Note from the reporter: New to the Nordic staff, I will be a senior this upcoming year. A little bit about me is that I am an ultimate soccer nerd (or fútbol as I prefer to call it). Inspired by my love of the sport, this is the recap of arguably the largest rivalry match in the Pacific Northwest, a Cascadia Cup clash between the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers. I hope to write more column articles in the future related to soccer and some of the biggest rivalry matches the sport has to offer. Although I’ll also cover matches from the largest European leagues, I plan on covering matches from local games such as Inglemoor ones in the future as opposed to other soccer blogs.
PORTLAND — Timbers’ Julio Cascante’s deflected shot in the 76th minute guided the Sounders to their record best seventh consecutive win this past Sunday during the 102nd edition of the Cascadia Cup clash against rivals Portland Timbers at Providence Park. Their seventh consecutive win also tied Sporting Kansas City’s single-season record of most consecutive wins.
The win also extended the Sounders unbeaten run to ten matches, meanwhile extending Portland’s losing streak to four matches during this weekend’s edition of Heineken Rivalry week in Major League Soccer (MLS).
During the first half, the Timbers had out-shot the Sounders 14-2 meanwhile Seattle had edged out Portland in possession. By the end of the match, the Sounders were outshot 22-6 and only maintaining two shots on target.
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei demonstrated another spectacular performance by saving three of the twenty-two shots during his sixth clean sheet this season.
The man of the match, in the end, came to be Sounder’s midfielder Osvaldo Alonso who displayed an absolutely brilliant performance on the defensive end with 89 touches, seven tackles, and six interceptions.
The turning point in the match came at the 76th minute from Sounders defender Kim Kee-Hee’s phenomenal run, which ultimately set up Julio Cascante’s own goal. Kee-Hee took a pass from teammate Nicolas Lodeiro from the right, wisely used the open space in the box, and set up a magnificent cross towards forward Raul Ruidiaz that deflected off of Cascante’s feet into his own net.
However, thanks to Cascante’s own goal, it not only boosted the Sounders above the red line, now in the battle to secure playoff contention, but it also ended the Sounders’ four-year winless run at Providence Park.
With ten matches left in the season, the Sounders look to maintain their winning streak in hopes of setting a new league record of most consecutive wins in a single season and to qualify for their ninth consecutive MLS Cup playoffs.
