A great finish last night for Seattle Sounders, who have been on somewhat of a roller-coaster this MLS season. Being one of the strongest teams in the start of the season and leading Major League Soccer’s Western Conference, the Sounders went down to tread along the red line.
Last night however, Seattle managed to keep itself within a playoff spot, so the team is hopefully still in the race to salvage what has been a turbulent 2015 MLS season.
Hosts Seattle Sounders got an early lead due to string of errors committed by Portland’s defense. Sounders’ Obafemi Martins got hold of a ball that the Timbers failed to clear outside of their own box. With immense skill, Martins created “something out of nothing” and managed to wiggle the ball into the box while passing several of Portland’s defenders, to score give Seattle an early lead (6’).
Seattle Sounders 1 – 0 Portland Timbers
Visitors Portland Timbers did try to come up with answers for most of the first half, but suffered yet another setback before half time when goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey collided with Obafemi Martins inside the box, resulting in a penalty.
Seattle’s captain Brad Evans converted the penalty to double the Sounders’ lead right before half time (42’).
Seattle Sounders 2 – 0 Portland Timbers
Portland continued to apply pressure, and even increased pressure and created more opportunities in the second half, extracting some impressive saves from Seattle’s goalkeeper Stefan Frei.
Timbers’ efforts did pay out later in the game, when Jack Jewsbury converted a corner played by Diego Valeri, cutting Seattle’s lead to one point (58’).
Seattle Sounders 2 – 1 Portland Timbers
Portland Timbers’ following attempts however never resulted in an equalizer, leaving Seattle Sounders with the win.
Seattle will host Toronto FC next Saturday, September 12th, and Portland will host Sporting Kansas City at home in Wednesday, September 9th.
