Under Saturday night lights, the Thorns faced their final foe of the regular season in front of 24,521 fans. The pressure, relatively speaking, was off. The Pride had managed to tie the Reign earlier on in the day, so regardless of how they performed, a trip to Chicago was in the cards.
Franch, who’s gained confidence in leaps and bounds over the past few years, decided that dribbling the ball around Pugh when rushed in the sixth minute, would be the way to go. Risky as it was, it paid off, as the other found herself on the ground and the ball was cleared from the box.
In the 26th minute, the first real Thorns chance was safely gathered by Bledsoe; snatched millimetres from Horan’s forehead with the two harmlessly colliding.
Ogle, on her first real minutes out, got her head to it in the 41st, but once again, Bledsoe was there to clean it up.
In the 43rd minute, Pugh went down hard without being touched; play continued despite Franch calling for it to stop, and the game played on through a potential foul on Elizabeth Ball. Eventually, the ball ended up out of bounds, and she was tended to. Whilst she was taken out for the rest of the half, the Spirit did not replace her with anybody.
She did not return to the game, but rather was replaced by Logarzo in the second half.
Spirit defender Paige Nielsen blocks a shot from Portland’s Tobin Heath (photo by Diego Diaz).
Five minutes into the second half, the Thorns had already had two chances wasted- including a close range miss from Sonnett which soared into the North End.
The Thorns comfortably parked themselves in the Spirit’s half and seemed content to just kind of hang out there without scoring for long periods of time. Which is fine; if you’re one or more up.
Purce came in about halfway through the second half; instantly, sparks. She managed to steal the ball from Bledsoe when the other didn’t clear it quickly enough. Her forward momentum, unfortunately, meant that the ball ended up out of bounds.
A late challenge on Purce which looked to be Sullivan tripping up on herself more than anything else took Purce out of a potential one versus one situation; the referee signaled to play on, and the boos rained down. They hadn’t fully subsided when Purce had another excellent chance from a smooth little pass from Heath. She skied it.
The game ended 0-0, a frustrating, often physical match whose highlights were mostly that of short bursts of tricky footwork.
This attendance number cements the Thorns as one of the top ten attended North American clubs, at least in 2019. Easily surpassing all other NWSL sides, they also bettered 15 MLS club’s attendance, every USL attendance, and more than a handful of men’s sides in top flight Europe. They also grew their own attendance by almost 3,000; a larger increase from last season than ever before. This includes the 2015 World Cup bump, when the Thorns roster featured Alex Morgan. It seems that, whatever the “Portland Formula” is, it’s larger than simply a player or two.
For photo recap of the game click here.
With an average attendance of over 20,000 supporters, the Portland Thorns are among the top ten attended North American clubs, male or female (Photo by Diego Diaz).
Portland Thorns FC
Washington Spirit
