The Portland Thorns upended Gotham FC 4-1 Tuesday night at Providence Park, an emphatic victory that saw four first-time goalscorers get on the board for the club.
Portland netted more goals against Gotham, who were league champions in 2023, than they had in their past four games this season. The feat could mitigate concerns around the team’s attacking prowess given the absence of Thorns and U.S. women’s national team forward Sophia Wilson, who is expecting her first child.
Gotham, meanwhile, had just scored the same number of goals they conceded to the Thorns when they beat Angel City FC 4-0 in Los Angeles last Friday night.
Marie-Yasmine “Mimi” Alidou opened Portland’s account in the seventh minute of the match. A recent signee from Canada who joined the Thorns from Benfica in Portugal, Alidou crashed the box and redirected a cross from rookie forward Caiya Hanks, giving Portland a morale boost and Gotham its first goal conceded to an opponent in the first half of a match since their season began.
Hanks said in the postgame press conference that she felt an instant connection with Alidou, who signed with the Thorns less than a month ago, and intuited her positioning in the penalty box when she assisted her goal.
“I was just like, ‘I know you’re gonna be there,’” said Hanks, who added that she and Alidou are locker mates in the dressing room. “We don’t even follow each other on Instagram yet, but it’s really cool though, when you meet those people and you just know.”
Gotham responded a minute later, scoring their own goal in similar fashion. Brazilian forward Gabi Portilho drove the ball down the left flank to the endline, essentially without contest, before whipping in a cross to Esther, who found the back of the net for the fifth time this season.
Thorns head coach Rob Gale expressed concern after the match that Gotham’s quick equalizer, a result of the Thorns’ failure to properly track back, might have rocked the team beyond repair. “We let one mistake define us for fifteen to twenty minutes,” he said. “The composure and the calm wasn’t really there.”
Jayden Perry celebrates her goal (Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images)
But the Thorns continued to push, out-gritting Gotham and employing the same stifling defensive press their opponents have gotten so deft at inflicting upon others. The Thorns’ go-ahead goal came in the 61st minute, when Hanks dinked the ball first-time from a cross by Thorns captain and U.S. women’s national team midfielder Sam Coffey. Hanks said in the postgame broadcast that Coffey had instructed the team to balance intensity with levity in the game that night.
“Sam Coffey told us at the beginning, she was like, ‘Play with passion, play with intensity, but most of all, have fun and smile,’” Hanks recalled. “And so I think that’s kind of what played a huge part for us tonight.”
In the 73rd minute, the Thorns’ Jayden Perry, a rookie defender from UCLA, tightened Portland’s grip on the game when she converted a penalty kick, a move that sparked a bit of surprise given her new status within the team and her position.
“At UCLA I was our PK taker, so I’ve taken eight to 10 throughout my college career but obviously this was my first one here,” said Perry following the game. “I asked Rob if I could take some (in practice), and told him, ‘If you trust me, I can do the job.’”
Perry reflected on the Thorns’ bumpy start to the season leading up to Tuesday night’s win, which was preceded by a 3-1 loss to Kansas City, a 1-1 draw with Angel City, a scoreless draw with North Carolina, and most recently a 1-0 loss to the Seattle Reign in last Friday’s Cascadia Rivalry.
“There was such a response in those trainings, quality and energy. We knew we could have given more in that game and gotten a different result,” Perry said of the Seattle match. “We switched our minds real quick.”
With 10 minutes remaining in regulation and Providence Park practically levitating, Deyna Castellanos delivered the final blow to a Gotham side that had long appeared fresh out of effective ideas. After a few rebounded shots that went uncleared, Castellanos, who signed with Portland following a one-year stint at Bay FC, controlled and then calmly placed the ball out of reach from Gotham goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.
While the two teams currently have a game in hand over the rest of the league, the Thorns’ victory boosted them from ninth to fifth place in the NWSL table, just behind Gotham.
“I think we all knew we were due for a win,” Hanks said. “In our past few games we had an issue with coming out slow, so I think that was our biggest thing for this game. Come out with the intensity, come out with the fire. When we come out and we’re the team, we win. Once one or two go in, they start flowing and then everybody else starts finding those opportunities.”
(Photo of Deyna Castellanos: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images)