The past few games for the Chicago Red Stars have been rather relaxing, smooth, easy victories. This weekend’s playoff semi-final against the Portland Thorns was absolutely not one of those. After a quick start to the game, the Red Stars had to fend off Tobin Heath, Christine Sinclair and the remainder of the Portland Thorns attack for a little over 80 minutes to grind out a 1-0 playoff win. This was quite possibly the opposite of that home opener from earlier this season.
Predictably, Sam Kerr opened the scoring. Yuki Nagasato searched out the Australian with a lovely, clipped, through-pass and watched as Kerr does what she does best: smash the ball in the bottom corner.