The Cascadia Rivalry returned to the NWSL as the Portland Thorns looked to extend their four-game winning streak against the Seattle Reign. The Thorns have yet to drop a point since they made a coaching change after the fourth game of the season. Mike Norris who had started the season as the head coach was moved into an office role while Rob Gale took over on an interim basis.
Seattle on the other hand only had two wins heading into the night and were hoping to turn their season around before it gets too late and build momentum off of their impressive defensive performance against the Kansas City Current’s strong attack in their previous outing.
Both teams started with a fairly different strategy, Portland was playing the counter-attack while Seattle was looking to maintain more possession, partially due to the fact that Portland wasn’t trying to aggressively press in their offensive third of the pitch. With an attacking partnership consisting of Christine Sinclair and Sophia Smith, goals were going to come for the Thorns eventually which meant that the Reign needed to get out to a hot start if they were going to keep up.
Veronica Latsko got Seattle’s first great scoring chance of the night in the 19th minute with a header off of a cross from Phoebe McClernon, however, it went just wide of the goal. In the 42nd minute, a well-placed goal kick by Shelby Hogan found Smith who jumped behind the defense, and a short centering pass to Olivia Moultrie set up a perfect shot to make it 1-0 in favor of the Thorns right before the end of the first half.
During stoppage time, Seattle maintained heavy pressure to attempt to tie it up. In the 48th minute, Hogan extended to make a save, taking herself out of the remainder of the play. A secondary shot was then blocked by Kelli Hubly on the goal line to maintain Portland’s lead. Despite it being a fairly even half, a single defensive mistake made it so the Reign would head into the break trailing.
The Thorns moved away from the counter-attacking approach for the second half, bringing more intense pressing right out of the gate. There was a medical delay early in the half, as Reign goalkeeper Laurel Ivory needed some attention, however, she remained in the match after a few moments. The first substitutions of the match came in the 61st minute as Portland had Janine Becky and Payton Linnehan come on for Sinclair and Jessie Fleming.
Seattle would make their first change ten minutes later as Sophia Huerta was getting checked out by the trainer following a ball deflecting into her face. Emeri Adames came on for Latsko in an attempt to create some more offense late in the match. In the 75th minute, Huerta blocked a shot from Linnehan which hit her hand. The video assistant referee initiated a review moments later, and Portland was awarded a penalty kick as a result while Huerta also received a yellow card after a lengthy review. The Reign were visibly upset with the call as Smith stepped up to the penalty spot and then scored to give the Thorns a 2-0 lead.
With time dwindling and a significant deficit to overcome, the Reign were forced to go with a more attacking approach for the remainder of the match which opened them up to more defensive errors. Due to the amount of delays during the second half, the officials added 13 minutes of stoppage time to end the game. Portland wouldn’t wait long to take advantage of the additional time, as a pass from Smith would end up with Hina Sugita who tucked it away to make it 3-0. Five minutes later, Linnehan would add one more goal for the Thorns and the game would end 4-0.
With that result, it marked the first time in franchise history the Thorns had won five straight games. Meanwhile, the Reign remained winless on the road so far this season. Despite it being a much closer game than the score line would suggest, it was still a very disappointing night for the visiting team who could’ve benefited drastically if they were able to pull out a result in this match.
Northwest Sports Desk 