Timbers Topped: Sounders Take Down Portland at Home For First Time Since 2017
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Seattle Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan kicks the ball during a MLS game against the Portland Timbers on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (Sandra Agbotse / Sounders FC Communications) [/caption]
SEATTLE — Cathartic.
That was the word Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer used to describe the feeling after his team pulled out a 1-0 win at home over their archnemesis Portland Timbers, on Saturday night.
While the win marked Seattle's first since the Leagues Cup final on August 31 and kept the Sounders (13-9-10) in fifth place in the Western Conference ahead of seventh-place Portland (11-11-11), it would've been a big deal if these teams were winless.
Saturday marked Seattle's first time beating Portland at home in front of its raucous Emerald City Supporters since 2017 and pushed the Sounders' all-time record against the Timbers to 68-57-19.
The relief was evident on the Sounders postgame.
"Right now I'm going to go back and enjoy this moment with a bunch of happy soccer players and a bunch of happy coaches," Schmetzer said. "We don't like the Timbers."
De la Vega Returns With a Bang
Pedro de la Vega picked up his first start since August 31 as the Argentinian designated player has been dealing with knee tendonitis.
He looked rusty to start on the left wing, a tad reluctant to attack with his strong dribbling skill. But in the 15th minute, his guys would set the ball up on a platter.
Jesús Ferreira, starting at the 10 with Albert Rusnák in the midfield, pushed a ball ahead to a sprinting Alex Roldan on his right side. Roldan left the ball perfectly for de la Vega to smash it past Portland keeper Maxime Crepeau.
de la Vega may have had a slow start to the game, but boy was he back to himself after that score.
Frei Stops the Show
Stefan Frei has been keeping Seattle's net clean for years now, and he added another save to his highlight reel in the 34th minute.
The Sounders backline let David Da Costa through, as the 24-year-old rocketed a shot at the top right corner. Frei, who hadn't been tested all night, was forced to jump off his line and just barely push the ball over the net with his outstretched left hand.
"We somehow stumble over our own feet a little bit and it kind of just ended on a silver platter for them," Frei said of the moment. "Very fortunate that's where it ended up, and that I found myself in a position to react."
After some promising chances from Paul Rothrock were stopped in their tracks, the Sounders took a 1-0 advantage into the half.
Sounders Close It Out, Lose Rusnák
"Build a bonfire, build a bonfire, put the Timbers on the top!"
The classic chant rang out around Lumen Field as fans serenaded their Sounders toward victory.
Indeed, Seattle had multiple chances to make it 2-0 late as Musovski and Minoungou were both tackled in the box, but the Sounders couldn't turn any of their chances into goals as the night wore on.
As the Timbers pushed late in stoppage time, Rusnák went for a hooking tackle from behind on Timbers midfielder Omir Fernandez. The decision was part of a mentality shift by the Sounders to kill opposing transition chances since the Club World Cup, according to Frei postgame. He didn’t get any of the ball and was shown a yellow on account of how the tackle killed a Timbers transition chance illegally.
After a short review, Rusnák was tossed on a red card, leaving Seattle short-handed for its next match and with 10 players to close out a 1-0 ballgame.
Thanks to a late header by Nouhou to kill the Timbers’ last chance, however, Seattle escaped with its first win in over a month.
Takeaways: A Classic Cascadia Clash
This was a derby all the way.
With Game 1 of the ALDS next door, SoDo was louder than usual, and it added to the playoff-like atmosphere at Lumen Field. de la Vega even asked how many people live in Seattle, if they can pack out both stadiums at once.
Never change, Pedro.
On the field, Portland's offense has been in rough shape, and the Timbers salted away plenty of golden chances in this one as they produced just 0.6 xG (Seattle finished with 1.3) despite four shots on target.
But make no mistake, this was a monster performance from Nouhou in the backline. The left back won six of his 10 duels and almost single-handedly shut down the right side. He was also one of the first players to push past Portland's high press, as he got Seattle moving in transition consistently.
For de la Vega, it was a shaky performance before he got on the board. He's missed a month, and he looked like it, but said that he had been working on following plays better lately, which led him to finding the right spot in the box. In terms of his pain tolerance and performance with the knee tendonitis, Schmetzer liked how his DP looked in getting back on defense and moving through his 65 minutes.
De la Vega concurred.
"I feel 100%, I feel good," de la Vega said through a translator.
On the attacking front, the depth of this team is starting to cause some issues here and there.
Danny Musovski subbed on later in the match and missed Paul Rothrock on a 2-on-1 transition chance late and was tackled from behind with a golden scoring chance in stoppage time. Despite the career year from Musovski, Schmetzer has gone back to all-time leading scorer Jordan Morris, who has been decent, but lacks the scoring punch of Musovski.
To get Ferreira in at the 10, Schmetzer had to move Rusnák back into the midfield, where he was forced to play more defense than he's been accustomed to — leading to a red card on a foul to stop a transition chance. The depth, however, will provide solutions as Schmetzer's crew pushes toward the postseason.
On the bright side, Seattle's current fifth-place spot is about as high as they can aspire with No. 4 LAFC far ahead on points.
Up Next
The Sounders face another playoff-hungry team in Real Salt Lake on the road next Saturday, and they'll do it short-handed.
Cristian Roldan, who has been the busiest man in soccer this year, was called up to the USMNT again for two friendlies and will join Obed Vargas as another international-duty absentee in the midfield. Meanwhile, Rusnák will miss the game on account of his red card as the season winds down.
