PORTLAND, Ore. — It was a typical Seattle Sounders FC performance – bad news for the Portland Timbers. Over the course of a match that asked the visiting team to stay strong and wait, the Sounders stayed strong and waited. And then they broke through, scoring three times over the final 18 regulation minutes of their trip to Providence Park, starting their reboot to the 2020 Major League Soccer season with a 3-0 victory over the Portland Timbers.
“Sometimes you need a hard wake up call to get out of a honeymoon,” Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese offered post-match, casting the night’s result in light of Portland’s triumph at the recent MLS is Back Tournament. “Unfortunately, we gave up a game where we had control. Once they scored, we just gave it to them too easy, their two other goals. Then it became very difficult to get back into it.”
For the MLS is Back champions, this was not how the regular season was supposed to restart. And for the first 45 minutes of the game, Portland’s first match in Goose Hollow since March was reminiscent of how games transpired in Orlando. They had held Seattle to only one shot – a 35-yard try from midfielder Gustav Svensson that was blocked before it reached the penalty box. Perhaps the Timbers didn’t take an early lead as they did so often in Florida, but as the first half unfolded, Portland was beginning to find more space going forward. Halftime arrived with some small momentum built.
But from the early moments of the second period, Seattle began blunting that surge. An early second half chance for Svensson could have opened the scoring, while a miss from just outside the six-yard box from Raúl Ruidéaz came after the Sounders had driven two passes from dangerous spots toward the front of goal. Perhaps Seattle hadn’t taken over the game at that point, but by the hour mark, they had started to match Portland’s potential.
“Until the second goal of the game, it was on [ours] ...,” Timbers captain Diego Valeri said. “We had some moments, if we score the goal, the game is completely different. We were unlucky in some moments, inefficient in some moments, and in a game like this, you always get punished.”
The first punishment came in the 72nd minute, with a Ruídíaz lunge at a near-post ball beating a surprised Steve Clark from 10 yards out. Then Ruídíaz struck again, sealing the game in the 83rd minute after getting beneath and behind Timbers defender Larrys Mabiala, eventually chipping Clark into an empty goal. Kelvin Leerdam’s 85th minute insurance was both unneeded and salt in Portland’s wound.
“We’re all going to sleep a little bit poorly tonight, but it’s got to be a quick turnover,” right back Chris Duvall said, when asked how the team moves on to their match on Wednesday at the San Jose Earthquakes (7:30pm PT, FOX 12 PLUS (KPDX)). “We’ve got training tomorrow. We start preparing for San Jose immediately. We have another game in three days. Regardless of how long it usually would take us to bounce back from something like this, we don’t have time to sulk on it. We don’t have time to think about what just happened. We’ve got to move on.
In the wake of the loss, part of the media’s focus from was on ambiance over results. Because of Multnomah Country’s restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, fans were not allowed to attend the match. Family and close friends were the only ones permitted within Portland’s mass gatherings restrictions, with the noise usually provided by a crowd of over 25,000 supplied instead from the stadium’s audio system. The chants were familiar, even if the delivery felt slightly off.
“It was nice to be at home again, but obviously without our supporters,” Valeri said. “It’s weird. And it’s not the same.”
Such will be the case for the Timbers’ next two home games: a visit from Real Salt Lake this coming Saturday, with Los Angeles FC scheduled to visit Providence Park to conclude MLS’s six-game, first-phase block on September 13. Over that time, the Timbers will have to address the new questions that linger from Sunday’s performance: what caused the late-game breakdowns, and why wasn’t the attack able to replicate their MLS is Back form?
“This is how amazing this game is,” Savarese said. “You can touch glory in Orlando, but then today, in 10, 15 minutes, you can feel very defeated after a game [where] I felt we did a lot to get three points prior to them scoring a goal ...”
Ultimately, 90 minutes may not be enough to cause a huge worries; at least, it may not be enough in the face of the seven games Portland just finished in Orlando. But coming out of MLS is Back, it was natural to question whether that tournament’s momentum could be carried forward, and if it couldn’t, when could the Timbers come back to earth.
It didn’t take long. On Sunday, Portland was reminded of how quickly fortunes can change, be it in a rivalry match or between tournament triumph and regular-season renewal. Now, the Timbers face a short turnaround before their trip to San Jose, where they’ll try to keep a pattern from building out of disappointment.
“[It’s] a learning lesson, a tough one, because it hurts,” according to Savarese. “You never want to lose against Seattle, especially in our home … For us, today is not a positive day.”
