It’s time for that annual, seemingly unavoidable, usually frustrating event: The Portland Timbers traveling to Tukwila to play the Seattle Sounders in an early-summer, early-round US Open Cup matchup. The game is going down tonight (Tuesday June 16) at Starfire Sports Stadium, with the winner moving on in the United States’ oldest, biggest, knockout club competition.
Portland, who didn’t play last weekend in MLS, are looking to avenge a defeat to Seattle at this stage of this event last year. They’ll be shorthanded again, but so will the Sounders, as another chapter in this famous rivalry is written in its oddest setting.
MORE AFTER THE JUMP!
The History
This is the sixth meeting between the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers in the US Open Cup, and all of those meetings have come since 2005. When the draw for this round of the competition was announced about a month ago, there wasn’t excitement from both sides as much as a resigned shrug.
That’s not to say that these rivals won’t be more than eager to beat each other — they will be — but the novelty of the matchup has worn off, especially since these two sides see each other three times a year in league play now, which wasn’t the case at times in the past.
The reason that the teams play so often is that the early-round Open Cup games are played between clubs in the same small geographical area. The result is a lot of Sounders – Timbers Open Cup games happening very early in the competition — a disappointing situation which Sounders manager Sigi Schmid spoke thoughtfully about after the draw.
Last year, in the middle of the World Cup, these two teams played something of a classic at Starfire. The Sounders took a late lead, only for the Timbers to save themselves in second-half stoppage time through a Darlington Nagbe goal. Extra time didn’t go well, however. Diego Chara got a red card, Kenny Cooper ironically scored the winner, and Marco Pappa added another goal late to make it 3-1. The Sounders have won four Open Cup meetings against the Timbers in a row.
The Tactics
These games are interesting propositions in terms of picking a lineup. On one hand, an early round, midweek, Open Cup game is usually a time to rest plenty of starters and field a weakened team. On the other hand, neither of these teams wants to risk losing.
Portland wants to win this game, and they’ll play something close to their strongest team. Unfortunately, that team will be without several of its top players. Diego Chara is suspended due to his red card in this game last year, Will Johnson is on international duty with Canada, Dairon Asprilla is out with an ankle sprain, and Diego Valeri is likely to miss, or at least be on the bench, for the same reason.
With the Timbers off last weekend, Caleb Porter should be able to field his first-choice defense, while I’d expect him to roll with the combination of Gaston Fernandez and Maxi Urruti in the attack.
Seattle is going to be without several of their stars as well, certainly Osvaldo Alonso and possibly Gonzalo Pineda. They’ll probably sit Obafemi Martins as well, and maybe Chad Marshall. In an interesting twist, Troy Perkins could make his first Sounders start against his former team.
The Lineup
12 – Kwarasey
2 – Powell
24 – Ridgewell (C)
7 – Borchers
19 – Villafaña
13 – Jewsbury
26 – Fochive
22 – Wallace
6 – Nagbe
10 – Fernandez
37 – Urruti
The Pick
This is a hard game to call. The Timbers, for the first time this year, are really playing well. The Sounders, of course, are the best team in the league — fresh off a 3-0 thumping of FC Dallas at CenturyLink Field on Saturday night. Because it’s Starfire, and because of the history around this fixture, I’ll say the Sounders win 2-1 in extra time.
