Contemporary Timbers fans likely know the lore of the 2015 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match between the Timbers and Sounders. Though it may be our club’s most infamous ejection-filled match, in part for its rivalry and recency, the 3-1 win, dubbed “Red Card Wedding,” wasn’t the first—or even second—time a Timbers opponent finished a match with three suspended players.

In the spirit of Match Day* coverage for previous matches, Green Is the Color continues our Season Preview* series of the 2026 campaign through the eyes of its 1976 counterpart, with the help of the Oregon Journal’s 1976 pullout and the Portland Timbers’ 1976 Season Guide. This entry’s focus: Née of Red Card Wedding.

The 2015 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup clash between the Timbers and Sounders has an obvious and prominent place in the rivalry. Unfortunately too late for inclusion in Geoffrey C. Arnold’s 2013 Cascadia Clash: Sounders Versus Timbers, the match that has US Soccer Hall of Famer (and rapper) Clint Dempsey still suspended from the Cup to this day, was one of the most absurd moments of soccer theater in our club’s 51-year history.

[Side note: There’s just something about Tukwila, isn’t there?]

The 2015 3-1 Timbers extra-time road win featured three Seattle red cards, the Sounders finishing with the minimum-allowed 7 players on the pitch (as Obafemi Martins was injured after the Sounders had used all their subs), and referee Daniel Radford needing to swing by Schmetzer’s Sporthaus to put a new referee wallet on Dempsey’s bill.

You can watch the whole match or simply enjoy the highlights:

I’d also recommend giving Sounder at Heart’s “The Red Card Wedding: An Oral History” a listen.

And, to keep the record straight, despite the fact that he’s suited up for both Tottenham and Seattle, I consider myself a huge fan of the man from Nacogdoches, Texas.

Dark days for the USL Minnesota Thunder on their nationally televised visit to 1844 SW Morrison Street in 2009. The 3-ejection visit was marked back in Minnesota as a “National Embarrassment in Portland” by Brian Quarstad, while the match recap was relegated to “Etc.” in a bottom corner of page 15 of the Star Tribune’s sports section:

Under normal circumstances, the Thunder could be forgiven for not winning on the road that day, as the Timbers were in the midst of a 24-match unbeaten streak that led to their first Cascadia Cup and the USL Commissioner’s Cup.

Past (and, soon, second-time) Green Is the Color Podcast guest Scot Thompson netted his one 2009 goal in the 90th minute, while Monrovia, Liberia-born Alex Nimo (see: Darlington Nagbe) played good host and tried not to exclude the visitors in the referee’s book by collecting an 86th-minute caution.

Happy to report, future iterations of Minnesota sides found ejection-less ways to be good guests in the Rose City:

Before I got into this whole Season Preview* idea, I first came to the 1976 season to take a peek the 1976 NASL tie-breaker system. As readers of this page may know, 1977 brought about my all-time favorite 'soccer' invention: The 35-yard shootout to satisfy tied matches (see: Tony Betts). In 1975, overtime-unsettled draws went to traditional penalties. However, the Timbers never made it that far, going 6-1 before the clock struck zero in all of their first-season post-90-minute matches (see: Tony Betts). But when I found out the 1976 Timbers participated in their first ‘traditional’ penalty kick shootout in their season-opening win away to Vancouver, my attention moved to the home opener, where I first saw the odd listing of St. Louis’ goalkeeper and then delved deeper into the fisticuffs that was a 3-1 Timbers win.

I first thought the Starting Lineups page in the 1976 team binder was a bit of a joke, a stats person having some fun for night when 22,147 braved the rain and thunderstorms to attend the opener.

Then I saw it in the Kick Magazine for that match.

So I next went to Colin Jose’s NASL: A Complete Record of the North American Soccer League and felt that third-level verification satisfied my question.

Y’all! The St. Louis Stars really did roster Somerset-born Len Bond as 007 for the 1976 season.

As I looked more at that match, what next caught my eye in the summary was the red-card cattle call at listed at the bottom.

I’d write more about the match, but when someone starts a recap with, “One hand held a bottle of beer. The other was stuffed into his pant’s pocket,” as Paul Daquilante did, I know whose words you need right now:

The 1976 season didn’t end as well as the 2009 or 2015 campaigns, so there might be something to having a bit of fight but not a fight to draw teams into making mistakes and leaving Providence Park with a few next-match suspensions.

This 2026, all three aforementioned foes return: Seattle Sounders FC on August 1, Minnesota United FC on September 5, and St. Louis City SC on September 9. Though none of these fall on 2026 Theme Nights, I have an idea: Sign our first-ever MLS draft pick to a special three-match contract to retire a Timber. Of course, the Monrovia, Liberia-born Darlington Nagbe (see: Alex Nimo) doesn’t need to put on the Green and Gold to forever be a Timber, but having MLS’s most-fouled player on our side could spark something more than nostalgia and thanks.

#RCTID