A look back at the history of the Timbers-Sounders rivalry

The Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders will meet for the 140th time tomorrow. It is always a heavily anticipated showdown when these two teams clash and it is widely considered to be the best and most heated rivalry in Major League Soccer. This rivalry goes back to the original Timbers and Sounders teams that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) decades before MLS even existed. So, with derby day on the horizon, let’s take a journey through the history of Major League Soccer’s premier rivalry.

The rivalry between the cities of Portland and Seattle goes back to the 19th century, when both cities were competing to be the most prominent city in the northwestern United States. By the 1890s Seattle established itself as the more economically successful city but the competition between the two cities remained strong in the decades to follow and sports teams would eventually become the main way for Portland and Seattle to try and one-up each other.

The Sounders joined the NASL in 1974 and the Timbers followed suit a year later in 1975 and with the rivalry that already existed between the two cities, there was immediate beef between the two clubs before the Timbers even took the field. The first time the Timbers would take the field was against none other than the Sounders, a game that Seattle won 1-0 at Civic Stadium in Portland. The Timbers then got payback against Seattle in the playoffs, beating them 2-1 in overtime in front of 31,523 people at Civic Stadium. After that win, the Timbers would beat the St. Louis Stars to advance to the championship game, known as the Soccer Bowl, where they fell to the Tampa Bay Rowdies. 

That playoff game set the tone for what the rivalry would eventually become. The teams met multiple times every year in the NASL from 1975 to 1982, when the Timbers folded. Games involving the Timbers and Sounders as well as the Vancouver Whitecaps came with those bragging rights of being the best team in the northwest. During those years, the Timbers were 8-13 against the Sounders including their lone playoff meeting in 1975. Neither team won a Soccer Bowl, although the Sounders advanced to the championship game twice while the Timbers lone appearance was by the aforementioned 1975 team. Some notable games during this era of the rivalry included the Timbers’ 1-0 win over the Sounders in 1978, which tied the record for the longest winning streak in NASL history and the Sounders’ 5-1 win at the Kingdome which was the largest win by either team in the rivalry at that point. In the final game between the teams before the Timbers folded, Seattle came away with a 1-0 victory.

In 1983, a year after the Timbers ceased operations, the Sounders did the same and the league as a whole folded in 1984. From 1985-1990, both Portland and Seattle had soccer teams in the Western Soccer Alliance, known initially as FC Portland and FC Seattle, both teams changed their names in 1989, with Portland bringing back the Timbers name and Seattle renaming their team FC Seattle Storm. Both of these teams folded in 1990 after the WSA’s merger with the American Soccer League. During this time, Portland won 6 matches, Seattle won 5, and 2 of them ended in draws. However, Seattle claimed a championship in these 5 years and Portland did not.

The American Professional Soccer League was formed when the WSA and ASL merged; as previously mentioned, the Portland Timbers and FC Seattle Storm were not included in this merger. However, a new Seattle team was introduced to this league in 1994 and they used the Sounders name of the old NASL franchise. and seven years later in 2001, by the time the league had been renamed the A-League, a team was added to Portland and this team used the historic Timbers name.

The Timbers’ first home game in the A-League was against the Sounders and this game marked the first time the Timbers played a Seattle team in 11 years and the first game between teams known as the Timbers and Sounders in 19 years. Portland won the match 2-0, but then just a day later the teams played in Seattle, where the Sounders won 2-1 in extra time. Just like that, the rivalry was back.

The Timbers-Sounders rivalry reached new heights during the A-League/United Soccer League era. In 2004, the Cascadia Cup was created by the supporter groups of the Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders, and Vancouver Whitecaps and it would be awarded to whichever PNW club finished with more head-to-head points than the other two during the regular season. The Timbers and Sounders played each other in this league from 2001 to 2008 (Seattle joined Major League Soccer in 2009). During this time, the Timbers were 11-16-5 against Seattle in the regular season and in addition were beaten by the Sounders in the playoffs in 2004 and 2005. On top of that, the Sounders won four A-League/USL championships and the Timbers didn’t win any. The Timbers were also the only team in the PNW to not to win the Cascadia Cup while all three teams were in the USL The first time they won it was in 2009, when the Sounders were ineligible to win it due to being in MLS.

The USL era of the rivalry is most remembered for one man; a Sounders legend who became public enemy number 1 for Timbers fans. His name is Roger Levesque and he had a knack for scoring against the Timbers, including scoring all three of Seattle’s goals against the Timbers over two legs in the 2005 playoffs. His goal celebrations against Portland really rubbed Timbers fans the wrong way. His most controversial moment was in a 2009 US Open Cup match in Portland during a period where the Sounders were in MLS and the Timbers were still in the USL. Levesque scored a header in the first minute and then had a teammate chop him down like a tree, mocking the Timbers’ identity as a club. Seattle won that match 2-1. 

2011 would see the Timbers and Whitecaps join Major League Soccer and the three teams would continue to play for the Cascadia Cup at the top-flight level. The first MLS match between the Timbers and Sounders took place in Seattle and the Timbers managed a 1-1 draw after trailing 1-0. Later that season, the Sounders got a 3-2 win in Portland after coming back from a goal down on two occasions. In 2012, the Timbers beat Seattle in an MLS match for the first time with a 2-1 home victory.

In 2013, the Timbers qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time and their conference semifinal opponent was none other than the Seattle Sounders. Portland won the first leg in Seattle 2-1 and then won the second leg at home 3-2, advancing 5-3 on aggregate. One of the most intense Timbers-Sounders games took place in 2014, when the Timbers saw a late 4-2 lead disappear and had to settle for a 4-4 draw as Clint Dempsey converted a late penalty to level the match and complete a hat trick. In a 2015 US Open Cup match in Seattle, the Timbers beat the Sounders 3-1 in extra time and the Sounders finished with only 7 men on the field. Seattle was given three red cards and lost a player to injury after running out of substitutes. In extra time, Seattle’s Micheal Azira was shown a red card, reducing the Sounders to 8 men. Clint Dempsey was fed up with the referee about this decision, so he argued with the ref and ripped his notebook, resulting in Dempsey being shown a red as well. This match became known as the Red Card Wedding, a reference to the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones.

Later in 2015, the Timbers won their first MLS Cup and the Sounders did the same the following year. In 2018, the teams would once again meet in the playoffs and it was one of the most exciting two-leg playoff series in MLS history. The first leg in Portland featured a ton of action at the beginning. Raul Ruidiaz gave Seattle the early 1-0 lead but the Timbers turned it around quickly and took a 2-1 lead into the second leg. In the second leg, Ruidiaz leveled the score on aggregate and gave Seattle the lead on away goals. Sebastian Blanco responded for Portland with a late goal only for Ruidiaz to level it back up in stoppage time. With a 2-1 Seattle lead and 3-3 aggregate score, the match went to extra time. After each team scored in the extra 30 minutes it went to penalties despite several Timbers players thinking they had won on away goals, not knowing that the away goals rule went away in extra time. That didn’t matter though, since the Timbers won the shootout 4-2 and had knocked their rivals out of the playoffs.

However, Seattle bounced back from that heartbreaking loss to win their second MLS Cup in 2019, giving them the edge in MLS Cups over the Timbers. From 2015-2021, both teams knew how to win in the playoffs. Either the Timbers or the Sounders won the Western Conference and participated in the MLS Cup every year during that time. During the 2021 season, the biggest blowout of the MLS era of the rivalry occurred, with the Timbers losing 6-2 to their bitter enemies at Providence Park. The Timbers responded to that by winning 2-0 at Lumen Field a couple weeks later and going on a 6-game unbeaten streak against Seattle that lasted until their 2-1 defeat to the Sounders earlier this season.

During the MLS era, the Sounders have definitely had more success than the Timbers trophy wise, winning 2 MLS Cups, 4 US Open Cups, a Supporters’ Shield, and a CONCACAF Champions League compared to the Timbers’ 1 MLS Cup and MLS is Back Tournament win. The Sounders have also won the Cascadia Cup 5 times in the MLS years, compared to 3 for the Timbers and 4 for the Whitecaps. The Timbers have the slight edge in head-to-head matchups in MLS, though. Portland currently holds a 19-18-9 edge in MLS regular season matchups with the Sounders and Portland also won both playoff series between the teams.

This rivalry has been characterized by back-and-forth action ever since that famous 1975 season that started it all. It has gone through many changes and been played in several different leagues. You have two of the most passionate fan bases in Major League Soccer that are just 170 miles apart and don’t like each other, two cities that don’t like each other, a lot of classic games, and two of the most successful MLS sides in recent years. The Timbers-Sounders rivalry has a history that most other MLS rivalries just don’t have, a history that goes back to before Major League Soccer even existed. It’ll be a fierce battle for 90 minutes when these teams square off at Providence Park tomorrow.