First round playoff game live on Fox Soccer Channel

Published on September 16, 2005 under USL First Division (USL-1) News Release


The USL First Division playoffs get underway Friday night with the first legs of the First Round and conclude with the second legs Sunday with the Portland-Seattle matchup being featured live on Fox Soccer Channel at 10:00 pm ET.

Although the Timbers have held the edge in league play over the past three seasons, the Sounders own postseason bragging rights after defeating Portland 3-2 in last year's first-round series, putting an early end to Portland's 2004 championship aspirations. With the Timbers leading 2-1 entering the final game in Seattle, Welton Melo struck for two goals to clinch the upset victory over the Timbers, who won the regular season championship that year.

The Timbers took the regular season series with Seattle in 2005, 2-1-1, and in addition, defeated the Sounders in a U.S. Open Cup match to finish with three wins over their Northwest rivals. The following is a game-by-game breakdown.

APRIL 30 AT SEATTLE - Portland opened up its 2005 road schedule on a high note, beating Seattle 2-1 at Qwest Field. Tom Poltl and Byron Alvarez knocked in goals for Portland and Josh Saunders roped in eight saves to preserve the victory.

JULY 8 AT SEATTLE - The Sounders exacted revenge on the Timbers by way of a 4-2 victory at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wash. Gabe Sturm and Taylor Graham each collected a goal and an assist for the Sounders, who went up 3-0 before Portland got late goals from Alvarez and Shaun Higgins.

JULY 12 AT PORTLAND (U.S. Open Cup) - The Timbers rebounded from the 4-2 loss at Seattle just four days prior with a 2-0 shutout of the visiting Sounders in the third round of the 2005 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at PGE Park. Goals from Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar and Dan Antoniuk sent Portland to a fourth-round match with the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS.

AUG. 7 AT PORTLAND - The Timbers won their seventh league game in nine tries against their I-5 rivals, this time with a 1-0 victory on a strike from Paul Conway in the 77th minute. It was the Portland native's first goal as a Timber.

AUG. 20 AT PORTLAND - In the last match between the two clubs, Portland fell behind when Jenkins hit for the first goal in the 22nd, but Higgins dialed in the equalizer with four minutes remaining to seal a 1-1 draw.

THE PLAYOFF PICTURE The winner of the first-round series between the No. 4- seed Sounders and No. 5-seed Timbers will advance to play the defending-champion and top-seeded Montreal Impact in a two-game, aggregate-goal series next weekend. The winner of that semifinal series will play in the one-game USL First Division Championship on Saturday, Oct. 1, against Rochester, Vancouver or Richmond. The third-seed Vancouver Whitecaps and sixth-seed Richmond Kickers are playing the other first- round series, with the victor taking on the Rochester Raging Rhinos in the semifinals.

THE FORMAT With the exception of the title game, the USL First Division playoff structure is that of a two-game, aggregate goal series, where the team with the most goals after two contests advances to the next round. If the goal tally is equal after the second match, two 15-minute "series overtime" periods are played in their entirety to determine the winner. If it is tied after that, the match will be decided by FIFA penalty kicks.

Next Week The USL First Division playoffs continue with the televised Fox Soccer Channel game featuring the other half of the playoff bracket with the winner of the Richmond-Vancouver series at the Rochester Raging Rhinos Sunday, September 25 at 7:00 pm ET. The championship game will be Saturday, October 1.

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USL First Division Stories from September 16, 2005


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