Match Recap & Highlights: Portland Thorns 4, Chicago Red Stars 0
Portland has struggled to find their footing for the past few weeks, but a home game against Chicago came at the perfect time.
The defending champion Portland Thorns bounced back with a huge 4-0 victory over the struggling Chicago Red Stars. Portland scored early and often, with Kelli Hubly, Crystal Dunn, and Olivia Moultrie all finding the back of the net by the 16th minute. Natalia Kuikka put the finishing touches on it with a goal early in the second half, capping off an excellent afternoon for Portland.
Recap
The Thorns have only won once in their last six games. Chicago comes into Providence Park hoping to upset the home team. The Red Stars have conceded the most goals in NWSL, but have a potent offense.
Head Coach Mike Norris made three huge moves for the starting XI and decided to give Emily Menges the start at CB, Olivia Moultrie the start at midfield, and Hina Sugita at right winger.
Moultrie has been an absolute baller this season and gives the Thorns a brilliant playmaker.
Menges who has struggled a bit in her return from injury, but has been getting more comfortable with every minute.
Chicago Red Stars made even more changes than Portland, as they are in desperate need of an identity.
First Half Recap
Chicago is 12th in the NWSL table for a reason. They can’t stop anyone when they play a three in the back and relies on rookies to score goals.
Portland Thorns came out with a determination and energy that the Red Stars were unprepared for.
They pressed high up the pitch, created turnovers, and had chances to score early and often. Make no mistake, Chicago were very sloppy, but Portland forced those mistakes. They pounced on every second ball, the effort was there.
Within 16 minutes they were already ahead 3-0 with goals from Hubly, Dunn, and Moultrie.
The Red Stars rarely threatened as Portland continue to dominate possession and unlock their dangerous counters.
Second Half Recap
The second half started off with Portland continuing their dominance and in the 48th minute. Off a recycled corner, Sam Coffey hit the perfect cross at the far post for a Natu Kuikka header to make it 4-0.
The Thorns looked sharp and Chicago had no answers for the high press. Their three backs constantly got left to defend multiple Portland attackers. Even when the Red Stars managed to get an attack, Bixby and the backline denied those opportunities.
This was Portland’s most complete performance of the year. They’re built to be on the ball and in their opposition’s faces all game. Defending for long periods of time will never be their forte.
Everyone expected Portland to win this game and they delivered. However, the real challenges will be in the upcoming games.
The Portland Thorns were in full control. Can they keep this up against better competition?
Highlights
4' Portland earns the first corner of the game
6' Kling intercepts the ball and nearly chips Alyssa Naeher
8' 1-0 Portland! Kelli Hubly off the set piece!
11' What a beautiful counter by Dunn and Weaver. Nearly doubled Portland’s lead.
14' 2-0 Hina puts on a dribbling display and finds Dunn in the box! Crystal is now tied for the league lead in goals!
16' 3-0 Chicago is super sloppy in the back. Dunn intercepts and picks out LIV for the easy tap in goal! OLIVIA MOULTRIE!
36' Hubly gets a yellow card… for that? Head ref gives Chicago a dangerous free kick.
40' Coffey with the screamer that almost finds the back of the net. What a shot!
43’ Moultrie with the perfectly weighted pass to find Weaver, but Naeher saves.
Second Half
48' 4-0! Coffey gets the ball off a recycled corner and finds Natu for the header at the far post.
52' Smith smashes a rocket, but Naeher saves. Weaver on the rebound, but it's off the post!
56’ Sophia with another shot on goal that gets saved by Alyssa Naeher.
62' Hubly off for Reyes, Sinclair for Dunn, and Vasconcelos for Olivia.
67' Vasconcelos with a nice speed turn and finds Smith in the box that is almost perfect.
73’ Izzy D'Aquila is on for Weaver.
79' Smith to Hina to D'Aquila on the counter. Izzy nearly scores her first NWSL goal.
82' Hina off the post!
86' Nally on for Natu
The Thorns are next in action on Friday, May 26 as they travel to Snapdragon Stadium to face San Diego Wave FC, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. PT.
Amazing Crowd!
Ever since Soph went on her initial tear last year, the defensive strategy against her has been to beat her up. It’s a good strategy if you can get away with it, and nothing’s gonna change until the NWSL/USWNT/Thorns/someone does something about it with some early yellow cards and more proactive whistles. Few players get handled the same way, and its an NWSL thing -- it would not be sustainable in international competition or European leagues.
Nice bounce back - Not much to take away and it didn't look like Norris changed anything anyhow, but a few notes:
1. I kept a close eye on the midfield most of the game- It seems very clear that the tactical instruction is for the 8s to play high and not drop into the midfield and isn't just a result of Sinc being bad and slow. Moultrie is clearly just better than Sinc and Chicago is a dumpster fire, but the base position of the 8s stayed the same. Especially Dunn, who is really just playing as a 10 now:(https://twitter.com/arielle_dror/status/1660446647254650886?s=20)
2. The press obviously works better with Liv, but they still need to develop a tactic for when that 15 minute blitz doesn't result in goals. It's a little too chaotic and exhausting to work consistently, but it sure as hell is fun when they can capitalize like they usually do against the bad teams.
3. Poor Coffey --who played her best game of the season today-- has to cover an absolutely *absurd* amount of ground. She's essentially just running horizontal wind sprints all game. This ain't gonna work any better than it did on the road trip when they play more teams that can overload the attacking midfield consistently.
4. Hina's so fucking fun! She and Dunn are developing a nice little rapport on the right- Look at how much of the Thorns attacking moments went through them.
5. Really impressive Moultrie finish. I think the list of Thorns that finishes that chance on their left foot is just her and Hina.
6a. #ProtectSoph! Atrocious refereeing by Tori Penso (ref families scare me), and Smith was absolutely livid with her most of the 2nd half- Not sure if they showed her get in Penso's face on TV, but she was very.....demonstrative with her frustration. She's also still looking a tad off her best and made a few classic selfish Soph shot-when-Weaver/Hina-was-through-on-goal plays, but she clearly just wants that goal- I wonder if that's why Norris left her in even though it would have been better to rest her with the game in hand.
6b. RIP Bubble-braid Soph, we hardly knew ye :(