On a rainy night at Providence Park, the Thorns never found the net, and though their opponents NY/NJ Gotham had the same problem for much of the match, only the visitors would find the net in overtime, and emerged with a 1-0 win that ends the Thorns season. Katie Stengel had the game winner for Gotham in overtime.
The first really good chance for either team wouldn’t come until the 32nd minute when Esther González got in behind the Thorns defense, and past goalkeeper Shelby Hogan before the ball was cleared by Becky Sauerbrunn to keep the match scoreless. A few minutes later Gotham had another great chance when Jenna Nighswonger had a free kick from near the corner of the 18-yard box, but the ball was just over the bar. The match was level at 0-0 at the break.
The Thorns started getting really good breakaway chances late in the 2nd half, the first in the 79th minute when Crystal Dunn played a ball into the run of Sophia Smith on a 2-on-1 break, with Gotham goalkeeper Mandy Haught snaring the ball nicely just in time off Smith’s foot.
In the 90th minute the Thorns had another 2-on-1 break, with Smith passing to Morgan Weaver, who cut back onto her left foot and had a great look from near the penalty spot, but her shot was barely defected and saved by Haught. In stoppage time, Lynn Williams had a great run into the box for the visitors, but Sam Coffey‘s defense stopped her at the last minute. So it would take extra time to decide this semifinal.
After neither team scored in the first 15 minutes, it would be just a minute into the second overtime period that Gotham would make the Thorns pay for a mistake. After a poor clearance attempt by the Thorns, Katie Stengel collected the ball at the top of the box, and curled a beautiful curling shot into the upper left corner past Hogan, and Gotham had shocked the crowed with a 1-0 lead.
The Thorns would never find the equalizer, and their season would end with the 1-0 defeat.
