Any time the Timbers come to town, there is a chance for the best of heroic excellence. Instead, the Sounders delivered the worst of mind-boggling, titanic failure.
Everyone on this Sounders club has major aura, as they showed when they won an instant (albeit very messy) classic Heritage Cup match on Wednesday. The question is: can they take this all the way to the Shield?
The Sounders haven't had the best go of it in the last two games, drawing against two teams they should have beaten and losing quite a bit of ground in the Shield race. What does Saturday's game say about the team?
It was a game many previous iterations of the Sounders would have let fall to a draw or even a disastrous loss. And yet the Sounders held out the win, even without Cristian Roldan.
Despite a two-goal loss in the first leg and a road score for Tigres UANL, the Sounders nearly came away with a semifinals berth in CCC. But the final cherry on top evaded them in the end, and though there were plenty of silver linings, it was an early exit for the dynasty-aspirant Seattle.