Thursday evening, Providence Park will play host to this year’s NWSL Final, a rematch of last year’s championship between the Seattle Reign and FC Kansas City. The match, expected to be a close one, will pit the league’s best offense against the league’s best defense.
Current title holders FCKC, come to Portland ready for a repeat. While The Blues are once again considered the underdogs, their defense will be a hard to overcome. Captain Leigh Ann Brown and USNWT defender Becky Sauerbrunn have led the defense to five regular season shutouts with a dominant Nicole Barnhart in goal.
On the other side a determined Seattle Reign side comes in looking for something more than revenge. With the toughest offense in the league, the Reign have made a living off of finding holes in an opponent’s defense. “Every last goal we score we celebrate like it’s the Superbowl,” Reign midfielder Jessica Fishlock said. “We never forget that first year.”
After one of the worst starts in the league’s history, Seattle has been at the top of the leader board two years running and are the favorites going into tomorrow’s game. “We never doubted us,” Fishlock continued. While both coach Laura Harvey and Fishlock agreed that they don’t talk about last year’s loss, tomorrow’s game will be a chance for them to validate their place in NWSL history.
Both coaches agreed they are excited by the numbers for tomorrow’s crowd. Although Harvey acknowledged that playing in the house of their local rivals wasn’t ideal, she looked forward to a crowd that avidly supports the game. Kansas City coach Vlatko Andonovsk echoed Harvey and added that he was impressed with the unbelievable amount of support Portland has shown for women’s soccer. “The fans of this city deserve a good show.”
The championship will be aired on Fox Sports 1 at 6:30pm PST.
–Megan Cleary for ProstAmerika
