Soccer ratings on TV are notoriously squishy. Not only do many fans pack pubs to watch games en masse, but more and more are watching online -- both groups going uncounted by conventional

.

Yet even by that somewhat dulled measurement tool, Seattle and Portland fans are standing out in

-- and standing up, at least for the Sounders and Timbers.

Saturday's

, the first MLS game between the old North American Soccer League rivals, drew a 3.0 rating in Seattle/Tacoma and a 2.2 rating in Portland. In the ESPN2 broadcast, no other market registered higher than a .7 rating and the national average was a .2 rating.

For comparison's sake, the second round of the

averaged a 3.0 rating, up 25 percent from a year ago. Nationally, that rating translates into about 6 million viewers.