If the Portland Timbers were saving something extra for their first showdown of the year with the Seattle Sounders on Sunday night, what they came up with sure was worth the wait.
Two goals from Brian Fernandez, the latter of which came just seconds after Raul Ruidiaz had cancelled out his first, were enough to hand the Sounders their first home loss of the season and win the Timbers their third straight game at CenturyLink Field.
It was an excellent edition of this most storied American soccer rivalry: competitive and contentious, played at a blistering pace, and won by the team whose best players delivered most often when it most mattered.
It’s a result that sets the tone for the rest of the season in Cascadia and well beyond it — one will do the rivalry no harm, and one that suggests, once again, that the Timbers have eclipsed the Sounders as the region’s most dangerous side.
Heading into this contest, it appeared that the Timbers might be in a precarious position. But after playing his starters on Thursday night against Orlando, Giovani Savarese decided to roll with his first-choice team again, making only two changes, and betting that his best group would dig deep in this game of games.
Almost immediately, there were fireworks. On the Timbers’ first possession of the game, a blocked Julio Cascante pass sent Ruidiaz scampering through on goal — but the forward took a big touch and saw his tight-angle shot knocked away by Steve Clark.
Cascante then nearly supplied the game’s first goal at the other end of the field, connecting with a Diego Valeri corner and forcing a tremendous save out of Stefan Frei. Jeremy Ebobisse had a glorious look at the rebound, but he poked it wide.
It was a lively start — and one that the Timbers, playing with an increasing amount of tempo and cohesion in midfield, were beginning to enjoy the better passages of.
Then, in the 20th minute, one of those passages broke the deadlock. Cristhian Paredes pinged a lovely cross-field ball into the path of the Jorge Moreira, who took it down down, cut inside of Brad Smith, and cannoned a shot off the crossbar that Fernandez coolly followed in.
The traveling Timbers Army, stuck high in the far northeast corner of the stadium, exploded in celebration. It was 1-0 to Portland, with Fernandez, who scored a brace in the U.S. Open Cup game between these teams in Tacoma, back on the scoresheet for the first time this month.
Seattle’s response nearly came within two minutes. Jordan Morris received a long switch on the righthand side and himself cut infield where he got tangled up with Ebobisse, lost the ball, got it back, and played a low pass the face of goal for Ruidiaz — who skied what should have been a tap-in over the bar.
It was a fairly astonishing miss from one of the league’s most prolific forwards, and the final major action of the first half.
Five minutes into the second half, though, the profligate Ruidiaz would finally get a chance he couldn’t pass up when Roman Torres played a ball over the top that Cascante headed backwards into no-mans land. The Peruvian pounced, rounded a stranded Clark, and passed the ball into an empty net to level the score.
For a moment, Seattle appeared to be in business. But just as they had almost instantly canceled out the Timbers’ opener, Portland’s response to the Sounders’ goal was swift.
Less than a minute after the resumption of play, Fernandez and Valeri exchanged passes in midfield, Valeri sent the ball wide for Blanco, Blanco played a lovely curved pass into Fernandez, and the Argentinian forward swept his shot barely underneath Frei’s hand to restore the Timbers’ advantage.
This time, Seattle had no answer. They possessed the ball well enough as the second half progressed, but with Lodeiro far from his most influential, forced almost entirely out from the middle of the field by Diego Chara, they had neither the collective speed nor the creativity needed to truly unlock the Timbers’ defense.
The result was crosses, 31 of them in total, and plenty of work for Clark — who, given his form and his nature, seemed to relish his involvement. Aside once or twice from Torres, the Sounders didn’t have a player who could compete with him in the air.
In fact, despite piling players forward, Seattle wouldn’t get another clear-cut opportunity. What should have been their final push in stoppage time devolved into a series of dustups, an acrid Christian Roldan at the center of several of them.
Finally, in the 101st minute, referee Drew Fischer sounded the final whistle. Blanco, replaced by Bill Tuiloma in the final moments, leapt onto the field pumping his fists celebration. Another confrontation followed, but the result, this third straight league victory in Seattle, was set in stone.
It’s a tremendous achievement for Savarese and his team — and this, on three days’ rest, in front of more than 50,000 people, was an extraordinary effort from them.
From front to back and back to front, in a physical, up-and-down game, the Timbers refused to be outworked. The fact that Blanco, playing in excess of 90 minutes for the fifth time in the last 15 days, provided the game-winning assist tells you all you need to know about the character of their performance.
The Timbers won battles all over the field. Chara, who didn’t miss a pass all night, took care of Lodeiro. Moreira and Jorge Villafaña were both excellent, while their opposite numbers Brad Smith and Kelvin Leerdam both had to be substituted. And Fernandez of course made the most of his chances, while Ruidiaz did not.
On one hand, the Sounders should take this setback in stride. It’s not, as LAFC and NYCFC can attest, as if they’re the first team the Timbers have humbled on their home turf of late.
And yet, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this Seattle side isn’t any better than the one the Timbers sent crashing out of of the playoffs last November. It’s a decent team, certainly, but no longer an elite one. Not in defense, not in midfield, and not in attack.
The Timbers still haven’t answered the questions about their ability to beat a low-block, their ability to attack effectively when denied vertical space, but it’s safe to say that there is no question at all about whether they have an elite gear or not.
They do. They very much do. And it just burned Seattle again.
