Portland, OR (SportsNetwork.com) - The Cascadia Cup will take center stage on Sunday as the Portland Timbers welcome their fiercest rivals, Seattle Sounders FC, to Providence Park.
The Timbers will be aiming to extend their unbeaten streak in league play to a modest three matches, while also hoping to carry over a positive run of form following a comfortable 4-1 victory over Alpha United FC on Tuesday in the CONCACAF Champions League group stage.
In their last league outing, the Timbers came away with a point away from home in a 1-1 draw with the New England Revolution.
The lone strike of the opening period came in the 27th minute when Diego Fagundez threaded a pass through the Portland defense to find Charlie Davies, who beat the offside trap to slip a shot past Donovan Ricketts from a difficult angle.
Portland eventually leveled the score and it was Liam Ridgewell who did the honors 25 minutes from time. The Timbers defender capped a surging run into the penalty area with a deft finish past Bobby Shuttleworth for his first MLS goal.
"I think it is what it is. We can't do anything about what happened, we need to move on. So I don't think we're happy with a point, but I don't think we can be too disappointed either because at the end of the day, we came back from behind," said Portland head coach Caleb Porter.
"I liked the comeback, liked the point, thought we did enough to win, but we didn't win so we'll move on, shift gears, get ready for [CONCACAF[ Champions League and get ready for a home game against Seattle."
Portland's Champions League match proved to be little challenge as Steve Zakuani, Max Urruti, Fanendo Adi and Alves Powell all netted goals in the comfortable 4-1 rout.
Seattle, meanwhile, will be looking to get back in the win column after being held to a 1-1 draw by the San Jose Earthquakes on home soil on Wednesday.
The Sounders opened the scoring early in the second half when Obafemi Martins found Chad Barrett streaking up the middle, and Martins played the ball into open space in the box. Barrett struck it far post for the goal, marking his sixth goal of the season.
But San Jose found the equalizer 25 minutes from time when Cordell Cato brought the ball far up the left side before crossing it under a diving Stefan Frei, finding Chris Wondolowski for a tap into an empty net.
"It was disappointing. The guys are disappointed because they really wanted to come out with a win today," Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid said. "You look at our record and we probably have tied the least amount of times in the league. We'd rather have a win, but rather not have a loss."
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.