Portland Timbers 1-1 Seattle Sounders: It Was the [BLANK] of Times

I think cuffs and collars matched. You?

Just to note it, these posts should get shorter the deeper we go into Major League Soccer’s 2025 regular season. Barring new signings in the summer, at some point in any season, the teams have what they have when it comes to the competence of their coach and the quality of their players, strong suits and weak links will be well-known in their equal parts.

Have the Portland Timbers reached that point at…hold on…14 games into the season? Here and there, maybe, but not overall? Nah. Let’s get to it…

About the Game
I didn’t clock how few shots the Timbers fired in Saturday’s 1-1 draw versus the Seattle Sounders until checking the final stats (still catching up, still not wholly connected to the game-day experience). Not what one wants to see in terms of offensive output, obviously, but it didn’t translate into the vague chatter I’d caught here and there about Portland being lucky to escape a loss. The Sounders found their chances – particularly from the low-to-mid 30s when the long ball to Danny Musovski and Roy…er, Ryan Kent was very much on (hold this thought) – but the final score didn’t look like they borrowed it from another game or anything, cuffs and collars matched, etc. Still, seeing just five shots total and knowing at least one of those counted as more hopeful than likely (e.g., Santiago Moreno’s at the 22nd) sets a fan to fretting about the latest drop-off on the attacking side (unless my math’s mistaken, the Timbers have been good for ¾ goal/game since the beginning of May). Per the tone of all the above, Seattle hardly piled on the chances, but I’ve already gotten ahead of myself.

Seeing Kamal Miller in a foot race with, oh, 65% of the league generally spells trouble and seeing Musovski win the decisive one felt inevitable. To his credit, Miller stalled a full breakout and Finn Surman did well to put himself between Albert Rusnak and Maxime Crepeau’s goal…only to tragically leave the five-hole open for Rusnak to shoot through. Seeing a similar play almost come off for a second Seattle goal got a couple dings out of the alarm bell, but Crepeau had a better angle to block Musovski’s shot and got down righteously to cover it. Portland hadn’t been helpless to that point - Juan David Mosquera’s solo/run shot at the 9th minute announced…a presence - but it took most of the half for them to build an attack that misdirected the Sounders defense. Maybe the surprise came from David Da Costa switching to the right, maybe it came from getting the ball behind Seattle’s midfield in one pass; whatever happened, the Sounders defense lost track of Da Costa and Moreno in rapid succession and paid the price with an easy equalizer that, despite credible efforts here and there, they never got around to erasing.

If The Official Numbers are to be believed – and this circles back to those five total shots mentioned above – Portland fired just one shot in the entirety of the second half. Assuming my notes are accurate (at your peril; only my credibility takes a hit), that shot involved a cross to Felipe Mora by Moreno. Whatever Mora did in that moment didn’t merit inclusion in the full highlights and, it bears repeating, Portland didn’t do much on the attacking side Saturday night. There’s not a ton of shame in that, Seattle’s a tough nut, etc., and I’ll float some theories on the “why” of that below, but Seattle didn’t light the soccer world aflame either; I have something about another shot by Rusnak around the mid-60s, but Paul Rothrock’s near-one-on-one up the (Seattle’s) left channel (see full highlights) is the best evidence I have for Seattle stealing the win.

As for what it all means, I’m leaning toward mild disappointment for both teams, if in the blandest possible terms – e.g., what team doesn’t want to win every home game? who doesn’t want to shit in their biggest rival’s house? – and bragging rights will have to wait until…well, something actually happens. Moving on…

"Smoldering heap" was close as I could get.

An Aside on Seattle
First and foremost, they’re not fully themselves this season. They’re calling card, defense, hasn’t held up as in seasons past, which gets some distance to how eighth in the West and 14th overall for goals allowed has translated to (for now) 6th in the West. Last Wednesday’s 0-4 loss at LAFC warped their defensive numbers a bit, but Seattle remains good (or bad) for giving up a goal per game and their attack has only succeeded in staying that crucial step (or two) ahead when a crap team comes a-callin’. Their steadiest performers are there – Obed Vargas plays five years older and Cristian Roldan has a credible shout as the league’s most underrated player (especially with 1 goal and 6 assists chipped in over his average) – and, between Rusnak delivering and Musovski over-delivering, Seattle’s weathering Jordan Morris’ absence, Pedro De La Vega’s (ongoing, perhaps eternal) recovery…but I don’t see how Seattle climbs to the top of the moldering heap that is the Western Conference without some kind of change or upgrade. They signed Jesus Ferreira from Dallas to boost the attack, but ten starts and 812 minutes later, he still more like a problem to solve than a solution. Until the Sounders find a good fit for him, until De La Vega fulfills the burden of his potential, or until a summer signing, I can’t see how they get better than the playoff-safe spot they currently hold.

Some Strays on the Timbers
1) The Attack, As I Understand It.
For whatever reason – here, lack of size feels like a strong theory – Portland rarely loads the opposition penalty area in the attacking phase, “hoofing it into the area” feels like a strained euphemism for giving up possession and/or futility, etc. They had their best attacking moment on the goal – thank gods for transition – but the Timbers still did a credible job of getting to Seattle’s defensive third with some control and probing it for either weakness or exploitable error. They didn’t get much out of it, but an attacking theory built around trying to find a player facing goal with a little momentum and a bigger opening isn’t so much a crazy game-plan as one that’s hard to pull off. Again, this works best in transition, hence Portland’s strength with that approach, but it’s both good and frustrating to watch them try to make the most out of what may be the only approach they’ve got.

Not necessarily this, but like this.

2) Notes on the Key(s) That Unlock It.
There’s more than one, right, if only when the defense gets compacted and the Timbers need a little creativity? I see Da Costa and Moreno in that specific role – David Ayala feels more like a pass-before-the-pass guy and Mora’s more a foil for the creativity – and, I suppose that leads to more questions, particularly around Da Costa. His preference for the right notwithstanding, Moreno seems to have the luxury of operating as a free radical – think, say, chopped zucchini as a complementary ingredient – while leaves Da Costa as the binding ingredient that pulls all the ingredients together, e.g., butter, or cream, or maybe some tomato sauce or puree. So far as I’m concerned, neither Da Costa nor the Phil Neville Brain Trust has found his best place, or even places in the attacking third…which, optimistically, means room for growth and a higher ceiling? Right? If that’s wishful thinking, I don’t want to know about it…

2a) A Blunter Option?
If Jimer Fory can find Mora at the right post and Mosquera can find Jonathan Rodriguez at the back, I see those both as quick-and-dirty attacking options for the Timbers. Moreover, I’d like to see them try both options more often.

3) Team Zup
I’d start Dario Zuparic over Kamal Miller until old age or absence rules him out for the starting gig. Miller did all right on Saturday, but I just see Zup as a steadier hand in 85% of the situations any given defense might face over any given 90 minutes.

4) Improving with Reps
That’s about Crepeau. Both his confidence and his hands have improved with reps. I still prefer Jimmy Pantemis as the starter, but I see real value in Crepeau getting minutes

5) A Quiet Satisfaction
Between awareness, execution and the movement needed to make both hum, Portland’s passing has improved dramatically since the beginning of this season. The ball is finding the player, the players are finding good places to receive the ball, and the build-out patterns and alternate routes seems sufficiently robust to handle the basics; even when any given move fails to come off, it’s easier to see the thought process than it was back in March. It’s not a high bar to clear, but it’s a vital one.

Overall, this was a hard result to like, but an easy result to take. Portland didn’t win, of course, but the team looked broadly competent, and the wheels didn’t fly off. The damage was minimal, basically. Against that, the Timbers never looked like winning it and that’s a separate problem.

Till the next one…