The Timbers didn't make it easy on themselves. Facing a second-string Sounders team missing no fewer than eight starters who are away on international duty, Portland conceded 24 shots, a goal just before halftime, and a late penalty.
It was an unexpectedly stiff challenge. Brian Schmetzer's young side was a credit to itself. But it didn't have Steve Clark, and it definitely didn't have Brian Fernandez, and those two facts alone were sufficient to book the Timbers' ticket to the tournament's next round.
Fernandez, at this point in his young Portland career, is essentially a cheat code. His brace in this game means that he's now scored an extraordinary six goals in his first four appearances for the Timbers, scoring at an average of better than two goals per 90 minutes.
It's still early, but those are ludicrous numbers — especially considering that Fernandez was hardly, if you read anything into the numerous reports from Mexico over the winter, the player the Timbers' most coveted to fill their open Designated Player spot.
And it's not just the numbers. Fernandez has looked the part too, piling up his goals in a multitude of ways. His alertness and movement in the box, his tenacity in transition, and his long range shooting ability aren't going away. If he'd had a full season, there's little question he'd be in both the Golden Boot and MVP races right now. But for Carlos Vela, he might still get there.
Clark, the other figure central to the Timbers' success on Wednesday evening, is a fairly improbable story at the moment in his own right. Acquired two summers ago as a backup only because Jake Gleeson had injured his hamstring, the Michigan native now appears to have won the team's starting job outright.
For a player on the wrong side of 30 who was plying his trade in Denmark three years ago, it has been a remarkable career revival.
Clark has always been an eager and agile shot-stopper, and he was at his best as the Sounders attacked in waves on Wednesday night — making a series of solid saves midway through the first half before clinching the Timbers' safe passage with a tremendous stop on a Trey Wingo shot three minutes from time.
Clark could hardly have picked a better night to stand out. Jeff Attinella has looked short of confidence all year, and his calamitous performance against LAFC opened the door wide for Clark to claim the job in this game. Given numerous chances to shine by the Timbers' insipid defense, he didn't miss his chance.
There are still plenty of questions to be asked about the quality of Clark's general decision-making and his ability to string together mistake-free performances, but there isn't much question who will be in net for the Timbers when Houston comes calling two Saturdays from now.
It's a tough business, and, in Portland, at least, no one has gone a full season starting in that particular position since Kwarasey in 2015 and consecutive seasons since Donovan Ricketts the two years before that.
Ricketts, in case you're wondering, is currently a coach on the staff of the Tusla Roughnecks, whose participation in this year's edition of the Open Cup ended in May with a 2-0 defeat to the first-year USL side the Austin Bold.
This game between the Timbers and Sounders, played a round later at a minor league baseball stadium in front of a crowd of just more than 6,000, harkened back to the humbler days in both clubs' not-too-distant past.
The likes of Fernandez, though, provided a look at the clubs' present and future. The Argentinian forward opened the scoring after just five minutes, squaring up a hopelessly overmatched Jonathan Campbell just outside of the box, cutting him inside, and firing a shot low into the far corner.
Fernandez was involved as well on Seattle's equalizer, which arrived on the stroke of halftime, when Victor Rodriguez's free kick from 20 yards out hit him in the side of the head and was thus redirected past Clark and into the net.
It didn't take long, though, for Fernandez to make amends on the right end of the field. Just five minutes into the second half, he finished off a vintage Timbers' counter — one that started with Clark hitting Sebastian Blanco, who found Diego Valeri, who sent the ball wide for Jeremy Ebobisse, who put it on a platter for Fernandez.
Rodriguez, one of the few Sounders regulars on the field, couldn't match it. He had a chance just over ten minutes from time when Seattle was awarded a highly dubious penalty, but his spot kick crashed off the crossbar. After Clark's save on Wingo, the Timbers were there.
Considering that they'd had nearly their full compliment of players available and in action, and Seattle decidedly did not, it was a game that the Timbers pretty well had to win.
However disinterested they looked at times, that's what they did. And while Blanco competed as he always does, and Renzo Zambrano impressed, it was those two players, Fernandez and Clark, so dissimilar in so many ways, who decided the match.
That's the Open Cup for you. The Round of 16? It kicks off next week.
