebuke in a video posted on their YouTube channel at the time. Despite the chaos on this particular sequence, the Sounders had another great opportunity to get on the board before the end of the first half, when Raúl Ruidíaz’s shot from the vicinity of the penalty spot hit the woodwork of Aljaz Ivacic’s goal. Seattle ultimately went into halftime down a goal with the opportunity to make adjustments in the locker room.
Whatever adjustments Brian Schmetzer and his squad made in the break were surely thrown into disarray very quickly when Jackson Ragen committed a foul in midfield that got him his second yellow card of the game less than one minute into the opening half and cut the Sounders short to 10 men for the remainder of the contest. Jackson Ragen has exhibited moments of brilliance so far this season through his excellent ball distribution abilities which have led to several of Seattle’s goals in recent matches, but he has also found himself out of position and committing easy giveaways on multiple occasions that have hurt his side’s ability to prevent goals. Goalkeeper Stefan Frei views such experiences as areas of opportunity for the young center-back. “Great learning experience because that’s what he needs,” said Frei. “I think he’s a very good player and he’s shown how good he is and those are growing pains, but you need to have these situations to grow, these experiences to grow.”
The Sounders would go on to chase the Timbers for the majority of the second half. Seattle didn’t make any changes until the 64th minute when Josh Atencio was subbed on for Kelyn Rowe. This substitution was a rather peculiar one, as Brian Schmetzer elected to swap one CDM rather than bringing on an attacking player such as Fredy Montero, Léo Chú, Dylan Teves, and Will Bruin, who were all available on the bench. The Sounders’ head coach went on to explain his reasoning after the game. “Three at the back was a tough spot for me to put Josh in, so I’ll reflect on that,” said Schmetzer. “But I wanted to go 3-4-2 because sometimes I think that can catch teams by surprise. If you press with two forwards, sometimes that works.”
Matters only got worse for the 10-men home side in the 82nd minute, when a penalty kick awarded to the Timbers by way of a VAR review was successfully converted by Santiago Moreno to double the visitors’ lead. “It’s obviously difficult when you go down a man but I thought we actually played decent those first few minutes in the second half up until the PK,” said Frei after the game. Portland iced the match in the 85th minute when Dairon Asprilla scored off the counterattack, effectively ending any potential hopes of a late rallying comeback from the Sounders and cementing this chapter of the Pacific Northwest rivalry as a 3-0 triumph for the Timbers. “Obviously the PK kind of hurts and we got a little too disorganized and we wanted to find a goal and we forgot about our roles and that led to the third (goal) and then that was it,” said Frei.
One of the major highlights of Saturday afternoon’s match-up was the happenings before the two sides kicked off. The Sounders revealed their CONCACAF Champions League banner in the rafters minutes before the opening whistle. Not to mention that minority owner Drew Carey gloated on the microphone about the fact that the CCL trophy is a piece of hardware that Seattle was able to successfully ascertain before the Portland Timbers or any other team in MLS for that matter. It was certainly not a coincidence that the Sounders organization chose to have these celebrations on this particular matchday against their rivals, a fact that was not lost an any member of either of the two organizations. Stefan Frei hinted at some possible personal frustration after the team’s training session on Friday with the decision to have these celebrations just minutes before a clash with their biggest rival. Seattle’s goalkeeper shared his thoughts again after the conclusion of Saturday afternoon’s contest. “We’ll discuss internally where our emotions were and where they should have been, if they should have been different or could have been different or what led to the result today,” said Frei. “I can’t really control those things. Those are front-office decisions and I don’t even know if they ask for our opinion in terms of what they’re looking for.”
Another takeaway of Saturday’s game was the final result and its significance with respect to a pattern that has been on display for nearly half a decade. Since May 2017, the Sounders have not been able to beat the Portland Timbers at home in regular-season play. Interestingly enough, Seattle has had their own success down the I-5 in the Rose City, where they clinched the Cascadia Cup in 2019 and had a perfect 2-0-0 record in 2021, including a 6-2 thumping last summer. Brian Schmetzer was very candid with his thoughts on this head-scratching run of matches in recent years. “That is one of the strangest storylines I’ve been around in a long time where they’ve come up here and had our number and we’ve gone down there and had (success),” said Schmetzer. “All of the good things (about our club) does not make this one iota less painful, especially when we were able to unfurl something (CCL banner) that we put a lot of effort into, even with the understanding that our opponent would be motivated, and to fall flat on our faces like that really sucks." However, the Sounders head coach of over six years also made a promise with the hopes to end this troublesome streak in the future. “This much I can guarantee you is that we’re going to try and fix it so the next time they come up here we won’t have this storyline any further.”
Before the Sounders have their chance at finding joy in facing the Timbers at Lumen Field again, the team will have to wait until next season, as there will not be another home game against their adversaries from Oregon for the rest of the year, unless the two sides cross paths in the playoffs again, assuming both should qualify. Seattle and Portland are both sitting right below the playoff line with 26 points each at the moment. But with plenty of games still to be played, the Sounders are surely up to the challenge of climbing back up to a higher spot in the table to secure their 14th consecutive playoff berth. The next stop of Seattle’s quest will be in the Music City when the Sounders will make their first travel to the state of Tennessee to face Nashville SC, a team that has lost only one of seven home games this season. But after falling to Nashville 1-0 in their first-ever encounter with the club earlier this year and after suffering a frustrating 3-0 defeat against their rivals this weekend, the Sounders will surely be chomping at the bit to get back to their winning ways mid-next week.
