Match Recap & Highlights: Portland Timbers 3 - 0 Seattle Sounders

The Portland Timbers tallied a signature 3-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders, behind goals from Jaroslaw Niezgoda, Santiago Moreno, and Dairon Asprilla. They started the scoring, and then took advantage of a Seattle red card in the second half to keep the Sounders at bay, adding two goals late to finish their rivals off.

Recap

Portland came out aggressive and active at the start of the match, and through the first ten minutes were the much more active side. Seattle found their way into the game by winning more of the ball in the subsequent, but it was the Timbers who scored first in the 24th minute via Jaroslaw Niezgoda. On a counterattack, Sebastian Blanco found Jaro unmarked at the back post and he powered home the opener.

Seattle had a shout for penalty and Raul Ruidiaz rattled the post in the closing stages of the first half, but Portland went into halftime up a goal.

Not a full minute into the second half, they would find themselves up a man. Jackson Ragen was shown his second yellow card for a dangerous challenge on Eryk Williamson, and Seattle was reduced to ten men. Portland however couldn’t make the most of their advantage, as they were unable to find the net for most of the second frame. Seattle inched back into the game bit by bit, pressing for an equalizer.

That all changed in the 80th minute, when Portland was awarded a penalty after a handball in the box. Santiago Moreno scored the subsequent spot kick, and Dairon Asprilla added a third goal late to complete the spoiling of Seattle’s big fancy banner raising ceremony.

Highlights

• 3’ Diego Chara drew the first foul of the game, because of course it was always going to be him.
• 6’ First yellow card of the game was shown to Eryk Williamson for breaking up a Seattle counterattack.
• 9’ First shot of the game came off of Sebastian Blanco’s foot, but it was a deflected one and was easily collected at the near post.
• 14’ Seattle’s first real foray forward ends in a deflected shot, which earned the hosts the first corner kick of the game,
• 16’ Aljaz Ivacic came up big to make a point blank stop on a Nicolas Lodeiro shot at the doorstep.
• 17’ Not thirty seconds later, Claudio Bravo was in the right place at the right time to save a header off the line.
• 24’ GOAL TIMBERS: 0-1. Portland won the ball back and worked it downfield. After some nice passing in the midfield, Yimmi Chara found Blanco in space on the right wing. Seba whipped in a peach of a ball to the back post, where Jaroslaw Niezgoda met it unmarked and powered it home.

• 38’ A flashpoint as Lodeiro went down in the Timbers box off a challenge from Josecarlos Van Rankin. Looked like there might have been a shout for a penalty, but none was called.
• 40’ Albert Rusnak put a free kick right into the Timbers wall, after all of the penalty remonstrations were due.
• 45’ Raul Ruidiaz fired off a volley of a rebound, and it somehow flared wide a banged off the post and out. It was the closest the hosts came in the opening frame.
• 45’+2 Jackson Ragen cleaned out Niezgoda with an elbow while challenging for the ball, and was shown a yellow card.

The halftime whistle blew, and despite trailing in possession and shot statistics, the Timbers led the Sounders by a goal.

• 46’ With the second half barely a minute old, Jackson Ragen was shown his second yellow card after a dangerous challenge on Eryk Williamson, and was subsequently sent off.
• 49’ The Timbers almost immediately took advantage, as Blanco worked his way free in behind. Stefan Frei made a great point blank save to deny Seba.
• 57’ Yimmi Chara was shown a yellow card after arguing a foul that was called against Claudio Bravo.
• 63’ First sub of the game for the Timbers, as Cristhian Paredes made his return to the field by replacing Eryk Williamson. Williamson had himself another strong outing in the midfield, playing a key role in creating space for Portland’s first goal.
• 68’ Ruidiaz pounced and found himself in behind the Timbers defense one-on-one, but Ivacic came up big to stonewall him. The offside flag went up after to negate the whole sequence, but it was still an impressive moment from Jazzy.

A period followed where Portland appeared to lose some steam and couldn’t string together sustained attacking moves. Seattle started to gain more and more confidence, and lobbed cross after cross into Portland’s box. The Timbers were up to the task of handling them, however.

• 80’ After Santiago Moreno had a shot blocked out for what appeared to be a corner kick, VAR stepped in and awarded a penalty to the Timbers. The shot came off of Nouhou’s outstretched hand on the way out, and the ref pointed to the spot.
• 82’ GOAL TIMBERS: 0-2. Moreno made no mistake, as he cooly slotted his penalty past Frei and into the bottom corner.

• 85’ GOAL TIMBERS: 0-3. Dairon Asprilla put the icing on the cake, as he finished off a flowing Portland counterattack after a square ball from Niezgoda in the box.

The fulltime whistle blew, and Portland emerged victorious with a signature 3-0 win over their most heated rivals, leapfrogging them in the standings to boot.

The Timbers are next in action when they face another Cascadia foe, the Vancouver Whitecaps, on Sunday July 17 at Providence Park at 7:30pm.