The Portland Thorns hosted the Chicago Red Stars on Friday night at Providence Park. Though the Chicago winning goal by Ally Schlegel wasn’t credited as a Thorns own-goal, essentially it was, as Chicago survived a late Thorns surge for a 1-0 win.
In the eighth minute Chicago had the first good chance when Mallory Swanson had the ball on her foot close-in, but a good Thorns defensive recovery deflected the ball to Thorns keeper Mackenzie Arnold.
In the 16th minute, Thorns midfielder Olivia Moultrie attempted to play the ball back to her defense, but the ball did not have enough pace and fell into a space where Ally Schlegel was able to get to the ball first, rounded Arnold, then shot into an open net for the 1-0 lead.
Sophia Smith had a few good looks late in the half for the Thorns, but her shots were either off-target, or deflected as they came off her foot. The visitors led 1-0 at the break.
Just seconds into the second half, Portland’s Reyna Reyes committed a foul in the box, and a yellow card was called as well as the referee pointing to the spot. Swanson would take the spot kick for the Red Stars, but Arnold was up to the task and dove correctly to her right and saved the penalty attempt, so the score was still 1-0 Chicago.
With about 25 minutes left before stoppage time, Thorns forward Morgan Weaver entered the match, her first play since being injured at the beginning of the season, and the Thorns play really ramped up at this point. In the 74th minute Smith fed a nice pass into the box to Weaver that the Thorns forward would hit a nice one-time shot, but it was right at Chicago goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and easily saved. Hina Sugita, Smith, Sam Coffey, and Marie Müller all had half-decent chances that were blocked or off-target, but the Thorns never found the equalizer and would fall to Chicago by a 1-0 score.
