Under normal circumstances, a season’s first meeting between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders FC would be a long-awaited event. Players would have looked for the match when the schedules came out. One team’s fans would start planning their travel the moment a date was confirmed.
As with all things 2020, though, the weekend’s circumstances won’t be normal. Had Major League Soccer not been forced to suspend play due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Portland and Seattle would have had their first meeting of the season on May 17. Instead, the year’s initial derby will take place on Sunday (7pm PT, FS1) – the beginning of a six-match slate that was announced only 13 days ago.