BEAVERTON, Ore. – “You’re not allowed to have any of your fans at an away game.”
Derbies, in Samuel Armenteros’ part of the world, take on a different tone. He was on one side of one the world’s fiercest, playing for Feyenoord against Ajax in a rivalry that is among the biggest in Northern Europe.
“People are not allowed to travel to Amsterdam and Rotterdam when they play,” he explained. “When they play in Rotterdam,” where Feyenoord is located, “no Ajax supporter is allowed in the stadium, and vice versa. The game has to be played during broad daylight so all the cameras can catch everything and anything. No night games.”
Larrys Mabiala has been on Paris Saint-Germain’s side of another heated rivalry, PSG’s with Olympique de Marseille. Bill Tuiloma, the opposite. He came up with Marseille. Cristhian Paredes has just come off a year with Club América, a club that’s part of one of the biggest rivalries in Latin America, while Liam Ridgewell has spent most of his career on one side or another in the various, often underrated rivalries around Birmingham, in England.
But, as Armenteros alludes, there is something unique about Portland’s rivalry with Seattle, a type of compromise between the precarious environments players like Diego Valeri and Sebástian Blanco have seen in Buenos Aires and the culture around sports in the United States. The hundreds of Timbers Army members who will leave for CenturyLink Field on Friday night and Saturday morning won’t do so with fears of being attacked, targeted, or denied. They will be able to get through the turnstiles of CenturyLink, and while the animosity projected from the south end of Seattle’s home venue will be heated, it also won’t dangerous. Nobody should feel threatened while offering their support.
Saturday’s real conflicts will stay between the lines, where the Portland Timbers return to Seattle in an unfamiliar position (1:30pm PT, FOX). For perhaps the first time since 2011, when the team began play in Major League Soccer, the team ventures north with a clear expectation of three points, and given the current state of both teams, Timbers fans should expect nothing less.
Their team will enter Saturday’s game on an 11-game unbeaten run, over which time they’ve earned results against five of the top six point-getters in MLS: Atlanta United FC, FC Dallas, Los Angeles FC, New York City FC and Sporting Kansas City. They’ve advanced to the quarterfinals of U.S. Open Cup, have turned the corner on a five-match, winless start, and have begun establishing themselves as one of the better teams in Major League Soccer.
Seattle, on the other hand, are entrenched in uncertainty, a situation that could change as their new, much-awaited arrival is announced. To this point, though, the team’s inability to score goals or collect points have cast doubt on whether their run of nine-straight postseason appearances can continue. MLS’ Western Conference may be weaker than it’s been in a while, and the Sounders have gotten off to slow starts before, but in their 11 goals in 14 games, minus-seven goal difference, 2-3-2 record in games at home and inability to craft an attacking identity, it feels like we’re witnessing a Seattle we’ve never seen before.
For some, the Sounders would fall into an unfortunate cliche, that of the wounded animal made all the more dangerous for its need to protect itself. At this point, though, it’s not clear how dangerous Seattle actually is. One player with more than one goal, this season. Shutout in half of their matches. Eliminated from Open Cup at the hands of a USL club. The talent in Seattle's squad says the Sounders are dangerous, but this year’s results? Not so much.
The Timbers handed their rivals one of those clean sheets in the team’s first meeting of the season, on May 13 at Providence Park. But the difference between the team Portland faced that afternoon and the one at Brian Schmetzer’s disposal tomorrow highlights why, despite their record, the Sounders may no longer be pushovers. Will Bruin, Nicolas Lodeiro and Victor Rodriguez, three of Seattle’s more valuable attacking players, were all missing from the team that played a 5-4-1 formation back in May. All three have returned. All three have started each of the Sounders’ last three matches.
Perhaps that’s why the Sounders’ attack appears to be looking up. Those seven times they’ve been shut out, that we noted before? They all happened over the team’s first 11 matches of the season. While, on one hand, that’s a pretty ignominious distinction, it also means the last three games have shown improvement. Four goals in 270 minutes is still a low rate, but it’s a rate that hints the team’s shunning their funk.
It also hints that, when considering two views of the Sounders – the one from the standings, and the one implied by their talent level – the talent is still worth worrying about. And in that worry comes a reminder, for the Timbers and their fans: Players like Bruin, Lodeiro, Clint Dempsey, Cristian Roldan and Chad Marshall have been prominent in keeping Portland winless in Seattle during MLS’ regular season. And it’s entirely possible that, on Saturday, all five will be on the field.
Form doesn’t completely go out the window in rivalry matches. We saw that on May 13. But history is can not ignored, either. And while everything about the Timbers’ and Sounders’ form says the history of this rivalry, as played out at CenturyLink, could change course tomorrow, that change will be more difficult than the current standings show.
