Originally published on June 22, 2104
Portland Thorns FC throttled the Washington Spirit 6-1 in Maryland on Saturday evening.
The Spirit have now lost three games in a row and drop to 6-7-1; meanwhile, the Thorns have won two in a row and climb into fourth with a 6-4-2 record.
The Spirit went down two goals early. The Thorns scored in the fifth minute after a poor pass in the back by Ali Krieger lead to a failed clearance by Niki Cross. Alex Morgan gathered the ball and passed to Christine Sinclair, who sent in a rocket from the top of the box to give the Thorns a 1-0 lead.
Five minutes later, Morgan finally knocked the ball into the net after a prolonged period of pinging around in front of the Spirit goal.
After the Thorns took an early lead, the Spirit settled in and began to make some offensive attacks of their own. More importantly, they began to gel defensively and held the scoreline at 2-0 going into the half.
The Spirit came out into the second half with intensity and pace, putting the Portland back line under considerable pressure. Christine Nairn gathered her own deflected shot at the top of the box and blasted the ball back at keeper Michelle Betos to bring the Spirit back into the game 2-1.
Morgan put an end to those hopes in the 71st minute when she put away her second goal of the match. Parsons decided to only play three at the back from that point forward. That tactical switch ended up being a major miscue. “I didn’t see any individuals out there switching off,” said Parsons. “I didn’t help us there with the shape.”
Spirit keeper Chantel Jones echoed Parsons statement about their defensive shape. “When we went down 3-1, we went to three at the back, which opens up a lot of space for the counterattack and they did well coming at us with only three defenders.”
The Thorns took absolute advantage of the weakened back line, scoring three more goals in only 20 minutes. Jessica McDonald scored a brace despite entering the game for Morgan in the 82nd minute. Allie Long scored in stoppage time to put the exclamation point on the win. The final score was a franchise record for the Thorns: a 6-1 win.
Morgan scored her second brace of the week. She scored both goals for the USA in their draw with France on Thursday. She also scored two of the first six goals for the Thorns on Saturday. After the game she explained that her performances show how she is finally getting back to her previous form. “Mentally, I am not thinking about my injury any more and that is the biggest thing moving forward,” she said.
Thorns head coach Paul Riley could sympathize all too easily with Parsons. “We did the same thing [against the Flash],” he said. “We put all [our new] players into the lineup and we lost 5-0.” Parsons said one of his takeaways from the game was the solid performances by three new players: Lisa DeVanna, Niki Cross, and Alex Singer. Each player had minimal practice with the team prior to the game, so it will be interesting to see how each perform on Saturday after a full week of practice.
Both head coach Mark Parsons and keeper Chantel Jones seemed surprisingly positive following the game, given the scoreline. Both acknowledged the game was disappointing, but felt that a combination of a lot of things going right for the Thorns and poor choice regarding defensive formation led to most of the goals.
“We played pretty well,” said Jones. “At times we moved the ball really nicely. On the goal, that was probably the best build up we had the whole game.”
Parsons even remarked that “we’ve won more games playing a lot worse than that.”
Portland Thorns FC’s next challenge will be against the struggling Sky Blue FC on Wednesday June 25th at Providence Park. The Washington Spirit will also be looking to pick up crucial points when they face the 7th place Houston Dash on Saturday June 28th.