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The Seattle Sounders drew the Portland Timbers 1-1 in a bitterly contested Cascadia rivalry match on Sunday that, as usual, saw a number of fouls, controversial moments, and even a red card.
As usual, the scoreline is the most important number in soccer—but here are a few other stats that help paint the picture of this match.
51,796
The attendance of Sunday’s match at CenturyLink Field, around 5,000 more than their MLS average this season, and the highest of 2017. It was the 17th highest attendance at the CLink for a Sounders MLS match and only their 6th highest against Portland. Seattle is now 14-2-3 in crowds over 50,000 for MLS games at home.
2
Number of chances created by Victor Rodriguez, who only played 30 or so minutes and had just 19 touches. Only three players created more, and all of those played 90 minutes. None of those chances became goals, but Rodriguez is certainly starting to look like a huge bargain. The next chance he gets to start, I bet he’ll finally turn his chances into goals.
98.4%
Osvaldo Alonso’s passing accuracy. Ozzie didn’t look like his old self just yet, losing possession in midfield a couple times and failing to really shield his defense for 90 minutes. But since he only recently returned from injury, it’s good to know that he’s still good at pulling the strings and keeping possession in his spot in central midfield.
6/17
The Sounders’ shots on target from their total shots. They should have done better with the chances they had, but the Sounders at least created good chances and put those chances on frame. This is compared to the Timbers’ stat of 3 shots on goal from 15 total. If Morris had done better with his two 1v1 opportunities, the Sounders would have walked away with two more points.
6
Nouhou’s number of tackles in the match, the most of any player on the pitch. His night might have ended poorly with the dubious red card, but that shouldn’t overshadow how effective Nouhou was in defense against the Timbers. He was all over the place on both defense and offense, and hopefully this ridiculous moment won’t dampen his spirit when he returns to the team.