SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC vs. PORTLAND TIMBERS
CenturyLink Field | Seattle, Wash.
Sunday, August 21 | Week #24 | MLS Game #249
9:30 pm ET (FS1 in US, MLS LIVE in Canada)
Seattle Sounders FC have gone unbeaten in their last three games… three games that have featured recent Designated Player signing, Uruguayan international Nicolás Lodeiro. The electric playmaker has a goal (watch golazo) and three assists since his arrival and has reignited the scoring prowess of Seattle’s attacking duo: Jordan Morris (one goal, two assists since Lodeiro’s arrival) and Clint Dempsey (three goals, one assist since Lodeiro’s arrival). Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer will look for Lodeiro to give Sounders FC life and a positive start to his Cascadia Cup coaching history in his first rivalry match at the helm.
- Nicolas Lodeiro scored his first MLS goal while adding his third assist, and Jordan Morris scored the eighth of his rookie season, as Sounders FC won for a second consecutive match, still undefeated since Brian Schmetzer took over as interim head coach following their 2-1 win against Real Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field.
- The Timbers suffered a fourth consecutive shutout on the road, losing for the third time in their last four matches overall when they fell, 2-0 at D.C. United on Saturday evening.
- The teams are meeting for the second time this season, in the first game of a home-and-home series over the next two weeks. Diego Valeri scored a pair of goals and Fanendo Adi also tallied, as the Timbers took a 3-1 win July 17 at Providence Park.
- The Timbers have never won in Seattle in MLS regular season play, Sounders FC now with a 4-0-2 league record in games at CenturyLink Field. But the Timbers did win there in the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2013.
- The Timbers have won the last two meetings in Portland, including a 4-1 win June 28, 2015 at Providence Park – the three-goal victory equaling Portland’s largest margin of victory against the Sounders since a 3-0 win on June 11, 1977, at Civic Stadium.
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REFEREE: Alan Kelly. AR1 (bench): Adam Wienckowski; AR2 (opposite): Kyle Atkins; 4th: Juan Guzman
MLS Career: 50 games; FC/gm: 25.9; Y/gm: 3.3; R: 12; pens: 21
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: SEA: Osvaldo Alonso … POR: Fanendo Adi, Diego Chara, Alvas Powell
DISABLED LIST: SEA: Roman Torres
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME [MLS] (15 meetings): Sounders FC 7 wins, 26 goals … Timbers 4 wins, 22 goals … Ties 4
AT SEATTLE (7 meetings): Sounders FC 5 wins, 11 goals … Timbers 0 wins, 3 goals … Ties 2
FUTURE MATCH: 8/28: Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders FC, 2 p.m. PT (ESPN1)
LAST MEETING (MLS):
7/17: POR 3, SEA 1 (Valeri 44, 50; Adi 64 - Marshall 59)
- The Timbers took the lead one minute before halftime when Valeri finished off a nice combination with Lucas Melano, curling a precise strike into the bottom right corner of the goal from the edge of the box.
- Portland doubled its lead in the 50th minute when Valeri took a long cross-field ball, popped it over a defender then hit an audacious lob from a difficult angle that sailed over Sounders FC goalkeeper Stefan Frei and bounced in off the far post.
- Sounders FC cut the lead by one in the 59th minute when defender Chad Marshall powered home a header from a corner kick from the center of the box.
- But the margin was restored five minutes later after Melano ventured deep into Seattle's half with the ball, finding Fanendo Adi in the left of the box, and he struck a first-time shot that settled in the back of the net.
- PORTLAND TIMBERS (4-2-3-1): Jake Gleeson - Alvas Powell, Nat Borchers, Liam Ridgewell, Jermaine Taylor - Jack Jewsbury (Ben Zemanski 65), Diego Chara - Darlington Nagbe, Diego Valeri (Jack Barmby 90), Lucas Melano (Ned Grabavoy 83) - Fanendo Adi.
- SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC (4-1-2-3): Stefan Frei - Tyrone Mears, Brad Evans, Chad Marshall, Joevin Jones (Dylan Remick 72) - Osvaldo Alonso - Cristian Roldan, Erik Friberg - Jordan Morris, Nelson Haedo Valdez (Herculez Gomez 77), Andreas Ivanschitz (Aaron Kovar 72).
