For everything that has gone right for the Seattle Sounders this year, their home form continues to confound. Coming off a three-wins-in-seven-days road trip, the Sounders fell flat against the Portland Timbers, eventually losing 2-0 on Sunday in front of the biggest crowd since the 2019 MLS Cup.
MATCH SUMMARY
Seattle Sounders FC 0 – Portland Timbers 2
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Venue: Lumen Field
Referee: Alan Kelly
Assistants: Logan Brown, Micheal Barwegen
Fourth Official: Nima Saghafi
VAR: Tim Ford
Attendance: 45,737
Weather: 70 degrees and clear
SCORING SUMMARY
POR – Sebastian Blanco (Felipe Mora) 58’
POR – Felipe Mora 90’+5’
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
POR – Josecarlos Van Rankin (caution) 44’
POR – Giovanni Savarese (caution) 45’
POR – Diego Valeri (caution) 76’
LINEUPS & STAT
Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Cleveland; Alex Roldan (Nicolas Benezet 73’), Xavier Arreaga, Brad Smith (Jimmy Medranda 73’), Shane O’Neill (Fredy Montero 74’), Yeimar; Cristian Roldan, João Paulo, Nicolás Lodeiro; Kelyn Rowe (Will Bruin 88’), Raúl Ruidíaz
Substitutes not used: Spencer Richey, Nouhou, Danny Leyva, Abdoulaye Cissoko, Josh Atencio
Total shots: 16
Shots on goal: 5
Fouls: 14
Offside: 1
Corner-kicks: 12
Saves: 0
Portland Timbers – Steve Clark; Josecarlos Van Rankin (George Fochive 74’), Claudio Bravo, Dario Zuparic, Larrys Mabiala; Sebastian Blanco (Diego Valeri 65’), Eryk Williamson (Cristhian Paredes 12’, Bill Tuiloma 65’), Diego Chara, Yimmi Chara (Santiago Moreno 74’), Dairon Asprilla; Felipe Mora
Substitutes not used: Jaroslaw Niezgoda, Aljaz Ivacic, Marvin Loria, Blake Bodily
Total shots: 10
Shots on goal: 2
Fouls: 12
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 2
Saves: 5
g+ GameFlow: MLS Regular Season @SoundersFC v @TimbersFC on August 29, 2021. #Sounders #VamosSounders #RCTID #SomosTimbers #SEAvPOR pic.twitter.com/fJlrcr7MiI
— GameFlow (@GameFlowxPG) August 30, 2021
POST-MATCH QUOTES & SOUNDBYTES: SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC 0 – PORTLAND TIMBERS 2
SOUNDERS FC HEAD COACH BRIAN SCHMETZER
On the overall feeling of the home form this year and against Timbers at home:
“Home form against the Timbers that’s going back a ways. And that’s started to eat at me a bit for sure. The home form this season, yeah there were some performances that weren’t great. Would I go out and say that this performance was great? No. But I thought we created enough chances to get something out of the game. Maybe not a win but a draw, maybe something late in the game here or there. But it certainly is something that might just be a blip on the radar. I think our record at home overall has been pretty good and I don’t have an answer for you, I just don’t.”
On if they were able to match Portland’s energy:
“Energy? Yes. It wasn’t like they weren’t trying. I mean we just were trying in the wrong places or in the wrong moments. Again, to get back to what I just said: stay disciplined, we know this will work. This is how we won a lot of games this year, we are still in first place. We just need them to understand, and I think I said this the other day, I can’t remember, but it’s going to take a little bit of time to incorporate [Nicolás Loderio]. It’s just his fourth game back, and he’s such an influential player for us. It’s going to take a little bit of time. So, you know, we’ll get there. But it just wasn’t a good first half.
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER CRISTIAN ROLDAN
On not winning games at home recently:
“I think frustrating, first and foremost, we always talk about our home field being a huge advantage obviously with our unbelievable fans and just the way we play and unfortunately I feel as though we have to open up, teams don’t have to with this formation. Opposing teams wanting to… people circle this on their calendar. Unfortunately, we haven’t had our best performances at home. We feel like we created a lot of chances just the ball doesn’t go in. And for whatever reason we are getting countered, and we are making mistakes at home meanwhile while we are on the road maybe we defend with a little more guys. So you know, we will fix it with time. It’s really unfortunate that Portland has had, you know, their best results here as of late. But we will correct things and we will move on.”
On potentially starting games slow:
“Certainly, teams make it tough in the first half especially when guys are fresh, specifically in this game the full backs followed our attacking midfielders and their wingers follow our wing backs so it almost looked like six in the back for them so there was really no space in the pockets. So, teams are doing a good job in the first half and in the second half it opens up a little more because teams are tired, we have to be a little more clinical. The reality is we hit the post a couple times, we were inches away from scoring a goal and getting back into the game and you know at the end of the game things happen and Portland scores off a mistake because we are pushing people forward. In reality we should tie that game or even win that game.”
SOUNDERS FC MIDFIELDER KELYN ROWE
On having a longer break between games:
“We are actually going to be in tomorrow which is nice. But it’s a long wait, there are the kind of games you want to play on Wednesday because you then get another game coming in as soon as possible. We are lucky, we got a few guys that are going on international duty, and they can get their spirits back up, get some good training in and they can come back fresh. The rest of us we get that bitter taste in our mouth until we can play again. Whether that be in practice and stepping into a tackle or scoring a few goals and getting that confidence back up. It’s going to be a long week or so and we just got to make sure we are professional and come out the next game against Minnesota and make sure we take care of business.”
On the overall feel of the event today:
“I think you take a positive in the fact that, looking outside the game, we had Seattle that came and supported. The love of Seattle and the sport of soccer, both the women’s team and us. So, I think that was great. But for us we need to go back and look at the game and we had a few mistakes that got us in trouble, we didn’t play well the first half. We have positives as well. We had a great second half, we came out with a bang. I don’t think, obviously we made two mistakes, and didn’t look great. However, that second half we played very well. Like Cristian [Roldan] mentioned, a lot of teams can come here and just sit in and hope for a result on the counter, we have to kind of open up and that does create gaps and maybe when we are away, we cover the gaps better or they don’t capitalize as much. We got to find ways to make sure that those stop. We created a lot of chances and it’s just unfortunate. I think on a better day Raúl [Ruidíaz] gets two goals, Cristian gets one off the post, Shane [O’Neill] gets one off the post. It’s one of those games unfortunately but that is soccer so we will have to come back and fix it and hopefully those games of inches are going in our favor next game.”