Thorns celebrate Amandine Henry’s goal (Photo Credit: Diego Diaz).
The skies were clear, but a cathartic rain of goals fells in Providence Park in front of 16,199 fans as the Thorns bloomed and routed Kansas City in a convincing 3-0 win which snapped a two game slump. The lineup was a touch experimental; Dagny, fresh off a back injury, was scripted at right back, a position she has not played since her under-17 days with Iceland, a good decade or so ago. Mana Shim came out on the left wing; a bit further forward than her normal seat in midfield.
The early jitters still exist for the Thorns; in the opening minutes of the game, Sonnett seemed to stumble, and Franch left her box to go up against Leroux and clear the ball. It was fairly gutsy, and it paid off, but the Thorns will likely still be looking to tighten up the start of matches. They were lucky that FCKC wasn’t able to punish them; and that sort of goal can dictate the entire game.
Opponents are fast learning that the easiest way to stop Raso is to take her out. She’s fast, and fairly small; she’s hard to catch once she gets going, and nigh impossible to strip of the ball, unless she accidentally does it herself. Newfield was the first Kansas City player to get this memo, though she was hardly the only one. Strong tackles, such as the one we saw early in the game from her, aren’t necessarily against the rules of the game, and they tend to draw the fire out of Raso.
Shim had the first proper look of the game; she had a go of it in the tenth minute from a firmly fed ball from Dagny. It sailed over the bar and into the south deck, however. Not two minutes later, Newfield would have her attempt saved by Franch. First goal came in the 14th minute, when Dagny once again fed the ball into the box. Sinclair heeled the ball back to Long, whose shot rang off the post. Barnhart was unable to reach it, and the ball bounced back to Sinclair, who was able to put it to bed.
The victory would double in the 31st minute, when Raso, putting her speed to best use, ran the ball down the right side. She originally appeared to be going for the cross, but the ball span, graceful as a ballet dancer on pointe, just over the top of Barnhart’s gloves and into the top left corner. This was Raso’s first goal in Rose City Red, and it’s been a while coming; whilst many of her minutes for the side have come in the form of bit part subs, she’s seen over a thousand minutes in the kit.
The Riveters have been waiting, and she rewarded them well; her first thought, post goal, was to applaud them. When asked about it, her reasons were clear. “They’re there for us every week; there the ones pushing us, there the ones behind us every single time we score. I was so excited for myself, but I wanted to thank them.”
Kansas City was not to be deterred by two goals, or a large audience against them. Shea Groom, a divisive character all NWSL fans name knows well, continues to be the largest part of the KC offense; she forced another save from Franch in the 37th minute. Regardless of popular opinion, she remains a player who excels at what she does; she creates, is excellent at drawing the foul, and more often than not, can find the back of the net.
The entire KC team came out with renewed determination in the second half; whilst they never quite managed to even things out, they held greater possession and forced themselves more frequently into the attacking third. It would be the Thorns who would get the shots. Henry had a narrow miss seconds into the half, and a strong Sinclair header would find itself bundled at Barnhart’s chest in the 47th minute.
Horan would be first yellow in the game, for a deserving foul in the 52nd minute. She is a call or two away from having to sit a game out for card accumulation; which is a fairly fair assessment of her actions on the pitch.
FCKC saw their chance in the 63th minute, when Leroux found the back of the net. The referee deemed it was not to be, and it was called back as offside.
Raso’s naturally feisty nature worked against her in the 65th minute, when the ref called her for too frequently dancing the line between grit and outright aggression.
Sinclair looked for a goal, and received a call for a handball in the 71st minute. Whilst in slow motion, from the right angle, it appears to have gone off her chest, her arms were slightly out, and the referee made an understandable call. VAR would have likely impacted this. It was clear that the Canadian Captain was unhappy with this. She made sure the referee was perfectly clear on where she stood, and he made sure she knew dissent of that She was going to get her brace one way or another, however, and with the help of a clean pass from Raso, sliced through the FCKC defense in the 75th minute to make it so. In her own words, “I was a little mad, and Raso played me the ball, and just, yeah- nice to see the back of the net.”
It’s the not the first time she’s expressed such a sentiment. Whilst it’s rare to see her that angry, it almost always comes shortly before a beautiful goal. The last thing you want to do, if you’re playing against Christine Sinclair, is anger her.
The overall theme; from the coach, from the Captain, from Raso, was that the Thorns, and the city struggle and soar together. Whilst Sinclair and Raso were addressed in the beginning, Parsons made sure to acknowledge Long and Henry’s contribution in the midfield, and the entire back line. He mentioned each player on the pitch by name for something slightly different when asked about the successes on the game. Raso mentioned Sinclair when asked about her goal, and then her teammates on a whole and the Riveters. Sinclair likewise, mentioned the team and the city above anything she did as an individual. It is clear that, whatever happens, the Thorns have made the choice to stand or fall together for Portland; and a win like that was just what the city needed on that sunny Wednesday evening.
Portland Thorns
