Portland Thorns midfielder Sam Coffey is happy to offer the reminder: It is not often defensive players find the back of the net.
So, yes, her 99th-minute goal Saturday evening at Providence Park was joyous. She cannot in good conscience, however, put it up there among the best of her career.
That’s because it didn’t end in a win for the Thorns, who will enter April in search of their first of the season. Instead, her strike pulled a 2-2 draw from an almost certain defeat against visiting Racing Louisville, ensuring just one thing for the Thorns (0-2-1, 1 point): They are no longer the only team in the NWSL without a point to their name.
“It’s always going to be tainted by the fact that we just scraped by for a tie,” Coffey said of her clutch score. “... We don’t play for a tie. We don’t play for a point. Obviously, I’m really proud of the way we responded in the second half and the way we came back, because we dug ourselves quite a hole, but this by no means is an acceptable result for us.”
Thorns coach Mike Norris prefers a view from above early in both halves of matches. It affords him a vantage point from which to more fully survey the ebbs and flows on the pitch beneath.
He exited the coaches’ box after 15 minutes on Saturday. Then he took to the sideline to coach another half in which the Thorns scrambled to offset a deficit amid a season that was becoming quickly defined by frantic, come-from-behind soccer.
Louisville (0-0-3, 3 points) stung early what has been this season an inconsistent, and sometimes out-of-position, Thorns defense. Forward Uchenna Kanu sliced a goal just inside the far post in the third minute. She doubled down in the sixth, sealing a brace and 2-0 lead with a powerful header.
“The way we started the first half was not Thorns soccer,” Portland forward Morgan Weaver said, “and we know that. We’ve got to figure something out. How we start games is the biggest key. We can’t go down two, three goals in the first half. It’s just unacceptable.”
Added Norris: “When you start games like that, in this league, you’re going to get punished. We found ourselves chasing the game again. We’ve got to be better with that collectively, so that we can actually stay in a fight and be in a fight on equal terms.”
Portland has not struggled creating looks this season as much as simply finishing them. Errant passes and poorly placed attempts have quelled an attack brimming with potential. In turn, the Thorns have outshot each of their opponents this season, but until Saturday never captured as much as a tie at any moment. Even so, a 27-9 shot advantage against Louisville hints higher outputs could be around the corner for the Thorns.
One week after a pair of goals were called back due to offside calls, and the Thorns lost a home opener for the first time, the fans at Providence Park watched a goal put on the board to stay Saturday as Weaver launched a cross-body shot with her left foot that slipped past Louisville goalkeeper Katie Lund in the 50th minute.
It was a welcome start to the second half after the Thorns, Norris said, played into Louisville’s trap too much in the first frame, and several promising surges flamed out near the edges of the sideline.
“We weren’t switching the point of attack enough,” he said, “so that was the biggest message from a mindset perspective (at halftime), and then we changed a bit of the structure in terms of how we wanted to attack and get both the fullbacks high.”
Among a group of impressive subs for the Thorns, was midfielder Hina Sugita. Norris lauded her play not just Saturday, but across the season, adding that she was likely disappointed for not having seen a larger role, and that his current lineup is “probably not wise for me.”
Both Coffey and Weaver credited Sugita, in part, for helping juice the second-half push.
Portland forward Sophia Smith, who became the NWSL’s highest-paid player this week, found possession in the middle of Louisville’s box in the 95th minute. For a moment it looked as if her attempt would be the equalizer. Instead, Lund launched her body just far enough to gently tap the shot off its course.
Two minutes later, “PT-FC” chants came alive when the Thorns saw back-to-back corner kicks on opposite sides of the pitch. Louisville strung out both, but had no response when Coffey delivered the final strike.
“We shouldn’t be in these situations,” Coffey said of another match featuring an early deficit, “point blank period. There’s no excuse for that. We shouldn’t, we’re too good to be, in my opinion, like we’re such a talented group, and we have an incredible mindset and culture on this team.
“I think these last few games are games that are really going to force us to look in the mirror and ask hard questions and work through hard things together. And I know that we will do that.”
Added Weaver: “This team is hungry.”
Next up: The Thorns get two weeks off before hitting the road to face the North Carolina Courage at 4 p.m. on April 13.
-- Shane Hoffmann for The Oregonian/OregonLive
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