Sounders vs. Timbers, recap: Exhausting and even

The Seattle Sounders hosted the Portland Timbers on Saturday afternoon, and for the eighth time in six years they failed to claim all three points. This time the two sides played to a 0-0 draw in which very little energy was expended in either 18-yard box, as both teams played a particularly physical match in the middle of the field.

The first half was largely what we’ve come to expect from these games. Some shots were taken, but very little genuine danger creative. The bulk of the action came between the 18-yard boxes where, despite an early yellow for Diego Chara, Allen Chapman allowed a typically physical game to unfold. Plenty of trailing legs and late challenges went unpunished, to say…