Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders | 2020 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

2020 MLS Regular Season – Week 13
Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders
Providence Park – Portland
September 23– 10:00 PM ET

STREAMING: MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US

LOCAL TV: FOX 12 Plus (KPDX), JOEtv

Longtime Cascadia rivals meet for a third time this season when the Portland Timbers host Seattle Sounders Wednesday night at Providence Park.

The Timbers (5W-4L-3D) are coming off a stunning 6-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes, while the Sounders (6W-2L-3D) defeated LAFC 3-0 at home to move atop the Western Conference table.

The teams split a pair of earlier meetings, with the Sounders claiming a 3-0 at Providence Park on August 23 and the Timbers returning the favor at CenturyLink Field with a 2-1 win.

Portland Timbers

Led by the ageless Diego Valeri, Portland ran roughshod over the Earthquakes Saturday night. Valeri had two goals and an assist en route to winning MLS Player of the Week honors. Yimmi Chara scored for a second consecutive game as well.

"I think we've seen a Diego that still has the capability to be able to play at the highest level," Giovanni Savarese said after the game. "His movements are very sharp, his quality is still intact and he's taking care of himself in the best possible way to provide these types of performances. ... I think there's a lot of positives beside the three points, beside the result. I think individual performances were great and Valeri had a tremendous performance today. His fluidity, his movements, were part of the good movements that everybody had today."

Updated team roster
Injury Report:
- OUT: Dairon Asprilla (M) - left knee injury
- OUT: Blake Bodily (M) - right thigh injury
- OUT: Sebastian Blanco (M) - right ACL injury
- QUESTIONABLE: Larrys Mabiala (D) - right thigh injury
- QUESTIONABLE: Chris Duvall (D) - right lower leg injury
- QUESTIONABLE: Jeff Attinella (GK) - lower back spasms
- QUESTIONABLE: Bill Tuiloma (D) - left thigh injury
- QUESTIONABLE: Tomas Conechny (M) - right shoulder injury
Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: None

Seattle Sounders

After a 7-1 victory over the Quakes, the Sounders made it back-to-back decisive victories, defeating LAFC 3-0 at home last Friday night. Nico Lodeiro converted a pair of penalty kicks and he's now been perfect on 14 regular season attempts, more than any other player with a 100 percent record from the spot in league history, per Opta.

"I believe that we kind of have figured out a way how to kind of play against them that seems to be working,“ Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said in his post-match press conference Friday.