Sounders FC and the Portland Timbers own the fiercest rivalry in MLS. Few disagree, which makes their first meeting of the season on Sunday the focal point of the MLS weekend. But since Seattle moved to MLS in 2009 and Portland followed two years later, the rivalry’s taken on an increasingly contentious tenor. Swelling crowds, Designated Players and tightly contested games largely played on national television have given it an international caliber.
Here’s a look at five of Sounders FC’s top wins over the Timbers since joining MLS in 2009. A new era consistently defined by resounding Sounders FC victories.
5. October 7, 2012 (Sounders FC win 3-0 at home)
Sounders FC’s well-publicized season attendance figures are impressive, but the team’s single-game figures tend to steal the show. As we’ll see later down the list, the highest attended Sounders FC match in history ended in a victory over the Timbers, too, but this one holds a special place in the rivalry because of the final scoreline. It’s the most lopsided win by either team in this rivalry in the four seasons both have been in MLS. While Sounders FC owns a pair of two-goal wins, the Timbers haven’t won a single MLS game over Seattle since 2011 by more than a goal.
Everything clicked for Seattle in this match, and it helped that the CenturyLink Field crowd was No. 2 in MLS history for a single game (though it was soon to be eclipsed by No. 4 on our list less than a year later). After Mamdou Danso put an own goal past his keeper in the 25th, Sounders FC bossed the rest of the match. Eddie Johnson and Fredy Montero added goals, and the back line buckled down to pitch a shutout. The implications made the victory even sweeter. The win was Seattle’s 14th of the season and pushed the hopeless Timbers’ winless streak to six matches.
4. August 25, 2013 (Sounders FC win 1-0 at home)
A match between the Galaxy and the MetroStars in 1996 has owned the MLS record for single-game attendance since the league’s inaugural season. The Sounders scintillating 1-0 victory over the Timbers in 2013 is the only match since to break the 67,000 barrier since. The planets seemed to align for this one, considering it was also Clint Dempsey’s home debut after Sounders FC secured his services earlier that summer.
The game went exactly like a neutral observer might’ve expected. With the teams evenly matched, Portland foul machine Pa Modou Kah scythed down Eddie Johnson outside the box to give Seattle a free kick in the 60th minute. Deadeye free kick specialist Mauro Rosales put the ball on Johnson’s head, and he nodded it past Donovan Ricketts for the eventual game-winner. Heck of a way to re-introduce Dempsey to the league, and the second-highest single game attendance in MLS history went down as a Sounders FC victory.
3. July 9, 2014 (Sounders FC win 3-1 in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals)
There’s something about a win over the Timbers that tends to launch Sounders FC onto bigger things. After having its four-year streak of reaching the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final broken in 2013, Seattle re-launched itself into the discussion in earnest last season. After rolling over PSA Elite and topping the San Jose Earthquakes in penalties, Sounders FC met up with the Timbers again in the quarterfinal. Played in front of a packed, raucous crowd at Starfire, Seattle legged out one of the most exciting cup matches in recent memory.
After a scoreless first half, Seattle got the first when Osvaldo Alonso finished a feed from Lamar Neagle in the 69th. After a dominant spell that stretched on for miles, it was a deserved lead, but it didn’t last. In the final minute of stoppage time, Darlington Nagbe uncorked an impossible shot that beat Stefan Frei and forced extra time. After Diego Chara earned a red card nine minutes into the first extra period, Kenny Cooper netted the winner in the 111th, and Marco Pappa drilled close the coffin five minutes later. Two wins later and Sounders FC was the Open Cup champion for the fourth time.
2. July 10, 2011 (Sounders FC win 3-2 on the road)
When the Timbers finally joined MLS in 2011, they certainly played up to their reputation as Seattle’s eager little brother. The team had installed a billboard less than a mile from CenturyLink Field advertising Portland as “Soccer City, USA,” which went out to a national broadcast on ESPN. Unfortunately, the first ever MLS match between the two later that year ended without resolution in a 1-1 draw in Seattle. The return match in Portland, however, was a thrilling encounter, and Sounders FC went into the record books as the first of the clubs to take all three points in MLS.
The game itself was arguably the most exciting ever played between the two teams, and it was possibly the most exciting Sounders FC win in a league match since 2009. All five goals came in the second half, and Seattle fell behind on two different occasions. The latter of those came in the 69th minute, which precipitated a furious comeback kicked off by a Fredy Montero goal in the 74th. Then, in the 83rd, Osvaldo Alonso drilled a penalty kick and Sounders FC leapfrogged to second in the Western Conference.
1. July 1, 2009 (Sounders FC win 2-1 in the U.S. Open Cup third round)
The Sounders didn’t have to wait long into their first MLS season before they faced their old nemesis. The Timbers were still two years removed from their first season in the top flight, but Sounders FC pulled the ripcord on its first division odyssey earlier that year. As it turned out, the Timbers were a vital stepping stone en route to Seattle’s first major trophy of its MLS era. In a lot of ways, the 2009 U.S. Open Cup was vital for everything that came next.
This game, played in Portland, is famous in Seattle (and infamous in Portland) as the 48-seconds game, when club legend Roger Levesque finished a Sanna Nyassi cross inside the first minute for the opening goal. If Levesque hadn’t etched his name onto the hearts of Seattleites everywhere already, his goal celebration did the job. After he scored, he had Nate Jacqua pantomime chopping him down like a tree before flopping onto the ground. The Sounders went on to win 2-1 en route to their first of three consecutive U.S. Open Cup titles.
