BEAVERTON, Ore. – Coming into the 2014 season, one of the main points of motivation the Seattle Sounders used following a disappointing year was the success of their most hated rivals, the Portland Timbers.
Their Cascadia foe to the south were coming off a season in which they beat Seattle three times, won the Western Conference regular-season championship and sent the Sounders crashing out of the playoffs in the conference semifinals.
It was a bitter pill for the Sounders to swallow, but it didn’t take much time for them to recover from the side effects.
Last year, the Sounders beat Portland three times – including once to knock them out of the U.S. Open Cup – en route to a Supporters’ Shield championship while Portland didn’t even make the playoffs.
Now that Timbers head coach Caleb Porter is entering his third year at the helm, is he similarly using Seattle’s success last year to prod his team this time around, with their first meeting of 2015 set for Sunday at CenturyLink Field (9:30 pm ET, Fox Sports 1)?
“I think that rivalry is always going to be the same regardless of where the teams are at,” Porter said following Saturday's training session at the team facility. “Tables have turned a little bit. We obviously had a lot to prove in 2013, proved it obviously during the year getting some results against them and in the playoffs obviously winning the series against them. They obviously last year had a lot to prove, and they proved it. So here we are now in a bit of the rubber match in the three years.”
Portland appeared to have turned the tide in 2013 in what had been a fairly one-sided rivalry since they joined MLS in 2011. Their regular-season win on Oct. 13, 2013 was just their second against the Sounders, but after last season Seattle improved their record in the series to 5-2-4.
While it’s obviously not a record that sits well with Timbers players, the consensus was that it’s not needed to get motivated for the match.
“It’s a new year, and there’s always going to be twists and turns to this rivalry,” said veteran defender/midfielder Jack Jewsbury, who has been a part of the Portland-Seattle rivalry since the beginning of its MLS incarnation. “But it’s a game that guys get up for. Like I’ve always said, these are the games you circle on the calendar when the schedule comes out and you look forward to. I think there’s definitely been a buzz in the locker room and coming out for training this week that makes it a bit different.”
Darlington Nagbe, also an original Timber who has never missed a match against Seattle, echoed Jewsbury’s sentiments.
“I feel like whether it’s the Supporters’ Shield or if they don’t make playoffs, I feel like this game is always big no matter what because of the rivalry,” he said.
What does motivate the Timbers heading into the latest installment of the rivalry is their own standing this season. Without the injured Diego Valeri and captain Will Johnson – although Porter indicated that Valeri could be available off the bench Sunday – Portland have managed just nine points from seven matches. A win against Seattle – 10 points from six games – would push them above the red line in the West.
“Ultimately, it’s a game we always want to win, always want to win,” Porter said. “And like I said, we know it means a lot to our supporters, but it means a lot to us. It would mean a lot to us in terms of where we’re at to get three points but also it would be that much sweeter.”
Dan Itel covers the Timbers for MLSsoccer.com.
