Timbers to host rival Sounders in preseason 'friendly' on April 9

PORTLAND, Ore.
- The Portland Timbers will host their long-time rivals, the Seattle Sounders, in a preseason exhibition at PGE Park on Saturday, April 9 at 7 p.m., it was announced today.




The event is the Timbers’ first preseason exhibition at PGE Park in five seasons.




"We're very excited about being able to offer this additional match to our fans," said Timbers general manager Jim Taylor. "Whether it’s preseason, regular season or postseason, the players on the pitch take this rivalry to heart and I don't expect this match to be any different."




Individual tickets will begin at $10, with a number of group discounts available. Tickets will go on sale along with regular-season matches in late March.




The rivalry, which dates back to the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 1970s, was rekindled when the Timbers returned as a United Soccer Leagues side in 2001. Seattle holds the series edge, 10-7-1, in four seasons of USL play.




The Timbers have won five of the last six regular season matches in the series, but fell to the Sounders in a two-leg, aggregate-score playoff to end their successful 2004 season.




Regarded as one of the most heated rivalries in American professional soccer, there were 32 cautions and three ejections handed out in the six regular- and postseason matches between the two clubs last season.




The friendly is the first of three visits Seattle will make to the Rose City in 2005. The Sounders will play regular-season matches at PGE Park on Sunday, Aug. 7 and Saturday, Aug. 20.




Season tickets, club seats, group packages, party suites, flex plans and mini-plans for the 2005 campaign are currently on sale. Timbers’ ticket plans start as low as $77.00 and are available by contacting the team’s ticket office at (503) 553-5555.