Timbers Win 2-2 in Seattle

Author’s Note: I am currently writing this in the backseat of a car driving back to Portland. The grind never stops.

The Portland Timbers are now unbeaten in 10 consecutive games at Lumen Field.

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For those who turned this game off after the first half, I understand. Watching the Timbers concede two baffling goals (one to Ruidiaz ((of course)) and one to Leo Chu) and fail to do anything noteworthy in the attack is a trademark of the 2023 Timbers when playing away from home. It looked like the players just weren’t up to the task. Out of the eleven on the pitch, only Santiago Moreno was visibly showing the effort that was necessary to get a result. We went into halftime bewildered, completely outplayed, and getting ready to accept the reality that the season would be completely over.

However, the Seattle Sounders continue to innovate. The team that is constantly pushing the limits of what you can do on a soccer pitch had a destiny to fulfill tonight. No one in the stadium knew it except for one player who made it possible in multiple ways. You could argue that Leo Chu’s substitution in the April 15th match at Providence Park completely shifted the game in the Timbers’ favor. But Brian Schmetzer removed him from the game on that occasion. Today, he took his destiny into his own hands. He earned a yellow card due to a long obnoxious celebration after scoring his goal. Honestly, it’s understandable. Rivalry games are full of emotion and he’s a player who desperately needed a goal tonight. However, that emotion is a double-edged sword. He forgot that he was on a yellow and got sent off after a hard challenge on Zac McGraw early in the second half. That was not an innovation from the Sounders, rather them playing the hits. Jackson Ragen is still the man who had that idea last season, and Leo Chu gets no extra points for completely stealing his flow. That opened the door for the Timbers, but they didn’t bust through it immediately. It took a triple substitution to truly change the tide. Dairon Asprilla is cut from a different cloth. He was on the pitch for LESS THAN A MINUTE and found the back of the net from a long throw-in. Brilliant. But this stage was begging for a signature moment from a player who needed one desperately. Evander knew the stage was his, and hit an absolute THUNDERBASTARD three minutes after Dairon’s goal hit the back of the net. 2-2. Both teams tried to find the eventual winner, but it never came for either team. The Seattle Sounders got out to a dominating 2-0 lead, and blew it at home to their biggest rivals. Never stop innovating, you brilliant idiots. You make the world a better place for every Timbers fan and we’re supposed to hate you with every fiber of our being. We will always hate you, and you always make trips up north worth it. In addition to 10 straight unbeaten at your horrific home stadium, where seagulls feed on the trash your brain-dead fans leave seconds after they leave their seats in utter disappointment, the Timbers now haven’t lost to you in 6 consecutive matches. That has to hurt. You used up all your dumb luck on August 15, 2021, and you forever angered the soccer gods while doing that. Such arrogance couldn’t go unpunished, and now you’ve made a possible season-ending result turn into the most fantastic of draws. I guess I have to love you now, in the weirdest possible way. While in the most glorious and confusing of fugue states, I repeatedly screamed “Get that fish off the pitch” at your silly orca mascot who was failing spectacularly at stopping post-match penalty kicks from children. Now your own fans will scream that at you, and I literally couldn’t be happier.

The players on the pitch deserve a lot of words tonight. Some of those will be good, and some will be bad. I’m not going to talk about the referee because every referee in a Timbers-Sounders game cannot tell the difference between a flopping fish and a legitimate foul. Nouhou leads the league in uncalled fouls, and the rest of the team is a collection of conceptual piss artists. Some things will never change, and it’s not worth getting into serious detail about the refereeing performance tonight. Instant Replay will cover a lot of them anyways. I previously spoke about Santiago Moreno in my brief recap of tonight’s events. He’s the Man of the Match for me. He didn’t register a goal involvement, but gave the maximum amount of effort until he just couldn’t run anymore. I love seeing that stuff. Zac McGraw, you were so close to Man of the Match as well, and I love seeing how well you represent the Portland Timbers. Those are the players who truly did as much right as they could. Dario Zuparic is an honorary member of this category. 

Dairon Asprilla deserves his own category. He's a deity who saves his biggest miracles for the moments when they’re needed the most. When he nodded the ball past Frei with his first touch, he raised his shirt and put it over his face to reveal a message to honor his dad, who passed away a year ago today. He got a yellow card, but he knows how to play when on a yellow. He will never stop performing miracles, and it’s almost October.

There’s a lot of players who fall into the gray area. Let’s start from the back and keep going up the pitch. David Bingham was insanely frustrating in the first half. Oddly, it didn’t have anything to do with the saves he made. That’s the good part of his performance today. However, he’s a key part in the way the Timbers build out from the back. Tonight, the Timbers could not play out from the back, and he’s a big reason why. Juan Mosquera is so good going forward, but he can get so lost defensively. That’s going to keep him in Portland for another season while he keeps improving in that area. Diego Chara had a lot to do tonight, but still kept his energy up. He didn’t have the best game, but he’s Diego Chara. Cristhian Paredes is having trouble in possession, but he’s a good presser. In order to truly be the complete 8 that he can be, he needs to get better in possession. Evander was plodding along in the first half, but did equalize the game with that sublime strike that had Stefan Frei grasping at air. I think he needs to take more risks in possession. You saw that ball he sent in late in the second half that just needed someone tall to get on the end of it? More of that, please. Franck Boli continued to bring the energy, but that man needs a goal. Antony didn’t do much once coming on, and I’m not too concerned about it. He just needs more time to acclimate. Sebastian Blanco also brought the energy, but wasn’t that good in the attack. I’m also willing to excuse his play tonight, because he helped bring the fire that the Timbers so desperately lacked in the first half. 

Now we move on to the players who were completely off their game tonight. Putting Eric Miller in that category might be harsh, but I’ve seen what he can do on the right side of a back four. He’s not as natural on the left side and it showed tonight. I’m confused why Claudio Bravo didn’t see the pitch tonight. Felipe Mora missed two serious chances in the span of 10 seconds and doesn’t offer a lot in terms of the press. I think the path forward is starting Franck Boli and bringing Mora off the bench. Yimmi Chara was outright awful tonight. He’s earning DP money and is a black hole in the attack. As long as he occupies a DP spot, this team will not be able to reach its full potential. I don’t like being harsh, but when you are a DP you NEED TO PLAY LIKE ONE. No coincidence that we got back into this game after he left the pitch. 

Congratulations to the Vancouver Whitecaps. You have won the 2023 Cascadia Cup! While I am sad that the Timbers couldn’t hold onto it, the Whitecaps were definitely a deserving winner. Since the Timbers entered MLS, they have never won the Cascadia Cup in back to back seasons. At least tonight’s result prevented Seattle from winning it. Sigh.

The Timbers remain 12th in the Western Conference; 4 points behind the playoff line. There’s still plenty of the season left to go, and it’s not over yet. It will take a lot for the Timbers to make the playoffs, but it can’t be written off yet.

Tonight’s result is incredibly conflicting. It didn’t help our playoff standing and it gave Cascadia away. However, these kind of results can galvanize a locker room. We’re still waiting for our second consecutive win, but everyone leaving that stadium tonight was in the happiest of moods. Miles Joseph also acknowledged how good the result was, and took pride in keeping both streaks alive. Tonight, the Portland Timbers reminded the world that no matter how much the Sounders whine about it, they’ll always be the little brother. A full week of rest awaits the Timbers before they return to Providence Park to face LAFC next Saturday. Let’s see how the week treats them. They delivered for their fans once again after making us believe that we were in for a beatdown of possibly historic proportions. Special stuff from “The Greatest Team You’ve Ever Seen,” and the best draw I will ever witness. Until the Sounders innovate further, of course.

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