Portland Thorns at their home turf of Providence Park for preseason rendered a narrow 1-0 win over Racing of Louisville with a late goal by Meaghan Nally in the 86th minute. The low score and yet lively match featured an active attacking game led by the league’s 2022 Most Valuable Player and Thorns forward, Sophia Smith. Louisville withstood the first half an hour and started to show some danger of their own towards the last ten minutes of the first half, with a couple missed chances to surprise the locals.
The second half brought a similar dynamic with the Thorns pushing forward and constantly probing Louisville’s defense. The match was mostly played on their field, but the visitors weren’t resigned to a tie, and attempted to upset Thorns’ dominance. They got close to doing it when Jess McDonall narrowly missed her shot in minute 79.
Portland finally got their well-earned goal with a header by Meaghan Nally in minute 86 when she picked a rebound after a corner kick. Continuing on the preseason Portland tournament, Portland Thorns will be facing the USA Under-23 team on Wednesday, and their archrivals the OL Reign on Saturday concluding their preseason run at Providence Park.
OL Reign and the USA Under-23 played the opener a few hours earlier with OL Reign gaining a comfortable 3-0 win over the US Youth National Team.
