Rivalry and playoff race combine for Sounders-Timbers

SEATTLE – The San Jose Earthquakes don’t show up on the Seattle Sounders’ schedule for another couple of weeks, and yet they turned up as an annoying thorn in the side twice recently.

At midweek, the Quakes’ website produced a story calling San Jose’s California Classico with Los Angeles “the premier rivalry in MLS.”

The Sounders host the Portland Timbers today in what coach Sigi Schmid believes is the true premier rivalry in MLS.

“I think the rivalry between Portland and Seattle is just the deepest one because it transcends soccer (and dates) even the old days of the North American Soccer League,” said Schmid, who previously coached the Galaxy where he experienced the L.A.-San Jose rivalry first hand. “I don’t think the Aztecs and the old Earthquakes had a really intense rivalry, per se – I was around in those days as well.”