The Portland Thorns will travel to Sahlen’s Stadium for the NC Courage home opener in Cary this weekend. The game is the second straight the Courage will play against teams they vanquished in the NWSL playoffs last year after beating the Washington Spirit last week. While that game saw the Courage dominate, Portland should be more of a test than the re-building Spirit.
Last weekend the Thorns shut out the Orlando Pride at Providence Park. The game perhaps showed some rust on both sides with Portland going up 1-0 on a Nadia Nadim penalty after a handball. A second goal came when midfielder Allie Long found Christine Sinclair on a through ball that split the Orlando defense and put the game out of reach for Orlando.