The hot start that wasn’t: Sounders split points with Timbers, Seattle won’t win Cascadia this season
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The first half of this match had similar vibes to the hot start that the Seattle Sounders got out to in their Leagues Cup loss to Monterrey: shooting out with two quick goals, feeling positive about the way that the club’s attack looked despite the struggles of the season leading into it. The Sounders scored two thrilling goals in the first half against the Timbers, showing life and energy that we hadn’t seen in months. Then, a player was sent off and a few substitutions later, and in the blink of an eye Portland had found two goals to tie things up. The rivals split points, Seattle won’t be able to take Cascadia Cup this season, and the Sounders once again are left to wonder what happened. Seattle remains in a playoff spot, and there are positives to take from this match, but the question of “what if” is what will sit with Sounders front office, players, and fans following this result.
Seattle Sounders forward Raul Ruidiaz’s header in the 9th minute started the scoring in this match (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
An injection of life into Seattle’s attack
The past few matches before the Austin win were struggles on the attack for the Sounders, as the club lacked creativity and really didn’t display what the club was capable of, considering the talent and veteran experience that is currently on this roster. After Seattle’s disappointing bounce from League’s Cup, head coach Brian Schmetzer promised that there was going to be more creativity from the group on the offensive attack. After the loss at home that saw the Sounders shutout by Atlanta, there was increased anger given that statement and the following lack of any sort of change. There was little improvement in their draw against Minnesota, and then a bit more progress in the narrow victory over Austin just a few days ago. Tonight, there was more progress made.
A major problem for the club in the past two seasons has been their lack of production on set pieces. There is a bit of a creativity problem there as well, but that’s for a different discussion. Despite those issues, Seattle got their first goal of the night off a set piece. In the ninth minute, the Sounders drew a corner to be taken by midfielder Albert Rusnak. Rusnak initially found Jackson Ragen’s head, and the center back was able to direct the ball back post where forward Raul Ruidiaz was waiting with space to head the ball past Timbers keeper David Bingham for the score. Bingham had been frozen in place, watching as the corner hit Ragen and reacting to Ruidiaz, unable to make any attempt at a save. Seattle was off to a strong start, and one of the clubs all-time leading scorers against Portland had found the back of the net against the rival once again.
Seattle Sounders FC forward Leo Chu scored the clubs second goal of the night on a breakaway, celebrating by taking his jersey off and earning a yellow card as a result. (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
The second Sounders goal of the night added to the breakout campaign of Brazilian forward Leo Chu. By no means was this goal conventional, but at the end of the day nobody involved with Seattle will care about how the goal was scored, they’ll just want more. Chu intercepted a pass from Portland in the 28th minute as the Timbers were trying to build out of the back, and things took off from there. The interception had bounced in the direction of Ruidiaz, who barely could collect the ball before the sprinting Chu collided with it again, sending it flying high into the air and towards the Portland goal. That interception had caught the Timbers backline off guard, and considering Chu’s downhill speed, it was off to the races. With two Portland defenders on his back, Chu was able to wait till the right moment to slot the ball past Bingham for the second goal of the night, getting a yellow card for his celebration where he took his jersey off.
The Seattle Sounders defense had to deal with being down to only ten-men, and while they couldn’t sustain their lead, they did ensure that they’d at least split points with the Portland Timbers. (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Defensive lapses allow Timbers back into this contest
With the two-goal lead in hand, Seattle went into the half feeling good about the performance that they had just displayed in front of a strong crowd in their home building of Lumen Field. It wasn’t perfect, considering the wild scramble that the Timbers put on where the Sounders used body and panic to eventually clear the ball, but it was still the best first 45 that Seattle has put together in quite some time. This didn’t feel like the Sounders of this season that had dragged along, played strong defense but couldn’t do hardly anything on the attack. Seattle was putting the pressure on their archrivals, and there was a new sense of positivity in the air, something that hadn’t been present in months. Then, the next 45 came around, and it all changed.
Portland’s goals came just three minutes apart, and that was sparked in part by some of the substitutions that the club made in the 67th minute. After those changes were made, the Timbers sent a throw-in towards the edge of the six-yard box, where Zac McGraw headed it towards the back post where Dairon Asprilla was left completely unmarked. Three Sounders surrounded the midfielder, but none of them thought to defend against him, and as a result Asprilla was able to score just seconds after he came into the game. The momentum had shifted in Portland’s favor, and it showed as the Timbers had a counterattack immediately after the reset. As Seattle retreated to attempt to guard it, the Sounders left midfielder Evander with plenty of space just above the 18-yard box, and he unleashed an absolute rocket into the top corner to tie this contest.
Multiple errors result in one big disappointment
It needs to be stated that Leo Chu’s double yellows are not the reasoning for this draw. While yes, I understand that the first yellow for his goal celebration wasn’t well thought out, even Schmetzer stated that Chu’s actions weren’t the reason the club dropped two points. Even that second yellow card was quite soft, in reality Chu shouldn’t have even been shown a second yellow. Stop trying to find a scapegoat and look at the bigger picture of this result. Seattle awarded Portland players far too much space on the goals that the Timbers scored, another example of lapses that the club has had defensively. It’s odd, given how strong overall that the Sounders have been defensively (near the top of the league in fewest goals allowed and clean sheets), but we’ve seen those mistakes dating back to last season.
There isn’t just one primary reason for this club's struggles. There are multiple flaws with the Sounders, starting in the second half of the 2022 season and running through now. Seattle has a strong defense for most of the match, but there will be a poor mental mistake that will allow an opponent an easy opportunity on net that will put the Sounders in poor position. The Sounders also fail to have much creativity at all on the attack, but that has been changing in the past few weeks. Seattle could use a bit more rotation of youth, and while we’re seeing that lately to a small degree, the argument could be made that we need to see it even more. The Sounders have a group that certainly can be winning these matches, but the full effort hasn’t been seen from them in quite some time. Getting that full effort is key towards securing a high playoff seed and then actually making a quality run.
Where they sit in the standings
Following the splitting of points with the Timbers tonight, Seattle now sits in the second spot in the Western Conference of the MLS. They sit a point ahead of LAFC and Real Salt Lake, two points ahead of the Houston Dynamo, and just three points ahead of the Vancouver Whitecaps. While it’s nice that the Sounders are up at the second spot in the Conference, it’s unlikely that they go higher as they trail St. Louis City by six points and the opponents below them have games in hand. The West is by no means settled, and that adds extra urgency to Seattle so that they can have a strong seed heading into the playoffs this season. If they continue to scuffle, the Sounders could tumble to a low seed in no time. Getting the points in the now is very key, as they no longer control their full destiny.
Quick notes
37,031 was tonight’s attendance.
Following tonight’s result, Sounders FC moves into sole possession of second place in the Western Conference for at least one night, as third-place LAFC plays on Sunday. With 41 points, Seattle sits one point ahead of LAFC and six points behind first-place St. Louis in the West.
With the draw, Seattle is eliminated from contention in the 2023 Cascadia Cup standings, as is Portland. Vancouver Whitecaps FC moves on to win the regional trophy contested amongst Major League Soccer’s three Pacific Northwest clubs (their first Cascadia title since 2016).
Tonight’s contest was the 119th all-time matchup between Seattle and Portland dating back to 1975 in the original North American Soccer League. Seattle leads the all-time series 56-46-17.
In the MLS era (since 2011 when Portland entered the league), Sounders FC moves to 14-14-9 in regular-season action against the Timbers.
Scoring the match’s opening goal in the ninth minute of play, forward Raúl Ruidíaz recorded his fifth tally of 2023, good for second on the squad in scoring (Jordan Morris, 10 goals).
Dating back to 2018, Ruidíaz now has 78 goals in all competitions for the Rave Green, just one strike behind teammate Fredy Montero for the all-time club lead in scoring.
Ruidíaz’s strike was his 12th in 16 matches against Portland, the most goals netted by a single player against any MLS opponent since the Peruvian’s league debut in July of 2018 (regular-season and MLS Cup Playoffs combined).
Albert Rusnák earned a secondary assist on Ruidíaz’s goal via his corner-kick service (his fourth of the season), with teammate Jackson Ragen recording the primary assist for heading the ball onto the Peruvian (also his fourth of the year).
Netting the second goal of the match in the 30th minute, Brazilian attacker Leó Chú recorded his fourth goal of the year, accompanying his nine assists on the campaign.
Ruidíaz recorded the assist on Chú’s goal, his first of the year.
Portland’s Dairon Asprilla’s hot hand against Seattle continued on Saturday night, with the Colombian recording his sixth goal against the Rave Green (regular season and MLS Cup Playoffs).
What’s next?
Following today’s draw, Seattle has a bit of a break before their next regular season matchup as they continue the final stretch towards clinching a playoff spot. Seattle now has six matches left to play, and while they are likely to end up in some sort of playoff positioning, how high their seed is will depend on what the Sounders can accomplish within those next six matches with only two of them taking place at their home stadium of Lumen Field. The first of those remaining six games is on Saturday, September 16th on the road against FC Dallas with a kickoff time of 5:30PM PST. Seattle will aim for more creativity in their attack, and a heightened focus defensively to ensure that there will be no cheap goals surrendered.