Match Recap: Portland Thorns vs Utah Royals
Bella Bixby is back and the Thorns got an important result playing away from home.
The Portland Thorns were back in action after the international break, getting their first three points of the season with a win over the Utah Royals. Reilyn Turner tallied her second goal of the season in the first half, which held up as the difference.
Back on the road, and back to the winning ways.
Match recap and storyline
Starting XI:
8’ Moultrie conducts but can’t pass the ball timely and then there’s a misunderstanding between her and Reilyn Turner, and the opportunity gets lost.
9’ Way to go, Bella!
14’ Reilyn Turner scores with Hina Sugita’s assist! Sugita is now tied for 5th most assists in regular season history with Sam Coffey and Allie Long.
63’ McGlynn denies Marie-Yasmine Alidou. The Canadian almost scored a header on the far post.
65’ Big opportunity for Utah but Portland gets lucky.
70’ What a chance for Portland! It’s Turner vs the goalkeeper, but her shot is wide.
71’ What a save by Bixby!
89’ Sentnor from distance, but Bixby had it covered.
Full-time: Portland Thorns 1-0 Utah Royals.
Conclusions
Reilyn Turner. If we talk about the positives, Turner scoring again after having done so before the international break is very important to keep building on her confidence. Moreover, her goal was the lone goal of this match and the winning tally.
Bella Bixby’s return. Seeing her on Portland’s goal again was great to see. She looked composed on goal and did well in the shot-stopping department. However, she needs to work on her distribution in long passes. Leaving that aside, it was a solid comeback no doubt.
The three points. Knowing the Thorns were coming back from the international break and that they were playing on the road, the win by a little margin was significant. To add more, it was Portland’s first win of the season, so it needs to be celebrated.
However, they had clear chances they should’ve put away. Maybe the most clear was Turner’s 1v1 with the goalkeeper in the 70’. She had too much time to think where to shoot, and in the end, it went wide.
Another thing to work on is turnovers. The Thorns lost possession too many times in this match, and although they got the win, the opponent wasn’t the best. If we were to get picky, we should demand more, maybe not on the scoresheet, but in the way they played.
Side note: quite literally almost ran into Sam Coffey in a New Seasons today lol.
Glad to see Bella back. I was concerned about how she would return and how good she will be going forward. She didn't get much work, but I thought she looked confident (which hasn't always been the case) and had good positioning and footwork. Also seemed to get up quickly, move quickly, think quickly, etc., which also hasn't always been the case. I don't care much about long service stats unless she is kicking it out of bounds. Any ball past midfield is partly the responsibility of the forwards (and mids) to control. Also seems like the defending team usually gets possession way more often on the end of these, anyway, regardless of who the keeper is.
All of this aside, it's just nice to see the longest tenured Thorn back in the saddle with baby in tow. Bella is easy to root for so it's nice to see her playing well with a big smile on her face. And even though she didn't have much to do, her aggressive intervention on the sloppy back pass could have saved a goal and her positioning, quick thinking, and athleticism on the tricky/unexpected shross saved a goal that another goalie could have easily missed. It's often plays like those that can turn Ws into Ls, so it was nice to see her come up big on those to preserve the clean sheet.