The Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers have been arch-rivals for decades, but their rivalry as MLS opponents is set to be born tonight as the Timbers travel to Qwest Field for the first of many dramatic encounters (11pm, ESPN2).
The Timbers have been riding high in recent weeks after a poor start to the season, but much of that success has come at home. Seattle will look to make full use of its own home-field advantage at Qwest Field.
SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight's historic match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump):
For those who don’t think this is going to be a great and fun rivalry, look at the number of comments this thread has compared to all the other roundups (34, 1, 6,….).
See you in Portland for round 2.
Timbers players diving and looking for a set piece. They have every game this year. Should have carded at least 2 of those.
Hey man! It is consensual if they’re asleep!
oh and as an aside, I thought Portlands TiFo was quite well done for a traveling supporters side. Have to give you guys Kudo’s for that.
Portland may have a nicer quality turf, but Jeld-Wen field doesn’t hold up very nice in the rain. At least Qwest has a proper drainage setup and we arent stuck with standing water on the field ala Jeld-Wen.
As a Seattle fan I’ll be the first to say I HATE that damn band! Wish they’d go away. So damn annoying.
Montero was upset because he’s the one that usually “hugs” without consent.
Good grief. Thanks for the information on how much it rains where I live.
Since when is a single sentence comment followed by a two-sentence clarification “waging a battle?” If you haven’t noticed, making fun of Harkes is something of a running game on this and other sites.
First, the turf. Can you imaginge what the pitch would have been like tonight if that had been grass? In that weather it would have been a mud-bowl and even uglier.
Second, I was disappointed in Portland. They got withing free-kick range, dove and took their chance with their set-piece.
Third, Sounders sucked. Do better.
Thanks for not calling it a derby.
Seriously? The Timbers offense is entirely built around diving around the box in order to get a set-piece. Diving twats.
They’re not primary tenants. So, no. Remember, it took convincing Paul Allen to be a bit owner so the ownership group could crash Qwest.
Yes, the contrast between Portland’s new turf and Seattle’s compacted older turf is striking.
Matches Drew Carey to a T!
Once I saw his face on the screen at the bar, in full HD, I was repulsed. HD makes ulgy look uglier. Rush makeup job too. Blech.
I don’t mind turf at all, but when the quality gets that bad something must be done about it. Portland has a great turf field, hopefully they will keep it maintained better than Seattle has.
Not bad, but not great. Could’ve been worse considering the weather and rivalry games always seem to be ugly (I just can’t call it a “derby”). The long balls do get old though, it was like both teams were playing not to lose.
Please do something about that turf Seattle Sounders FO. Seriously. I understand why you have turf, but it could be better than that. Quit cheating your fans.
Seattle averages over 150 days of rain each year. Harkes was exagerating when he said “basically all the time” but you go ahead and fight that silly battle if you like. Soccer is played in spring and fall as well as summer so the point Harkes was making is still valid.
I love how Montero got upset when Danso hugged him without consent.
They probably will, they will also tell me how 36k people were there. And then in the end, it did very little.
I am sure Sounders fans will let you know how they dominated the game but just couldn’t finish.
Love it whenever Kasey Keller f**ks up, the Timbers goal made my day
Fair enough re seatroll.
As to your request, I don’t think or act like the Sounders “are so much better than all the other teams.” I was merely being snide in response to what I find fairly tiresome and off-base stereotypes.
Or not won at home. Oh and Keller was in fantastic form for the Timbers! Well done!
You first.