SEATTLE — Sounders right back Kelvin Leerdam had been so caught up in the intensity of his first derby match with Portland that he hadn’t much time to feel disappointed by the result.
His team extended his club-record unbeaten streak to 11 in Sunday night’s 1-1 draw against the visiting Timbers, though, yet again failed to capitalize enough despite dominating play. The result was another of those half-empty, half-full results where the Sounders pick up a point but feel they gave away two.
For Leerdam the fact the Sounders haven’t lost since he transferred here from The Netherlands in early July is a sign that any disappointment could be fleeting depending on how ensuing games go.
“I think we should remind ourselves of the good things about the game and keep going, keep going,” Leerdam said of his first-place team, still a point up on the Timbers. “We’re still undefeated for a long stretch now. Of course, we wanted the three points, but we’ll remember the good things from this game and try to play better soccer the next game.”
And there was plenty of good, starting with the Sounders withstanding an early Portland barrage and then opening the scoring on a Cristian Roldan goal in the 18th minute of a wild goal-mouth scramble. That got the crowd of 51,796 fans at CenturyLink Field even more revved up for a contest that quickly turned about as physical as everybody expected.
The Timbers didn’t get another good scoring chance after that until stoppage time, when goalkeeper Stefan Frei lunged for a ball just ahead of charging Portland striker Darren Mattocks deep in the box. Frei got to the ball first, but Mattocks went tumbling over his legs and referee Mark Geiger signaled a penalty kick on the trip.
Both Frei and the crowd howled in disbelief, but to no avail as Diego Valeri promptly buried the penalty in the far left corner of the net for his 16th goal of the season to send the teams into halftime tied 1-1. That was about as competitive as Portland got the rest of the way, content to sit back in a defensive shell as the Sounders pressed forward throughout the second half.
Jordan Morris got in twice on breakaways in the 47th and 56th minutes, but was stopped both times by Timbers keeper Jeff Attinella. Roldan also had a chance after a nice ball from Nouhou, but his shot from the right side of the box deflected off a defender and out of harm’s way.
Roldan said he also had “mixed feelings” about the result, on the same day he was called up by the U.S. Men’s National Team for World Cup qualifying games — one of nine Sounders named to various national team rosters.
“We felt like we were the better team,” Roldan said. “We created chances. We were unable to finish them. It’s a similar storyline to Vancouver and they tied it up. So, we feel like the team that lost points today.”
The Sounders also dominated Wednesday night’s contest in Vancouver, only to see a rare Whitecaps scoring opportunity result in a second-half goal that tied it 1-1 despite being down to 10 men. This game wasn’t quite the same, being the usual, intensely physical contest usually witnessed between the two sides, playing for the first time this late in a season when ranked 1-2 in the standings.
“At the end of the day, we still haven’t lost in a while,” Roldan said. “But two ties in a row definitely feels like two losses in a row.”
Bodies were flying left and right all game and Nouhou took a red-card ejection in stoppage time for delivering a blow to the head of Timbers midfielder Diego Chara during an open-field run.
Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer was already without AWOL Joevin Jones, down in Trinidad and Tobago awaiting the start of World Cup qualifying play after leaving the team early without permission. Now, he’ll have Nouhou sitting out an automatic one-game suspension when the team resumes play following this upcoming two-week qualifying break.
