Timbers Flounder at home to Seattle 2-1

The Portland Timbers were in desperate need of a win at home over their rivals, the Seattle Sounders, in their first of three derby matches on Sunday. At the start of the match, the Timbers were winless in eight games with a 2-5-4 record, the same as Seattle’s. The rivalry between these two clubs is deeper and runs longer than their 38 MLS match ups. “I don’t care if the Timbers win another match this season as long as they beat Seattle,” was a common sentiment across social media leading up to kickoff. 

The Timbers honored Diego Chara before the match for playing 377 matches with one club and announced Tillamook as the team’s new sponsor at the same time. Supporters, including the 107st, have been asking for an Oregonian company like Tillamook to be the sponsor ever since Alaska Airlines announced that they were not renewing their contract with the team for the 2024 season.

Portland had a promising play in the 4th minute when a long ball from Paredes found Juan Mosquera, who served the ball to Jonathan Rodriguez. His header was just high and sailed over the goal. 

Seattle matched the attempt on goal during the next possession with Raúl Rudidíaz taking a shot from the right side of the box. Timbers keeper, Maxime Crépeau, made a great jumping catch save to deny him the goal.

Temperatures on the pitch were heating up in the afternoon sun as well as the energy between the players. Head referee, Allen Chapman, let them play hard without making many calls, even when players went to ground protesting. The first yellow card wasn’t until the second half and there were only two given the entire match. 

 

Portland were the first to get on the scoreboard in the 12th minute when defender Dario Zuparic fired a long ball to Rodriguez, who brought the ball down with a chest pass to Felipe Mora right in front of the goal. One touch from Felipe and it was 1-0 Timbers. 

The euphoric feeling in Providence Park did not last long. Midfielder Christian Roldan kicked in a long ball that took a deflection off the knee of defender Kamal Miller directly in front of Crépeau, who jumped too late and missed the save. 

Crépeau shut down Seattle’s next attempt when they earned back to back corner kicks in the 32nd minute. Ruidíaz’s attempt on the first was deflected by Kamal Miller and Jordan Morris’s header from the second was sent into Max’s gloves.

The Timbers had a perfect scoring opportunity immediately following Crépeau’s save. Max sent the ball down the center of the field to Antony, who had made a break away run parallel to Rodriguez. A quick back and forth pass left Antony open for a goal but he rushed the kick and sent the ball wide to the right of goal. 

Rodriguez tried for his own goal off of a corner kick in the 41st but his ball was high and sailed over the crossbar. Five minutes of stoppage time were added and Portland made one last attempt to score at 45+5. Santiago Moreno took a shot from the right corner 18 yard line but his angle was wide and missed to the left. 

The Sounders had better luck on their 45+5 attempt. Roldan, to Vargas, to Ruidíaz for a strike from the top of the arch for a goal. Ruidíaz was on the attack again as soon as the second half started with a shot on goal that was saved by Crépeau.

Seattle defender Nouhou Tolo was given the first yellow card in the 55th minute for chest bumping Juan Mosquera and trying to start a fight. Timbers defender Dario Zuparic was given a yellow 10 minutes later for a late hit hard shoulder check on Ruidíaz. 

During the pause in play for Nouhou’s yellow Portland made their first substitution, bridging Evander on for Antony. Head Coach Phil Neville made his second substitution after Zuparic’s yellow, replacing Christian Paredes with Erik Williamson. 

Seattle made a double substitution in the 76th taking off Ruidíaz and Joāo Paulo for Danny Musovski and homegrown defender Cody Baker. 

A right footed shot from Santi Moreno in the 80th minute caused a universal holding of breath across the stadium until the ball passed wide of the goal to a palpable defeated exhale. Providence Park was filled with depressing lackluster energy for the final 15 minutes. 

Both teams made a substitution at the 81st with Paul Rothrock taking Jordan Morris’ place for Seattle and Dairon Asprilla entering the game in place of Eric Miller for Portland. Even Dairon’s infectious energy was not enough to revitalize the Timbers. 

Santi made another goal attempt in the 85th minute from the center top of the box that just missed to the left of the far post. Evander had a few moments of momentum that were easily handled by Seattle. 

The Sounder’s made two substitutions in stoppage time with little effect. Roldan and Rusnák were taken out two minutes before the final whistle blew at 90+5. The most underwhelming derby in the history of these teams ended with a road win for Seattle over the Timbers 2-1. 

Neville said in the post game interview, “There’s no time for sulking, you know. Any criticism that comes our way has got to be aimed at me. I select the team, I pick the system, I pick the tactics (for) the last nine games. We’ve got to be better; I’ve got to be better…my overriding feeling is that today we, I feel as if we let our supporters down with that result. The result today was probably more important than anything else that we’ve seen and unfortunately we didn’t get that right and I take full responsibility for that.”