Former MLS No. 1 SuperDraft pick Steve Zakuani played six seasons in MLS, all in the Pacific Northwest — five for the Seattle Sounders (2009-2013) and one for the Portland Timbers (2014).
Ahead of Sunday's first Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders match of the 2016 season (3 pm ET on FOX; MLS Live in Canada), Zakuani shares his personal view on the ways both cities and teams experience the rivalry.
A few weeks ago I took my car in for a service appointment in Portland. In the backseat I had a couple of Rave Green Sounder scarves. The attendant noticed one of them and said, “I can tell that’s a scarf from the other team. I don’t really follow soccer, but I hate Seattle.”
Seattle vs Portland is bigger than soccer. It’s two fan bases, two cities, and two teams that genuinely dislike each other. Nowhere else in America will a casual soccer fan use the word “hate” when describing a rival. They simply wouldn’t know that there was another team they were supposed to hate. But in the Pacific Northwest it’s different. Sounders fans hate the Timbers and vice versa.
I experienced this rivalry as a player on both sides and I can tell you that there are big differences in how both locker rooms approach it. The Sounders have always had a core of players and coaches who consider Seattle to be their home – Roger Levesque, Taylor Graham, Zach Scott and Brian Schmetzer to name a few. These guys bleed Rave Green and they always made sure to let us know that we needed to be wired the same way once we joined the team.
After a couple of seasons in Seattle, I began calling it my home as well. To be a Sounder means to hate the Timbers, and playing against the Timbers is as much about winning a soccer game as it is about defending our hometown.
The Sounders view this rivalry as one between two cities, not just two teams. As far as we were concerned, the city of Seattle was bigger, better, and more glamorous than Portland, and so the Sounders needed to be bigger, better, and more glamorous than the Timbers. Seattle wasn’t just our team; it was our home.
Before a US Open Cup game against Portland one year, Schmetzer, our assistant coach, gave the pregame team talk. It didn’t last long, but I have never been so riled up before a game. With deep emotion, he talked about the Sounders vs. Timbers games from the NASL and USL days. He reminded us how much the badge over our hearts meant before ending with a singular rallying cry: “Let’s go out and show why Portland will always be in Seattle’s shadow in every way.”
In 2014, I experienced this rivalry as a member of the Timbers. I don’t think we had a single prominent player on the team who was actually from Portland and so to the Timbers players, this rivalry was all about soccer. The dynamic was different.
When it came to the organization, the Timbers hated being viewed as the annoying little brother and they were sensitive to any public perception that depicted Portland as a less desirable destination for players than Seattle.
As for the team, we wanted to outplay and outclass Seattle on the pitch. Caleb Porter consistently preached that even though Seattle had the bigger names, we would have the better players and would play the better soccer. The motivation in the Timbers' locker room is less about defending Portland as a city, and more about beating Seattle with good soccer so the players and fans can have bragging rights.
A few weeks into my stint as a Timbers player, Caleb said to me: “You’re on the good side now. We are gonna pass these guys off the park and their big names won’t know how to react.”
In my opinion, winning MLS Cup was less about becoming champions, and more about becoming champions before the Seattle Sounders.
I grew up an Arsenal fan and no matter how good or bad our season was going, the one game us fans looked forward to was the North London derby against Tottenham. History, bragging rights and three points were at stake. The same is true for the Sounders-Timbers rivalry.
Portland vs. Seattle has history, the two best fan bases in MLS and a genuine dislike for the other side. There’s nothing like it in North America.
On Sunday we will see one team playing to defend its city, and the other playing for soccer supremacy.
How will it finish? A 2-2 draw.
Steve Zakuani is currently a member of the Sounders broadcast team and resides in the Seattle area. He is a regular guest speaker for corporations and sports teams and operates a non-profit, Kingdom Hope. His autobiography is titled: "500 Days: What I Learned From The Moment That Changed Everything."
