Alex Barnes

Full Time: Sounders 1 - 0 Timbers

Spiceless in Seattle.

Steak comes to an end, and there’s not much to be excited about.

#RCTID

90+4’ Albert Rusnak with a nasty tackle from behind on Omir Fernandez and is given a yellow card, but the ref is summoned to the monitor and will send him off. Sounders man and their supporters can have no complaints, that’s a bad one. #RCTID

84’ Double switch - Felipe Mora, Omir Fernandez ON // Paredes, Da Costa OFF #RCTID

78’ Triple switch for the Timbers - Guerra, Lassiter, Chara ON // Kelsy, Smith, Ayala OFF #RCTID

66' Velde spins Rothrock like a top just outside the box and flashes a left-footed curler juuuust wide of the far post. #RCTID

64' The Timbers have pinned the Sounders into their own penalty area over the last 10 minutes but Seattle's backline has held firm. Gotta capitalize on one of these chances. #RCTID

57’ Smith feeds Kevin with a great through-ball into the box, but Kelsy strayed just a hair offside. Put his finish wide of goal regardless. #RCTID

53' That is a ~rough~ touch from Antony on the pass from Velde to squander a deadly counter from the Timbers. #RCTID

46' Back underway at Lumen. #RCTID

Halftime: Sounders 1 - 0 Timbers

Portland trail at the break, but the performance wasn't awful. Seattle capitalized on the one massive chance they created, and have been fortunate that the Timbers' end-product has been lacking.

What are we drinking? #RCTID

45' Paredes turns the ball over on the edge of Seattle's box, and the Sounders send a ball over the top for Rothrock to chase against Kamal Miller. A heavy touch takes him wide of goal, and Paredes gets back to head the cross out for a corner. #RCTID

42' Huge kick save from Crepeau to deny Rothrock from close range and Finn Surman clears the second attack. #RCTID

34' A beautiful passage of play from the Timbers down the right sets up Da Costa for a shot on goal, but Frei produces a good stop to push it over the bar. #RCTID

25' Midfield shape is an absolute mess to start this match. Ball is cleared to Ferreira, who has all the time in the world to take it down, drive at the defense, and blaze a strike over the bar. #RCTID

24' Velde is fouled on the right wing, free kick upcoming near the corner flag. #RCTID

16' 1-0 Sounders, De la Vega scores on a cutback cross from Alex Roldan. Juan Mosquera lost his runner and Ayala couldn't cut out the cross, nothing Crepeau could have done. #RCTID

Can anyone explain the “12” to me? #RCTID

1' Kelsy gets things rolling #RCTID

One might argue that no sport is more important than the beautiful game!

A loooooooooooot of empty seats in the lower bowl with minutes to go until kickoff. #RCTID

So none of the players listed as questionable make the matchday squad (Zuparic, McGraw, Fory, Rojas), and Max Crepeau starts in goal with Pantemis injured.

Back four returns: Smith, Kamal, Finn (C), Juan

Paredes - Ayala double-pivot

Velde, DDC, Antony, Kelsy attack. #RCTID

You guys are stuck with me tonight. Let’s gut some fish. #RCTID

That’s where I ultimately end up at, too. Take a big step back, examine whether this thing you once cherished still brings you joy, and go from there. If it does that’s great! If it doesn’t then you have the choice to ignore it! Constantly moaning about it won’t change anything though.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I’m certainly not making out like mine is the correct one to have.

I’m not saying they’ve hit home run after home run or anything like that, I just feel like some people have forgotten about the “support” part of being a supporter. Idk, just my two cents. Hope everyone has a great rest of their week, and to see a full Providence Park on Saturday. #RCTID

They’ve turned the roster over under Neville, invested in younger players, and there have no doubt been growing pains associated with all the moves. But you can’t say there hasn’t been ~any~ improvement. Maybe it hasn’t happened as quickly as some want, but there has been improvement.

I don’t think anybody, inside or outside of the club, is comfortable about how the last four seasons have gone, nor should they be. But thinking there was a coach who would have immediately taken them from missing the playoffs back-to-back years to Cup contenders is an unrealistic POV in my opinion.

Eager to bash the team on the back of a disappointing result and apprehensive to give them credit after a positive one. You’d think the Timbers were the Montreal Impact after reading their posts. I think it’s really easy for that level of apathy to cloud rational discourse.

It’s an early 2010s “I know more than you about the sport and how things should be done” mindset that turned off so many casuals/newcomers in the city when MLS came to Portland in 2011. Almost as if they’re rooting for them to fall short to confirm their prior opinions.

There’s a segment of Timbers supporters I can’t wrap my head around who make these definitive statements about the current state of the club from a really bad faith position. Very clearly have their minds made up about coaches/players/soccer ops strategy and overlook any semblance of good happening.