Heath Leads Thorns to Win Over Spirit

In a hard-fought and contentious match, the Portland Thorns returned home from a four-game road trip Saturday night and played arguably their best game in franchise history, defeating the Washington Spirit 4-1 in front of 15,823 fans at Providence Park. The win handed Washington (4-1-1, 13 pts.) their first loss of the season, while leaving Portland (3-0-3, 12 pts.) as the only undefeated team in the NWSL.

“I said to the players straight after the game that there’s going to be good nights and there’s going to be special nights,” Portland head coach Mark Parsons said in the post-match press conference. “And this is a very special night for us.”

Portland’s four goals resulted from a relentless, wire-to-wire attack that clearly benefitted from the intense and elevated play of midfielder Tobin Heath, who provided an assist as well as scoring on her own.

The Thorns’ cohesive attack had been threatening almost from the opening whistle before finally capitalizing at 27’. The sequence began when Thorns midfielder Dagny Brynjarsdottir chipped a precise volley on goal that Spirit goalkeeper Stephanie Labbe barely tipped over the bar, earning the Thorns a corner kick. Heath’s service then found midfielder Lindsey Horan, who easily headed the ball in for the game’s first goal.

The Thorns struck again just four minutes later, when their constant pressure lead to an own goal. Again, Heath played a role, initiating a focused, decisive attack with a quick midfield thrown-in that landed perfectly for Thorns forward Christine Sinclair, who made her first start for the Thorns since coming off an injury. Sinclair then crossed to forward Nadia Nadim on her streaking goal-ward run. The sequence left Labbe with no room to maneuver, and her clearance attempt thumped off the chest of her own defender Alyssa Kleiner and into the net to give the Thorns a 2-0 advantage.

An impressive one-two punch of skill made it 3-0 just before the half. Making her way into the offensive third, Sinclair struck a nifty pass off the outside of her foot, putting such a precise spin on the ball that it skipped past a Spirit defender and straight to the foot of Heath, who also used the outside of her foot to beat Labbe. The ball slowed a bit as it headed toward net, so Heath slid and pushed it left, just to ensure it went in. It did.

“It was just a fantastic ball by Sinc,” Heath said after the game. “Just perfectly timed, and just boop…and then I was like, ‘oh I probably should make sure it goes in.’”

By the end of the first half, the Thorns had registered seven shots and held the Spirit to none. The trend continued in the second half, as again Portland dominated, firing off eight more shots while still containing—relatively speaking—Washington star Crystal Dunn. Dunn still managed to sting the Thorns in the 55^th minute, when she created enough space between her and Portland defender Meghan Klingenberg to strike a perfectly placed cross, which Spirit midfielder Joanna Lohman converted into a spinning header into the net.

If that brought the party down a smidge, the downturn was short-lived. The revelry shifted back to ecstasy when little-known Portland forward Meg Morris, who had subbed on for Sinclair at 56’, pounced on a ball, slipped past the Spirit defense and curled a shot just inside the lower far post in the 78^th minute. The goal rewarded Morris’ non-stop intensity and work rate, and she raced to the bench, celebrating as if she had just won the lottery.

“I couldn’t put too much blame on anyone,” Parsons said of Lohman’s goal. “It was only one of the two times Crystal got free and got a cross in. But our reaction to go on and push for another goal was great, and for Meg Morris to nick one in at the end was very special.”

The victory put the Portland in second place in the NWSL table, one point behind Washington. The Thorns will host the Seattle Reign Sunday, March 29.