Portland Thorns 2, Racing Louisville 2 - Instant Reaction
The Portland Thorns went into their match against Racing Louisville on a two game skid to open the season.
The Portland Thorns are on a historic skid losing four straight matches (in all competitions) dating back to 2023.
In the third minute, the nightmare would start when Racing Louisville forward, Uchenna Kanu, dribbled past the right side of the backline to put the visitors up 1-0. The amount of cushion offered on this passage of play was just too much.
To make matters worse, Kanu beat the right side of defense again when she rose over both Hubly and Reyes for a headed goal to make it 2-0.
The start to this game was unacceptable. The mistakes continue to pile up and the basics were again lost. The visitors made a concerted effort to attack the right side early and often. Racing Louisville head coach, Bev Yanez, was masterful with her tactics.
Immediately after the second goal, Sam Coffey called all the players together for a huddle.
Coming back down two goals is already a tall task, but to do it against one of the best goalkeepers in Katie Lund and defenders in Abby Erceg is nearly impossible.
The game finally settled down after the first quarter of an hour.
After surrendering the first two goals and shots, the Portland Thorns ended the half in charge with shots nine to four, but nothing of real substance.
Mike Norris subbed on Hina Sugita for Olivia Moultrie at the start of the second half and it would pay dividends immediately.
Seven minutes later, the injection of energy from Hina brought the Portland Thorns to life. In the 52nd minute, Sophia Smith collected the ball and hit a nicely weighted pass to Morgan Weaver who slotted home far post to cut the deficit in half.
The Portland Thorns would chase the equalizer for the remainder of the half. It appeared that that chase would be in vain as the game entered stoppage time.
However, Sam Coffey would not be denied. In the dying minutes, she unleashed an absolute rocket of a shot to level the proceedings.
Although they were outplayed in the first half, Portland came alive again in the second half with Hina Sugita being the key.
Going winless in the first three games is a massive red flag and for a team intent on being contenders, it is not good enough. Questions need to be asked immediately and changes may need to be made.
One player who somehow got lost in the shuffle is Hina Sugita. There is no one on the team that has her package. She needs to be in all starting XIs from here on out.
The script for all three games have been the same: make mistakes in the first half & try to catch up. This is not the recipe for success and it never will be.
Scoring Summary
Portland: Weaver (52’), Coffey (90’+9)
Louisville: Kanu (3’, 6’)
Next Up:
The Thorns have a week off while some of their international players are away at the SheBelieves Cup. They’re next in action on Saturday April 13, when they face the North Carolina Courage on the road. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. PT
The coach has got to go.
Until now I have thought that the disruption of firing him might not be worth it; that despite the obvious flaws the talent level was enough that a bottom half coach could keep the Thorns afloat in a playoff position.
That is no longer the case. This team is too talented individually and collectively to be playing this poorly. The first half was one of the worst halves of football I've seen at Providence Park in a long long time. The second half was better, but largely because Hina is a cheat code that makes this awful system look vaguely functional.
Time is up, Mike.
I'll start with the positives:
- Coffey's a monster. Smith's the team's MVP, but Sam is pretty much everything else. Willed the team forward the whole second half both offensively and defensively, exhorted the crowd on every dead ball, and scored a great goal. So, so good.
- If they can figure out a way to use the midfield, it's a really good midfield! Fleming looked a brand new player as soon as they switched the point of attack and brought Hina in the game.
- Better game from Weaver, despite some continued poor decision making.
- Becky looked awesome.
- It's a long season. I feel much more at peace with Soph signed cause I would be losing my damn mind otherwise.
Negatives:
- Norris just ain't it. Man has negative feel. If you're a coach, you can't make the sum of the parts worse than the individuals, and he is CLEARLY doing that. It doesn't take a tactical genius to see that he's wasting the talents of everybody on the field not named Smith......and when the team is losing, he's wasting her talent too. Hina's probably the second or third best player on the team at worst and she hasn't started one match. Useless, useless manager.
- Time to start Obaze. It just is. Sorry Kelli. Horrible giveaway (one of many) that caused the first goal, then got beat easily on the header for the second. I'll give her a little credit for the well-played pass that sprung Coffey for the equalizer.