PORTLAND, Ore. — It was a typical Seattle Sounders FC performance – bad news for the Portland Timbers. Over the course of a match that asked the visiting team to stay strong and wait, the Sounders stayed strong and waited. And then they broke through, scoring three times over the final 18 regulation minutes of their trip to Providence Park, starting their reboot to the 2020 Major League Soccer season with a 3-0 victory over the Portland Timbers.
“Sometimes you need a hard wake up call to get out of a honeymoon,” Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese offered post-match, casting the night’s result in light of Portland’s triumph at the recent MLS is Back Tournament.