PORTLAND TIMBERS v. SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC

Greetings to my brothers and sisters in Green. After getting our nose bloodied midweek in Los Angeles, Sounders FC seek redemption against auld rivals the Portland Treecutters at the piss-soaked confines of the Morrison Street ground.

What: MLS league match, Portland Timbers v. Seattle Sounders FC.

Where: Morrison Street, Portland, Oregon.

When: 6:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, Saturday 17 May 2025 CE.

At Stake: Points in the league and points in the Cascadia Cup, a regional tournament we haven’t won since 2021. Sounders are currently 13th in the league table, nine points adrift of leaders FC Cincinnati. A victory over the Treecutters might get us in the top 10, with some help from other results. Sounders have not yet played a Cascadia Cup match. Vancouver currently leads Cascadia with a 1:4 victory over the Treecutters on 23 February. In the recent past, Sounders, Vancouver, and Portland played each other three times each in the Cascadia Cup. This season we will play each other only twice. So essentially zero margin for error.

Where to Watch: Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass via Apple TV, Fox Sports 1, and Fox Deportes.

Where to Listen: KJR 93.3 FM and El Rey 1360 AM.

Sounders were riding high, and then we hit a bump in the road. But that’s football then, isn’t it? I’ve read some of the forums on Facebook, and there were some cranky, salty takes on display. Thing is though, I think the result might not have been that different no matter who was in the team. It was a clunker of a match, that much I will grant, but that doesn’t mean that team selection was at fault. In fact, if you look at the numbers, the main problem was we didn’t have enough of the football to establish the tempo. Sometimes the football just won’t go in the net, and then you concede a goal, you’re chasing the match and shit turns pear-shaped. Really doesn’t matter who the teams are. It’s a sadly common tale.

The silver lining is that with each new match, true professionals wipe the shite result from their minds and begin anew with a clean slate. We were embarrassed. We don’t like to be embarrassed. I imagine it will be made clear in the film sessions and in training what to do to avoid a clunky repeat.

There will be plenty of motivation. In the MLS-era, Sounders win at Morrison Street less than 50% of the time. We hate to lose, sure, but we especially hate to lose to the Treecutters from Portland. So hopefully those of us in The Evergreen with the means and inclination have already sorted out their passes for Saturday’s match and arranged personal transport or get on a pair of coaches with ECS. E-mail your travel monkeys and find out the details as the time grows near.

Support is vital. Link up with mates. Link up with ECS. Do what you have to do, short of crime. If you’re remaining behind, link up with your mates at pubs and dwellings for stories and tellings. Houses and flats for pints and cats. Pie and chips for boats and ships. Those of you heading to Portland, look after one another and tie your scarves proper. Keep your heads. Be loud and proud. And above all, hold on to your seats…it’s gonna be a wooly one.

It’s Cascadia Cup football, under the Saturday night lights of Morrison Street. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Before kick-off, please join me in the auld toast: “TO THE SEATTLE SOUNDERS FOOTBALL CLUB…AND VICTORY!!!”

He was just a hair’s breadth from scoring on a snap header that hit the

bar midweek. Pedro’s got a goal in him. I feel it in my bones.

The Good News

If you’re looking forward to another Sounders top 10 finish in the league, and watching them take their best shot at Leagues Cup and MLS Cup every season, then you’re in for a treat. Since 2016 when Schmetzer was named Manager — with the exception of the 2022 season, when we won CONCACAF Champions League (NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER BY AN MLS SIDE, but holy shit was that a masterful level of Public Relations fuckery) and we finished 21st in the league — we have placed between 3rd and 7th in the MLS Championship.

Team selection for the midweek match was spot-on, and it was good to see the Gaffer do the right thing in terms of man-management. He should be given credit for this, regardless of the match result. Sensible man-management equals less injuries for older players. This is significant, as we have seven players that are aged 30+ in the squad (Frei 38, Kim 35, Joao Paulo 33, Gomez Andrade 32, Rusnak 30, Morris 30, and Arriola 30, with Arriola out for the season and in rehabilitation after knee surgery).

Nice to see De Rosario given a chance in the team. Given the opportunities, he will score a hatful of goals for us. You can take that prediction to the bank.

Good to see Leyva in the team as well, he is surprisingly under-utilised for a United States youth international.

Musovski has been scoring goals; this can only be a good thing.

We have scads of youngers with bags full of skill. They are waiting, waiting, waiting for their chance to contribute. Tsukanome has scored a hatful of goals in the Sounders FC Reserves. His teammates Jacob Castro, Antino Lopez, Snyder Brunell, Peter Kingston, and Sounders FC Academy loanee Edson Carli are waiting. In the Sounders senior squad, Baker, Baker-Whiting, Hawkins, and Sousa are ready to make significant contributions in the team if given the opportunity.

The Bad News

Portland have lost only once in their last 10 matches in the league and 11 matches in all competitions (6-4-1). During this period they have posted four clean sheets, against Colorado, Austin, Kansas City, and Salt Lake.

Form is dead-even between the two sides in all competitions at 3-1-1 in the last five matches. Portland score 0.20 goals/match more. Sounders concede 0.09 goals/match less. The numbers point it out as a crap-shoot. But then that’s every match in MLS by design, isn’t it?

Sounders struggle on the road (3-2-5). Portland has only lost once at home this season (3-2-1).

Portland outspent us in the transfer market this season by a ratio of over 14:1 (see Intangibles).

If you are wanting Sounders to sign players capable of dominating the league (Dempsey, Martins, Ruidiaz, Lodeiro, etc.), are wanting to see us ever win US Open Cup again to tie the record of five titles set by Bethlehem Steel and Maccabee Los Angeles, or see us ever win the league, which we only did once under Sigi (RIP) in 2014, you are going to be deeply, deeply disappointed going forward.

The Side I Would Select

Barring any injuries in training, I’d have this lot in the 4-2-3-1:

GK     Frei

LB     Nouhou

RCH    Kim

LCH    Gomez Andrade

RB     Alex

LDM    Vargas

RDM   Cristian

LF     Kent

CAM   Rusnak

RF     Minoungou

CF     Musovski

The Side I Think The Gaffer Will Select

Regardless of minutes played midweek, I’d expect to see these in the 5-2-3 shape. That said, I only guessed three out of 11 for the midweek fixture at LAFC, so do with that what you will.

GK     Frei

LB     Rothrock

LCH    Nouhou

CH     Kim

LCH    Gomez Andrade

RB     Alex

LDM    Vargas

RDM   Cristian

LF     Rusnak

CF     Musovski

RF     Kent

Intangibles

Officiating.

The Referee for Saturday’s match in Portland will be Rosendo Mendoza.

Portland record with Rosendo Mendoza as Ref: 4-1-3

Sounders FC record with Rosendo Mendoza as Ref: 5-1-2

Outspent again.

Sounders FC 2025 transfer spend: €1.45M (potential of up to €2.49M)

Portland Timbers 2025 transfers spend: €14.87M

The PNW Derby.

Maybe the numbers and form are out the window. This fixture tends to sharpen and magnify the competitive edge in both sides.

General notes on personnel

Portland transfers IN:

Lassiter (Chicago Fire) free

Ortiz (Independiente del Valle) €1.5M

Kelsy (Shakhtar Donetsk) €6M

Smith - draft

Fory (Independiente Medellin) €1.45M

Da Costa (RC Lens) €5.74M

Fernandez (Colorado Rapids) €176,000

Portland transfers OUT:

Ikoba (FC Cincinnati) free

Loria (Saprissa) free

Toye (Sporting Kansas City) free

Williamson (Charlotte FC) €97,000

Sulte (Indy Eleven) loan

Evander (FC Cincinnati) €11.5M

Comparison against common opponents

NSH 2:0 POR

SEA 3:0 NSH

(against NSH: POR 0-0-1 -2, SEA 1-0-0 +3) decisive edge SEA

COL 0:3 POR

COL 1:1 SEA

(against COL: POR 1-0-0 +3, SEA 0-1-0 0) decisive edge POR

POR 3:1 HOU

SEA 0:0 HOU

HOU 1:3 SEA

(against HOU: POR 1-0-0 +2, SEA 1-1-0 +2) marginal edge SEA

POR 3:3 LAFC

SEA 5:2 LAFC

LAFC 4:0 SEA

(against LAFC: POR 0-1-0 0, SEA 1-0-1 -1) marginal edge SEA

SJ 4:1 POR

SJ 1:1 SEA

(against SJ: POR 0-0-1 -3, SEA 0-1-0 0) edge SEA

RSL 0:0 POR

RSL 2:0 SEA

(against RSL: POR 0-1-0 0, SEA 0-0-1 -2) edge POR

Know Thine Enemy

The Treecutters as they lined up in their 0:0 draw against Salt Lake at the State Street ground on 14 May.

GOALKEEPER

Maxime Crepeau, 31

Canada (24/0)

Notable Clubs: CF Montreal (3/0), Vancouver Whitecaps FC (57/0), Los Angeles FC (40/0), Portland Timbers (24/0)

Estimated Transfer Value: €3.5M

Notes: Developed by Celtix du Haut-Richelieu and Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Named USL Goalkeeper of the Year in 2018. Won MLS Cup and MLS league championship double in 2022 with LAFC.

DEFENCE

Claudio Bravo, 28

Argentina

Notable Clubs: Banfield (49/0), Portland Timbers (106/2)

Estimated Transfer Value: €1.8M

Notes: Developed by CA Banfield.

Juan Mosquera, 22

Colombia (2/0)

Notable Clubs: Independiente Medellin (48/3), Portland Timbers (75/3)

Estimated Transfer Value: €3M

Notes: Developed by Club Carlos Sarmiento Lora and Independiente Medellin.

Dario Zuparic, 33

Croatia

Notable Clubs: Cibalia (58/1), Pescara (99/1), Rijeka (89/4), Portland Timbers (140/1)

Estimated Transfer Value: €1.2M

Notes: Produced by Sladorana Zupanja, Granicar Zupanja, and Cibalia. Won a league championship and two Croatian Cup titles with HNK Rijeka.

Kamal Miller, 27

Canada (47/0)

Notable Clubs: Orlando City SC (28/0), CF Montreal (60/3), Inter Miami CF (22/0), Portland Timbers (35/0)

Estimated Transfer Value: €2.8M

Notes: Developed by Malvern SC, North Scarborough SC, and Vaughan Azzuri. Won a Canadian Championship with CF Montreal. Won a Leagues Cup with Inter Miami CF.

Antony, 23

Brazil

Notable Clubs: Corinthians (3/0), Arouca (63/8), Portland Timbers (55/11)

Estimated Transfer Value: €4M

Notes: Full name: Antony Alves Santos. Developed by Coritiba, Renovicente, and Joinville.

MIDFIELD

Cristhian Paredes, 26

Paraguay (6/0)

Notable Clubs: Sol de America (30/4), Portland Timbers (174/12)

Estimated Transfer Value: €2M

Notes: Developed by Sol de America.

David Da Costa, 24

Portugal

Notable Clubs: Lens (107/9), Portland Timbers (13/2)

Estimated Transfer Value: €6M

Notes: Developed by Lens. Played for Portugal at youth levels (11/2).

Joao Ortiz, 29

Ecuador (9/0)

Notable Clubs: Universidad Catolica (1/0), Plaza Colonia (3/0), Deportivo Quito (2/0), Cumbaya (18/2), Clan Juvenil (27/1), Deportivo Cuenca (20/0), Delfin (55/3), LDU Quito (13/0), Independiente del Valle (68/2), Portland Timbers (11/0)

Estimated Transfer Value: €1.8M

Notes: Full name: Julio Joao Ortiz Landazuri. Developed by El Nacional and Universidad Catolica. Won a Copa Sudamericana, Ecuadoran league title, Recopa Sudamericana, and a Ecuadoran Supercopa with Independiente del Valle.

Santiago Moreno, 25

Colombia (1/0)

Notable Clubs: America de Cali (41/7), Portland Timbers (120/19)

Estimated Transfer Value: €3.5M

Notes: A native of Cali, Colombia. Signed with Portland on 29 July 2021.

FORWARD

Kevin Kelsy, 20

Venezuela

Notable Clubs: Mineros de Guayana (33/5), Shakhtar Donetsk (27/7), FC Cincinnati (23/6), Portland Timbers (13/4)

Estimated Transfer Value: €4M

Notes: Developed by Mineros de Guayana. Played for Venezuela (13/2) at youth levels. Won two Ukrainian Premier League titles with Shakhtar Donetsk.

Familiar Faces

Portland Goalkeeper Trey Muse was at Sounders FC Academy and played for the Sounders FC Reserves (24/0) until his move to San Diego Loyal SC in 2021.

Squads

Portland from:

Crepeau, Muse, Sulte, Araujo, Kamal Miller, Bravo, Zuparic, Eric Miller, Surman, Smith, Fory, Mosquera, Da Costa, Paredes, Chara, Fernandez, Ayala, Ortiz, Lassiter, Mora, Antony, Rodriguez.

Sounders FC from:

Frei, Thomas, Baker, Baker-Whiting, Bell, Burney, Gomez Andrade, Hawkins, Kim, Kossa-Rienzi, Nouhou, Alex, Sousa, Joao Paulo, Leyva, Cristian, Rusnak, Vargas, de la Vega, De Rosario, Ferreira, Kent, Minoungou, Musovski, Rothrock.

Injury List

(as listed on mlssoccer.com at press time)

Portland -

OUT: Kelsy (lower body, we’ll say sprained testicle), McGraw (back), Pantemis (leg).

MATCHDAY DECISION: Chara (lower body, we’ll say chlamydia).

Sounders FC -

OUT: Morris (hamstring), Ragen (hamstring), Arriola (knee).

MATCHDAY DECISION: none.

Discipline

(as listed on mlssoccer.com at press time)

No players suspended.

Fun Fact

Per Sounders FC Communications: Since 1975, Sounders and Portland have met 122 times, with the all-time series favouring us 57-18-47.