All games between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders are occasions unto themselves, but Sunday’s meeting — the first of 2018 — will have an air of history to it.
Dating back to their first contest on May 2, 1975, at Civic Stadium in Portland, the Timbers and Sounders have played 99 times. On Sunday, at the its best and longest-serving venue, the two great clubs will renew the oldest, most important rivalry in the history of American soccer for the 100th time (1:00 p.m., TV on ESPN).
The Opponent
For the third straight year, the Seattle Sounders have endured a miserable start to the season. They lost Jordan Morris for the year to an ACL tear, crashed out of the Concacaf Champions League with a brutal 3-0 loss at Chivas in the quarterfinals, and started the league season with three straight shutout losses.
There has been fan hysteria over comments by GM Garth Lagerway that the club will no longer be amongst MLS’s highest spenders, and injuries galore. Aside from Morris, Victor Rodriguez, Roman Torres, Nicolas Lodeiro, and Harry Shipp are all likely out for Sunday.
A familiar lack of discipline hasn’t helped the cause either: the Sounders lead the league in red cards, with Clint Dempsey having already picked up a two game ban for an elbow to the groin area of FC Dallas midfielder Jacori Hayes in March.
That said, it’s not all bad news. Resting five starters on Wednesday night — including Dempsey, Osvaldo Alonso, and Chad Marshall — the Sounders got a shocking 2-1 win in Toronto to get off of the bottom of the Western Conference table and grab some sorely needed momentum heading into Sunday.
This, though, is the bigger game. It’s one that the club badly needs a result from.
The Tactics
The Timbers and Sounders have combined for a whopping 33 goals in their last six games at Providence Park going back to the 4-4 draw in April 2014, but this game — at least early on — should be a cagey affair.
Seattle’s approach should be relatively straight forward. With Lodeiro out, Brian Schmetzer is likely to — much as he did last year in this game — deploy Alonso and Gustav Svensson as his central midfielders in the Sounders’ 4-2-3-1, pushing the defensively-minded Christian Roldan into the front three.
Roldan will likely line up wide right, with a rested Clint Dempsey shouldering the main playmaking responsibilities through the middle. Schmetzer’s biggest personnel question is who to start on the left wing. Christian’s brother Alex Roldan has been preferred in recent weeks, but it’d be a big call to start him in this game.
Schmetzer will lean on his spine to keep the game tight and the Timbers frustrated, and hope for a moment or two from his forward players. Dempsey has scored in this derby nine times, and has five goals in his last three games in Portland. No one enjoys playing at Providence Park more.
Where does this all leave the Timbers? It’s hard to say. Portland’s first two home games were against attacking teams in Minnesota and New York City, and the Timbers were able to win both largely on the strength of their counter. This will be a different kind of test.
Either Portland can sit back and try to draw the Sounders out, or they can shift more firmly into a 4-2-3-1, get Andy Polo higher up the field, and attack from the opening whistle. will be important in limiting the attacking capacities of the Seattle fullbacks Kelvin Leerdam and Nouhou.
The key player for Portland, though, might be Fanendo Adi — whose seven goals in five career home games against the Sounders rivals Dempsey’s record. Chad Marshall’s presumptive center back partner Kim Kee Hee has just two MLS starts to his name, and he should be a target on Sunday.
Whoever gets the better of the many individual duels worth watching, however, the Timbers are going to be in a world of hurt if they don’t score first. If they do, the floodgates could open.
In terms of intensity, spring games between the Timbers and Sounders usually suffer in comparison to their late summer and fall counterparts. This game, though, with both teams below the playoff line, could be an exception. The heat may play a role in raising tempers as well.
The Lineup
1 – Attinella
16 – Valentin
24 – Ridgewell
33 – Mabiala
2 – Powell
22 – Paredes
21 – Chara
11 – Polo
8 – Valeri (C)
10 – Blanco
9 – Adi
— David Guzman, Vytas, and Bill Tuiloma all started for T2 last weekend in St. Louis and have trained with the first team this week, but none of the trio is likely to start on Sunday. Guzman could be available off the bench.
— Who does Savarese trust off the bench? Outside of Andre Flores and Sam Armenteros, it’s not entirely clear. A wing option, hopefully Dairon Asprilla, might be needed on Sunday.
— Schmetzer is a Seattle native who has played for and coached the Sounders for some 25 years. Savarese, taking part in this game for the first time, has some catching up to do.
— Robert Sibiga will referee his first Portland-Seattle game on Sunday. His fourth official? Red Card Wedding referee Daniel Radford.
The Memory
Dempsey’s 94th minute equalizer last year in this game, scored as Amobi Okugo was spraining his MCL, was the low point of the Timbers’ season.
The Pick
Seattle is going to put up a fight in this game, but they don’t have the weapons that the Timbers do. Portland is better rested, healthier, and playing at home. They win 2-1.
