The Portland Thorns earned their first trip to the NWSL Championship game since 2018, and their fourth overall, with a 2-1 victory over the San Diego Wave on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Providence Park. Rocky Rodríguez and Crystal Dunn would have the goals for the Thorns, while Taylor Kornieck would score the lone goal for the Wave.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to take the lead, when in just the 8th minute, a cross from Alex Morgan found Taylor Kornieck wide open at the 6-yard box, and she would head home to give the Wave an early 1-0 lead.
At precisely the 20 minute mark, the Thorns would find the equalizer when Rocky Rodríguez was able to get a good strike on a ball that the Wave failed to clear, blasting the shot into the upper right corner from the top of the Wave box, and the score was level at 1-1.
Six minutes later, the Thorns appeared ready to take the lead when on a breakaway, Morgan Weaver slid a perfect pass to Sophia Smith who was one-on-one with Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan, but Smith’s failure to control the pass cleanly gave Sheridan a chance to smother the shot. Just before halftime, the Wave nearly turned on corner kick into a goal when Taylor Kornieck turned on the loose ball and blasted a close-in shot that was nicely saved by Bella Bixby, and the half ended in a 1-1 draw.
As the second half progressed, the Thorns were getting more and more chances to find the winner, one of the best being a one-on-one chance by Weaver that Sheridan would save nicely.
But in second half stoppage time, the Thorns would finally find that winner when after San Diego cleared a Thorns corner kick, but the attempted headed final clearance was weak and trickled to the top of the box when Crystal Dunn lined up the shot and rocketed an unstoppable blast until the upper left corner of the goal, and Providence Park exploded as the Thorns had grabbed a 2-1 lead.
After four more minutes of agonizingly long stoppage time, the whistle would blow and the Thorns would find themselves back in the NWSL Championship Final. Their opponents next Saturday in DC will be the Kansas City Current who defeated the OL Reign by a 2-0 score.
