Thorns dominate Angel City FC in home opener of Challenge Cup

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) - Wednesday night, fans celebrated the Thorns as they took on Angel City FC in their home opener for the Challenge Cup.

The Thorns put on quite the show, but they struggled in the first half. However, they found their way to a 3-0 win over LA, and the fans couldn’t be happier.

On Tuesday, Sam Coffey said in a press conference, that they needed to work on being more dangerous on the attack, but that took a while. In fact, Head Coach, Rhian Wilkinson, called it sloppy.

“It wasn’t us out there, honestly the first whole half we recognized that at halftime and we knew that we had a lot to fix,” says Forward, Sophia Smith. “We weren’t connecting, we were putting a lot of stress and pressure on ourselves when we got the ball.”

The Thorns didn’t find their groove until the late in the first half. Smith put one behind the net to put the Thorns up, 1-0.

In the second half, Natalia Kuikka took a shot on goal, it ricocheted off the goalkeeper, and Yazmeen Ryan came to the rescue to put it away, 2-0.

And then in the 78th minute, Morgan Weaver got her first Challenge Cup goal with a shot from just outside the 18-yard box.

“I was really excited. I just hit it as hard as I could If you watch that you can tell. The first half, we struggled a little bit. Coming back second half I felt like we did a much better job, we had much better control. Just to get my first goal is awesome, and now we build from it,” says Weaver.

With the win over LA, the Thorns are first in the West Division of the Challenge Cup. On Saturday, they will take on OL- Reign.

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