PORTLAND, Ore. -- In retirement, most former athletes long for the cheers, the waves of adulation. Roger Levesque misses the silence.

Few players in the history of the Sounders-Timbers rivalry ever inspired the antipathy as Levesque did during his playing days, in part because he so clearly relished playing the villain.

There was joy to be found in playing at home, as well, using positivity as motivational fuel. Yet there was something profound in the hush of an enemy stadium in the wake of an especially...