The Wait Is Over

NWSL 2022 Matchday Two

Lifetime has made its way to Portland for today's game of the week, pitting the Thorns against the Los Angeles Olympias in their home opener. A major announcement will be made at halftime regarding the US Women's National Team.

Dalen: Good afternoon from the Rose City. Today, the Portland Thorns open the home portion of its 2022 schedule against last year's surprise Western Conference runner-up, the LA Olympias. Alongside me for the pre-game show is Aly Wagner. Aly, both teams got off to relatively good starts on opening day, with Portland hammering Houston 4-1 and LA picking up an early road point with a 2-2 draw in Seattle. Which team do you think has the upper hand today?

Aly: I have to say that Portland has the deeper bench and more talent spread across the field. LA's mode of operation this year would seem to be out-scoring the competition, which will be a problem in the first few weeks of the season with Christen Press on loan in Atlanta.

Dalen: To the booth and the third member of our team, Jenn Hildreth.

Jenn: Thank you, Dalen. Portland relies heavily on the attacking duo of Savannah Jordan and Nadia Nadim. Recent acquisition Daphne Corboz got her Portland career off to a fantastic start, picking up two assists in last week's win against Houston. Los Angeles is dependent on the tandem of Lynn Williams and Ashley Sanchez. Today's match comes down to which team is able to get their frontrunners into dangerous positions and then provide proper service to them.

Following a series of commercials, the broadcast returned and the game kicked off. Portland had the first strike of the match, as Allie Long tried a long-distance shot that LA keeper Katelyn Rowland was able to snag. The Olympias had a hard time hanging onto the ball in midfield and the Thorns took advantage of that with a swarming high press that got them the ball back within LA's defensive third. All that pressure paid off when Nadia Nadim deposited a cross from Amanda Frisbie past Rowland in the 28th minute. LA had a chance to score when Williams got on the end of an over-the-top ball from rookie Erin Sinai, only for her to take a too-hard touch and have the ball bound to AD Franch. The teams headed into the locker room with the Thorns holding a slim 1-0 lead.

When the broadcast returned from commercial, Jenn was joined in the booth by Laura Harvey and Rhian Wilkinson for the prefaced announcement.

Jenn: Laura and Rhian, you two have a special announcement for our fans across the country and in Canada.

Laura: Yes, we do. The United States Women's National Team will be playing a home-and-home friendly series against Canada just a few weeks before World Cup qualifying takes place. The first match will be held on Saturday, September 24th at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, as a test event in the city's pursuit of an NWSL expansion team. Rhian, would you care to pitch your home match?

Rhian: The second match of the series will take place on Tuesday, September 27th at Tim Horton's Field in Hamilton, Ontario. It will be the first home match for the Canadian Women's National Team since a 4-1 win over Jamaica in Toronto in June of last year.

Jenn: With this series coming during the international break between the end of the NWSL regular season and the beginning of the playoffs, has any thought been given yet to roster management and perhaps limiting the minutes of players who will be returning to their clubs afterwards for conference semifinal games that following Saturday, October 1?

Rhian: Since we're planning to play a twinbill against Australia in August, which we are prioritizing as our hardest test ahead of qualifying, in the series against the US we will be more focused on seeing which three of four bubble players will make it onto the World Cup qualifying roster. Some players on playoff teams may be bypassed for the US games, some might only play the first game here in the States.