PORTLAND, Ore. — Over the past 10 years or so, the Cascadia Cup’s place in the American soccer psyche has seemingly diminished a bit. This has mostly coincided with the expansion of MLS and the rise of other rivalries. What Cascadia has in 50 years’ worth of unmatched history is often overshadowed by the newness and pure entertainment value of rivalries like Los Angeles’ El Trafico or Ohio’s Hell is Real.
Maybe not to the same degree, but it seems like the rivalry’s importance to Sounders’ fans has waned a bit in recent years as well. As the club’s aspirations have become more focused on bigger trophies, these rivalry matches are most often viewed as a challenge along the path more so than a feat unto themselves. Even Brian Schmetzer himself admitted a couple years ago that maybe the Sounders weren’t doing their part to uphold the rivalry.
Matches like Saturday’s hard-fought affair between the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers would seem to suggest the bite remains strong.
Maybe it was because I actually sat in the Emerald City Supporters’ section for the first time in many years, but it was obvious that there’s still a lot of power in this rivalry.
From the opening whistle, I felt my pulse racing and that sort of nervous energy that is usually only present for a playoff game (this is the part where I remind you that I am not some impartial observer and that, yes, I do consider myself a fan). When Albert Rusnák slid his shot through the legs of defender Finn Surman and past goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, it felt great to explode in celebration like I never get to do in the press box.
Similarly, when Santiago Moreno equalized about five minutes later, I felt a nearly equal level of deflation.
“It’s the best rivalry in MLS in my opinion,” Schmetzer said after the game. “I am proud of the guys tonight. They did a good job. It’s been a long storied history. They like to say they’re Soccer City USA, but I tend to disagree. We’ve done things better than them.”
With all of that said, I will admit that the outright animosity between the Sounders and Timbers seems to have been dialed down a bit since the earliest days of the MLS rivalry. Standing in line outside Providence Park with about 300 other traveling supporters, most of the chatter with Timbers fans was closer to good-natured banter than anything that felt remotely dangerous.
The reason I was sitting in the stands for this game was because I decided to bring my 12-year-old daughter as well as my cousin and her 9-year-old son. None of them had ever been to a Sounders-Timbers game before and they all seemed perfectly delighted to hear the free use of otherwise off-limits language during the songs. We stood at the very back of the section and next to us a father had brought his even younger child, who was happily playing with his toys while the rest of us were glued to the action on the field. Further forward in the section, things were surely a bit rowdier, but this was certainly not a scene out of Green Street Hooligans.
While I don’t think things have ever really been that out of control, I do remember a time when I wouldn’t have felt quite so comfortable bringing relatively uninitiated fans to the away section for a big rivalry game.
On the same token, my understanding is that this was a more robust traveling section than previous post-Covid matches.
Taken together, I came away feeling like the rivalry is in a good place. It’s fierce enough to give fans and players a jolt of adrenaline but not so overwhelming to be inaccessible to new fans.
I also came away feeling good about where the Sounders stand currently. They outplayed their biggest rival on the road, and controlled most of a match against a team ahead of them in the standings. It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but there were plenty of positives to take away.
“It’s two cities that have major history and we never want to lose to them,” right back Alex Roldan said. “It’s a game that all the players want to be on the field for. As we continue, sometimes these are the games that can propel you. We’ll use this as motivation. Hopefully we can carry that into the next few games.”
