The mood was defiant as human decency, activism, and equality took the forefront of the fans’ banners. The focus? The Iron Front ban, which the Timbers’ front office had decided covered not only the MLS team the league mandated ban applied to, but its sister and son teams as well. Silence = Complicity, read one; Human Rights are Political was another. Fans donned White Roses and face masks and sat the national anthem out.
This did not seem to deter the home team. In the thirteenth minute, Christine Sinclair (who was, indeed spotted before the match wearing an Iron Front shirt) dribbled past a couple defenders, considered her options, and then cooly struck it past Naeher. Thorns one, Red Stars nil.
In the 24th minute, the ball bounced from player to player, leaving Naeher in a position where she could not get to Purce’s easily slotted home header. Thorns two, Red Stars nil.
The Red Stars defense, for lack of a better word, seems to be prone to these sort of lapses in judgement. The Thorns defense, likewise, suffered from a few of these slip ups- but were punished for them in the first half. Franch, however, was given slightly more leeway by her defense who gave Kerr less opportunities.
Chicago held the majority of the possession in the first half, and actually won the majority of the duels. They also had more pass accuracy. However, they relied a bit too much on Kerr, who was kept all but quiet. The Thorns were able to capitalise in part because they didn’t have one focal point, but rather two or three options at any given time. Whilst Short did an excellent job of keeping Heath quiet, her teammates weren’t quite as successful with Purce, Sinclair, and Raso. One world class forward is hard enough to deal with, they’re fast and they’re everywhere, and it’s harder to keep up.
The second half started with the same lineups as the first.
Midge Purce once again struck, cleaning up a shot from Sinclair which pulled Naeher toward the goal post and pinged off the post, and cleanly to her feet. This is Purce’s second brace of the season, the first coming against Chicago on June 2nd.
Nikki Stanton received the first yellow of the match for a foul against Heath, which gave her a yellow card to the right of the box. Naeher, after a punch or two, was able to gather the shot from the feet of Charley, who had just subbed in for Purce. Stanton is somewhat of a card magnet, and those well versed in the NWSL probably had her clocked at getting one around then.
Portland Thorns defeat the Chicago Red Stars 3-0 at home Sunday August 25, 2019 (photo by Diego Diaz).
In the 70th minute, Short was essentially kicked in the face by Heath, which earnt her a rightful yellow card, and was probably part of the reason Sam Kerr felt it necessary to chew out the referees post match.
Franch once again, had a phenomenal game. When the wall of Emilys failed, or somebody slipped through a small crack, she was there to clean it up. Naeher had no such luck, as previously mentioned, there were just too many directions the balls was coming from.
It’s clear Chicago need to try something new. Whilst they are no doubt exhausted from their road trip and game frequency, they looked, uninspired and out of choices as effectively as Kerr was shut down.
For match photo gallery click here.
Portland Thorns
Chicago Red Stars
