Hello!

With the 2026 Cascadia Cup about to get under way, friend-of-the-newsletter Matthew Hall reached out with a solid rundown on the yearly competition and I couldn’t resist but to send it out to all of you!

The Whitecaps are heading to Providence Park on Saturday night for the first Cascadia Cup match of 2026. With the FIFA World Cup taking over BC Place this summer, the 'Caps have a lopsided schedule - eight of the first nine MLS matches are at home, followed by nearly 100 days away from BC Place. The early season home stretch is a gift, and we need to bank points now before a brutal road swing through the World Cup break. Saturday in Portland is one of the few away matches before May, and it also happens to be the opening salvo in the 2026 Cascadia Cup race.

Shameless plug: I run cascadiacup.soccer and just launched a full redesign to track this year's race. The final Cascadia Cup match of 2026 is at BC Place - Vancouver hosting Seattle on Halloween night. Decision Day for the Cup is at home this year.

What is the Cascadia Cup?

For the uninitiated: the Cascadia Cup is a supporters-run competition that dates back to 2004, when all three clubs were in the USL 1st Division. It was created by the three biggest supporters groups in the Pacific Northwest - the Emerald City Supporters (Seattle), the Timbers Army (Portland), and the Vancouver Southsiders - and to this day it's the supporters who celebrate with the physical cup after their team wins it.

The rivalry itself goes back much further than 2004, though. These three cities have been battling on the pitch since 1974 in the NASL. The Cascadia Cup just gave it a formal trophy and structure.

Vancouver's record-eighth title last season put us clear at the top of the all-time standings. Time to make it nine.

The 2026 Cascadia Cup Schedule

Six matches. Each team plays the other two twice. Three points for a win, one for a draw. We've seen it come down to the wire in recent years, with 2024 being a three way tie on 8 points, both Portland and Seattle tied on goal differential, being decided by Portland's higher overall goal count.

Portland: A Team in Transition

The Timbers are coming off a forgettable 2025. An 11-12-11 regular season record good for just 44 points and eighth in the West. They scraped into the playoffs only to get demolished 4-0 by San Diego FC in the deciding Game 3 of their Round One series.

Portland gutted the roster this winter. Cristhian Paredes, an eight-year fixture in midfield, left for Cerro Porteno in Paraguay. Croatian centre-back Dario Zuparic departed after six seasons and 182 appearances. Maxime Crepeau moved on after losing the keeper battle to James Pantemis. Most notably, the Timbers traded their Brazilian star Evander to FC Cincinnati - cashing in on a player unlikely to re-sign rather than losing him for nothing.

Jonathan Rodriguez left too, opening a Designated Player slot. A long-term knee injury had already derailed his 2025.

On the incoming side, Portland's biggest move was trading for Cole Bassett, who'll be central to the midfield rebuild alongside DPs David Da Costa and Kristoffer Velde. Homegrown defender Sawyer Jura signed a first-team deal. But compared to the talent that walked out the door, Timbers fans themselves are calling this a season of questions.

Early returns are mixed: a 3-2 opening night win over Columbus showed some fight, but a 2-0 loss at Colorado in Week 2 showed how shaky they are at the back. Portland sit 12th in the West heading into Saturday. Ariel Lassiter has been their most dangerous attacker so far, scoring Portland's only goal from open play.

There's also a big incoming transfer on the horizon - Portland are reportedly finalizing a deal to sign Colombian defensive midfielder Jose Caicedo from Pumas. It's a signing that would shore up the midfield gaps left by Paredes and Evander, but he won't be available Saturday. Just like last week when we caught Toronto before Josh Sargent's arrival, the schedule is doing us favors - we're getting these Cascadia and rivalry matches in before our opponents' marquee signings land.

Seattle: Trophy Cabinet Full, Midfield Gutted

Seattle's 2025 was a paradox. They became the first MLS club to complete the full trophy cabinet - Leagues Cup (a dominant 3-0 over Inter Miami in 2025), Concacaf Champions League (2022), two MLS Cups, a Supporters' Shield, and four U.S. Open Cups.

And yet the MLS Cup Playoffs were a disaster. Fifth in the West with 55 points, the Sounders were bounced in Round One by Minnesota United on penalties - despite never losing in regulation and outscoring the Loons 7-5 across three matches. A deeply frustrating exit for a team that had so much going right elsewhere.

The offseason has been defined by midfield upheaval. Homegrown star Obed Vargas left for Atletico Madrid in La Liga. Joao Paulo and Danny Leyva also departed. That's the spine of their central midfield, gone in one window.

The replacements are solid if unspectacular: Hassani Dotson from Minnesota United is expected to fill the Vargas void, Nikola Petkovic arrived on loan from Charlotte FC, and defender Ryan Sailor came over from Inter Miami. They've also promoted Yu Tsukanome and Sebastian Gomez from Tacoma Defiance. Sounders fans are cautiously optimistic but acknowledge the risk of losing so much midfield quality in a single offseason.

Seattle opened 2026 with a 2-0 win over Colorado (Rusnak and Rothrock scoring, Andrew Thomas with the shutout), so the early signs are fine. But the real test comes when those new midfield partnerships are stressed in bigger moments. Their Cascadia Cup matches don't start until the summer - Seattle hosts Portland on July 16 and Vancouver visits Lumen Field on August 16 - but we'll be seeing the Sounders much sooner than that. Vancouver and Seattle are drawn against each other in the Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16, with the first leg at BC Place on March 12 and the second leg on March 18 in Everett, Washington (with Lumen Field locked down for World Cup preparations). Four matches against Seattle this year instead of the usual two. Here's hoping we knock them out of continental competition and take the Cascadia Cup for good measure.

Saturday's Match

Vancouver come into this one as the form team in MLS - two wins, two clean sheets, sitting fourth in the West. Brian White has been lethal (a goal and two shots on target per game), and Muller is doing Muller things, pulling strings and finding pockets of space like he's been in this league for years, not months.

Portland will have home advantage at Providence Park, which is always a cauldron - but it's been our home away from home lately. In 2024, BC Place availability forced our Wild Card playoff match to Providence Park, and we responded with a 5-0 demolition job, Ryan Gauld bagging a hat trick and an assist. Then in 2025, we opened the season right back there and put four past ten-man Portland in a 4-1 romp. The Timbers are still finding their feet this season. But a rebuilding Portland side against the defending Cup champions, at a ground where we've scored nine goals in our last two visits? The 'Caps have earned the right to walk in there with confidence.

The Cascadia Cup defense starts Saturday night. Let's go get those three points.