Timbers ride first half goals to 4-2 derby win

The Portland Timbers welcomed the Seattle Sounders to Providence Park Sunday afternoon, marking their second meeting in eight days. With both teams vying for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference and desperate for points, a match that was already sure to be charged had even more weight behind it.

Sounders took last weekend’s meeting by a score of 3-1, but it would quickly become clear that Sunday’s affair at Providence was following a different script. Fanendo Adi returned to the starting lineup for Portland while Clint Dempsey was unavailable for Seattle, and the difference was immediately apparent.

Timbers started the more brightly of the sides. Diego Chara was successful in keeping Nicolas Lodeiro under wraps, giving Portland plenty of the ball to work with. Seattle’s rare forays forward were met with furious Timbers counter attacks. On sixteen minutes Alvas Powell earned a corner off of one such counter. On the ensuing dead ball, Vytas beat Alvaro Fernandez to the near post and met Jack Jewsbury’s pinpoint service with a firm header. Stefan Frei parried the ball off the underside of the bar and then watched it hit the ground just over the goal line. It was a well deserved goal for Portland after a strong opening quarter hour.

Five minutes later Seattle’s inability to hold onto possession in the midfield was again exploited.  A sloppy giveaway left Portland with another counter opportunity. A flowing Timbers move eventually culminated in a dummied pass for Valeri. He settled the ball at the top of the box, eluded his defender with a quick cutback and fired off a low shot that Frei did well to push wide. Fanendo Adi was waiting patiently for the rebound and knocked it home after two bites at the cherry.

Frei made a fantastic save on Valeri seven minutes later to keep Seattle in it, but that only mattered for seconds. On 29′  Portland fashioned a five on five counterattack chance. Melano found space at the top of the area and passed out wide. The ball reached Chara on the right, and Melano ran right around a flat-footed Tyrone Mears and onto the end of Chara’s low cross to put the game out of reach.

At 3-0 Portland continued to dominate. They penned Seattle in their own half with quick pressure and smart defending. Diego Chara quickly dispossessed any Sounder midfielder looking to run forward and release pressure, and seemed a perfect stand-in for Lodeiro’s shadow whilst doing so. Valeri and Nagbe distributed in a manner that perfectly exploited the Sounder fissures and kept creating chances. Another fifteen minutes of control were rewarded with center back Steven Taylor’s first goal for his new club in his home debut. Valeri swung a great cross into the area from a set piece on the right, and Taylor headed past Frei for 4-0. The goal capped a picture-perfect half for the Portland Timbers.

The start of the second half saw Sounders rejuvinated. Herculez Gomez came on for an anemic Fernandez, and Tyrone Mears was yanked from the match after a second consecutive nightmare performance in Portland. Roman Torres subbed on for the English right back and Brad Evans slid over to allow Torres to occupy the center with Chad Marshall. The Panamanian captain made his first appearance back from an ACL tear he suffered in September of last year against San Jose. Torres did well in his first match back, showing none of the rust one would expect as he proved a tough challenge for Adi to overcome.

Sounders caught a lucky break just after the second half began. Lodeiro laid the ball off to Andreas Ivanschitz at the top of the box. The Austrian fired off a curler that Steven Taylor tried to head out for a corner, but much to the goal scorer’s horror he instead deflected it into the upper left corner of the net. Ivanschitz was officially credited with the goal but Gleeson had no chance due to the deflection.

Now with a goal back Sounders continued their better spell of play. Portland for their part seemed to take their foot off the pedal. The high pressure characteristic of their first half was nowhere to be seen. This came all came to a crash on 51′ when Timbers left Nicolas Lodeiro alone 30 yards out. With all the time and space he could’ve asked for, the Uruguayan picked out Jordan Morris in the box. The rookie nodded it by Gleeson to put Seattle back in striking distance.

With the scoreline now at 4-2, Timbers woke up and started defending again. Seattle continued their urgency going forward. Joevin Jones and Brad Evans pushed high up the pitch from outside back in an effort to generate width that was lacking earlier. It worked to a certain extent as Sounders outshot Portland 12-1 in the second half. In truth, though, their final touch was clearly missing on the day and a comeback never seemed like a real possibility.

As the game wore on the effects of the Houston game became apparent. Evans, Roldan and Alonso simply didn’t have the energy left to chase down the relentless Portland counters. Timbers were rightly more interested in holding possession and killing the game off than adding to the score, or they likely would have bagged more goals with their lethal transition attack. Tempers started to flare near the end as Adi and Alonso got in a tussle late that Torres saw fit to continue.

After the initial gaffs to start the half Portland did well to keep the Sounders scoreless for the rest of it. They remained organized while dealing with a Sounders side that looked significantly more competent after. The final score was 4-2 but it did not feel that close. It was a dominant game from the home side featuring one of the most complete halves the storied club has ever played.

The win truly was a historic one for Timbers, piling goals on Seattle in the first half in a manner previously not seen in their MLS rivalry. Sounders’ two goals will soon fade from memory but Timbers’ four goal outburst will not.

Chara marshaled Lodeiro all day long. It was particularly impactful in the first half, when Sounders simply couldn’t get out of their own end due to the way Chara cut Lodeiro off from the ball. His defensive work allowed Timbers to throw numbers forward and pile on Seattle while they were down. The assist to Melano didn’t hurt either, but he takes the MotM honors for being the first guy in MLS to shut down Nico Lodeiro.

Portland move four points clear of Seattle in the Western Conference standings with the victory, holding off a recent Sounders surge up the table. The win also puts Timbers at the top of the Cascadia Cup standings on nine points. They next travel to conference leaders FC Dallas. Sounders, for their part, face a crucial six-pointer in San Jose next weekend.