Portland and Kansas City advance to the NWSL title game
Crystal Dunn's 90th-minute winning goal sent Portland to its first championship game since 2017, and Kansas City upset the Shield-winning Reign in Seattle.
Portland Thorns 2, San Diego Wave 1
Crystal Dunn smashed in a 90th-minute winning goal to send No. 2 seed Portland to its first NWSL championship game since 2017, and electrify a crowd of 22,035 fans at Providence Park.
Many of those fans came to protest against Thorns and Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, and demand that he sell the teams after he was implicated in Sally Yates’ investigation into abuse in the league.
But the crowd cheered for the players, and was rewarded when Penn State alum Raquel Rodríguez equalized in the 20th minute after Taylor Kornieck’s opener in the 8th.
Bella Bixby made three saves in goal for the Thorns, while San Diego’s Kailen Sheridan made six saves to keep her team alive until the dramatic finish.
» READ MORE: U.S. Soccer promises action after Yates investigation details abuse and sexual coercion in NWSL
Kansas City Current 2, OL Reign 0
Alex Loera scored in the fourth minute, Kristen Hamilton doubled the lead in the 63rd and AD Franch made seven saves to carry the visitors to an upset win of this year’s NWSL Shield winners in Seattle.
A Reign record crowd of 21,491 watched at the Seahawks’ Lumen Field as their manager Laura Harvey lost to Kansas City in a playoff game for the third time in her years managing Seattle’s NWSL team.
The Portland-Kansas City championship game is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. at Audi Field in Washington, with national TV coverage on CBS. It will be the first time a NWSL final is televised in prime time on a free-to-air broadcast network.
» READ MORE: CBS will televise this year’s NWSL championship game in prime time