PORTLAND – With injuries mounting both before and after kickoff, the Sounders spent much of the day here just trying to get out of town intact.
A scoreless draw with the Portland Timbers in the 100th meeting between the Cascadia rivals wouldn’t have been the worst result for Brian Schmetzer’s crew, especially when an ugly gash to the head of Kim Kee-hee in the 69th minute deprived them of a key defender. But they couldn’t hold on long enough, as Sebastian Blanco sealed this 1-0 defeat by getting in behind the defenders in the 86th minute to score the game’s only goal.