With only one exhibition match remaining before the start of the 2010 MLS season, the Seattle Sounders are having issues scoring.
On Thursday night Sigi Schmid's men dominated the match but the Portland Timbers left Qwest Field with the 1-0 win in the first ever Community Shield match between the two northwest rivals. The Timbers are scheduled to join MLS as an expansion club in 2011.
“That’s very disappointing. Disappointing for us, disappointing for our fans,” said goalkeeper Kasey Keller to SoundersFC.com. “Hopefully it’s a wakeup call. We can’t just be at home and think that we’re going to win just because we have a great crowd behind us. We need to be better.”
The Timbers scored on one of their two counterattacks while Seattle failed to score for the second straight exhibition. The Sounders and Vancouver played to a 0-0 tie last weekend.
“We're obviously disappointed with the result tonight,” Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid said. “I thought we moved the ball pretty much at will. I thought our possession was good. It was the old bugaboo, not getting enough people in the box (and) we had crosses coming a little bit too late. Overall, I still thought our play was much better than it was in Vancouver.”
Just before halftime, Portland scored the only goal of the match on a counterattack. Former KC Wizards forward Ryan Pore provided the service and Portland’s OJ Obatala knocked it home in the 44th minute.
It was the first goal the Sounders FC had allowed in 336 minutes of preseason action after three straight shutouts.
Seattle besieged the Timbers in the second half with substitute Roger Levesque figuring prominently. But another former MLS player, Timbers goalkeeper Steve Cronin, kept the clean sheet.
The exhibition drew more than 18,000 fans and raised over $75,000 for the Sounders’ charitable partners.
