After not playing for four weeks, the Seattle Sounders found themselves going up against their bitter rivals in the Portland Timbers as the 2020 MLS season resumed for both teams.
Portland was coming off a high after winning the MLSisBack Tournament and the Sounders were still licking their wounds following their 4-1 defeat against LAFC last month.
Going into this game, the Timbers were the clear favorite but the Sounders showed why they are the reigning MLS Cup Champions in this game.
MATCH SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 3 - Portland Timbers 0
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Venue: Providence Park
Referee: Jair Marrufo
Assistants: Jeff Hosking, Mike Rottersman
Fourth Official: Timothy Ford
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Attendance: Closed Door
Weather: 74 degrees and clear
SCORING SUMMARY
SEA - Raúl Ruidíaz (Joevin Jones, Nicolás Lodeiro) 72’
SEA - Raúl Ruidíaz 83’
SEA - Kelvin Leerdam (Raúl Ruidíaz, Will Bruin) 85’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
None
LINEUPS & STATS
Seattle Sounders FC - Stefan Frei; Kelvin Leerdam, Shane O’Neill, Yeimar Gómez Andrade, Joevin Jones (Will Bruin 81’); Gustav Svensson, João Paulo (Nouhou 74’), Cristian Roldan (Alex Roldan 87’), Nicolás Lodeiro, Jordan Morris (Handwalla Bwana 81’); Raúl Ruidíaz (Miguel Ibarra 87’)
Substitutes not used: Stefan Cleveland, Josh Atencio, Ethan Dobbelaere, Justin Dhillon
Total shots: 10 (Ruidíaz, 5)
Shots on goal: 6 (Ruidíaz, 3)
Fouls: 10 (Jones, 3)
Offside: 1 (Ruidiaz, 1)
Corner-kicks: 6 (João Paulo, 3)
Saves: 5 (Frei, 5)
Portland Timbers - Steve Clark; Chris Duvall, Larrys Mabiala, Bill Tuiloma, Jorge Villafana (Tomas Conechny 87’); Diego Chara, Eryk Williamson (Felipe Mora 73’), Marvin Loria (Andy Polo 60’), Diego Valeri, Sebastian Blanco (Cristhian Paredes 87’); Jeremy Ebobisse (Jaroslaw Niezgoda 73’)
Substitutes not used: Jeff Attinella, Julio Cascante, Pablo Bonilla, Renzo Zambrano
Total shots: 12 (Blanco/Loria, 3)
Shots on goal: 5 (Blanco, 2)
Fouls: 8 (Duvall, 2)
Offside: 3 (Three players, 1)
Corner-kicks: 8 (Valeri, 6)
Saves: 3 (Clark, 3)
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
On the team’s second-half spark:
“I think it was just plugging away at it. The subs that came on did a really nice job. Will [Bruin] was super effective and stuff like that. The way the game was manifesting itself might have been different had that first goal that they scored not been called offside. Rightly so, that’s why VAR is there. The game needed a goal. We were fortunate Raúl [Ruidíaz] – typical Raúl goal – and that kind of started us off on the way to a good victory.”
SOUNDERS FC GOALKEEPER STEFAN FREI
On getting a Derby win and beginning the next portion of the 2020 season:
“Derbies are always big games, but it’s a strange circumstance. I think the bigger thing was that this was like the third start or restart to the season. We’d been sputtering a little bit, we hadn’t been playing our best football, so we kind of viewed it as a chance to restart and get a fresh start for us, as well. Happy to see the way we played today.”
SOUNDERS FC DEFENDER KELVIN LEERDAM
On Will Bruin’s impact coming off the bench:
”I think a guy we have in the team who’s always on his best behavior, always funny in the locker room, is Will Bruin. He came in and I think he changed the game for us. The second goal Raúl [Ruidíaz] scored, he won the header…The second goal, I believe he got the ball on the back line, crossed it Raúl, and Raúl gave me a tap in. I think Will Bruin was a big spark for us off the bench.”