Portland Timbers–Seattle Sounders rivalry

As of September 3, 2023

The Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers first played each other on May 2, 1975; in the Timbers' inaugural game. Seattle defeated Portland 1–0 in front of 8,131 at Portland Civic Stadium, now known as Providence Park.[13] The return match, played on July 26, 1975 saw Portland play spoils and defeat the hosts, Seattle 2-1, in front of a crowd of 27,310. A month later, Portland knocks Seattle out of the playoffs in front of crowd of 31,000.[14]

On June 30, 1979, Seattle defeated Portland 5–1 in the Kingdome in front of a season high 34,000 spectators. Until the 1980s, it would stand as the largest victory in the derby, and is the largest victory by either side in the top tier of American soccer. In the 5–1 victory, Seattle's Derek Smethurst netted a hat trick.

At the end of the 1982 North American Soccer League season, the Portland Timbers franchise was forced to fold, once team expenditures outpaced club income. Consequently, the 1–0 Sounders victory over the Timbers on August 22, 1982 ended up being the final meeting between the two sides in the North American Soccer League. It would not be for nearly 30 years, in 2011, the two sides would meet against one another in the top flight of American soccer.[15]

In the 1980–81 NASL Indoor season the two clubs faced one another for the first time in indoor soccer. On November 21, 1980 in front of 7,885 at Portland's Memorial Coliseum (now called Veterans Memorial Coliseum), the Timbers won, 6–4.[16] The Sounders would claim victory in the next four meetings. Portland won the final three rivalry matches of 1981–82 indoor, including the teams' last-ever indoor match-up, 6–4, on the strength of Dale Mitchell's hat trick on February 5, 1982.[17]

At the end of the 1983 NASL season, the original Seattle Sounders franchise terminated, with the league itself ceasing operations ahead of the 1985 season. In 1984, a Western Soccer Alliance franchise was granted to the Seattle area for a soccer club in the area that was branded as the Seattle Storm, and went under the F.C. Seattle moniker for a while.[18] The following year, a WSA franchise was also granted to the Portland area, where the rivalry continued through the late 1980s into the early 1990s.

Sounders' fans in Seattle during a match against Portland in 2008

After an 11-year hiatus, the rivalry continued in 2001, when the newly incarnated Portland Timbers hosted the Seattle Sounders on May 11, 2001 at the same stadium where the rivalry began, which was now known as PGE Park. In front of a crowd nearly 12,300, the hosts walked away with a 2–0 victory.

July 21, 2001, former U.S. National Team player, Brian Ching, would score the only goal in 1–0 Sounders victory over the Timbers, as over 11,000 would be in attendance in Portland.

Ahead of the 2004 season, supporters of both the Sounders, Timbers, and their rival up the I-5 corridor, the Vancouver Whitecaps, created the Cascadia Cup which would be given to the supporters whose team had a stronger record against the two sides. The first formal Cascadia Cup match between the two resulted in a Timbers victory, defeating the Sounders 2–0 on May 1, 2004. During the four regular season meetings during that season, the Sounders lost thrice, and had one victory over Portland. However, in the 2004 USL First Division Playoffs, their first playoff meeting since 1975, the Sounders won 3–2 on aggregate over Portland, posting a 2–0 home victory in the second leg.

On September 18, 2005, Seattle knocked Portland out of the playoffs for a second straight year, as Sounders defeated the Timbers 2–0 in Seattle.

In Seattle, Sounders defeated the Timbers 3–1 on July 22, 2006, in a hotly contested match that accumulated eight yellow cards, and one red.

On May 10, 2008, in front of over 10,000 at Qwest Field (now Lumen Field), Seattle and Portland played out a 0–0 draw in the final match the two teams would play each other in Seattle in the USL-1. On August 7, 2008, the Timbers and Sounders played each other for a final time in the Division 2 league, USL-1. Seattle defeated Portland 1–0 on the historic night,[19] in front of a rambunctious 12,332 fans. The high intensity match also included a total of six cards handed out, and one ejection.

On July 1, 2009, Seattle eliminated Portland 2–1 before a sold-out PGE Park crowd in the U.S. Open Cup. Roger Levesque — a player Portland fans have had a particular dislike for — scored Seattle's first goal within the opening minute.[6][20] Levesque completed a goal celebration, in which he stood still at the top of the Timbers penalty area while Nate Jaqua pretended to chop him down like a tree, ending with Levesque falling flat on his back.[21]

A cold and rainy night on March 11, 2010, Portland defeated Seattle 1–0 in a preseason community shield charity match. The crowd of 18,606 in attendance that night at Qwest Field is one of the largest crowds to attend a preseason game between two U.S. teams in American soccer history.

In hoping to stoke the rivalry for the future 2011 Major League Soccer season — when the Timbers would be joining the Sounders in MLS — Portland unveiled a billboard displaying a Timbers crest and the words Portland, Oregon and Soccer City USA less than a mile from Qwest Field in Seattle.[22] The billboard was broadcast to a nationwide audience on ESPN2 during halftime of the Sounders home match versus Real Salt Lake that evening.[23]

In March 2011, the Timbers defeated the Sounders 2–0 in the preseason Cascadia Summit, a round robin game event involving the two teams and their Canadian rival, the Vancouver Whitecaps FC. In their first match as both MLS sides, and the first time since 1982 the two played in top division American soccer the Timbers and the Sounders battled to a draw at a rain-soaked Qwest Field in front of 36,593 in the highly anticipated MLS debut of the three-way Cascadia Cup. This was a stadium record crowd to see a regular season MLS match, and included more than 500 traveling Portland fans. The return match, on July 10, 2011 saw Seattle earn a 3–2 road victory.

On October 7, 2012, Seattle hosted Portland at CenturyLink Field in front of 66,452 people, the second-largest stand-alone crowd in MLS history. The Timbers had their second chance of the year to clinch their first Cascadia Cup contested by all three sides, but lost 3–0 to the host Sounders.[24]

In the fourth round of the 2015 U.S. Open Cup, the Sounders hosted the Timbers at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Washington. Seattle, the defending champions of the Open Cup, lost 3–1 and ended the match with only six players after three were sent off by the referee with red cards and Obafemi Martins was injured after all three substitutions had been used. The final red card was given to Clint Dempsey for tearing up the notebook of referee Daniel Radford, for which he was suspended an additional three Open Cup matches.[25][26] The match was later nicknamed the "Red Card Wedding" by fans, a reference to an episode of the television series Game of Thrones.[27]

From 2015 through 2021, either Portland or Seattle represented the MLS Western Conference in the MLS Cup title game. Seattle won two titles in four appearances, while Portland won one in three; the Timbers also won the 2020 MLS is Back Tournament, held during the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] From 2018 to 2022, the home team won only one of eleven rivalry matches played during the MLS regular season.[29] An August 2021 match at Providence Park ended in a 6–2 Sounders victory, the largest margin in the rivalry's history and the most goals conceded by the Timbers in any league competition.[30]

On August 29, 2021, the Sounders and OL Reign hosted a men's–women's doubleheader with their respective opponents from Portland (the Timbers and Thorns). The women's match, a 2–1 Reign victory, set a National Women's Soccer League attendance record, with 27,248 spectators, and was followed by 45,737 for the Sounders' 2–0 loss to the Timbers.[31] A similar doubleheader is planned for June 3, 2023.[32]

  Sounders   Timbers

• Total: Seattle with 8 higher finishes, Portland with 4.