It's Cascadia time! The Sounders will play their first match against a local opponent on Sunday evening as the hated Portland Timbers are in town. Captain Brad Evans is back with his latest Captain's Notes to detail the match ahead.
Coming off a tough result against LA, we wanted to get a win on the road against Colorado. It's always a tough place to play with the altitude and last week, it was against a team that was coming off a 4-0 victory. I thought that we played not as well as we thought we chould have played, but the most important thing is that we got the result. It was a bit of a scramble in the first half as the teams tried to figure each other out. We had to figure out their midfield with five players and they were able to overpower us a bit in the first half and create chances.
Lamar's first goal was an absolute thing of beauty. That came off of Colorado hitting the post. Right from that, it was just four passes and we scored a goal. That's soccer and that's why this sport is so great.
We were fortunate enough to get the second goal leading into halftime. We made it 2-1 before the half and then Oba sealed it with one of the most ridiculous goals I've ever seen. We got out of there with three points.
Men in Kilts was rounded out this week. We had a goal of $60,000. That was met and exceeded. We raised $84,000 for Ronald McDonald House Charities which is absolutely phenominal. Thanks to everyone who voted and got their donations in. If you don't have a chance to donate money, please donate your time if you can.
We had a great week of preparation. We went over a lot defensively and offensively in hopes of figuring out what we need to do to break this team down. We looked at what we can do better against five in the midfield which is something we might face against Portland. I think in all of the games they've won this season they've played with a 4-2-3-1. Any time they played with a 4-4-2 formation, they have not gotten a result.
Some key players for them, like Darlington Nagbe - who is that cog for them right now - Diego Chara, who seems to always have good games against us, and Fanendo Adi up front who is a target striker. He gets his feet and head on the end of everything. We need to be aware of these guys and that's going to be absolutely key.
We've got a full strength lineup, save for Chad Marshall but if there's someone you want filling in, it's Zach Scott. That says a lot about the history of the Seattle-Portland rivalry. You know he's going to be ready to go when the whistle blows. I'm extremely excited about Sunday.
If we get a result, we start climbing the table and we have to make home a fortress. Last time I said that was three weeks ago when we got the win against Houston and nothing changes. We have to get the good results at home because on the road, you never know what's going to happen. We have been telling each other all week that this is rivalry week. You can expect a pumped-up team and we'll be ready to go Sunday night.
Go Sounders! Beat Portland!
