Oh, you know, it's just Roger Levesque sitting next me to at Oddfellows a little while ago.

He had scabs and scrapes all over his hands ("Turf's a lot rougher than grass," he said) and was reading Deepak Chopra's Buddha while working on today's Seattle Times crossword puzzle and drinking a bottomless cup of coffee.

"I need all the help I can get," Levesque told me, offering up his unfinished crossword for Slog assistance. "The bottomless cup of coffee is probably going better than the crossword.”

(Help a Sounder out, Sloggers?)

Across today's Wizard of Id, Levesque had scrawled a quote from the Chopra book: "When you dig a well, there is no sign of water until you reach it. Only rocks and dirt to move out of the way."

"Pretty good quote there," Levesque said.

Okay, but enough with the Buddhism. Let's talk about Saturday's 1-1 tie against the Portland Timbers on a rainy, rainy night at Qwest Field. How'd that happen? How'd the Sounders give up their 1-0 lead?

“Just one of those things," Levesque said. "Just a late goal on a set piece. Something that shouldn’t happen.”

He wishes the Sounders had been able to build a wider lead given all the opportunities they had after their early-in-the-second-half goal by Alvaro Fernandez.

“I think maybe the biggest thing was, after we scored we had a couple more chances and were putting them under a lot of pressure," Levesque said. "Scoring another goal at that point would have made a big difference.”

Did the hype surrounding the Portland-Seattle rivalry—and the presence of the Timbers Army—rattle him?

Nope.

But he did take notice.

“There was definitely a different energy on the field," Levesque said. "And I think it’s only gonna get stronger. This was the first time that we played them in the MLS.”

The next time the two teams will play: July 10, in Portland—where Levesque famously got booed back in 2008 while playing for Portland in an exhibition game. He'd been playing in Seattle for eight or nine years at that point, he told me, and so there was no winning over anyone down there.

“The fans had already decided they didn’t like me because I was a Seattle player," Levesque said. "As I came out in the Portland uniform they had a giant sign, 'True fans hate Levesque.'”

Then they booed him the whole game.

“Fair enough," he said. “At least they’re interested and excited about the sport, and passionate about their team. That’s how I look at it.”

So what's going to happen during the Timbers-Sounders rematch on July 10?

“I always like to be optimistic," Levesque said. "They came in here and took a point away from us. Hopefully we can go down there and do the same.”