Timbers Fall to the Sounders

After a first half where the Sounders dominated most the of play save for some late pressure from the Timbers, the match burst into life in the second half where the Timbers got two lucky deflections and Montero nearly scored the second hat trick in the history of his club. The Timbers opened up the scoring shortly after the referee whistled the start of the second half. Timbers' midfielder James Marcelin slid the ball to a sprinting Khalif Alhassan who wove his way past the Sounders' defense into the box and attempted a cross the was knocked into the goal off of the inside of Jeff Parke's leg and trough the legs of Kasey Keller. Eleven minutes later a foul committed near the edge of the penalty area gave Fredy Montero the perfect opportunity to level the score, and he did just that. He swung the ball over the wall and it snuck it's way into the near corner of the goal past a diving Troy Perkins. The Timbers found the lead once again in the sixty ninth minute. Diego Charra found Jorge Perlaza on a breakaway as he was sprinting down the right side of the field. Perlaza made it to the edge of the penalty area and unleashed a shot that took a deflection off of Tyson Wahl that sent it hopelessly past Keller and into the Sounders' goal. Fredy Montero came up huge for the Sounders and evened the score once again just five minutes later. James Riley crossed the ball to far post of the Timbers goal where Lamar Neagle gathered it up and crossed it back across goal where Mauro Rosales settled the ball down onto the turf for a waiting Montero who hammered it in. The Timber ultimately shot themselves in the foot seven minutes later, Neagle running onto an excellent ball over the top by Alonso and getting tangled up and taken down by Eric Brunner which drew a straight red without any hesitation from the referee. With Brad Evans not on the field and Montero having missed a PK attempt just barely a week earlier, Alonso stepped up to the spot and buried the ball past a reaching Perkins who guessed the correct direction but just could not muster enough to reach it. The Sounders are now 1-0-2 in their campaign to win the fan-based Cascadia Cup and have now advanced a single point beyond FC Dallas to once again claim second place in the standings.