Ticket Information Updated:

Opening their Cup Championship defense on the road in front of 15,422 at PGE Park, Seattle got an early goal in the 13th minute. Setup by an initial pass from rookies Michael Seamon to Miguel Montano, the Colombian crossed the ball to the 6′ where Sanna Nyassi volleyed the ball to Nate Jaqua’s head to put the ball past Timbers goalkeeper Sam Cronin.

The Timbers equalized in the 37th when recent scoring machine Bright Dike snuck a dribbling ball through a pair of Sounders defenders and past Kasey Keller.

Portland and Seattle played evenly for the next 83 minutes, even though the Sounders were playing a man down after the 101st minute when Taylor Graham was whistled for his 2nd yellow card.

When it went to Penalty Kicks after 120, Portland shot first and went behind early when Kasey Keller stonewalled Ryan Pore. Seattle Got goals from Nathan Sturgis, Fredy Montero, and Steve Zakauani before Patrick Ianni hit the crossbar. After making a save on Portland 4th shooter, Zach Scott went to the right for Seattle’s 4th goal of the shootout and the victory in the Third Round.

Sounders FC will host the LA Galaxy next Wednesday, July7th, at Starfire in the US Open Cup Quarterfinals.

Ticket Information
Tickets go on sale Thursday, July 1, at 10a PT either at Qwest Field box office or through Ticketmaster. All tickets are General Admission and priced at $15. Reserved Starfire lot parking is $15 and may be purchased in advance when purchasing tickets

Stats

Scoring Summary
SEA – Jaqua (Nyassi) 13′
POR – Dike (Pore) 38′

Penalty Shootout:
POR – DeMartin, Danso, Lopez.
SEA – Sturgis, Zakuani, Montero, Scott.

Seattle Sounders FC: Kasey Keller, Tyson Wahl, James Riley, Zach Scott, Taylor Graham, Nathan Sturgis, Michael Seamon (Patrick Ianni 102), Sanna Nyassi, Miguel Montaño (Steve Zakuani 69), Nate Jaqua (Fredy Montero 65), Roger Levesque.

Substitutes Not Used: David Estrada, Pat Noonan, Terry Boss, Jeff Parke.

TOTAL SHOTS: 12; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; CORNER KICKS: 5; OFFSIDES: 4; FOULS: 12; SAVES: 6.

Misconduct Summary:
SEA – James Riley (caution) 23′
POR – Takayuki Suzuki (caution) 23′
POR – Scot Thompson (caution) 39′
SEA – Taylor Graham (caution) 43′
SEA – Sanna Nyassi (caution) 58′
SEA – Taylor Graham (caution) 101′
SEA – Taylor Graham (red card) 101′

Referee: Ronald Lagraff
Referee’s Assistants: Jeremy Hanson; Desmond Miller
4th Official: Richard Wallace
Time of Game: 1:82
Attendance: 15,422
Weather: Clear skies and 70 degrees

In preparation for Portland’s ascension to MLS next season and to continue the pair’s history that dates back to 1975 and the NASL- the rivalry continues.

In recent competitions, the two teams met last year in the USOC  at the same stage; a 2-1 win for the Sounders in front of 16,321 in Portland. The Timbers traveled to Seattle in March for a pre-season friendly and went home 1-0 victors.

In the  middle match of a 3-game road trip in a week, squad management will be a key issue to ensure success in Cup and League matches. Expect Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid to swap in regulars and reserves. Schmid noted: “You have got to mix guys. Some guys seem to deal all right with playing game after game. They are able to take on that load. Some are different body compositions and for them, taking on a heavy, heavy load of games is not the best option. A lot of times it comes to individual decision so it’s not like, ‘Oh, Sigi must think this guy is a better player. He’s playing him all the time.’ It’s sometimes somebody just has the physical capacity to do it while the other guy maybe doesn’t. It takes management of your squad rotation and proper management of training.”

We know the Sounders’ recent form in League play (one that the club think can be overturned by wearing the Electricity Kits tonight), the Timbers are having opposite results. Portland is on a 3 match winning streak including a win over the Kitsap Pumas to put Portland in the Third Round of the USOC. Forward, Bright Dike, has scored 4 goals in the past two games.

Tonight’s US Open Cup match is scheduled to kickoff at 730p from PGE Park and will be broadcast on FSN. If Seattle wins tonight, it will host a USOC Quarterfinal Match next Wednesday at the Starfire in Tukwila against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The match will be at Portland’s PGE Park on Wednesday, June 30th. Kickoff is slated for 730p and will be broadcast on FSN.

Last year, the two clubs met in the 3rd round in front of 16,382 in Portland- a 2-1 win for Sounders FC.

The winner of the match will play the Chivas USA-Austin Aztex winner in the Quarterfinals. That game would be on July 6th or 7th.

This means that Sounders FC will travel to the Rose City next week for a USOC Third Round Match Up as Seattle begins their quest to defend their 2009 US Open Cup Championship.

The Men in Rave Green will play the Timbers at PGE Park in Portland next Wednesday (June 30th) @ 730p.

We’ll keep you posted with ticket information when it is announced…
Entire 3rd Round USOC Schedule

June 29 New York Red Bulls (MLS) 4p Harrisburg City Islanders (USL-2)
June 29 Rochester Rhinos (USSF D-2) 430p Columbus Crew (MLS)
June 29 Charleston Battery (USL-2) 530p Chicago Fire (MLS)
June 29 Miami FC (USSF D-2) 530p Houston Dynamo (MLS)
June 29 AC St. Louis (USSF D-2) 730p Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS)
June 29 Austin Aztex (USSF D-2) 730p Chivas USA (MLS)
June 30 Richmond Kickers (USL-2) 430p D.C. United (MLS)
June 30 Seattle Sounders (MLS) 730p Portland Timbers (USSF D-2)

The logos are after the jump. What do you think?

and really, i have no other word for it. what a poor performance. yes, it is preseason, but we are only a few weeks away (maybe) from the season opener, and if that is the effort we are going to put forth, we are in trouble.

the lack of effort was frustrating to no end. we were tentative, and nobody was moving.

just a few thoughts and then i am done for tonight.

- steve… shoot the F”ING BALL. Never was the cross on. You had 1×1 with the keeper and you crossed it to someone you “THOUGHT” might be there. terrible decision.

- referee, when someone clips the heals of a player in the box, it is a penalty. also, when the defenders hands are above their head and it hits their hands, it is a penalty. i am not blaming the ref for our loss, we sucked tonight. but it sure would be nice if the ref did his job.

- estrada had a nice run out there. he sure as hell has pace….. let’s see if he can use it with the ball at his feet.

- i am surprisingly not that pissed about losing to portland. it was just a practice game after all, but i sure as hell am pissed about our performance. that was unacceptable.

- as great as timbers fans think tonight was for them (“best 90 minutes of my life”, was a quote i already read….. sad sad life), make no mistake, they did not win this game. we lost it.

i am going to drink a bottle of wine and forget about that display.

The Sounders had their chances early, and often. In the 16th minute, Steve Zakuani a near-range shot saved by the Timber goalkeeper, Steve Cronin. Minutes later, the Portland netminder knocked away a free kick by forward Freddie Ljungberg taken from 25 yards away as the Timbers were setting up.

Play was even in the second half. But the Sounders applied a great deal of pressure in the final 20 minutes, including a long free kick by Fredy Montero in the 87th.

Sounders FC starters: Kasey Keller Brad Evans, Tyrone Marshall (Jeff Parke 46′), Jhon Hurtado, Leo Gonzales (Tyson Wahl 80′),Osvaldo Alonso, Kevin Souter (David Estada 59′), Steve Zakuani (Pat Ianni 65′), Pete Vagenas (Stephen King 74′), Freddie Ljungberg (Roger Levesque 46′), Fredy Montero

Stats & Quotes
Substitutes Not Used: James Riley, Nathan Sturgis, Sanna Nyassi, Zach Scott, Terry Boss, Lamar Neagle, Jamel Wallace, Ellis McLoughlin.

TOTAL SHOTS: 15 (Fredy Montero 7); SHOTS ON GOAL: 6 (Fredy Montero 3); FOULS: 6 (Fredy Montero 2); OFFSIDES: 1 (Roger Levesque 1); CORNER KICKS: 7 (Freddie Ljungberg 4); SAVES: 0

Misconduct Summary:
POR — James Marcelin (caution; Reckless Tackle) 70

Referee: Elias Bazakos
Referee’s Assistants: -Jeff Hosking; Mike Rottersman
4th Official: Josh Wilkens
Attendance: 18,606
Time of Game: 1:50
Weather: Cloudy-and-46-degrees

All Statistics contained in this boxscore are unofficial

POSTGAME QUOTES

Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Sigi Schmid

General Comments “There’s not a whole lot to say, we’re obviously disappointed with the result tonight. Last year, a week before the season we lost to Colorado. This is two weeks before the season and hopefully we get all the bad luck out of us now. Often enough in preseason, what you do here is not a predictor of how you’re going to play in the regular season. Sometimes teams have great preseasons, you see that in all sports, and then when the season starts that all changes. I was happy with our movement of the ball today. I thought we moved the ball pretty much at will. I thought our possession was good. It was the old bugaboo, not getting enough people in the box, we had crosses coming a little bit too late. Because we’re not a big team, especially without (Nate) Jaqua, so balls have to be hit early so that people can escape people and get to where they’re not posting up people. Maybe sometimes hesitation in pulling the trigger a little bit quicker and hopefully a goal comes. We were around it, we were close to it. We went to a 3-5-2 in the last 25 minutes. Overall, I still thought our play was much better than it was in Vancouver.”

(On Portland’s goal…) “When you’re dominating the game, there’s always a chance you’re going to take a counter. On that particular play we had like three guys very tight to the ball, one pass beat all three guys and we got caught. That’s always the danger when you look at the sport sometimes statistically, not always the team that dominates possession or when you’re playing at the other team’s end of the field, sometimes you don’t win the game. Sometimes you lose the game more often than you win it. So we were playing at their end of the field and they caught us on the counter, they caught us on a counter late in the game as well but that was when we were really pushing, trying to go for the equalizer so that’s a little less concerning to me, but we just got caught.”

(On Nate Jaqua’s status…) “He’s been doing more and more this week. He’s working right now with our fitness coach and we expect him to be in bits and pieces of training next week. I don’t think he’ll be available to start when we open the season but he should be someone who can be available to us off the bench.”

(On the offense…) “That’s always worrisome but also the last thing that comes together for you in preseason is the offensive side of things. I remember I was coaching the Galaxy one year and we had two days of practice, and we were asked to play the South Korean National Team and we ended up beating them 1-0. Here’s a national team, Korea, they’d been training, they were fit, ready to go and we caught a counter goal and scored it somehow the ball stayed out of our net for 90 minutes. We ended up winning the game. I remember the reporters there were all kind of panicked, this is doom and gloom for Korea, they couldn’t score and you guys had only been training one day. Sometimes things like that happen. It’s a concern but the offensive side’s going to come together at the end. I’d be more concerned if we weren’t creating chances, we weren’t possessing the ball, moving the ball. We did a good job of finding (Freddie) Ljungberg, we found all kinds of spaces in there which is what we want to do. We just need to refine our play in that final third. After the Vancouver game we worked on getting the ball into the final third, we did such a poor job of moving the ball against Vancouver. So our play of moving the ball and getting into the final third was much improved, we just need to work on the final third of play.”

(On the fan support…) “It was great, we’re just sad because we disappointed them. They stay behind us and it’s more important if we lose a battle along the way, that we win the war. We’ll take this battle loss. Our fans were great, the support was great. It’s just a great feeling being out there in front of them and hear them singing and chanting. The support is really important.”

(On David Estrada…) “It was the first time he’s played in front of a crowd like that. I thought he was active, he was busy, I thought he got behind their defense a couple of times. I thought he had some good moments. There were also some times when he could have played the ball a little bit quicker, but overall I thought he did well.”

(On Brad Evans’ performance at right back…) “I thought he did well. I thought for me, he was probably our best player over 90 minutes, our most consistent player. The guys who went 90, we asked them to run the whole line in the second half when we went to a 3-5-2 and he pushed inside in midfield, and thought he was one of the guys who was dynamic and looking to get forward. Sometimes we miss him in the middle of midfield because he’s someone who finds his way into the box.”

Kasey Keller – Goalkeeper

(On defensive scoreless coming to an end . . .) “These games aren’t where it matters. I have been on teams where I have won everything in sight in preseason and lost our first couple games and other teams where I thought ‘Oh my God, we are going to get relegated before Christmas,’ and we end up in first place after the first three or four games. So I’m not too stressed about it right now. Sure you want to win and obviously you are not happy to lose at home against Portland [Timbers]. That’s frustrating.”

(On being back at Qwest Field . . .) “It was nice. Obviously it is great to be back at Qwest and, like I said, it is nice to get that out of the way as opposed to having the guys have that first feeling when they step out against Philadelphia [Union]. So let’s just hope that some guys took this for what it was and say ‘We don’t have any right to just step on the field and win a game. You have to earn it. Credit to Portland. They came in, they defended very well as a team and limited our chances. Last twenty minutes we put them under some pressure and they weathered that storm and really should’ve gotten a second one at the end. So you have to give them a bit of credit too. But at the same time, we are extremely disappointed with our performance.”
Brad Evans – Midfielder

(On how to improve offense . . .) “It’s just confidence. Once we get one, the ball keeps rolling and you get two, three and four. I think we said it at halftime ‘Once we get one, we are going to pile on here.’ So it’s just a matter of getting our confidence and getting one in the back of the net. So we have one more tune-up next week in Colorado. We have to bang goals there because the big test comes in two Thursdays. Goals build confidence and, like I said, it is kind of a snowball effect. Like last year, we scored three in the opener and the next couple games we get a shutout and finish our chances and we get ourselves in good position for the rest of the season. That’s something we have got to take advantage of. It is going to be a good test next Friday night.”

so, we have a little game tonight eh? what to make of this game? yes, it is just a practice. but if you really believe that, well you are new to this rivalry.

this is portland, seattles tijuana.

i think sigi will treat this as 50% training and 50% must win.  he knows the importance of this game to the fans, and losing it…. practice game or not, is not acceptable.  the amount of drivel that would spew from their fans would be unberable.

the thing is, i don’t dislike portland as a town. yes, crucify me if you like, but i really like  the city. they have good beer, good layout, nice neighborhoods etc. but the timbers fans sure F that up don’t they?

it isn’t that the TA don’t love their team, or love soccer, or love their city…. they do, and i give them credit for that. the problem is, they have such a little brother syndrome, that our success has bugged the crap out of them and they don’t know how to handle it. so as a result, they are just a pain in the ass.

they ask where our fans were in the usl days…. well, we weren’t in tukwila, that is for sure.  portland fans underestimate how valuable their DOWNTOWN stadium is. put that in beaverton, or gresham and they numbers would easily be cut in half.  

it is unlikely that they will never get 35,000 fans out to a match, even if they had the stadium to do it, but if they ever did, they would say they had a better fan base…. but since they can’t, they will say we are more plastic.

their arguments are filled with 3rd grade logic at best and the really sad thing is they are  more concerned about what we do rather than what they do.

but this is why it is fun to have a rivaly right? getting under each others skin is an art and they are the devil no matter what. he he.

so come on portland fans, bring your meth, beanies, bycicle messenger bags and stumptown coffee up I5 and we will see you tonight.

a few videos from last time we met….

our trip down to portland last year for the USOC

you’re in the MLS b/c of us

entering portland

sounders win

James Riley & The Sounders defeated Portland last summer

Sounders FC host the USL’s Portland Timbers on Thursday for the Pacific Northwest edition of the Community Shield. In an anticipated matchup, over 13,000 tickets have been sold. [Buy Tickets] Proceeds from the benefit will be directed to Boys and Girls Club of Washington State, Seattle SCORES, Soccer Saves and Washington Youth Soccer.

Seattle and Portland have been rivals since 1975 when both clubs were members of the NASL. The Sounders and the Timbers also faced each other for 8 seasons when both squads were members of USL-1.

In 2009, Portland won their first outright trophy by claiming the Commissioner’s Cup for the best record in USL-1.

The two clubs met in the Third Round of the US Open Cup last summer, a match won by Seattle 2-1.

Portland is led by Mandjou Keita who scored  11 goals last season.  Quavas Kirk (DC United), Ian Joy (Real Salt Lake), and Adin Brown (Aalesunds FC in Norway) have been added to the Timber roster in the offseason.

Kickoff is slated for 6p from Qwest Field. Tickets are available.