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SEATTLE –The Portland Timbers defeated the Seattle Sounders in a regular-season match at CenturyLink Field for the first time Saturday afternoon, winning 3-2 in front of an announced crowd of 47,521. A pair of goals from Timbers centerback Larrys Mabiala spurred Portland to take all three points from the home of their fiercest rival.
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said the loss was deflating, particularly in the wake of the announcement of new Designated Player Raul Ruidiaz.
“This brings us right back down to earth,” Schmetzer said. “This is a really, really, tough loss. This is going to sting. It’s going to sting for a long time. I think the energy in the building, in the crowd, it was good. I think everybody sensed that before the game. To disappoint those people certainly will wear on us.”
It was a typical Cascadia Cup clash: foul-tempered, high-tempo and rainy—even on the final day of June. The weather wasn’t the game’s only oddity; three of the five goals were scored by centerbacks on corner kicks.
The Timbers grabbed the lead shortly after halftime. Diego Valeri swung in a corner from the right side and Mabiala outjumped Kim Kee-hee for his first goal of the game.
Seattle fired back four minutes later, when Nicolas Lodeiro broke into open space on the right side of the pitch and curled a cross to Portland keeper Jeff Attinella’s back post, where it was finished off with a diving header by Victor Rodriguez.
The Timbers regained the lead in the 57th minute, when Valeri sprung Samuel Armenteros up the right side with a long through ball. Armenteros waited for Seattle left back Waylon Francis to commit, before pulling the ball inside and slotting a left-footed shot past a diving Bryan Meredith.
Chad Marshall pulled the game level once more in the 68th minute with a powerful header from a Lodeiro corner kick, but Mabiala responded in the 74th minute, beating Marshall in the air to head another Valeri corner over Meredith’s outstretched arms.
“I think you have to credit Mabiala,” Schmetzer said. “I think both goals are good. We actually changed the matchups. Kim was on him first, then we put Chad on him. At some point you have to credit (the Timbers). They scored two goals against our centerbacks. You look at MLS, and set-piece goals are important. You look at Chad Marshall getting the best of Mabiala on our second goal. Those are important. We’ll work on that in training to make sure that we’re a little bit sharper on defending inside our box.”
The Timbers outshot Seattle 16-10, including a 12-3 advantage on shots taken from inside the penalty area. The Sounders sent in 23 crosses in open play, but had difficulty linking up in front of goal.
Valeri finished with a match-high eight chances created. The midfielder’s three assists ties his MLS career high for a single match, while Mabiala’s two-goal performance was the first multi-goal game in his 12-year professional career.
The loss drops Seattle to 3-9-3, struggling for points and goals alike as the season approached the halfway mark.
“The current state of affairs is not good,” Schmetzer said. “We have to be realistic. It’s not good. We’ve really put ourselves in a hole. The work that we do during the week to prepare for games, the effort that I think the guys show — I think all of that is there. But at some point, we as coaches need to take responsibility for what we do and players on the field need to take responsibility for what they do. We will not give up. We will continue to try and train well. Players will continue to try and win games, and we’ll see if we can’t start winning a couple games and make that gap smaller.
“Once the team starts believing a little bit, once the team starts scoring some goals, once we get a couple wins, then we can talk about ‘is it too late or not?’”