The Seattle Sounders came to Portland and destroyed its Cascadia rival 4-2 with two goals from Obafemi Martins along with a goal each from Clint Dempsey and Chad Barrett.

Both squads came out a little slow to begin with. In the 10th minute, Seattle began to turn the heat up on the Timbers applying heavy pressure. It looked as though Dempsey was going to score his first goal in the 13th minute and was denied by the inside of the post after he curled it around Donovan Ricketts.

It wasn’t long after that, in the 18th minute, that it all paid off as Seattle put together a 14-pass sequence that ended with a cross from Brad Evans to Martins who was left all alone in the middle and just tapped in past a diving Ricketts who had nothing for it.

Things didn’t take long for Seattle to strike again, on a counter from a Timbers corner. Obafemi Martins started the counterattack while Dempsey sprinted 85 yards to get ahead for the through ball that he tapped and deflected off Ricketts into the net for his fifth goal against Portland this season and tenth on the year to put the Sounders up 2-0.

Both teams kept going back and forth to wrap up the first half with neither being able to find any room to score.

Portland came out in the second half looking as though they finally woke up. In the 54th minute, it almost all came together as Will Johnson had a gorgeous shot that Stefan Frei was able to deflect away and right back to Danny O’Rourke who seamlessly shoots it up and over the crossbar.

Seattle made a substitution in the 63rd minute and brought on Chad Barrett for Marco Pappa; that decision quickly paid off for Sigi Schmid. In the 70th minute, Dempsey passed it back to Barrett who did a slight right move before launching his shot at Ricketts. The shot blasted off the keeper’s hand and into the net to put the Sounders up 3-0.

That pushed Caleb Porter to make a substitution in the 71st minute and bring on Fanendo Adi for Max Urruti who quickly made an impact on the match, scoring just two minutes after coming on to give signs of life to the Timbers and their faithful. Adi got a cross in from Rodney Wallace and volleyed it in past a diving Frei to bring the Timbers within two goals at 3-1.

However Seattle was having none of that as minutes later Martins had a golazo of a run that should easily be goal of the week. He single-handily ran through four Timbers defenders while slipping and got one-on-one with Ricketts where he punished him by shooting it into the bottom right corner to put the Sounders up 4-1.

However the Timbers didn’t cave that easily; they still kept applying pressure and in the 91st minute as Steve Zakuani back passed to a wide-open Adi who punished Seattle by pounding it into the net.

Seattle would go on to kick it off once again and held on for the final two minutes without really giving the Timbers a chance to apply anymore pressure.

This was the first time that the Sounders have managed to win in Portland since July 2011 when they defeated the Timbers by a final score of 3-2.

Portland fell for the second consecutive Cascadia Cup match at home and has given up four goals in each of those for a total of 12 goals, last year the Timbers only allowed 11 goals all season at home, let alone three matches.

With the win, Seattle leap frogs DC United back into the lead for the MLS Supporters Shield and Western Conference with 45 points while DC sits with 43 and Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas both have 42.