Pre-Season Match Thread: Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders [10:00]

UPDATE: Per @TimbersFC on twitter: "Timbers vs. Sounders #preseason match has been moved to 10am PT." Also, "Today's #preseason match vs. Seattle will be two 45 minute halves."

Here we are. The big game. The big rivalry. The big well... actually it's not that big. It's just another pre-season game. It will certainly be fun for those of us who like to watch the Portland Timbers get into shape, but don't expect it to be the typical Cascadian frenzy that the regular season games are. There's nothing on the line here.

That said, today's game is a little different. This will not be a standard game with two 45 minutes halves. Instead, it will be a game with three periods total: 40 + 40 + 30 for a total of 110 minutes of game time. This is being done to work players up to being 90 minute match fit. According to head coach Caleb Porter, the Timbers will use two different teams, as usual, but the first team will play 60 minutes and the second for 50 minutes. We'll see how that works out very soon. Due to Seattle's delayed arrival, today's game has been changed back to two 45 minute halves.

General Information

Watch it on: MLSsoccer.com

Kick off: 9:30 10:00 am at Kino Sports Complex, Tucson, AZ

Seattle Sounders: Finished 3rd in the West in 2012

Portland Timbers: Finished 8th in the West in 2012

Timbers Starting XI

First Half:

Milos Kocic; Ryan Miller, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Mikael Silvestre, Michael Harrington; Diego Chara, Diego Valeri, Will Johnson; Kalif Alhassan, Bright Dike, Darlington Nagbe

Second Half:

Jake Gleeson; Dylan Tucker-Gangnes, Futty Danso, Hanyer Mosquera, Chris Taylor; Mobi Fehr, Nanchoff, Eric Alexander; Sal Zizzo, Danny Mwanga, Jose Adolfo Valencia

Final Thoughts

I feel like I should point out that these games are early pre-season matches. I've seen some people complaining about lack of quality and, now, the odd time frame of the game. Really, MLS teams have always been this rusty this early on in the season and coaches have been fiddling with minutes in pre-season games for years. The difference between this year and previous years is that MLS is now streaming all the matches live giving fans, like ourselves, the opportunity to see the team before they're really ready.

Also Seattle sucks. (Gotta get in one dig...)

Watch it