Seattle Sounders will be playing against their arch rivals the Portland Timbers in a pre-season match according to the club. Portland Timbers are one of the biggest rivals for Seattle Sounders. After narrowly missing out on the opportunity to win the MLS cup last season, Sigi Schmid will be hoping to build his players fitness in such a way that they can win the title in the new season. However, every desire to improve the fitness will go out of the window when they take on Portland Timbers. The Portland Timbers striker Bright Dike has also spoken in the same breath by saying that the match against Seattle Sounders is always going to be fierce irrespective of the competition.

Even though this is a pre-season friendly, the fans are already looking forward to this match and the players cannot wait to get out on the pitch. The match will be played in the middle of March. The defender Michael Harrington has said that they clearly want to win this match because it is about bragging rights for the fans and the players. The midfielder Will Johnson has said that it is extremely important that Portland Timbers set the tone for the upcoming season in this match itself.

“As a coaching staff we need to gradually ramp them up. We wanted to push them a little bit — not only just physically, but also tactically and mentally. We want to keep a high tempo to mirror a game. We need to get sharp. There are a lot of little details that we need to clean up,” said the Portland Timbers manager Porter. “It will be good to mix it up with those guys and see if we can’t ruffle some feathers. Winning against anybody is good. Winning against Seattle is a cherry on the top,” Johnson said.