Match Recap & Highlights: Seattle Sounders 2 - 2 Portland Timbers
A tale of two halves as the Timbers erase a two-goal deficit in Seattle
The Portland Timbers (7-9-11) are STILL unbeaten in Seattle since 2017 following a come-from-behind 2-2 draw against the Sounders (11-8-9) at Lumen Field. The result also meant that the Vancouver Whitecaps secured the 2023 Cascadia Cup.
Recap
Miles Joseph made three changes to the team that beat RSL 2-1 on Wednesday night, with Eric Miller, Yimmi Chara, and Felipe Mora replacing Claudio Bravo, Sebastian Blanco, and Franck Boli in the starting XI:
The Sounders opened the scoring through Raul Ruidiaz in the 9th minute, before doubling their lead through Leo Chu in the 30th minute to stamp a dominant display from the hosts in the first half.
But the game flipped on its head eight minutes after the break when Chu was sent off for a second yellow card.
The Timbers would go on to score twice in three minutes, the first through Dairon Asprilla’s first touch in the 67th minute and the second a goal-of-the-year contender from Evander in the 70th minute.
Highlights
9’ GOAL SEATTLE, 1-0 The worst possible start for the Timbers, who concede what has to be their millionth set-piece goal of the season, this time to Raul Ruidiaz. Jackson Ragen flicked the ball onto Ruidiaz from a corner, who was unmarked at the back post.
17’ The Sounders released Jordan Morris with a ball over the top of the Timbers’ backline, and with all the time in the world Jordan Morris missed a sitter. The flag went up for offside anyway.
30’ GOAL SEATTLE, 2-0 Leo Chu won the ball off of Cristhian Paredes in midfield and blazed past the Timbers’ entire backline to easily slot a shot past Bingham 1v1 and double the Sounders’ lead. Paredes and McGraw were lost at sea on the play, which allowed Chu to take off his shirt after taking full advantage of the malaise at the back (remember that, now…).
40’ Felipe Mora had two great opportunities to score right before halftime, the first from a shot inside the box that was blocked, and the second from a header cleared off the line just moments later.
HALFTIME: The Timbers went into the break down 2-0 thanks to goals from Ruidiaz and Chu.
53’ RED CARD First-half goal scorer Leo Chu was given a second yellow card for a challenge on Zac McGraw in midfield, and sent off. Chu’s first card was for removing his shirt while celebrating his goal.
67’ SUBS Miles Joseph brought Dairon Asprilla, Sebastian Blanco, and Franck Boli into the match for Cristhian Paredes, Yimmi Chara, and Felipe Mora.
67’ GOAL TIMBERS, 2-1 With literally his very first touch of the match, Asprilla planted a header past Stefan Frei and into the back of the net. McGraw got the flick at the near post, and like Ruidiaz in the first half, Asprilla made no mistake at the back post.
70’ GOAL TIMBERS, 2-2 Just three minutes after Asprilla’s equalizer, Evander produced a goal that only he’s capable of producing for the Timbers, sending a thunderbolt from 25 yards out past a helpless Frei. He’s had some stunners this season, but for my money that’s Evander’s best of the year.
82’ SUB Antony entered the match for Santiago Moreno
FULL TIME: After five minutes of stoppage time the match finished 2-2 with both teams sharing the points.
Final Thoughts
A really good result for the Timbers, who extend their unbeaten streak against the Sounders to six matches and now two full MLS seasons. I can’t remember the last time I saw a game with two halves that were as polar opposite as the two the Timbers and Sounders played.
Seattle was DOMINANT in the first half. They scored twice but could, and probably should, have had two or three more than that as the Timbers came out of the gates completely lethargic. Leo Chu caused Mosquera and the Timbers problems the entire opening 45’, and set-piece/back-post defending issues reared their ugly head for Ruidiaz’s opener.
But two things got the Timbers back into that match: Chu’s red card in the 53rd minute, and Miles Joseph’s triple-sub in the 67th minute.
Yimmi Chara and Cristhian Paredes were bad in the first half — like aggressively bad. So bringing on Asprilla, who scored within seconds of entering the pitch, and Blanco’s experience in this rivalry was quite literally a game-changer for Portland. And Evander’s goal… What can you even say about it. It’s stunning from a Timbers perspective, deflating from a Sounders perspective, and another glimpse at what the club paid $10 million dollars for.
After the red card, I tweeted “The Timbers have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever.” And while they couldn’t find a way to get all three points, leaving Seattle with another draw after coming back from two goals down is objectively pretty funny.
So in the words of
:Up Next: The Timbers are back home against LAFC on Saturday, Sept. 9, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT.
I'm not so sure this was a "game of two halves" as much as it was a game of three minutes. The sending off was the Timbers' ticket to success in this game, but outside those two goals, they kinda reverted to their most-of-the-season form, instead of riding the wave from the RSL win. I still don't love Dairon Asprilla, but there's no doubt he has the Sounders' number lately and it is delightful.
Whatever; I'll take the point and the few moments of entertainment.
I realize this might be off message, but could I return to the whole MLS Season Pass spoilers problem? I'll admit: I wasn't tuned into this game live. But obviously PTFC vs. Seattle is a BFD in my world. I was looking forward to watching it. And I just failed in my attempt to navigate through the maze of spoilers on the MLS Season Pass site, when viewing it online. It's just impossible. You make one wrong move and then 20 cliplets and buttons tell you the score. It's ridiculous. Is there any way some group of MLS fans might take this issue up with someone? I can't imagine I'm the only one out there who has been frustrated with an inability to just watch a game on this much hyped new service. I can write a lonely voice in the desert e-mail to customer support, but I guess I'm just wondering if there's a petition or something I could sign on to or generate or something. I know this season is in the tank but I'm hoping some well timed feedback could get Apple or MLS to bother thinking about this issue? It 100% has made me less of a fan this year, in terms of tuning into other teams games, watching MLS more generally. Every Sunday I wake up to a full slate of Bundesliga games not knowing the score, or I can desperately try to maneuver around the MLS Season Pass interface to try to find a game that hasn't been spoiled for me. And fail, 99% of the time, because five screens in the final button has the frikken score built into it. Why is so hard to be an MLS fan?