In a surprisingly low energy derby, the Sounders were able to grab three points due to a second half Clint Dempsey tap in off of a mistake from goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey.

Quite frankly, the first half was dull.

Wary of being hit out on a counter attack, Portland opted for a cautious and controlled approach. They were happy to pass the ball around the back four and take the life out of the CenturyLink Field crowd.

Seattle continued the cautious trend by not opting to press the Timbers defense. They sat their two banks of four inside their own half with Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey at the top of the opposition’s center circle. Lots of sterile possession ensued. Nat Borchers pass chart, seen below, probably best sums up the match.

The two managers had interesting and slightly pointed comments on the first half in the post game press conference.

“We were a little bit surprised at the beginning of the game because these games are typically more high-tempo, and they were just very content with pushing the ball around and back and not really going anywhere with it – sort of taking the air out of the ball and to slow things down. I thought we did a good job in the first half of not falling into their trap of getting stretched and pushing up too high.”

Bizarrely Schmid put the onus of playing an open match on the road side.

With his side being most effective on the counter attack, he would prefer the opposition to get forward. This opens space on the break through Martins, Dempsey and Neagle. Last week was the perfect example. Colorado hit the post on one end and Lamar Neagle put the ball in the back of the net on the other less than fifteen seconds later.

Caleb Porter responded by saying:

“I thought we managed the game exceptionally well… We had nearly 50-percent of the possession, which doesn’t usually happen here against a team who likes the ball. In a game like this you have to keep it tight. We’re on the road, we’re playing one of the best teams in the league, the Supporters’ Shield winners, two of the best strikers…we had to be organized, and I thought we were.”

Porter approached the cat and mouse game by playing it safe. He knew Nat Borchers and Liam Ridgewell were vulnerable to defending the Sounders pace in space. Thus, Alvas Powell and Jorge Villafana were hesitant to get forward and overlap, and Diego Chara and Jack Jewsbury kept a tight shield in front of the back four.

The opening stages of the second half followed a similar pattern, save for a few bad tackles and yellow. Finally, the substitutions breathed some life into the game.

Portland brought on Gaston Fernandez for Dairon Asprilla on the hour mark. Fernandez was more keen to tuck in and help build play which allowed Nagbe to find gaps between Osvaldo Alonso and Gonzalo Pineda. Nagbe laced a shot from distance just wide and played in Urruti with a chip who was just offside. Twelve minutes later Fanendo Adi came on for Max Urruti. Adi immediately had a header from three yards go wide after a nice right sided combination by Nagbe and Powell.

Seattle elected to take off Lamar Neagle for Andy Rose. Rose made a decisive impact two minutes later latching onto a long throw in which was saved by Adam Kwarasey but the Ghanian keeper lost control of the ball and Clint Dempsey poked it over the line.

Portland was forced to chase an equalizer; nearly finding it through Adi who hit the bar with a header. A few minutes later Seattle countered ending in a Martins one vs one with Borchers. Borchers was able to poke the ball away at the last second but it was just the sort of situation Portland was looking to avoid and were successful in doing so.

Conclusions

Portland were close to stealing an important road point with an undermanned squad. Yet, the result shows just how difficult defending is; even an innocuous situation like a throw-in can yield a dangerous situation if your defense is not focused on their specific duties.

On Sunday, Chelsea were roundly criticized for parking the bus against Arsenal in the second half. While it may not be enjoyable for the neutral fan involved, there are multiple ways to win in soccer and some are deemed to be ‘acceptable’ while others are considered scourges on the game.

The beauty in soccer lies in the different ways teams can approach a match and get results. Sometimes, as seen in Seattle last night, playing a tight and tactical game like the Timbers did is the optimal way to gain a result. And if the ball bounced a certain way off the crossbar or into Adam Kwarasey’s hands, Portland would have been the ones celebrating their performance.

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