The Seattle Sounders won a thrilling Cascadia derby 6-2 against the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on Sunday evening, thanks to two-goal performances from Fredy Montero and Raul Ruidiaz. Seattle's six goals tied their greatest total in an away MLS match, which they set against Chivas USA on August 25, 2012, in a 6-2 victory. In their respective MLS careers, it was comfortably their greatest goal total versus their archrival.

Montero scored twice in the first half to give the Sounders a 2-0 lead. His first goal came in the 13th minute when he simply pushed in a pass from Alex Roldan past Aljaz Ivacic for a 1-0 lead. Then, just before the half-hour mark, Montero was at it again, tricking his opponent out to create space for himself to curl a beautiful strike past Ivacic, extending Seattle's lead to 2-0.

Moments later, the Timbers equalized on a deflection off the foot of Sebastian Blanco, who scored in his first start since tearing his ACL against the Sounders in September 2020. In the 52nd minute, Portland equalized when Cleveland saved an early effort from Claudio Bravo from beyond the box, but George Fochive slammed in the rebound to tie the score.

The match, however, did not stay that way for long.

Ruidiaz stepped up after Portland's Larrys Mabiala was penalized for a foul just outside the box and hammered the following free-kick into the upper-right corner, leaving Ivacic with little chance as Seattle moved ahead once more. That set up a thrilling finale between the longstanding rivals, as Portland sought to revenge a 2-1 home setback to Seattle on May 9. With fewer than 20 minutes remaining, the Sounders increased their advantage on another set-piece, when Nicolas Lodeiro's first attempt was blocked by Ivacic but left to Ruidiaz for an easy finish, securing his brace and a 4-2 result. That also gave him the lead in the Golden Boot presented by Audi race, and it was his 10th career win against the Timbers, tying him with Roger Levesque for the all-time lead in the rivalry.

Seattle put the frosting on the cake in the 77th minute, when substitute Jimmy Medranda blasted a Joao Paulo corner kick first-time off the bottom of the crossbar and into the net for a 5-2 lead. Nicolas Benezet completed the score with a stoppage-time goal on his Seattle debut.

[Photography by ICONIC photographer Scott Boldt]