When lighting in the Houston area pushed kickoff between the Portland Thorns and Houston Dash back 90 minutes Friday night, it did nothing more than delay one of the NWSL’s greatest inevitabilities.
Nothing has stood in Portland’s way for a month straight now, a stretch that’s seen the Thorns rewrite the history books with win after win.
A week ago, it was the fifth victory in a row that set a club record. This time, in a mostly-emptied Shell Energy Stadium, it was an NWSL record.
In a 2-0 win Friday, the Thorns are now the first team ever to win six in a row and score two-plus goals in each. And after a sluggish start in the Texas heat, Portland (6-3-1, 19 points) made things look easy down the stretch.
Then again, it wasn’t a particularly fair fight.
Recall, it was the Thorns’ 4-1 win over the Dash in Portland on April 20 that ignited this now-historic run and prompted forward Christine Sinclair to tell the broadcast after the game, “We’re back.”
Not to mention, this was a Dash (2-5-3, 9 points) team that had yet to win at home. A group hosting an opponent in the Thorns who had scored more goals on the road (9), than Houston had all season (8).
And Portland was its usual aggressive self Friday. Only, against one of the NWSL’s hottest defenses, that didn’t mean changes to the scoreboard.
Not early, at least.
The Thorns may have poured four goals on the Dash in the team’s last meeting, but the team they met in Texas Friday had conceded just twice in their last four games.
The Thorns sent multiple warning shots across the bow early, with forward Janine Beckie authoring a pair of seemingly sure-fire attempts. First, she found herself in a one-on-one with keeper Jane Campbell, but her patience doomed the opportunity, eventually leading to a turnover. Later, in the 16th minute, she sent a shot curling towards the goal, but it smacked off the right post.
Such was the theme for Portland across a first half that saw them tally 13 shots and four more on target.
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Things changed early in the second off a 56th-minute throw-in. The Thorns caught the Dash defense out of sorts as midfielder Hina Sugita found herself behind the backline. Sugita found forward Ana Dias with a pullback dish and, in her first start of the season, Dias tucked it in the back of the net for her first NWSL goal.
Portland found its second in the 68th off the powerful right boot of 18-year-old Olivia Moultrie. The midfielder logged his third of the season with force, taking a pass from Beckie and finishing off a run from the top right side of the box.
The Dash never particularly threatened from there, even with nothing to lose and the game already out of hand. In fact, as the Thorns’ second-straight clean sheet began to materialize in the closing minutes, it was Portland that stayed on its front foot, nearly extending the lead yet further as they did last week against the Seattle Reign.
Next up: The Thorns travel to Orlando where they’ll face one of the NWSL’s top teams, the Pride, at 4 pm on Friday.
–Shane Hoffmann for The Oregonian/OregonLive
