You know it’s a big night at Providence Park when you see US Soccer President Sunil Gulati sprinting out of the ESPN TV broadcast at the game. No, it’s not time for the All-Star Game yet, though the week of festivities is well underway. This wasn’t a Timbers game either – this was the Portland Thorns, putting on a show that culminated with the announcement of a record-breaking crowd of almost 20,000 filling the old stadium.
The official attendance – 19,123 – was well worth celebrating. It was a continuation of Portland’s love-affair with the beautiful game, this time with the world descending to celebrate it with us.
As for the game on the field, and the bipolar, hot and cold, swimming for their lives team everyone came to watch, they got it done: A gritty, slowly developing 1-0 victory over the Houston Dash keeps the Thorns season alive and well. Coach Paul Riley could have just skipped into the press conference, grinned ear to ear, and said, “Just win, baby!”
It wasn’t all that pretty from the Thorns on Sunday night. A fragmented first half punctuated by two water breaks, one informal, one formal – the first in the history of the NWSL, because, hey, why not make more history on this night? – produced very few sequences of note.
Good teams absolutely have to win home games against overmatched opponents looking to keep everything beyond tight to the point of claustrophobic. One goal was always going to get the job done. In the end, it was Stephanie Catley’s cross that found Vero Boquete on the back-post for the winner.
With the best way to describe Houston’s offense hanging somewhere around criminally negligent, the Thorns were home free. It was a confidence-booster in that it was a first clean sheet for German superstar goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, and the best defensive performance from Riley’s team for months – and it came without the team’s highest profile defender, Rachael Van Hollebeke.
But after some of the fireworks the Thorns have produced at home this year, this would never be confused with a vintage performance. Alex Morgan struggled to get into the game and had a quiet night, as did strike-partner Christine Sinclair. Allie Long struggled, and the Thorns had to rely on Vero’s unquestioned brilliance for a push over the line. But as we saw last year with this team, style points don’t matter anymore. Winning equals the playoffs, and then maybe a championship.
So what if we’re never really going to figure out what the Thorns are capable of at their best on a week to week in 2014? If the wins start piling up, it doesn’t matter.
The Spaniard Boquete was brilliant in front of a national TV audience.
“She ran the show,” Riley said. “We’re a different team when she’s on the ball.”
The Thorns feel like they’re turning a corner. Boquete said after the game that, “We (the Thorns) came from the hardest July in out lives.” Riley joked that the team, “haven’t had practice in a month.”
With their entire team finally getting to know each other, and the all around mayhem of the first part of the season calming, Portland may be hitting their stride.
It was a good night. Hopefully, the first of many over the next month and a half – but this night will stand out. The fans can be thanked for that. NWSL Executive Director Cheryl Bailey was gleeful about the support saying at halftime, “A night like this gives you the ability to dream.”
A clearly pleased Angerer said afterword of the staggered reporters who traveled to the Rose City, following Bayern Munich, and stopped to watch their national team goalkeeper Sunday night, “Germany reporters and media guys were like ‘what is this here!?'”
“I was like, yeah, welcome to Portland.”
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