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The highest-paid player in the NWSL took one poorly-timed red card.
PORTLAND — The end was just bizarre.
The game was all but over. Triple digits were displayed on the Providence Park scoreboard, fans were heading toward the aisles and sportswriters were buried deep in their leads when confusion rang out following a sudden whistle.
Did they really just give Sophia Smith a red card?
Smith had left the pitch five minutes earlier after another dominating effort. Her penalty kick in the 79th minute was the lone goal in Portland’s 1-0 win over North Carolina, a win that avenged the Thorns’ 2-0 loss to the Courage back in April — the last game of the Mike Norris era. Smith was a force, drawing double and triple teams every time she touched the ball. The Courage defended her physically — in one case, a hard foul sent Smith soaring through the air — yet the 23-year-old forward was still able to break free for multiple opportunities on net. There aren’t many sounds in Portland quite like Thorns’ supporters firing up the jet engine when Smith gets the ball with some room to run. And after Portland’s six-game winning streak came to an end last month with Smith away in Colorado playing with the national team, it was immediately apparent Saturday night that the Thorns’ attack has a different dimension to it when one of the best players in the world is in the XI.
Go figure.
Which is what made the end so baffling. Smith came to the bench in the 97th minute with a goal and a yellow card under her belt. In the 102nd minute, a ball rolled out of bounds in the direction of the Thorns’ dugout, Smith pounced on it and rolled it back underneath her team’s bench.
Then came the whistle, followed by her second yellow card of the evening for delaying the match.
Smith argued. Portland interim manager Rob Gale argued, even if he didn’t exactly know what he was arguing about.
“I haven’t seen it. Didn’t see it,” Gale said afterward. “It was a long injury time again. But I didn’t see the incident so I’ll have to review it.”
The Thorns didn’t make Smith available to the media after the match. And she won’t be available to media after the next match either, with a red card suspension carrying over into Saturday’s upcoming rivalry game against Seattle.
That’s what hurts here. Smith’s actions Saturday night appeared light-hearted. She was smiling and laughing on the sideline, deservedly so after her league-leading ninth goal of the season gave the Thorns their seventh consecutive win with Smith in the lineup. But Smith’s lapse in judgment comes costly. While Gale will stand behind his team’s depth and commended the Thorns’ effort in their 2-1 loss against Orlando without Smith late last month, Portland simply can’t have unnecessary absences from the highest-paid player in the NWSL. Not when the Thorns have fought so hard to rise back up the table following a winless first month of the season.
Portland’s win kept the Thorns in fourth place of the NWSL standings, a point ahead of Gotham FC. Six days from now, they face a near-the-bottom-of-the-table Seattle team in a matchup that’s suddenly become more challenging for the Portland side.
“We score goals by committee,” Gale said. “We’ll wait and see what the week brings.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
