The Portland Thorns travel up I-5 to square off against OL Reign in their second clash with their rivals in the 2022 regular season. The Thorns sit in third in the table and are unbeaten in their last six matches. The Reign however are nipping at their heels in fifth place.

Storylines So far

The last time these two teams met, affairs ended in a highly entertaining scoreless draw. This time however, there are sure to be goals. There has yet to be a scoreless between these two teams outside of Portland in their history, and so the sparks are sure to fly at Lumen Field.

The Reign (4-2-4, 16 points) come in the game on an upswing, having won four of their last six games. The Reign also have yet to lose at their new home of Lumen Field, and have only lost twice all year. While the Reign somewhat limited through international absences, and to spice up affairs even more, former Thorns player Tobin Heath may make her debut since signing with Portland’s rivals this summer.

The Thorns (4-1-5, 17 points) will be hoping that they can continue their determined and hard-nosed play that she showed last week at Angel City, where they snatched a last minute draw. The Thorns haven’t beaten the Reign outside of Seattle since the 2020 NWSL Fall series, so they will be looking to buck some trends this afternoon.

In their efforts to do so, they will be without a number of players due to injury and international duty, including defender Emily Menges due to the former and leading goal scorer Sophia Smith due to the latter.

Pre-Match Reading

• Wilder recapped how the Thorns abroad faired in matchday one of the Concacaf W championships
• Melina wrapped up how the Thorns on Concacaf international duty did in matchday two (where quite a few of them qualified for the World Cup), as well as touched on Natalia Kuikka’s debut in the European Championship.
• And Melina put together a preview for this afternoon’s clash.

How to Watch

Location: Lumen Field | Seattle, WA

Time: 3:00 p.m. PST

Watch: Twitch

Lineups

Portland Thorns

OL Reign