NWSL Challenge Cup Preview: Chicago Red Stars vs Portland Thorns
The NWSL Challenge Cup started off with a bit of a whisper, the sloppy scoreless draw between the Chicago Red Stars and Houston Dash was not a good look; but opening night ended with a BANG between the Portland Thorns and Kansas City. Now, on Thursday night, we’ll see which energy will prevail between the Red Stars and the Thorns.
It is a season of expectations, for sure, around the Chicago Red Stars.
The absences for the Chicago Red Stars remain the same with Alyssa Naeher, Tierna Davidson, and Julie Ertz all called up to the national team. Casey Krueger was able to start the last match, so expect her to do that again this time. For the Portland Thorns, it’s Becky Sauerbrunn, Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan, Sophia Smith, and Christine Sinclair who are all called up to their respective national teams. That’s not all for Portland, with two players and a coach getting sent off in their previous match. Those two were Simone Charley, who received a second yellow in the 90th minute, and Morgan Weaver, who was given a straight red alongside a right straight during a fight that broke out in injury time.
Here are three things to watch out for in this matchup.
Wanted: Goals
The big, tired story-line for the Chicago Red Stars is the lack of scoring. There’s a name I can mention, but I won’t out of Kerr-tousy. The main point is that the Red Stars have had no bite since 2019. While the sample size in the 2020 Challenge Cup and Fall Series was very small, there clearly was not a goalscorer that stood out as the new go-to striker. Word from preseason was that Makenzy Doniak had stood out as a goalscorer against the college teams, but we are just not seeing any attacking intent from the team once the ball hits the final third. Someone needs to step up and hopefully it happens this game.
Trouble With Numbers
The Portland Thorns come into this game already down a significant amount of players due to national team call-ups, but two suspensions really puts them in a bad place in terms of roster. Judging just by the 22-player roster that was submitted to the league prior to the game against Kansas City, Portland was already forced down to just 17 available in the last game. In an attempt to round out the numbers, Portland activated their emergency backup goalkeeper Nadine Angerer, a retired German international who currently serves as their goalkeeper coach and emergency backup. Now with two players suspended, they will be faced with a major headache in how to form not only a different starting XI due to a lack of forwards, but also a full 18 with only 15 available players.
Get Out of the Geem?
One of the other big things to mention about this game is that the Chicago Red Stars still are not letting in fans for the Challenge Cup. Houston had their stadium open, as well as Portland, North Carolina, and Louisville. While the City of Chicago has worked with the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Fire to open up their stadiums to a limited capacity, SeatGeek Stadium is in Bridgeview. So, the City of Chicago can’t really help in this case. It is unknown how far along any discussions for opening the stadium are, but both home Challenge Cup games for the Red Stars will be played in an empty stadium.
Projected XI
Chicago Red Stars (4-3-3): Cassie Miller; Arin Wright, Kayla Sharples, Sarah Gorden, Casey Krueger; Danielle Colaprico, Morgan Gautrat, Vanessa DiBernardo; Katie Johnson, Sarah Luebbert, Kealia Watt
Portland Thorns (4-4-2): Adrianna Franch; Madison Pogarch, Kelli Hubly, Natalia Kuikka, Maeghan Nally; Meghan Klingenberg, Rocky Rodiguez, Celeste Boureille, Christen Westphal; Tyler Lussi, Marissa Everett
How To Watch
Thursday, April 15th, 6:30 PM CDT; At SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL, online on Paramount+ and Twitch (foreign markets only)
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