Thorns rebound at home, climb standings with commanding victory over Spirit

After scoring three goals in the season’s first seven matches,

Portland Thorns

forward Reilyn Turner had cooled off. Since finding the back of the net in a draw with Louisville on March 27, Turner failed to score in each of Portland’s next four matches — a series of games that saw the Thorns go 2-1-1 with the last three matches coming on the road.

“You could call it [a drought],” Turner said.

You could. But you can’t anymore.

It was Turner’s goal in the 39th minute that proved to be the game-winner in Portland’s 2-0 win over Washington on Sunday, a win that extended Portland’s home winning streak to three matches and handed the Spirit their first road loss of the year.

After playing on the road for more than a month, the Thorns showed little rust in picking up this match in front of a season-high 21,268 fans at home. From the opening whistle, Portland (5-3-4, 19 points) peppered the Washington side with shots, with quality opportunities whizzing high and wide of the Washington net until the Thorns finally found something in the 39th. Just before the end of the first half, Olivia Moultire stole a ball and fed it to Jessie Flemming, who slid a pass between a defender’s legs and onto the boot of Turner, who roofed it for her fourth goal of the season.

And while yes, it was important for Turner to snap her self-described drought, it was even more valuable for a Thorns club that found its way back into the win column after its five-game unbeaten streak was snapped last week with

a 1-0 loss to Bay FC.

“Last week didn’t go our way and we’ve been waiting to have a home game for so long,” Turner said. “It’s been tough on the road. We’ve had some results going in our favor, some not, and coming off last week a little disappointed, we knew this would be a big one, and it was a really big turnout and we definitely played that to our favor.”

The Thorns outshot Washington (7-4-1, 22 points) 12-5 in the first half, and while the pitch leveled off for most of the second, it was two stellar plays that sealed the win for Portland. First, it was a diving Bella Bixby save in the 80th minute. Then, after Portland survived a corner that put the ball out in transitions for the Thorns, Flemming served a beautiful through ball up to Pietra Tordin along the left side, who was able to catch the ball in stride and chip a shot over the head of keeper Aubrey Kingbury for her second goal of the season.

“There was a massive gap on the left side, so I just made my run and yelled at Jessie to play me,” Tordin said. “She played me. And after, I saw the keeper was a little advanced, so I just took a chance.”

Bixby finished with four saves to earn her second clean sheet of the year.

With the victory, Portland jumped from seventh to fifth in the NWSL standings and now sits just three points behind Washington for fourth. The club also improved to 3-0-3 at Providence Park, with Chicago next up at home park on Saturday.

“Players stuck to their tasks,” manager Rob Gale said. “We’ve been excellent at home. That’s Gotham. Orlando. Washington. The bigger they are, the better they are, the harder they fall.”

– Tyson Alger, For The Oregonian/OregonLive

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