MLS, Week 26: 67,000 see Clint Dempsey and Sounders beat Timbers

At some point in the next few days I will catch up on the lost sleep from walking out of CenturyLink Field at 11:30pm Pacific Time and heading straight to Sea-Tac, where I boarded my flight six hours later to fly home to Texas.

At some point my ears will also stop ringing.

Five minutes of injury time came and went, passing far too slowly for Seattle, but alarmingly quickly for the visitors, whose last throw of the dice came through Jean-Baptistes head. Gspurning, however, was up to the challenge, and that would prove the last major action of the match. Clint Dempsey and the Sounders had their victory.

Goals: Eddie Johnson (60’).

With ten minutes before the break, Valeri nearly made the breakthrough himself. Confusion in the Sounders’ defence left the ball free just outside the box, and the midfielder rattled a 25-yard effort of the angle of post and bar. Ryan Johnson nodded the rebound tamely wide.

That was the best chance of the half, which ended 0-0. Dempsey hasn’t quite been sharp enough to make the difference so far -- can the USA captain make an impact in the second half?

Every rivalry has a power dynamic. One team is almost always bigger and generally better than the other. That ebbs and flows with time, but both involved parties tend to recognize this overall reality.

The first two years of the two teams being in MLS has pretty much followed that script. Most of the games have been highly competitive, but there was rarely any doubt as to who was the “better” team by the end of the season.

I hear there’s a pretty good match going on in Seattle this weekend. Wait, not a match, a spectacle. But there will be a match too and it should be pretty good. If you look through the fog, you just might see it.

Friday, 8:30 p.m. ET - NBCSN