Portland Thorns FC Defeat Western New York Flash 2-0 In Final July Match
Soccer News: The Western New York Flash were shutout by Portland Thorns FC on Wednesday night, falling 2-0 in its final game of July. The match at Sahlen’s Stadium closed out a four-game homestand, as the Flash (4-7-3, 15 points) will now hit the road for four matches before returning to Rochester in exactly one month when the Chicago Red Stars visit on August 29th.
The Thorns scored on each side of the half, with Canadian international Christine Sinclair putting her team up 1-0 in the 33rd minute. Pushing through the left side of the penalty area, Sinclair was able to catch Flash goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo off her line and chipped the ball over the keeper.
Sinclair then assisted on the Thorns’ 80th-minute insurance goal after the ball took a favorable deflection in the midfield. The forward collected the ball and was able to send the Thorns on a break. Taking a slight hesitation, Sinclair waited for Allie Long to make a run and found the forward streaking down the middle, able to quickly knock the ball past D’Angelo.
“We had two really good opportunities in the first few minutes of the game and we’ve had those types of opportunities often and in other games… You put one of those in its a different story,” said Flash general manager and head coach Aaran Lines. “We’ve had a lot of games where we played well and still lost, but we didn’t deserve to win this one tonight.”
Thirteen seconds in, off the opening kickoff, the Flash came inches from the goal when Jaelene Hinkle collected a wide kick and crossed the ball to Michelle Heyman at the far post. Heyman was open but her volley deflected off the outside of the goal post.
Soon after, on a turnover in the midfield by the Thorns, Halimatu Ayinde found Jasmyne Spencer running up the middle. The speedy forward carried most of the way before threading the ball to Lynn Williams who went in alone on Michelle Betos, but Betos was able to make the shot.
In the 31st minute, Elizabeth Eddy sent a cross in from the right side to Samantha Mewis. The midfielder chipped the ball up to herself in the six-yard box but her subsequent header went just over the crossbar.
Later in the match, the Thorns had two close chances to add to its lead but a save from the Flash goalkeeper and a goal-line effort from Whitney Engen kept the ball out of the net.
First, after Sinclair suffered a late tackle in the box by Becky Edwards in the 34th minute, Long stepped up to take the awarded penalty kick for the Thorns. The forward took a couple slow steps and tried to beat D’Angelo with an off-speed shot to the keeper’s left, but D’Angelo was able to smoother the ball to keep it a 1-0 game.
Just inside the second half, Genoveva Anonma tried to score in similar fashion as her teammate Sinclair, looking to chip D’Angelo in tight but Engen was there for backup and cleared the shot off of the goal line.
The game versus the Chicago Red Stars will be the team’s annual Pink game, as the Flash will wear limited-edition pink jerseys that will be raffled off post game to support Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The Flash Shack will also feature basket raffles from each Flash player and local businesses, which will also benefit the local hospital.
Goals by Half 1 2 F
Portland Thorns FC 1 1 2
Western New York Flash 0 0 0
Scoring Summary
Portland: Christine Sinclair- 33′ | Assist: Ayo Anonma
Portland: Allie Long- 80′ | Assist: Christine Sinclair
Lineup
POR: GK Michelle Betos, D Rachel Van Hollebeke, D Kat Williamson, D Emily Menges, M Clare Polkinghorne (Johnson, 90+2’), M McCall Zerboni, M Sinead Farrelly, M Tobin Heath, M Allie Long (Kyle, 85), F Ayo (Shim, 74), F Christine Sinclair
WNY: GK Sabrina D’Angelo, D Elizabeth Eddy (Fields, 76), D Abby Dahlkemper, D Whitney Engen, D Jaelene Hinkle, M Sam Mewis, M Halimatu Ayinde (Lady Andrade, 62), M Becky Edwards, F Lynn Williams, F Michelle Heyman, F Jasmyne Spencer
Watch match highlights:
