The Seattle Sounders are back down at Providence Park to challenge the Portland Timbers for the final match this season. Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about the game.
WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is Sunday at 2:00 p.m. PT at Providence Park.
WHERE TO WATCH: The game will be telecast on ESPN. Full list of Sounders FC Pub Partners here.
WHERE TO LISTEN: The game will be aired on KIRO Radio 97.3 FM with a pregame show beginning at 1:30 p.m. PT and El Rey 1360AM in Spanish.
RECORDS AND STANDINGS: Sounders (9-12-4, 31pts., 8th in Western Conference), Timbers (8-10-8), 32 pts., 6th in Western Conference).
ALL-TIME HISTORY: Enough about the deep and contentious history between these two sides. Let’s talk MLS. The Sounders are 8-4-4 against their neighbors to the south in MLS play since 2011 and this year they are dead even with one win apiece and a 4-4 aggregate score. Portland will have the advantage at home, but let’s look at the away results. In eight games, the Timbers have never won in Seattle in the MLS era. In eight games down in the Portland, the Sounders have won twice, most recently in 2014.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: It’s the second game in eight days for these Cascadia foes and you know neither side has forgotten what happened at CenturyLink last Sunday. The Sounders, however, have had the unfortunate disadvantage of a midweek match down in Houston, adding to the stress on already weary legs. Interim head coach Brian Schmetzer smartly rested a significant amount of his Starting XI in Houston and still managed to escape with a point. That may prove to make the difference against a Portland side who have enjoyed a full week off.
MOVIN’ ON UP: Don’t look now, but the Sounders are unbeaten in five straight since Schmetzer took over and are now just a single point below the red line. Who stands between them and the playoffs? None other than the Portland Timbers. With a win on Sunday, not only could the Sounders leap the red line but they could force their arch-rivals out of the playoffs by two points and a game in hand.
ROMAN RETURNS: Two words: He’s back. Defender Román Torres was activated from the disabled list early this week after nearly a year rehabilitating a torn ACL and made an appearance on the gameday roster in Wednesday’s match at Houston. Though he was not able to make an appearance in the match, the Panamanian international’s mere presence on the bench is a huge lift for the club and its fans. Whether Torres will make an appearance in the upcoming match in Portland is unclear, but for the first time in a long time, he is available. Said Schmetzer: “We’ll see what we can do against Portland to get him some minutes."
THE DEMPSEY BENCHMARK: With a second-half brace in last Sunday’s match, forward Clint Dempsey set a new record in Sounders history. Dempsey now has eight career goals against the Timbers, more than any Sounders player has ever scored against another opponent in the team’s MLS franchise history. Even more impressive, he’s done it in just seven games. Dempsey unfortunately will not be able to add to his tally this Sunday, as he is undergoing medical evaluations for an irregular heartbeat, the club announced Friday.
INJURY UPDATE: With Torres off the IR, forward Aaron Kovar (fractured clavicle) is the lone Sounder present on the injury report. It’s been a month since the incident in LA and with a timeline of six to eight weeks, Kovar is expected to return before the end of the season. On the Portland side, defender Nat Borchers (Achilles tendon) is out for the year and forward Darren Mattocks (hamstring) is questionable.
ADI FLIES SOLO: A peculiar storyline arose out of the Portland camp after last Sunday’s starting lineups were released: Why wasn’t Fanendo Adi starting? The perennial Golden Boot contender did not come into the match until the 78th minute and still managed to tally a goal, begging the question of why he didn’t play the whole game. Head coach Caleb Porter refused to comment but sources indicate that the reason was not injury related.
With Portland’s season on the line, it’s safe to assume that the Sounders will have to deal with Adi for a full 90 this time around.
BACKLINE PROBLEMS: Including the match that Borchers went down, the Timbers are 1-4-0 without the big MLS veteran. In last Sunday’s match, forward Jordan Morris and the Sounders repeatedly exploited the Timbers' lack of pace at the back as well as newcomers Steven Taylor and Vytas Andriuskevicius. It was Andriuskevicius that midfielder Cristian Roldan beat at the edge of the area to earn the penalty and open the scoring, Taylor that left one of the league's best strikers in Dempsey with yards of space to beat goalkeeper Jake Gleeson from the top of the box, and the entire backline who let Morris run wild all match long, exemplified by this run in the 74th minute. It will be interesting to see how Porter adjusts for Sunday.
