Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports

The Sounders remain in first place.

Despite playing a third consecutive frustrating performance, the Seattle Sounders still managed to collect points from a hugely important match with the Portland Timbers. Will Bruin’s stoppage-time goal — the second latest decisive goal in the history of this rivalry — kept the Sounders in first place and assures that they’ll control their destiny for the top seed in the Western Conference.

Stats

MATCH SUMMARY

Seattle Sounders FC 1 – Portland Timbers 1

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Venue: CenturyLink Field

Referee: Ismail Elfath

Assistants: Corey Parker, Cory Richardson

Fourth Official: Farhad Dadkho

VAR: Chris Penso

Attendance: Closed Door

Weather: 48 degrees and clear

SCORING SUMMARY

POR – Andres Flores 10’

SEA – Will Bruin 90’+3’

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY

POR – Eryk Williamson (caution) 90’+3’

LINEUPS & STATS

Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam (Shandon Hopeau 79’), Yeimar Gómez Andrade, Shane O’Neill (Miguel Ibarra 85’), Nouhou; Jordy Delem (Alex Roldan 30’), João Paulo, Cristian Roldan, Nicolás Lodeiro, Jordan Morris; Will Bruin

Substitutes not used: Stefan Cleveland, Román Torres, Josh Atencio, Ethan Dobbelaere, Justin Dhillon, Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez

Total shots: 15 (Yeimar, 3)

Shots on goal: 1 (Bruin, 1)

Fouls: 13 (João Paulo, 4)

Offside: 1 (Morris, 1)

Corner-kicks: 8 (Lodeiro, 6)

Saves: 3 (Frei, 3)

Portland Timbers – Steve Clark; Marco Farfan, Dario Zuparic, Larrys Mabiala, Jorge Villafana; Diego Chara, Eryk Williamson, Andres Flores (Pablo Bonilla 74’), Diego Valeri, Yimmi Chara; Felipe Mora (Jaroslaw Niezgoda 83’)

Substitutes not used: Aljaz Ivacic, Chris Duvall, Bill Tuiloma, Zac McGraw, Renzo Zambrano, Cristhian Paredes, Tomas Conechny

Total shots: 8 (Valeri, 3)

Shots on goal: 4 (Mora, 2)

Fouls: 11 (Farfan, 4)

Offside: 1 (Y. Chara, 1)

Corner-kicks: 3 (Valeri, 3)

Saves: 0

POST-MATCH QUOTES & SOUNDBYTES

SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES

On the impressions of the game:

“First half, second half was night and day. I thought Portland was better in the first half, and I thought we were better in the second half. I’ll start with the first half though. I mean, again, they [Portland] are going to look at that goal and say it’s a well-constructed goal, but I felt it was just too easy. I mean, we need to be a better team defensively, you know, losing the ball up here, our transition defending, that is what they do well, and we messaged that, we worked on it, and we still couldn’t prevent that goal. So that was obviously distressing. I think that what happens with our team is that when we go down a goal, sometimes they have so much anxiety to come back and try and score the goal right away that they lose a little bit of patience and that was for us, on the coaching staff, that was the biggest problem. I think guys were pushing, they were trying too hard, they were moving themselves out of position. Tactically we weren’t very good. And so, at halftime we just reset and said, ‘No, this is how we play, this is how we line up, this is where you guys need to be.’ And I think it worked. I mean we scored the goal late and I’m very, very, very pleased for Will Bruin, he deserved it because he’s been working his butt off. But if you look at some of the other chances, we had Kelvin [Leerdam’s] header. Jordan [Morris] had a breakaway where Nico [Lodeiro] chested the ball, maybe he could have laid it back. Nouhou, I know a lot of people want Nouhou to score, I understand that, and you know Nico does a good job, swings the ball in, it comes back to [Nouhou] he shoots, but Cristian Roldan was there top of the box. Shane [O’Neill’s] header on another delivery by Nico that was very good. Some transition moments where we just, we couldn’t find Jordan, or we picked the wrong pass, or they intercepted the pass. So, I thought the second half was better for us. And, you know, tough team to play against, and just happy that we were able to stay in first place.”

SOUNDERS FC FORWARD WILL BRUIN – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES

On the timing of his goal:

“Yeah, got to make it dramatic. You know, that was, I believe my first full 90 [minutes]. That’s why I get frustrated sometimes when I sub out, because I know there’s always a chance at the very end, and you know that play, that corner kick, that was something that [Brian Schmetzer] was really telling me, he was like, ‘Make sure you get back post because a ball always end up falling there.’ And as long as you have somebody there you see a lot of goals scored in that area, and it ricocheted over there and I was just in the right spot at the right time and, you know, I’ll take any goal.”

SOUNDERES FC MIDFIELDER CRISTIAN ROLDAN – LINK TO SOUNDBYTES

On what makes transitions hard against Portland:

“I think when we have the ball and we are attacking, you know, we have to be firm in our decisions and go with it. Sometimes we hesitate, sometimes someone’s asking for the ball and we’re already in the frame of not making a mistake and honestly if you play with that intent of not being afraid of making a mistake, you can be more effective. I think in the first half we were too cautious with our passes and not willing to take a chance and you know Portland’s a good team in transition and I think they hurt us especially in the first half when we weren’t tight to them and we were attacking their goal.”