TUKWILA (AP) — Rodney Wallace scored in the 10th minute of extra time to help the Portland Timbers beat the Seattle Sounders 3-1 in a fourth round U.S. Open Cup game Tuesday night.
The defending Cup champion Sounders finished the game with just seven players. Defender Brad Evans was ejected in the 69th minute with his second yellow card. Forward Obafemi Martins, who tied the game 1-1 in the 79th minute, went down hard in the 85th. He eventually was wheeled away on a stretcher. By then, Seattle had used all three of its substitutions.
In the 111th minute, Seattle’s Michael Aziri was shown a straight red card. Moments later, Clint Dempsey got one yellow and then, after grabbing a piece of paper from referee Daniel Radford, a red.
“Our guys played like lions and left their hearts on the field, and I think they got robbed,” Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said. “Caleb (Timbers coach Porter) said last year at the end of the (Open Cup) game that it was the worst refereeing performance he had ever seen. I think it was topped this year.”
A shot from the top of the penalty area restraining arc by George Fochive led to Wallace’s game winner. Fochive’s shot was blocked, but the ball rebounded out to Wallace in the right side of the 6-yard box. He ripped a shot past goalkeeper Troy Perkins into the far left corner.
Diego Valeri scored in the 48th minute to give the Timbers a 1-0 lead. Perkins was unable to bring down Wallace’s cross, and Valeri launched the loose ball into the roof of the net.
With Portland up one goal and four men, Maximiliano Urruti scored an insurance goal in the 116th minute.
“I thought we looked very mature,” said Porter, whose team will learn its round-of-16 opponent on Thursday after the bracket is redrawn. “That’s what you want to see in your team. You want to see a team that’s up for the fight, but keeps their cool.”
Seattle had been 19-0-1 at Starfire Stadium, its secondary home, and had been 17-0-1 in U.S. Open Cup home games.
“We knew this was going to be an intense game … we knew it was going to be a real challenge for us,” Porter said. “History said we wouldn’t win this game. We were able to knock off a very good team on their home field, something 20 other teams weren’t able to do.”
