To no one’s great shock, the Thorns came out of the opening weekend of the 2018 season with zero points, following a match that pitted a partial-strength Portland side against a still-formidable Courage team. As our own John Lawes pointed out already, this game was not totally unlike the final; Portland did a lot of defending and absorbing, and in the end, it was a single defensive slip-up, combined with a moment of brilliance from Debinha, that made the difference in the 1-0 scoreline.
It should never come as a surprise that in a league with a month-long preseason, the first few weeks of the season tend to look like, well, more preseason.