To have any chance of advancing to the semifinals of the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, the Portland Thorns needed to beat their Cascadia rivals, Seattle Reign.
Key Notes
For the first time in her career, Hina Sugita would wear the captain’s armband.
Mallie McKenzie would make her third consecutive start.
Portland Thorns returned into their back four with Reyna Reyes and Marie Müller as the full backs.
Izzy D’Aquila would play as the 10
Seattle Reign had eight changes to their starting XI
Early on, this game was played on Seattle Reign’s terms. They had good looks, but Portland’s last ditch defending bailed them out. Both teams struggled to play out from the back and out of pressure.
Seattle had their best chance in the 10th minute through a long ball to Veronica Latsko who rocketed a shot, but it was denied by Shelby Hogan. The ensuing rebound was cleared by Marie Müller.
In the 17th minute, the press forced a turnover that was quickly played ahead from Hina. She found Izzy D’Aquila who immediately slipped it into Ana Dias, but her shot went just over the bar.
The frontline of Payton Linnehan, Ana Dias, and Mallie McKenzie was almost non-existent. The Portland Thorns struggled to get the ball to their attackers all half and seemed content to pass slowly from the back without much danger to Seattle.
However, as the half proceeded, the Portland Thorns would continue to settle in and get more comfortable. They would have the majority of the ball, but now they were looking to be more direct and aggressive.
In the 39th minute, Shelby Hogan played a long ball from the back against a high-line from Seattle. Dias would get on the end of it, but the Reign backline wouldn’t allow her to get a clean shot off.
A minute later, Müller would collect the ball from midfield and pick out a pinpoint pass to Linnehan on the right wing who proceeded to juke out Phoebe McClernon and Laurel Ivory to put Portland up 1-0. A cool wrinkle in Summer Cup has been Rob Gale’s allowance for Müller to drop into midfield from her fullback position.
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After scoring the goal, Payton Linnehan would shine the rest of the half. Her dribbling and playmaking were on display. One aspect of her game that really shined all half was her work rate. She forced a ton of turnovers with just maximum effort.
During the halftime interview, she wanted to see the team play even better.
“I think our team needs to do a better job playing through midfield and through the seams. Obviously on my goal, I looked for it in behind because we weren’t having a lot of success playing through the line. We’re going to have to improve on that in the second half, but we’ll have to threaten in multiple ways.”
At the half Portland had the better of possession over Seattle (56% to 44%), passes (265 to 208), and passing accuracy (85% to 79%).
Olivia Moultrie and Becky Sauerbrunn would come on at the start of the second for Mallie McKenzie and Isa Obaze. This would push D’Aquila back to the frontline as the nine and Olivia Moultrie to the 10.
Reyna Reyes would sub off early in the second half due to a possible injury and would be looked at in the locker room immediately after.
In the 64th minute, the Utah Royals — who were also playing at the time —would take a 4-1 lead to tie the Thorns at the top of the group on goal differential, but lead on the goals scored tiebreaker. To make matters worse, Club Tijuana was up 1-0 before they allowed four straight.
That margin would wind up being the difference that prevented the Thorns from advancing in the Summer Cup — but there was still almost a half hour of soccer to be played.
In the 72nd minute, the Portland Thorns went on a lightning fast counter. They forced a turnover and Hina played a ball to Linnehan on a dime. She went get a shot near post, but Ivory would barely get a hand to it.
In the 78th minute, Seattle’s Olivia Athens would have a point-blank shot, but was denied by Hogan.
There were chances for Portland Thorns to extend their advantage and retake the lead at the top of the group, but it wasn’t meant to be. Utah would finish top, and the Thorns’ journey in the Summer Cup would end.
Nonetheless, the 1-0 win against their rival will be a good way to lead off into the final stretch of the season.
The Portland Thorns were the better side and earned a deserved three points. This was not a particularly pretty game, and frankly, ugly.
This was also a tale of two halves — Portland dominated one and Seattle the other.
The Reign tallied 19 shots (5 on goal) and Thorns countered with 8 shots (3 on goal). Both teams struggled mightily in front of goal and Ivory & Hogan both came up big when it came time for it.
Without their six Olympians, the team put together solid performances and now have a new formation they can add into future games.
There also were a lot of bright spots, such as Payton Linnehan’s total dominance in attack and defense. She was superb and even had the game winner.
Mallie McKenzie has proven her worth as the team’s “Swiss Army Knife” player too.
Now the players will get some time off before the CONCACAF W Championship and NWSL regular season.
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