Playing in front of a noisy, hostile environment at Seattle's CenturyLink Field, it didn't take long for the

to make some noise of their own in their first trip to the MLS playoffs.

Ryan Johnson scored on a header in the 15th minute, and Darlington Nagbe added a second-half goal to power the Timbers to a 2-1 victory against the Sounders in the first game of their two-leg, aggregate-goal Western Conference semifinal.

With a solid performance in Game 2 on Thursday night at Portland's Jeld-Wen Field, the Timbers would advance to the Western Conference finals.

But based on Saturday night's match, that won't be easy.

The Sounders held 60 percent to 40 percent advantage in possession and had 11 corner kicks to the Timbers' one. Seattle created a handful of scoring chances but was able to finish just one of them, an Osvaldo Alonso shot in the 90th minute.

• • •

Full time -

Timbers hold on to win 2-1

, surviving a late Sounders flurry.

90' -

Timbers lead 2-1

. Osvaldo Alonso fires a shot and scores for the Sounders to pull within 2-1.

66' -

Timbers lead 2-0

. Darlington Nagbe takes the pass from Kalif Alhassan, fires a shot past Hahnemann.

Halftime -

Timbers lead 1-0

. Caleb Porter's comments as he heads off the field for halftime: "We're in good position, we got the goal. I thought we dropped off a little too much after that." He also said the Timbers need to hold possession better in the second half.

15' -

Timbers take a 1-0 lead

as Ryan Johnson gets a glancing header off a Jack Jewsbury cross that beats the Sounders' Marcus Hahnemann.