Photo Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images
For the first time since winning the 2022 NWSL Championship, the Portland Thorns have won a playoff match. Sunday’s 1-0 win over the San Diego Wave in extra time completed the semifinal lineup. The road to a record 4th title will now flow through Washington for Saturday’s semifinal at Audi Field.
“We’ve said it before. These guys are all in for each other,” Thorns coach Rob Gale said. “They might have been hurt a couple of times, but they didn’t break. We were ready for every eventuality. We were prepared, we were organized, we stuck to the game plan. Fabulous levels of fitness and effort, front to back. We’ve said it all season, it’s a collective effort. And they deserve all the flowers again.”
The Thorns had the upper hand for much of the match but could not break through until the first of two extra time sessions when Olivia Moultrie found Reilyn Turner’s head with a back-post cross for what turned out to be the only goal of the match.
“I’m lowkey blacked out a little bit,” Turner said in the post game press conference. “I just felt, like, an eruption behind the goal. Our fans are the best. You could just feel that. I just feel like everything was so chaotic in the moment but they back us 100 percent of the time. You could feel that so much in the stadium.”
Wave coach Jonas Eidevall lamented his side’s defending through the sequence that led to the Thorns goal, but there was no doubt about the cross. The Wave may have left Turner unmarked, but Moultrie served it on a platter. All Turner needed to do was make contact and send it in the right direction.
“Her balls are very on point,” Turner said. “She’s just a very clinical player. I know when she’s on the ball I need to get in. She knows where to put it and she knows where I’m going to be. I feel like we have a lot of chemistry. Our chemistry just as a team in general is unmatched. You saw that today.”
Soon after Turner scored in front of the Riveters, the Thorns were made to defend that goal over the second 15-minute extra time session. And thanks for the television-friendly kickoff time, that meant seeing the match out while looking into the sun.
Mackenzie Arnold made the biggest save of the afternoon with her face on a Trinity Armstrong shot in the opening minute of the second extra time. The Australian kept a clean sheet over 120 minutes after two in a row to close out the regular season. Before that the Thorns had allowed a goal in every match since the Summer break.
“I’ve said before, this league there’s goals scored left, right, and center from the first to literally the 110th minute so we don’t really take anything away from the lack of clean sheets,” Arnold said. “Obviously going into the semifinal with three of them in a row is going to give us confidence for sure. But it’s not something that we really lock down on because at the end of the day we know if we win the game it doesn’t really matter.”
Arnold added that she was the more proud of her team than at any point since she arrived in Portland in 2024, saying it was a front-to-back defensive gem.
The Thorns may have had the upper hand throughout, but that was not the hand the Wave were most concerned about. Late in regulation, Delphone Cascarino’s cross into the box appeared to hit the outstretched arm of Thorns defender Reyna Reyes. VAR took a short look but played on with a Wave corner kick instead of a penalty.
“Trying not to get myself in trouble,” Eidevall said when asked about the call. “I can’t comment.”
For the Wave, the season ended at Providence Park for the second time in three trips to the playoffs. The Thorns will not play in front of the home fans again in 2025 as they are headed to Washington for a Saturday afternoon match at Audi Field. The winner will play for the NWSL Championship at PayPal Park in San Jose a week later.
