It has been a while since we’ve heard the words “10 a.m. means nothing anymore” on a Thorns broadcast. And while I—and many others—miss listening to Ann Schatz when I stream Portland home games, it’s probably good to not tell your fans that 10 a.m. means nothing ahead of a 10 a.m. tournament final.
So, I may not have gotten anything from the McDonald’s breakfast menu on Saturday morning, but I did watch the Thorns lift the 2021 Challenge Cup trophy at Providence Park after beating NJ/NY Gotham FC on penalties.
Here’s what I took away from the match.
1. A couple goals were scored
For two teams who have conceded a total of five goals across a collective eight matches during the Challenge Cup’s group stage, both of the game’s goals felt incredibly silly.
Christine Sinclair did a pretty fun thing early on, in which she took the ball off Carli Lloyd (who then ran into Sinclair rather than trying to take the ball back), turned, took a couple touches before goal, and got the shot off as Gina Lewandowski made a half-attempt to step to her. It was a good chance on Sinclair’s part, even as it was a pretty foolish lack of defensive pressure on Gotham’s.
Still, the NJ/NY side got their payback when Lloyd headed Imani Dorsey’s cross into the back of the net in the 61st minute. Like Sinclair’s goal, it’s not particularly good defense; Becky Sauerbrunn either misread the ball or wasn’t aware that Lloyd was standing right there and didn’t jump high enough, and AD Franch was caught watching as the ball spun into the back of the net. (Admittedly, it’s close enough range that it would’ve been impressive if Franch had gotten there, but it’s got to sting when you’re not fully set for that shot.)
2. Minus the aforementioned goal, Portland’s defense is scary good
When Mark Parsons talked to media ahead of the Houston game, he said Natalia Kuikka was playing at a three or four out of 10 compared to her potential. I’m still trying to fully process that comment; to me, she’s been easily among Portland’s best players this year, and the thought that we’ve seen less than 50% of what she’s capable of is absolutely wild.
All this is to say Kuikka had yet another stellar game for the Thorns, especially in the first half. At some point during the first 45 minutes, I wrote “Kuikka vs Monaghan is a silly matchup” in my notes, and I think that sums up the defensive end of things pretty well. On the offensive side:
https://twitter.com/NwslAnalitica/status/1391084067102334979?s=20
And she wasn’t alone. Kelli Hubly deserves a shoutout for her work throughout the morning, and so does Meghan Klingenberg, who did a fantastic job of containing Gotham’s attack.
Parsons gave Kling just that, in response to a postgame question about her attacking presence:
“I love her attacking play. I think in decision making, build up, some of the passes that she’s playing in behind the back line, the distribution, the crossing, the crossing quality, how many goals, she could she could have shot. Let’s talk about how to defending because Gotham went after her a little bit today. Purce moves over to the other wing after 30 minutes in the first half, because she couldn’t get a look on Kling. And Monahan struggled against her. We saw against Houston with Prince, Kling has come up absolutely big. And you know, in training, we’ve had some one-v-one all out wars with, with Kling being someone that people just can’t beat. Her technical one-v-one defending ability is some of the very, very, very best.”
3. PKs!
Portland may have won the Challenge Cup at home, but they also did so in their first ever penalty shootout. I don’t really want to run through the whole thing—it was very stressful live, and we don’t need to bring it up again—but I am still very much in awe of Franch’s save to win the Thorns the trophy. She deserves both the roses between her teeth.
The save and the goal that won it all.🤩#BAONPDX pic.twitter.com/W9PcKb11mt
— Portland Thorns FC (@ThornsFC) May 8, 2021
5. Handles
A snippet from yesterday’s presser with Franch and Kling:
Katelyn Best: You guys have won two trophies for the Thorns now. I’m just wondering how you would rate the actual Challenge Cup in terms of its aesthetic and utilitarian qualities.
Kling: We’re rating the trophies now? That’s hilarious.
I just like that it’s a cup. You know, we call it a cup. They gave us a cup.
Franch: We drank from the cup.
Kling: We drank from the cup.
[…]
Kling: Honestly, if you’re rating the cup, I would say I really like the big handles. I feel like the big handles are big here.
Franch: Yeah, you can hold it.
Kling: Yeah.
Franch: Two people can hold it.
Kling: I mean, you’ve got to give it a rating out of 10.
Franch: Maybe you could have a couple more handles, and it would be a 10.
Kling: More handles? How many more handles do you need?
Franch: For everybody.
Kling: I just want it to be a bigger cup.
Franch: So you can fit in it and bathe in it?
Kling: Yeah.
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