Some days, you can feel the air around Providence Park pulsate with energy and excitement for hours before a game. This was one of those days. The Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders were meeting for the third and final time this year, on a late August day that felt like fall,

That the Timbers had already beaten Seattle twice this year mattered little. Those games were played in the early spring and early summer, with Seattle missing a raft of key players both times, and Portland in the midst of its remarkable 15-game unbeaten run.

This was the real deal: both teams at full strength, gray sky overhead, cool breeze blowing, floodlights on, and playoff positioning at stake.

For the Timbers, in bad need of a win and not for a lack of trying, it didn't go well. They outshot Seattle 22-6, controlled 55 percent of possession, dominated the game territorially, and, ultimately, lost on an own goal.

Long before that, however, the Timbers came out with the right energy and had Seattle pinned in from the get-go. They played some lovely soccer, too, with Diego Valeri and Diego Chara both sparkling, but found the visitors' backline was impassable.

There was just no getting through. Samuel Armenteros was swarmed every time he touched the ball. Chara, shunted out to the right in the 4-3-2-1, was fouled three times. Before the game was over, that number would be five. The Timbers ended the half with 14 shots, but forced just two routine saves out of Stefan Frei.

Chad Marshall was as indomitable as ever at the heart of Seattle's defense, but it was Osvaldo Alonso leading the way in the midst of a vintage performance just ahead of him. He'd finish with a jaw-dropping 28 defensive actions, while completing more passes than any other Sounder.

The Timbers zipped around and plugged away again after the restart, but to no avail. With the Sounders collapsed into a 5-3-2, they needed a most unlikely mistake from a Seattle defender, or a moment of magic — a pass, a move, something, anything to unbalance their opposition — to decide the game.

Just after the clock hit 70 minutes, that moment arrived. Zarek Valentin, operating on the left side of the box, picked up a second ball off of a cross, cycled away from goal with Will Bruin on his back, and then, just as he appeared set to release the ball backwards to Andy Polo, Cruyff'ed Bruin and sped back towards goal.

As hit he the byline, Valentin lofted a cross towards the back post. Samuel Armenteros, standing just off of the six yard box, was unmarked and ready to receive it. But he hit his header onto the roof of the net.

That was it. That was the chance. With a quarter of an hour to go, the Timbers were spent. They'd given what they had to give. An especially exhausted Sebastian Blanco had just motioned to the bench for a change when, moments later, the Sounders, having created next to nothing all night, sunk in the dagger.

It was a mistake from Valentin, so nearly the hero, that opened up the play. He was caught upfield trying to challenge for a bouncing ball that the indefatigable Nicolas Lodeiro won and tucked into the channel the Timbers' fullback had vacated where Kim Kee-Hee was making a go-for-broke charge up from center back.

With Valentin out of the play, and Liam Ridgewell hesitating to close Kee-Hee down with three runners in the box, the South Korean import had a free run into the box. He hit his cross low and hard into the goalmouth, where it caromed off of the retreating Cascante's standing leg and squibbed in.

That was just about it. The Timbers were out of ideas and had no one on the bench capable of serious impact.

Seattle, meanwhile, threw on yet another lockdown center back in the shape of Roman Torres — who planted himself in the middle of the penalty area, and won every aerial ball he saw for the rest of the game. The Timbers wouldn't get another shot on target.

When push came to shove, they just weren't as good as the defense they were up against. Save for a few early counters, the Sounders dictated the game when the Timbers had the ball. They took away the central channel, forced the Timbers wide, and let their center backs clean out cross after cross. It was a masterpiece.

And that's who Seattle is right now. They've won seven straight games, and conceded just three goals in the process. They don't play fast soccer, they don't play pretty soccer, but they don't give up goals, and they know how to manufacture them when it counts. It's a team that knows how to contend.

The Timbers, hard as they pushed, were flummoxed. They just didn't have the quality required, outside of their top four players, to break Seattle down.

Still, there was no reason why they should have lost. The goal they gave up was, again, one step above rinky-dink. That was the root of Giovani Savarese's frustration after the game. A draw in this game would have been a disappointment, but defeat is rather grave.

Seattle is now ahead of the Timbers in the Western Conference standings, with Portland in seventh place, below the red line for the first time in months, and facing an awfully short turnaround before Wednesday night's visit from the reigning champions from Toronto.

There are high prices to pay for lapses at this level, no matter how much good work surrounds them. The Timbers haven't been playing complete games for some time now, and they simply aren't talented enough to survive high-profile errors week after week.

They need to get better, and they need to get better in a hurry. Ridgewell's return to the lineup was a welcome sight on both fronts, even if it only came because of an injury to Larrys Mabiala. Jorge Villafaña's re-entry into the team will be similarly welcome.

Despite four straight losses — two straight at home, both to Cascadia rivals — the Timbers aren't in a terrible spot. A top-four finish in the West, what they need to make a playoff run, is still very much attainable.

But this right now is a team that feels stagnated: competitive, certainly, but not elite. Savarese needs to find the next gear, the right formation, the right style, and his players need to step back up. This loss, however crushing, must be a turning point. If it isn't, this season may very well slip away.