SEATTLE — Sebastián Blanco scored his second goal of the season off a sloppy turnover early in the second half, Felipe Mora scored late in second-half stoppage time and the Portland Timbers beat the Seattle Sounders 2-0 on Sunday night.
The Timbers (8-10-3) avenged one of the worst loses in franchise history two weeks ago in Portland when the Sounders (12-4-6) scored six times in a 6-2 dismantling. Portland is unbeaten in its last six MLS matches against the Sounders in Seattle.
Blanco’s goal came in the 58th minute and the result of a terrible back-pass by Seattle defender Yeimar Gomez Andrade. His pass for goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland was too soft and Portland’s Felipe Mora was able to get to it before Cleveland. With the Seattle goal open, Mora centered a pass to Blanco for the easy goal.
The Cascadia showdown was the backend of a doubleheader featuring the MLS and WSL teams from the two cities. Earlier in the day, the OL Regin beat the Portland Thorns 2-1 behind two goals from Megan Rapinoe before the largest single-game crowd in NWSL history with 27,248 in attendance. Nearly 20,000 more showed up for the nightcap, Seattle’s largest crowd since the 2019 MLS Cup.
WHITECAPS 4, REAL SALT LAKE 1
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Ryan Gauld had a goal and two assists and Vancouver beat Real Salt Lake to give Vanni Sartini a victory over fellow interim coach Pablo Mastroeni in their debuts.
Sartini, Vancouver’s director of methodology, took over as coach Friday after Marc Dos Santos was fired following a 4-3 loss to Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Championship. Mastroeni also was put in charge Friday, with Real Salt Lake firing Freddy Juarez.
Brian White and Florian Jungwirth also scored to help the Whitecaps (6-7-8) extend their unbeaten streak to nine games. Anderson Julio had a late goal for Real Salt Lake.
The Whitecaps played their first eight homes games of the season at Real Salt Lake’s Rio Tinton Stadium in Sandy, Utah, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
FC DALLAS 5, AUSTIN FC 3
AUSTIN, Texas — Ricardo Pepi and Jesús Ferreira each scored two first-half goals to help FC Dallas beat Austin FC.
The 18-year-old Pepi, a dual national born in El Paso, Texas, has 11 goals this season — the most by an American in MLS. He was named to the U.S. national team this week, picking the squad over Mexico.
Jáder Obrian added a goal early in the second half for Dallas (6-9-7). Julio Cascante, Diego Fagundez and Alexander Ring scored for expansion Austin (5-12-4).
