Portland Thorns Vs North Carolina Courage: 3 things we learned – Britt Eckerstrom the Hero

1. Britt Eckerstrom the hero

Britt Eckerstrom was in the starting lineup for the first time in the Challenge Cup, with goalkeeper Bella Bixby out with injury. This is after usual starter Adrianna Franch announced she would miss the entire tournament due to injury.

Enter Eckerstrom, the goalkeeper who no one thought we’d see against the best offense in the league. She had little-to-no time to settle in. The Courage’s high-flying attack clicked from the first whistle, forcing her to make several excellent saves early on.

Eckerstrom’s performance, however, came to its peak at the tail end of the match, making two huge saves to clinch a Thorns’ victory.

The first came against a perfectly placed free-kick by Debinha that Eckerstrom tipped over in the 79th minute. The other was a double save in the 86th minute to give her one of the best performances of the tournament.

Not many people gave Portland a chance in this one, and the injury to Bixby made it look even more impossible that the Thorns would advance to the next round. But thanks to some Eckerstrom heroics, that’s exactly what they did.