The Seattle Sounders played to a 2-2 draw with the Portland Timbers in an event filled match at PGE Park in Portland Friday night.

Sebatien Le Toux and Roger Levesque combined for a goal and an assist each for the Sounders, while Bryan Jordan and Andrew Gregor scored for the Timbers.

Le Toux tallied his first goal as a Seattle Sounder just nine minutes into the nationally televised match. Levesque lobbed a ball over the Portland defense from his own side of midfield. Le Toux ran onto the ball and chipped it from 22 yards out over the keeper Josh Wicks.

The Sounders soaked up the spotlight as they exploited huge amounts of open space in the middle of the park. Levesque was narrowly denied the second goal of the match when he headed a Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar corner, taken amongst a chorus of boos from the Timbers Army supporters group, towards the goal in the 26th minute, but his cheeky effort was knocked down and cleared by the defense.

Thirty one minutes in, Jordan and Luke Kreamalmeyer combined down the left side of the pitch, against the run of play, only to see Kreamalmeyer’s shot from 20 yards blaze over the bar.

The rivalry picked up where it had left off six days before at Qwest Field as Gregor and Levesque exchanged, not so pleasantries in the 35th minute.

Moments later it was Sounders defender Danny Jackson presenting a perfectly timed sliding tackle in the box to deny Jordan a look at goal.

Portland grabbed hold of the momentum and fed off the energy of the late arriving crowd to create chances at Chris Eylander’s goal.

The Sounders held on and took their one goal lead into the locker room for halftime despite being out shot nine to five and spending an uncomfortable amount of time dealing with a very dangerous looking Bryan Jordan.

Both teams ran out for the second half without making any halftime personnel changes.

Just 30 seconds in, Seattle earned a free kick about 34 yards out on the left side of the pitch, but Levesque couldn’t find the end of Alcaraz-Cuellar’s cross.

Moments later, Levesque buried a Nathan Knox ball in the back of the net at the hour mark, but was rightly ruled to be well offside.

The Timbers immediately took the ball to the other end of the field and Jordan put the ball past Eylander and into the Seattle net, but was judged to have handled the ball and the play was called back.

The run of play moved to the middle of the field as both teams looked but couldn’t find a way into attacking position.

Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer inserted Greg Howes and Kenji Treschuk into the match in place of Nathan Knox and Josh Gardner in an attempt to add a bit of life to the affair as it threatened to go stale.

It was the same combination that created the first goal that paid off for Seattle as Le Toux worked the ball up the right side of the field and cut it back for Roger Levesque to roll into the net in the 77th.

The crowd was silenced until less than a minute later, when Jordan again scrambled the ball past Eylander and, this time, ended his bid for a third consecutive clean sheet.

Less than four minutes from full time Sounders rookie defender Adam West slid through Jordan in the 18 yard box and although it appeared he made contact with the ball, the official didn’t hesitate to point to the penalty spot.

Gregor stepped up to the spot and despite having missed both his attempts in the Timbers opener against Puerto Rico, buried the ball in the back of the net to bring the score level.

Alcaraz-Cuellar had a long attempt at goal with his head at the final whistle, but it slid just over the bar as the referee’s whistle blew full time.

The Sounders record on the year moves to 1-2-2 while Portland improve to 1-1-1.

The Sounders face the Vancouver Whitecaps at Qwest Field Saturday night at 7pm in the second match of the weekend double header.

Starting Line-ups

Seattle Sounders Chris Eylander, Noah Merl, Danny Jackson, Zach Scott, Adam West, Kevin Sakuda, Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar, Josh Gardner, Sebastien Le Toux, Roger Levesque, Nathan Knox

Substitutes Ben Dragavon, Jake Besagno, Gabe Sturm, Kenji Treschuk, Santa Maria Rivera, Andre Schmid, Greg Howes

Portland Timbers Josh Wicks, Scot Thompson, Leonard Griffin, LeeMorrison, Cameron Knowles, Neil Dombrowski, Andrew Gregor, Luke Kreamalmeyer, Troy Ready, Bryan Jordan, Chris Bagley

Substitutes Bayard Elvin, Shau Higgins, Justin Thompson, Jaime Ambriz, Kiki Lara, Tom Poltl, Lawerence Olum

Goals Seattle Sounders Le Toux (8) Levesque (76)

Portland Jordan (77) Gregor (86)

Shots Seattle 10 Portland 13

Saves Seattle 1 Portland 2

Fouls Seattle 17 Portland 19