Seattle Reign FC 2
Portland Thorns FC 0
July 1, 2017 – NWSL Regular Season
Seattle, WA – Memorial Stadium
Derby day in Cascadia is always a thing. The NWSL version between the Seattle Reign FC and Portland Thorns FC has taken on an intensity in only five years that is worthy of the long history of the sporting rivalry in the region. In Saturday’s case, both sides were looking to end the first half of the season in good position for a playoff run. With a 24 match schedule and only so many of those matches against rivals in the playoff hunt, points were essential.
The opening minutes saw a brisk pace, perhaps both sides trying to grab a quick goal and put the other on their heels. With both having played at mid-week, an early goal could determine both coach’s tactics for the match. Neither could break through, despite some good flurries in front of both nets.
The match could have changed due to an injury as the 31st minute saw Jess Fishlock injured and carried off holding a left knee that hit the turf awfully hard, bringing on Rumi Utsugi, herself coming back from injury. Utsugi stepped in filled Fishlock’s midfield role seemlesly, her veteran experience in big matches evident.
First half stoppage time saw the game changer. Megan Rapinoe would strip Thorns defender Emily Sonnett of the ball in the box and beat a lunging Adrianna French to the ball for a shock first goal. Suddenly, it was a Reign lead and the half. Rapinoe would finish the match with 9 goals on the season and the NWSL lead, showcasing her class over the past several matches with goals from play and the penalty spot, driving the Reign to 7 of 9 points on the week.
140 Supporters bus riding Rose City Riveters and others from Portland added to the atmosphere in Memorial Stadium on the night. Competing chants from the stands making noise gave the match a bigger feel.
Where Pinoe’s 8th goal of the season was all hustle and opportunism, her 9th was a reward for teamwork. Christine Nairn had found herself on the substitute’s bench a few matches ago, but had worked her way back in to the 11. Nairn and midfield partner Lindsay Elston had spent three matches covering enormous amounts of field, mostly in a pressuring role. Nairn would send a well weighted and timed ball, finding Pinoe down the left flank for a volley and two goal lead in the 81st minute.
For the Thorns, they find themselves now just below the red line, but still very much in it at the midpoint. They will miss a few players like Nadia Nadim and Dagny Brynjarsdottir for the Women’s Euros, but should have them back for the stretch run. Coach Mark Parson, “Someone asked me about the league table a couple weeks ago, and we’ve got to continue doing what we did last year. Every single game there’re 3 points up for grabs. We’ve got to do a performance that’s worth putting three points on the board. I think our best is yet to come, and I think there’s a couple other teams that their best is yet to come as well. This is going to be super super tight all the way, standings by game 16 game 17 if you’re not near the pack at the top then it’ll be time to worry. As long as we’re near the pack and as long as we’re in a place where we know that we’re in the opportunity to win each game then we’ll be there.”
The Reign grabbed 7 of 9 points from the week. But, the week ended much differently than it started. Four minutes into the match a week earlier Seattle lost its captain to a red card and went a player down. What they showed coming back to draw FCKC, then playing a gutty midweek match to come back and defeat Chicago, before grabbing their first clean sheet of the season against their Cascadia rivals had coach Laura Harvey saying, “I say this a lot I think. When we’ve been at our most successful, in our most successful seasons, the thing that we’ve had is the grit, and we’ve been very hard to break down, and then we have talent. Every coach in the world will tell you that hard work beats talent a lot, because that’s just the way sport is. If talent can work really hard, then that’s when you have the best of both worlds. I think currently, that’s what we’ve got. We’ve got very, very talented players, this is a very talented group of footballers. But, they’ve also got this determination that they desperately don’t want to lose. I give credit to my staff, especially my fitness guy. We’ve trained harder at the moment than we’ve ever trained this season, and I think you’ve seen that this week. That’s why we didn’t look crazy tired throughout the game. I thought we looked the freshest, maybe. We’ve had three games at home, and I know that, but it takes a lot for what we’ve been through this week. Credit to Nick [Leman] and the players, they’ve worked really hard with him on being the fittest they could possibly be, which has helped us for sure.”
NWSL Match Report
Match: Seattle Reign FC (5-2-5, 20 pts) vs Portland Thorns FC (5-4-3 18 pts)
Date: July 1, 2017
Venue: Memorial Stadium
Kickoff: 7:30pm PT
Attendance: 4,270
Weather: Sunny
Scoring Summary:
SEA – Rapinoe 45+1’
SEA – Rapinoe (Nairn) 81’
Lineups:
Seattle Reign FC: Kopmeyer, Pickett, Barnes, McNabb, Stott, Fishlock (Utsugi 33’), Nairn, Elston, Rapinoe, Mathias (Johnson 83’), Yanez (Kawasumi 64’)
Substitutes Not Used: Bauer, Dallstream, Reed, Schiffel
Portland Thorns FC: Franch, Sonnett, Menges, Klingenberg, Henry, Long, Horan, Brynjarsdottir, Shim (Sykes 60’), Raso, Sinclair
Substitutes Not Used: Eckerstrom, Bourielle, Cox, Johnson, Lussi
Stats Summary: SEA/POR
Shots: 16 / 14
Shots on Goal: 7 / 3
Saves: 3 / 5
Corner Kicks: 6 / 3
Fouls: 9 / 12
Offside: 4 / 1
Misconduct Summary:
POR – Sinclair (Yellow) 64’
POR – Brynjarsdóttir (Yellow) 72’
SEA – McNabb (Yellow) 77’
POR – Raso (Yellow) 90+1’
Officials:
Referee: Jon Freemon
Assistant Referees: Joshua Haimes, TJ Zablocki
Fourth Official: Cephas Quartson
Photos by Vanya Tucherov
