PORTLAND Alex Morgan Jersey , Ore. (AP) — Cristian Roldan and Raul Ruidiaz each scored and the Seattle Sounders defeated the Portland Timbers 2-1 Friday night to secure this season’s Cascadia Cup trophy amid a fan protest over Major League Soccer’s ban on political displays.Jordan Morris assisted on both goals as the Seattle Sounders (12-8-7) moved into second place in the Western Conference.The Timbers (11-11-4) have lost their last two games after falling last week 2-0 to reigning MLS Cup champion Atlanta United FC at home. The Timbers sit in seventh place, just above the playoff line.The game was marked by the protest of MLS’s new policy that prohibits political displays at games. The Timbers Army and Emerald City Supporters fan groups remained silent for the first 33 minutes of the game due to a ban on flags showing the anti-fascist Iron Front symbol, which MLS says has become politicized.When the clock hit 33:01, Timbers fans broke out into a chant based on “Bella Ciao,” an Italian protest song, and some fans for each team defiantly waved flags with the prohibited Iron Front logo.“When you’re on the field, sometimes you lose focus on the crowd because you feel concentrated on the game, but obviously you could hear after they started singing,” said Timbers defender Jorge Villafana. “They have their reasons. We just have to focus on our game.”Ahead of the planned fan protest, the starting players for the Timbers and the Sounders posed together for a pre-game photo with banners that said “anti-racist” and “anti-fascist.”“I know that this club is against racism and against fascism,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. “I know that; I believe that with everything that I do. That little bit of support that we’re trying to show to find some middle ground between the fans who are upset and angry (about the policy) — I believe that we erase some of that stuff that out there in the world. I was proud of the guys for doing that little ceremony before the game.”With the win, the Sounders secured their sixth Cascadia Cup, tying the Vancouver Whitecaps’ all-time record. The Timbers have won it four times.The Cascadia Cup was created by supporters of the Timbers, Sounders and Whitecaps, and is awarded to the winner of the head-to-head matches between the three teams each season based on points.“It’s important for the fans,” Schmetzer said. “The rivalry between the three franchises is a big one. It’s something that we take seriously and the fans take it seriously. We’re very happy.”In the 22nd minute Julie Ertz Jersey , Morris crossed a ball into box that bounced off teammate Ruidiaz and into the path of Roldan, who tapped it past Timbers goalkeeper Steve Clark. It was Roldan’s fourth goal this season.Two minutes into the second half, Morris tallied another assist, crossing the ball to Ruidiaz, who fired a shot from the middle of the penalty box for his 10th goal this year.Diego Valeri scored for the Timbers in the 54th minute via a free kick that that ricocheted off Ruidiaz and into the goal.Valeri, who has seven goals this season, is the only active MLS player and the sixth player league history to record 75 goals and 75 assists in league play.The Timbers nearly equalized in the 58th minute when a Valeri strike and a Cristhian Paredes header forced two quick saves out of Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei.In the 80th minute, the Timbers thought they equalized on a Brian Fernandez strike, but it was called back after a video review showed he was offside on the play.“Once frustration starts coming around, that’s the moment when impatience takes away the moments (to score) that were created,” Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese said. “We had a lot — a lot — going on in this game. We should’ve capitalized more on those opportunities.”The win was the Sounders’ first in five games. They had been winless and had allowed multiple goals in each of their previous four games.Seattle has a 10-8-6 lead all-time in regular season meetings with Portland since the Timbers joined MLS in 2011.Spanish midfielder Emanuel Cecchini made his debut for the Sounders in the second half. He was signed on Aug. 8 via a loan from Spanish second-division side Malaga.The Timbers were without usual starting defender Larrys Mabiala, who injured his hamstring on Aug. 14 in a win over the Chicago Fire. The Timbers have not said when he is expected to return.The Sounders were still without Victor Rodriguez, who has been out since July 6 with a hamstring injury.Up next, the Timbers host Real Salt Lake on Aug. 31. Portland will play seven of their last eight matches of the season at home. The Timbers played their first 12 games of this season on the road due to an expansion of Providence Park, which added around 4,000 new seats.The Sounders host the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sept. 1. NEUCHATEL https://www.thetopsoccer.com/uswnt/mallory-pugh-jersey , Switzerland (AP) — It’s the Swiss finishing school that has prepared hundreds of post-graduate students to lead, manage and litigate world sports.Graduates have later headed campaigns to host soccer’s World Cup, run Olympic sports federations, and prosecuted landmark cases in international sports law.Known as the FIFA Master course, it has for 20 years been a discreet gift to sports organizations from soccer’s world body that has renewed multi-million dollar funding each year regardless of what turmoil it was in.At a picturesque lake-side campus of the University of Neuchâtel, 28 students from more than 20 countries this month completed their studies as the class of 2019.Final-term projects included analyzing challenges of finding Olympic Games bidders, making women’s soccer more professional, and the testosterone rules case which threatens Caster Semenya’s track career.“I am always impressed,” said Denis Oswald, the course director, a Court of Arbitration for Sport judge, and member of the International Olympic Committee’s executive board. “It’s a pleasure because they are all passionate about the work.”Around 300 applicants compete for up to 30 places each year. Past students include former South Korea and Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-Sung (a 2017 graduate), and the sons of two players who scored in World Cup finals.There is scholarship money from FIFA — in 2018 it gave $4.9 million to the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) in Neuchatel which runs the course — and now the Asian Football Confederation.Some students are self-funded, paying tuition fees of 25,000 Swiss francs ($25,400) for the 10-month course. On top Becky Sauerbrunn Jersey , there are living costs for one academic term each spent in England, Italy and Switzerland.Before enrolling, Marie Shin often encountered FIFA Master alumni in her work in South Korea, for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics organizers and a soccer agency arranging games and training camps for national teams.“I thought, ‘This program must be very impressive,'” she told The Associated Press, adding that course met her expectations. “The majority was beyond amazing and the people are very talented.”The academic year starts with humanities and history at De Montfort University in Leicester, England; continues at the Bocconi School of Management in Milan; and ends with sports law in Neuchâtel.Guest lectures include Olympic sports federation leaders explaining how to organize a world championship. Project mentors include lawyers who work on cases for FIFA and European soccer body UEFA.On graduating, the alumni group links FIFA Masters who are lawyers, administrators and consultants at the heart of international sports.A 2002 graduate, Michael Gerlinger , is Bayern Munich’s legal director. Hicham El Amrani (2004) was general secretary of Africa’s soccer body and led Morocco’s bid that ran against the United States, Canada and Mexico for the 2026 World Cup. Ross Wenzel, a 2008 graduate, often represents the World Anti-Doping Agency and track and field’s IAAF, including in the Semenya appeal to Switzerland’s supreme court.In an often troubled era for sports bodies Crystal Dunn Jersey , FIFA Master alumni did not escape attention.Nicole Resch (2007) left as the International Biathlon Union’s secretary general last year after raids by Austrian police investigating alleged bribery linked to Russian doping. Samson Adamu (2009) was questioned for FIFA ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia’s investigation of the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding contests in which his father, Amos Adamu, was banned and barred from voting.Still, the course owes its existence in part to former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who as its secretary general in the 1990s helped create the CIES.Blatter told the AP that schools in Lausanne and Zurich passed up FIFA’s offer that “football should be elevated to university level.”“We produced highly qualified people for the other sports organizations,” Blatter said in a telephone interview. “And so far they never had problems to find working places.”Course director Oswald said around 25 graduates work for the IOC and about 50 for FIFA.FIFA employees include Jair Bertoni (2005), the director for member federations in the Americas, whose dad Daniel scored Argentina’s third goal in the 1978 World Cup final . Henry Rummenigge, the son of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge who scored for West Germany in the 1986 final , is a 2013 FIFA Master.Oswald, a law student when he won a 1968 Olympic bronze medal in rowing for Switzerland, agreed he “would have loved to do” such a course before he ran his sport’s governing body.“What they are learning in one year,” he said, “is what we have learned in 10 years in sport.”