Match Preview: Portland Thorns vs Kansas City Current
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Match Preview: Portland Thorns vs Kansas City Current
The Thorns take on the Current in their first regular season match post World Cup call-ups.
The Portland Thorns take on the Kansas City Current at home in Providence Park on Saturday, July 1st. It’s the first regular-season game for the Thorns after losing the World Cup players. It’s also pride night for the Thorns — though not a lot has been advertised on that front.
The game will be streamed on CBS Sports Network at 7 pm PT.
The state of the teams post-WC call-up
Kansas City
Two KC players have been called up to their respective teams: Desiree Scott and Debinha.
Scott was called up to the Canada WNT and Debinha will represent Brazil.
Scott has been injured since preseason but she’s recovered enough to make the roster. A veteran for Canada, she has 186 caps (144 of those are starts) She’s been a part of three world cups.
So far this season Debinha has tallied 9 goals for the Current. She leads the Kansas City Current in goals scored for both regular season play (6) and in the Challenge Cup (3). She scored her 40th career NWSL goal against the Washington Spirit on June 18th, making her the first Brazilian player to reach that milestone. For Brazil Debinha has made 134 appearances on the international stage. Her 58 goals rank third on Brazil’s all-time list, behind only Marta (115) and Cristiane (96).
The Thorns
The Thorns said goodbye to five players heading to the WC.
For the U.S.: oth Sophia Smith and Crystal Dunn head to Australia & New Zealand in the Stars and Stripes.
Dunn has 31 caps for the US and tallies 24 goals and 19 assists. She has appeared in six matches at the 2019 World Cup, starting and playing 90 minutes in all six of those matches.
Smith is gearing up for her first World Cup, and she has earned 29 caps and scored 12 goals with three assists during her international career. Smith currently ranks second in the league in goals (7) and first in assists (5).
For Canada: the G.O.A.T Christine Sinclair has earned a call-up for her 6th World Cup. Adriana Leon has also earned a call-up. (Though I guess it should be mentioned that this call-up is currently only for Canada’s preparation camp— two players will need to be cut, but I doubt it’ll be either of these two).
Sinclair has three goals this season for the Thorns but for Canada her mark is undeniable, with 323 caps (310 starts) she is second all-time among all players (after Kristine Lily). She also has the most international goals scored (men or women) with 190 (54 assists).
Leon has 96 appearances and 46 of those were starts. For Canada, she’s scored 28 goals and tallied 5 assists.
For Japan: Hina Sugita was called up for the Japanese national team, this will be her second world cup. She started in and played in every match at the tournament in 2019, logging 360 minutes in the team’s four games.
For Costa Rica: Rocky Rodriguez (at least she was honored at the WC send-off). She suffered a sprained MCL about a month ago, so the status of her playing is unknown.
The Match
Kansas City
KC has won their last two games, a 2-1 victory over Orlando and a 4-0 victory over Chicago. Though Debinha scored 3 of the 6 goals so it’ll be interesting to see how KC does.
Other players to watch: Cece Kizer (forward), Hailie Mace (defender), Lo’eau LaBonta (midfielder), Vanessa DiBernardo (midfielder), and AD Franch (goalie).
The Thorns
After Wednesday’s Challenge Cup loss against OL Reign it’ll be critical to get the team back on track Saturday.
Portland still has Olivia Moultrie, Morgan Weaver, Sam Coffey, Kelli Hubly, Natalia Kuikka, etc. The list of impact players goes on and on. The only challenge, however, is the Thorns’ lack of scoring prowess. There were multiple points during Wednesday’s game where Coffey, Moultrie, and Hannah Betfort all had open opportunities but they didn’t take them.
Scoring will be important for Portland if they hope to start life without the World Cup stars with a win.
Match Preview: Portland Thorns vs Kansas City Current
Okay. I have a lot of problems with this game.
1. The refereeing in this league is a complete joke. Absolute garbage. The penalty call is probably fine, if soft. But the referee let Kansas City stop momentum at every dead ball. She was completely inconsistent. Saying that this league is the only women's league with VAR hides the fact that the referees are DIRECTLY affecting the product on the field because they cannot do the basics.
2. This club has known for...months? that they were going to lose Sophia Smith and Crystal Dunn and Hina Sugita among others. And yet what we have is a defender playing as a right winger, then a defender playing as one of the two attacking 10s and a center forward playing right wing. Which brings me to my next point...
3. The head coach's refusal to deviate from the system is completely bonkers. It's a system that barely works with the excellent players, but without them, it just doesn't work. I have all the respect for Sam Coffey in the world. She's a wonderful player. She's not an attacking 8 in the style of Crystal Dunn. She doesn't have the quick feet and speed in behind. So don't play her in that role; emphasize her strengths, and build a team that reacts to what you have, which includes a 6, in Taylor Porter, who cannot pass the way Coffey does (when we lost Sam Coffey last year, we had Hina who mitigated Porter's passing in midfield). Reyna Reyes is an excellent defender. Maybe she can play further upfront - in a team with Sophia Smith. Izzy D'Aquila has not yet been what we thought when drafted, and that's unfortunate. But then, change the system. React to what you have. Maybe that means a double pivot of Porter and Coffey, with two upfront. Our most threatening player was Morgan Weaver, and at a certain point you have to say, that's who we're going to play in behind too. It was all too comfortable for Kansas City because no one was looking to go in behind.
And this is my final thing. I have some sympathy for the head coach because this is, without Sophia and Dunn and Sugita and Sinc, a really bad attack. But not only is it a bad attack: it's an attack with players who don't have the profile that you need - the pace to run in behind, for example. I've seen a lot of average NWSL forwards who were far more threatening than Betfort and D'Aquila because they ran in behind with pace.
Big game for the replacement players. After a poor showing against OL Reign, this is a chance to show that they belong and can contribute. I have to believe that there is going to be some fire from the players, and hopefully getting THAT game under the belt helps them to focus on playing a lot better going forward. If Weaver is able to go, that would be a huge boost to the scoring potential on this team. I'm hoping they really pull together and get going! Go Thorns!