Servando Carrasco will receive his third start of the year, and start for the second game in a row, for the Seattle Sounders as they prepare to play their biggest rivals, the Portland Timbers, in the first game of the revived three-team Cascadia Cup. Erik Friberg, who has started the past three games at center mid, did not suit up for the match after suffering an undisclosed injury at practice on Friday. This likely means the Sounders will be in more of a standard 4-4-2, rather than their 4-diamond-2 that they had been employing since the injury to Steve Zakuani. Mauro Rosales has also been left off the gameday roster.
The only surprise, if you can even call it that, in the Timbers' lineup is Darlington Nagbe, who will start on the right for the second straight game. Nagbe had missed the early part of the season as he recovered from sports hernia surgery.
Sounders starters: Keller; Riley, Ianni, Hurtado, Wahl; Evans, Alonso, Carrasco, Fernandez; Montero, Jaqua. Bench: Boss, Fucito, Gonzalez, Levsque, Neagle, Parke, Scott.
Timbers starters: Perkins, Hall, Brunner, Danso, Wallace; Nagbe, Jewsbury (C), Chara, Alhassan; Cooper, Perlaza. Bench: Gleeson, Horst, Purdy, Marcelin, Moffat, Pore, Zizzo