Timbers are kings of Cascadia after 1-1 draw in Seattle, team gets set to host Vancouver in playoffs

With tonight’s 1-1 draw against the rival Seattle Sounders, the Cascadia Cup is headed back to the Rose City. The Timbers needed a win or draw tonight to win the three-team regional trophy, a Sounders win meant that Seattle would win the Cascadia Cup.

The Timbers have had Seattle’s number at Lumen Field for several years, the last time the Timbers were defeated in Seattle was May 17, 2017, — 2,702 days ago. I was just finishing up elementary school and the high school I graduated from was still under construction. The Timbers are now 5-0-4 at Lumen Field in MLS regular season matches since 2018 and 4-1-3 in all matches with the Sounders since 2022.

On this final day of the MLS regular season, all the spots in the MLS Cup Playoffs were decided and with all the results across the league the Timbers will get the 9th and final playoff spot in the West. Fresh off a draw against the Sounders that secured their second Cascadia Cup in three seasons, the Timbers will face another Cascadia rival in the play-in game, the Vancouver Whitecaps. With Vancouver being the 8th seed, they would ordinarily host the Timbers in this scenario; however, conflicting events at their home venue BC Place forced the match to be moved to Portland. The winner will move on to play a best-of-three against top seed Los Angeles FC.

The Sounders had a chance to get the opener in the 19th minute, but Pedro de la Vega’s shot was blocked by recent signing Finn Surman, who made his Timbers debut tonight. Seattle would keep the pressure on and get rewarded in the 37th minute as Yeimar Gomez headed in a corner to put the Sounders up 1-0 in this bitter rivalry match. Antony got the Timbers back on level terms in the 68th minute as he dribbled his way into the box and put the ball past Stefan Frei to make it 1-1. 

Just a minute after Antony’s goal, Pedro de la Vega had a chance to put Seattle back in front, but James Pantemis made a quality save with his leg; shortly after that play, Obed Vargas of Seattle committed a foul that earned him his second yellow card, meaning that the Sounders would have to play the rest of the match down a man. Portland nearly took advantage of being a man up in the 75th minute when Evander ripped a shot off the post but nonetheless, they were able to get out of Seattle with a 1-1 draw, take home regional bragging rights for the year, and get some momentum heading into the playoffs.