Seattle Sounders FC vs. Portland Timbers | 2020 MLS Match Preview

2020 MLS Regular Season – Week 10
Seattle Sounders FC vs. Portland Timbers
CenturyLink Field – Seattle
September 6 – 10:00 PM ET

TV: TSN3

STREAMING: MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, on DAZN in Canada

LOCAL TV: ROOT Sports NW, JOEtv , Amazon Prime Video [SEA region only]

The Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers renew their intense rivalry when the Cascadia foes square off at CenturyLink Field Sunday night. The Timbers will be looking to rebound from a stinging 3-0 defeat to the Sounders at Providence Park on August 23.

The Sounders are coming off a 2-2 draw with Real Salt Lake, conceding the equalizer five minutes from full time, while the Timbers extended a winless streak to four regular season games with a 3-2 loss to the LA Galaxy at Providence Park on Wednesday.

Seattle have won seven of the 12 all-time regular season meetings at CenturyLink Field. The Timbers have won just twice in Seattle, including the last meeting, a 2-1 victory last July with Brian Fernandez scoring a brace.

Seattle Sounders

After massive back-to-back wins over the Timbers and LAFC, the Sounders settled for a share of the points at Rio Tinto Stadium, much to coach Brian Schmetzer's dismay. 

"Championship teams figure out ways how to close out games like that," Schmetzer said after the match. "The guys work way too hard on two days rest, the five guys that came in [to the starting lineup] played well, the guys that [subbed on] played well. The team has to understand that championship teams are able to lose out games like that. It's two points dropped."

• Updated team roster
• Injury Report:
  • OUT: Danny Leyva (M) - left foot fracture
  • QUESTIONABLE: Shandon Hopeau (M) - left athletic pubalgia
• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: None
• International duty: None

Portland Timbers

The Timbers secured a single point from a three-match homestand, losing to the LA Galaxy, 3-2, at Providence Park Wednesday. In those three games, Portland conceded 10 goals, six coming in the final 20 minutes. 

"I think we could have gotten a little bit more. Again, we don’t want to concede so many goals, but the way we play at home, we try to be more open," Giovanni Savarese said. "We try to be a team that tries to be more upfront and pressure a little higher. It comes with some consequences sometimes. We’ll continue to work and I’m sure, with the attitude I saw today, there’s going to be a lot more games that we’re going to win.”

A positive came in second-half stoppage time when midfielder Diego Valeri became the third player in MLS history to record 80 goals and 80 assists in regular season matches, following Landon Donovan and Jaime Moreno. Valeri has 80 goals and 83 assists across seven-and-a-half seasons with the Timbers in MLS so far. And he doesn't look like slowing down.

• Updated team roster
• Injury Report:
  • OUT: Dairon Asprilla (M) - left knee injury
  • OUT: Blake Bodily (M) - right thigh injury
  • OUT: Andrés Flores (M) - right thigh injury
• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: Diego Chara (M)
• International duty: None

Series Matchup at Sounders

• Sounders: 7 wins, 19 goals
• Timbers: 2 wins, 10 goals
• 3 draws

Officials

• Referee: Ismail Elfath
• Assistant Referees: Cameron Blanchard, Mike Rottersman
• 4th Official: Alex Chilowicz
• VAR: Jon Freemon