The goal put the  Portland Timbers  up 4-1 on aggregate over the Seattle Sounders. In that moment, it was clear that Portland would be moving on to the Western Conference Championship series, and that their rivals would be headed into the offseason. 

“It was huge,” Valeri recalled. “Huge because it was my first year, it was the first time in playoffs for the club, and beating Seattle in that way, it was amazing. It was an amazing feeling to see our supporters there celebrating and leaving that game in the way they did. 

“We have another opportunity now.”

The Timbers’ closed out that 2013 Western Conference semifinal playoff series with a 5-3 aggregate win over the Sounders to advance to the conference championship. Over the last five years, Portland has held bragging rights over Seattle as the victor in the lone MLS playoff series between the two clubs. Timbers fans also like to remind Sounders fans that Portland was the first of the two rivals to hoist the MLS Cup, winning the trophy in 2015, a year before Seattle secured the title.

But a new chapter in the Portland-Seattle rivalry will be written over the next week. 

The Timbers learned Thursday night that they would be facing their rivals in the 2018 Western Conference semifinal series. The news came  after sixth-place Real Salt Lake upset third-place LAFC in a knockout-round playoff game Thursday. Since Salt Lake finished lower in the standings than the fifth-place Timbers, they will face first-place Sporting Kansas City in their Western Conference semifinal series. That leaves Portland with Seattle. 

The Timbers will host the Sounders in the first leg of the two-leg, aggregate-score conference semifinal series on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. PST at Providence Park. The second leg of the series will take place in Seattle on Thursday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. PST at CenturyLink Field. 

“After Real Salt Lake won, I was very excited because it’s a very special game playing against Seattle,” said Timbers midfielder  Diego Chara, who is one of two current Timbers that played in the last playoff series against Seattle in 2013. Valeri is the other player. “We played against them in 2013 in the same moment of the season, in the semifinal. For me, it’s very special to play against Seattle again.”

The circumstances are different this year than they were in 2013. 

Portland finished first in the Western Conference in 2013 and earned an automatic berth to the Western Conference semifinal series, where they ousted the Sounders. This year, the Timbers had to go through the knockout round to earn a spot in the conference semifinals,  upsetting fourth-place FC Dallas 2-1 on the road Wednesday to advance in the playoffs. 

The Sounders finished second in the Western Conference this season after a meteoric rise in the second half of the year. Seattle had just a 1.67 percent chance of making the playoffs as of June 30, but put together the best second half to a season in MLS history to climb up the standings. The Sounders won 14 of their last 16 regular season games. Seattle was bolstered by the midseason acquisition of former Liga MX star forward Raul Ruidiaz, who netted 10 goals in 13 starts for the Sounders this season.

Portland beat Seattle twice during the regular season, posting a 1-0 win at home in May and a 3-2 victory on the road in June. But the Timbers also fell 1-0 to the Sounders at home in August after Seattle had started to go on its long winning streak.

“They are a good team,” Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese said. “They’ve done very well to be able to finish second, incredible second part of the MLS season, something that they’re used to. We know we’re going to encounter a difficult team.”

The Timbers will have to overcome a key absence Sunday if they hope to earn a positive result in the critical home leg of the Western Conference semifinals. Portland center back Larrys Mabiala, who made 31 starts and anchored the backline during the regular season, was shown a red card in Wednesday’s knockout-round game against Dallas and will be suspended for the match.

With Mabiala unavailable, veteran center back  Liam Ridgewell will likely need to take on an even bigger leadership role on defense Sunday. Ridgewell, 34, rarely plays in consecutive games in a compacted schedule, but will need to find a way to step up on short rest Sunday if the Timbers hope to put in a strong defensive performance. 

Ridgewell and Chara both picked up yellow cards in Dallas as well. If either player is shown another yellow card Sunday, he will be suspended for the second leg of the series in Seattle. 

However, despite the challenges and short turnaround, the Timbers will not have any trouble finding motivation as they prepare for the first leg of the Western Conference semifinal series. 

They are facing their rivals, after all. 

Next up

Seattle at 
Portland

When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday

TV: ESPN