NWSL Week 2 preview and fixtures: Portland Thorns vs. NC Courage the rematch of a playoff classic

It would have been easy to count out the Flash at the start of the 2016 season. With another year of roster turnover and a new head coach, Western NY looked like nothing more than a poorly cast shadow of its former, three titles in three leagues in three seasons, self.

Almost immediately, though, the Flash took whatever that doubt was and turned it into something good. Western NY won six of its first 10, and lost just twice through the entire second half of the season. The Flash would ultimately finish in fourth, a string of late season draws the only thing keeping 2016’s biggest surprise from an even more impressive finish.

Still, facing the shield-winning and unstoppable looking Thorns in the semifinal seemed like it would be too big an ask for a team that was still pretty young and seemed to get by on physicality as much as anything else. The fourth place finishers lining up against the league’s best team in a packed stadium? You’d be crazy to have picked the Flash to win.

What transpired over the next 120 minutes on that early October night in Portland — well, yeah, crazy is one way to describe it. By the 38th minute, Western NY had a 2-0 lead. By the 39th, it was 2-1. By the 40th, Paul Riley, the Flash’s head coach, had been ejected. Eventually, in the 78th minute, Portland would find the tying goal to force extra time. There, the Flash again took a two-goal lead, and although Portland got one back, the Thorns ultimately fell short, and Western NY found themselves headed to the title game in Houston.

A week later, the Flash would lift the trophy as league champions, pulling off another extra-time miracle and then executing one of the calmest, coolest — from shooters and the goalkeeper alike — penalty kick wins you’re likely to see.

And sure, the Flash’s championship game win — the one that featured a game-tying goal in the 124th minute of play and three saves from Sabrina D’Angelo during the PKs — was impressive and full of the kind of drama you’ve been craving. But looking back through the annals of NWSL history, it’s the one against the Thorns the week before that sticks out as one of the best games in league history.

Now, two weeks into this season, we will get another chance at the matchup that shouldn’t have ever been this interesting to anyone. The Flash, now the Courage, will open the home part of their 2017 season on Saturday with a visit from the Thorns. Saturday will also mark the return of Riley, who missed the championship game plus last weekend’s season opener serving the suspension that was the result of his ejection in the semifinal.

There are plenty of arguments to be made that what Riley and the Flash did a season ago was more of a fluke than anything else. That this was a team that ran up its scoring numbers by beating up on Boston, was mid-table at best defensively, wasn’t particularly technically gifted in general, and was mostly pretty young and inexperienced. Whatever those arguments were though, and however valid they may have looked a year ago, the Flash (who will henceforth be referred to as the Courage following a move to North Carolina in the offseason and a move to the present in this paragraph) spent the spent the first game of this season proving otherwise.

North Carolina got a big win in week one against the team they also knocked off in last season’s title game, beating the Spirit 1-0 on the strength of a McCall Zerboni goal. The Courage dominated Washington just about everywhere, leaving Stephanie Labbe plenty busy and as the only reason that the Spirit didn’t end up on the wrong end of a Breakers style blowout.

On Saturday, almost everything about North Carolina’s game looked better than it did a season ago. The set pieces were better, the runs were better, the connection between Lynn Williams and Jessica McDonald — which was already good — was better, new addition Debinha added another dimension to an already dangerous attack, and all the young players who’d looked so shaky at the start a season ago were playing with the confidence of veterans this time around.

It’s only been one game, though, and one against a Spirit team that’s trying to find its way following the loss of Ali Krieger and Diana Matheson in the offseason, and that was dealt another blow with a season-ending ACL injury to Joanna Lohman in the first half of Saturday’s game. The first real test for North Carolina will come this Saturday, when they take on Portland.

The Thorns, unlike the Courage, are a team that’s never had to deal with much on-paper doubt, and this season is no different. Portland is again a heavy favorite to top the league table, and with good reason. Mark Parson’s team is its usual stacked self, returning most of the core group that brought the regular season title to Providence Park a season ago. Portland also got a win in week one, topping Orlando 2-0 thanks to a penalty kick goal from Nadia Nadim and a run of play tally from Christine Sinclair.

Mostly the Thorns didn’t face much of a test in week one, though, with Orlando kind of a mess in the middle and still awaiting the arrival of Marta to fix all the offensive problems that Alex Morgan’s trip to France hath wrought. That means that like the Courage, this Saturday’s game will be the first true test of just how good this year’s version of the team is.

Portland did look shaky defensively in week one, particularly with a few curious moments from Adrianna Franch that could have been costly had the Pride had the ability to actually capitalize on any of them. Williams and McDonald still look very much like one of the league’s most dangerous scoring tandems, and similar defensive miscues could spell trouble for Portland.

The Courage wasn’t tested much defensively last week, and though they did manage to beat the Thorns in that semifinal, North Carolina hasn’t historically (as the Flash) had much luck defending against Portland’s star-studded offense. The win in the playoffs was the first time since the 2015 season they’d managed to beat the Thorns. Though both Abby Dahlkepmer and Jaelene Hinkle have sort-of started to break into the USWNT picture, the other half of North Carolina’s back four is relatively inexperienced in the NWSL. Second year player Sam Witteman spent last season in Orlando and the game against the Spirit marked the NWSL debut for Yuri Kawamura, who has played professionally in Japan, as well as with the Japan WNT.

The sequel is rarely as good as the the original, sure, but with both Portland and North Carolina emerging as early favorites, and with last year still fresh enough, Saturday’s meeting between the Courage and Thorns is shaping up to be one of the biggest games in this still young season.

All times Eastern

Chicago Red Stars vs. FC Kansas City, 4 p.m., Toyota Park (go90)

Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit, 4 p.m., Orlando City Stadium (Lifetime)

North Carolina Courage vs. Portland Thorns FC, 7:30 p.m., WakeMed Soccer Park (go90)

Seattle Reign FC vs. Houston Dash, 10 p.m. ET, Memorial Stadium (go90)

Boston Breakers vs. Sky Blue FC, 4 p.m. ET, Jordan Field (go90)