Cascadia Rivals set to clash in Portland

By Money Mike


Still looking to end their winless run, the Seattle Sounders head south of the border for a massive Cascadia Clash tomorrow afternoon against the Portland Timbers. Kickoff time is 2pm on ESPN, shortly after the conclusion of the England-Italy match in EURO 2012 (unless it goes to extra time). Last year the Sounders defeated the Timbers on their home turf 3-2, rallying back twice with two goals from Fredy Montero and then a game winner by Osvaldo Alonso. They'll have to get past them again tomorrow on the road if they want to snap their six game winless streak.


Players to watch:

Fredy Montero - The Portland Timbers backline will have to keep their eyes out for Montero. Again, last year he scored twice against them at Jeld-Wen Field and he will be looking to silence the Timbers Army again tomorrow. Right now with four goals on the year, Montero will have an opportunity to add to his tally, but to do that, he and Eddie Johnson will have work together to wear down this weak Timbers backline who are going to be without Hanyer Mosquera, Eric Brunner and Rodney Wallace. But as we all know, they can't do it all alone.

Mauro Rosales - Like I said on my previous recap, the Sounders need to stick with Mauro Rosales in the center of midfield because as I said last time, despite only picking up a point against Sporting KC they actually played a lot better than they did the previous five games since they moved Evens to the right and Rosales to the center. I've been starting to get annoyed with Montero acting as a playmaker which in all honesty he's not. That role is why we brought back Mauro Rosales to begin with and up to the Sporting KC game, he hasn't really done much. Keep him in the center and let him create.

Kris Boyd - In case any of you don't know this fact by now, Kris Boyd is the all time leading goalscorer in Scottish Premier League history with 164 and the Timbers are lucky to have him especially after all the speculation during the offseason that he was going to the Houston Dynamo and I was surprised to see him go to Portland. Anyway, the Sounders backline needs to shut him down I think in order to get the win because he's pretty much the only goalscorer they have right now. I mean Danny Mwanga just joined the team, Jose Adolfo Valencia is out with possibly a season ending injury and former UW Husky Brent Richards hasn't been given any real opportunity yet.


Injury report:

Seattle Sounders FC - For the Sounders, David Estrada, Babayele Sodade and Michael Gspurning are out. Steve Zakuani is listed as questionable, but I expect him to be on the 18 man squad. Adam Johansson has been upgraded to questionable. He's been out the last three matches after straining his right hammie against the Columbus Crew. And also, I would've included Christian Sivebaek but he's been waived by the club.

Portland Timbers - For the other team, there's really nothing here except that Eric Brunner and Rodney Wallace are out. Danny Mwanga has a contusion on his left quad, but I don't think it'll keep him out for this one.


Suspensions:

Seattle Sounders FC - Alvaro Fernandez is suspended for Seattle after a red card last match against Sporting Kansas City.

Portland Timbers - Hanyer Mosquera will be serving the first of his three match ban and that will be a big big blow for the Timbers back line who are already with Brunner and Wallace.