NWSL Rewind: Thorns win again without U.S. stars
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jul 6, 2016
The win was the fourth straight for the Thorns, who lead the Western New York Flash by four points. Portland was without U.S. national team players Meghan Klingenberg, Allie Long, Tobin Heath, Lindsey Horan and Emily Sonnett, who entered camp ahead of the international friendly against South Africa on Saturday in Chicago.
The Thorns were also without forward Christine Sinclair, the NWSL Player of the Month for June who is with Canada.
"I don’t ever single out individuals," Portland coach Mark Parsons, "and I
made it very clear to the team that we get through this as a team, but I did single out Nadia and Dagny [at halftime]. I think Nadia’s energy, spark, fight, bite -- everything about her tonight
-- was electric. I know that she’s going to want to have some of those back and improve some of her finishing."
The Thorns won their fourth straight game since French midfielder
Amandine Henry joined them. She now departs to join the Bleues in preparation for the Rio Olympics.
Week 11 Results:
FRIDAY, JULY 1
WNY Flash 2 (Sanderson 38, Williams 74) Chicago 0.
Att.: 3,114.
SATURDAY, JULY 2
Washington 2 (Ordega 79, Huster 85)
FC Kansas City 0.
Att.: 3,036.
Seattle2 (Kawasumi 14, 62)
Att.: 4,327.
Portland 2 (Brynjarsdottir 38, Nadim pen. 62) Sky Blue FC 1 (Kai 30).
Att.: 14,287.
NWSL Standings:
PTS TEAM W-L-T GF/GA
26 Portland 7-0-5 18/7
21 WNY Flash 7-4-0 22/11
20 Washington 6-2-2 14/8
18 Chicago 5-3-3 11/10
------------------------------------
16 Seattle 4-3-4 10/7
15 Orlando 5-6-0 10/11
13 Sky Blue FC 3-4-4 12/15
10 FC Kansas City 2-5-4 6/9
7 Houston 2-6-1 6/10
4 Boston 1-9-1 3/24
Week 12 Results:
SATURDAY, JULY 9
Sky Blue FC vs. Houston
Washington vs. Chicago
WNY Flash vs. Seattle
Portland vs. FC Kansas City
SUNDAY, JULY 10
Orlando vs. Boston
