Tag: Portland Thorns

Bay FC-Portland match wrap: Bay FC’s Malonson scores matches only goal in 1-0 win over Portland

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Bay FC celebrates Alyssa Malonson’s goal at the 39th minute against the Portland Thorns at Pay Pal Park in San Jose on Sat Jun 7, 2025 (Bay FC X photo)

By William Espy

SAN JOSE–Bay FC returned home to PayPal Park on Saturday, as they hosted the Portland Thorns during a matinee game. Considering the two teams were fighting for positioning at the end of the 2024 season and aren’t far apart so far this season, this was a matchup that could end up having major playoff implications late in the season. It was almost like a playoff match with Bay getting a narrow victory 1-0 at Pay Pal Park in San Jose.

Bay Starting XI: Silkowitz, Malonson, Brewster, Dahlkemper, Dydasco, Bebar, Conti, Huff, Oshoala, Hocking, Hill

Thorns Starting XI: Bixby, Reyes, Perry, Hiatt, Torpey, Coffey, Sugita, Moultrie, Alidou, Hanks, Linnehan

Asisat Oshoala nearly got Bay on the board in the 9th minute when Jayden Perry slipped on the ball, creating an opportunity in transition. Oshoala’s shot hit the goalpost, though, and it remained 0-0. Up to that point in the match, Bay’s pressing in particular seemed to be giving them an upper hand. Even when they turned the ball over, they were fighting hard to win it back. Payton Linnehan received some medical attention in the 12th minute after going down while holding her leg, but she remained in the match.

After the stoppage, momentum seemed to swing in favor of the Thorns. Jordan Silkowitz made her first difficult save of the night in the 21st minute, denying Portland from point-blank range. In the 23rd minute, Jordan Brewster went down and got attention from the trainer before leaving the game with a lower leg injury in the 26th minute. Kelli Hubly took her place.

Oshoala got another opportunity in the 29th minute, but her shot went just wide of the goal. In the 30th minute, Portland had a header opportunity off of a corner kick, but it went just over the bar. Silkowitz blocked another one-on-one in the 32nd minute, denying Olivia Moultrie whose pressing forced a turnover in the Bay FC backline.

Oshoala was shown a yellow card for a collision with Perry in the 33rd minute. Turnovers in the defensive third quickly became a theme for Bay FC late in the first half, as they were holding onto the ball too long or misplacing passes that allowed the Thorns to quickly regain possession and launch another attack.

Alyssa Malonson opened the scoring in the 39th minute, when her overlap left her plenty of open space inside of the box. A difficult, but perfectly placed shot left Bella Bixby no chance to save it. Once again, Silkowitz made a dazzling save in the 43rd minute to maintain the home side’s 1-0 lead, which Bay FC would carry into halftime.

The second half would start with momentum seemingly back in Bay FC’s corner, but overall, it was a lot of back-and-forth action early in the half with neither team really taking advantage. Bixby made an easy save 67th minute, after the ball deflected off of a defender in front of the goal. Bay FC made some wholesale changes in the 71st minute with Racheal Kundananji, Dorian Bailey and Kiki Pickett entering the match for Taylor Huff, Asisat Oshoala, and Hannah Bebar.

Kundananji tried to make an instant impact, going one-on-one with a centerback in the 74th minute, however, her shot went just wide. With Kundananji in the game, it seemed as if Bay FC were trying to take advantage of the worn-down defense and were taking a route-one style approach of lumping it down the field.

It was generating chances due to her speed, but they weren’t converting on those opportunities. Penelope Hocking came off for Tess Boade in the 78th minute. Pickett was shown a yellow card in the 80th minute. Caiya Hanks came out of the game due to the incident, leaving Portland with ten players for the time being.

In the 84th minute, Alexa Spaanstra took Hanks’ place for Portland. In the 95th minute, it seemed as if Rachel Hill had extended Bay FC’s lead to 2-0; however, the play was deemed a handball. Portland went down the other way and nearly converted a chance in the 98th minute, but it went just wide and the final whistle blew moments later. Bay FC walked away victorious, with a 1-0 win at home.

Oshoala come through again for Bay FC defeat Seattle in 1-0 shutout at Pay Pal Park

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“There she is” as Bay FC’s defender Abbey Dahlkemper (13) presents forward Asisat Oshoala (8) who scored the match’s only goal against the Seattle Reign at Pay Pal Park in San Jose on Sun Sep 29, 2024 (Bay FC X photo)

By William Espy

SAN JOSE–Bay FC is back on the road, this time they were in the Pacific Northwest to take on the Seattle Reign who have massively underperformed this season after making it to the NWSL Final last season. Meanwhile Bay FC is currently sitting in 9th place in the NWSL, even on points with Racing Louisville but outside of the final playoff spot due to goal differential.

A win would make them the sole team in eighth place. With Alyssa Malonson out with injury, Maddie Moreau started at left-back while Penelope Hocking took Rachel Hill’s spot in the starting line up for her first start with Bay FC. Asisat Oshoala scored the game’s only goal in the 27th minute to help defeat the Seattle Reign at Pay Pal Park in San Jose on Sunday.

Bay FC Starting XI: Rowland, Moreau, Dahlkemper, Menges, Dydasco, Boade, Bailey, Pickett, Oshoala, Kundananji, Hocking

Seattle Starting XI: Dickey, Latsko, McClernon, Barnes, Glas, Athens, Quinn, So-Yun, Crnogorcevic, Huitema, King

The game started off with back-and-forth end-to-end action but neither team was able to generate quality scoring chances. Seattle got a couple of corners early in the first half, but were unable to create anything from the set pieces.

Afterwards, Bay FC had a couple of corners of their own but they weren’t able to take advantage either. Lauren Barnes went down for Seattle in the 22nd minute and Seattle initially signaled for a substitution, but waited to see if Barnes could continue. Moments later Asisat Oshoala was taken out inside of the box by Phoebe McClernon.

Oshoala was awarded a penalty, and despite some protests of offside by Seattle, the call remained the same. She’d convert on the penalty, scoring her sixth of the season and making it 1-0 for Bay. Quinn nearly tied it around the half hour mark, but Katelyn Rowland made a save, tipping it over the crossbar.

McClernon gave away the ball to Rachael Kundananji in her own box, handing Bay FC a dangerous opportunity but she was unable to convert. Kundananji did go down following the play with an apparent knee injury, but remained in the game.

Kundananji took another knock in the 42nd minute when her and a Reign player both went up for a header and both made contact with one another’s heads. She quickly returned to the game. Kundananji had another quality chance off of a pass from Oshoala in stoppage time, but Dickey made the save.

Tess Boade was involved heavily in the play as well, starting the whole process. Maddie Moreau fired a late shot as well, it was saved right before the final whistle blew to end the first half.

Barnes was taken off for Jordyn Bugg to start the second half for Seattle. The Reign appealed for a penalty when a shot deflected off of Abby Dahlkemper’s arm, but her hands were clasped behind her back, making it impossible for her to do any more to prevent a handball.

A few minutes later, Kundananji had an opportunity to make it 2-0. A pass to Hocking would’ve allowed for an easy tap-in, but instead Kundananji took a shot which went wide of the goal. After that play, Hocking was replaced by Hill. Caprice Dydasco was shown the game’s first yellow card in the 58th minute.

Oshoala went down momentarily after that, but remained in the match. Dahlkemper was having a fantastic game defensively, blocking quite a few shots over the course of the night. Even though Seattle had a dominant lead in possession, they weren’t getting any quality chances as they were spending a majority of their time in the defensive zone since Bay FC didn’t allow them to create any offense.

Besides the one chance early, Rowland didn’t have much action over the course of the match, at least not until late. Seattle got their second shot on target of the night in the 85th minute, but it went directly to the goalkeeper.

They applied a bit more pressure on Bay FC’s defense heading into extra time. Oshoala got behind the defense in the 95th minute, but she was taken down inside the ball and not awarded a penalty. Despite a late push by Seattle, Bay FC was able to hang on to win 1-0.

Dahlkemper, Hill, and Anderson with a goal each in Bay FC win over Portland 3-1

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Bay FC celebrated a road win against the Portland Thorns in NWSL action at Providence Park on Fri Aug 30, 2024 (Bay FC photo)

By William Espy

Bay FC’s inaugural season continued against the Portland Thorns on Friday night as they made their first appearance at Providence Park. It marked the return of Emily Menges to her former stomping grounds for the first time since she was traded to Bay FC in December.

Abby Dahlkemper made her proper Bay FC debut, as her previous appearance against Barcelona was just a friendly. Meanwhile, Australian goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold was making her debut for the Thorns. In the two teams’ only previous meeting, Portland walked away with a 3-2 win at PayPal Park on May 1.

With Savy King out of the lineup as she represents her country in the U20 World Cup in Colombia, Alyssa Malonson who recently signed a three-year contract extension was in the starting eleven for Albertin Montoya. Bay FC got scoring from Dalhkemper, Rachel Hill and Joelle Anderson to defeat the Thorns 3-1.

Bay FC Starting XI: Rowland, Dydasco, Menges, Dahlkemper, Malonson, Bailey, Pickett, Boade, Hill, Oshoala, Kundananji

Thorns Starting XI: Arnold, Reyes, Obaze, Hubly, Payne, Sugita, Coffey, Fleming, Spaanstra, Smith, Moultrie

Dahlkemper made an instant impact with her hometown team, giving them the lead off of a header just eight minutes into the match. She had a strong performance against Barcelona, and it’s clear she’s ready to push Bay FC to the next level and help them make a run toward the playoffs.

It was a night of firsts for Bay FC, as Rachel Hill extended the lead with her first goal with the club in the 17th minute. Menges was disrupting plays consistently defensively, helping prevent Portland’s dangerous offense from creating any high-quality chances.

A terrible play by Katelyn Rowland led to Sophia Smith getting Portland on the board. After some passing back and forth with Dahlkemper, Rowland passed it directly to the Thorns’ striker who put it away to make it 2-1.

Dorian Bailey would get shown a yellow card moments later, giving the Thorns a free kick right outside of the box. Smith’s shot went directly to Rowland who made the save. Portland seemed to score an equalizer in the 42nd minute, but it went to the video assistant referee as Smith was offside and the call was overturned.

Bay FC would maintain their 2-1 lead heading into halftime. They had a strong start to the match, but momentum had swung heavily in Portland’s favor after their goal. Bay was going to need to come out with another strong start in the second half to fend off one of the most dangerous teams in the NWSL.

Bay FC gave Portland another dangerous chance just moments into the second half, when a scramble in front of the goal could’ve easily resulted in a goal but they were able to keep it out of the net. Nicole Payne hit the inside of the goal post in the 48th minute, despite her appeal to the officials that it entered the net, it bounced off the post and out without crossing the line.

Bay were being their own worst enemy since Smith’s goal, and they needed to settle down and maintain composure to prevent handing the opposition more chances. Arnold denied a phenomenal shot by Rachael Kundananji in the 57th minute, preventing Bay from taking a two-goal lead.

Smith came off for Reilyn Turner in the 57th minute as well, a move that Rob Gale certainly didn’t want to make while behind a goal, but he was left with no choice. Joelle Anderson came into the game in the 65th minute for Bailey, which was a wise decision in a physical game when Bailey already had a card.

Rowland made a big save in the 68th minute when Alexa Spaanstra shot it from outside of the box. In the 70th minute, Anderson netted her third of the season to extend Bay’s lead to 3-1 off of a turnover by Kelli Hubly.

Hill recorded her second goal contribution on the night, assisting on the goal. Becky Sauerbrunn, Marie Muller and Payton Linnehan entered the game for Portland in the 75th minute for Obaze, Spaanstra and Coffey. Kundananji came off in the 89th minute for Maddie Moreau.

Caroline Conti entered the game in the 99th minute for Tess Boade, and a couple of minutes later the final whistle was blown. Bay FC entered one of the most difficult stadiums to play as a visitor in the NWSL and walked away with a decisive 3-1 win.

It was a crucial three points for Bay FC as they look to continue to hold off quite a few strong teams who are chasing them for the final playoff spot.

Portland beats Bay FC in close game 3-2 in San Jose; Bay FC suffers fifth loss and third loss in a row

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Try as hard as they can Bay FC couldn’t run away with the ball enough as the Portland Thorns won by one goal in Wed May 1, 2024 match at Pay Pal Park in San Jose (Bay FC X photo)

By William Espy

SAN JOSE–Bay FC returned home to PayPal Park on Wednesday night to take on the Portland Thorns. Bay was looking to end a two-game losing skid while Portland was looking to extend their winning streak to three following a coaching change in the middle of April. Interim Head Coach Rob Gale has been undefeated since taking over the job after the previous coach Mike Norris was reassigned within the organization following a winless start to the season. Bay couldn’t take advantage of home field lost in a razor close game 3-2 to the Thorns.

Bay FC Starting XI: Proulx, Menges, Beattie, Malonson, Moreau, Shepard, Anderson, Bailey, Princess, Castellanos, Kundananji

Thortns Starting XI: Hogan, Klingenberg, Sauerbrunn, Hubly, Reyes, Sugita, Moultrie, Coffey, Linnehan, Beckie, Smith

Given the fact that they’re playing three games in eight days, it’s not surprising that Albertin Montoya went with a much different lineup than we saw on Saturday in San Diego. Jen Beattie, Alyssa Malonson, Maddie Moreau, Jamie Sheppard, and Princess all came into the starting lineup.

Despite some injury concerns at the end of Bay’s last match, Asisat Oshoala was available as a substitute. As were Kayla Sharples, Savy King, Caprice Dydasco, and Tess Boade amongst others. Scarlett Camberos though was not selected either as a starter or as a substitute. Portland’s lineup was also affected by this, as they’re playing a similar schedule, with three games in seven days.

Portland took the lead on their first attack of the match in just the second minute. Payton Linnehan got past the defense and was essentially one-on-one with Lysianne Proulx, the goalkeeper had no chance and it was 1-0 in favor of the visiting team.

After the ball was taken away from Moreau in midfield, a quick pass to Sophia Smith resulted in a second early goal for the Thorns, this time in the seventh minute. Despite the turnover, Moreau was playing well early on. She was heavily involved in the play and had a key takeaway that led to a strong pass upfield and almost led to a scoring chance.

For a 23-year-old playing in her second professional game, she was certainly making an impact. Notably, Joelle Anderson was taking the corners in place of Deyna Castellanos. Typically Anderson would do so once Castellanos had been substituted, but she took them from the beginning on this occasion.

As a result of their early deficit, Bay had to go for a more attacking approach early on. Their wingbacks were playing pretty high up the pitch given the fact that it was less than 20 minutes into the game, however it did lead to some potential scoring opportunities.

In the 31st minute, Bay got their best opportunity of the night so far however a shot by Castellanos would go just wide. In the 35th minute, Rachael Kundananji and Olivia Moultrie collided with one another. Both got some medical attention, causing a short delay in the game but got to their feet fairly quickly Portland nearly extended their lead to three in the 40th minute however the ball sailed just over the crossbar.

A minute later, Bay FC launched an attack down the field, it ultimately fell to Kundananji inside the box, who slipped past a defender and fired a shot that found the netting to get her team on the board before halftime. For the remainder of the half, Bay was relentless in their attack as they attempted to even it up before the break. They were unable to do so though, and at the half, it was still 2-1 with the Thorns leading.

Montoya made a substitution to start the second half, bringing Boade on for Dorian Bailey. Bay got a scoring chance right at the start of the half, however Kundananji’s shot went high and just wide. In the 50th minute, off of a corner kick the ball landed on Kundananji’s head and it went just wide after deflecting off of a defender in front.

The ensuing second corner kick wouldn’t create a strong attack though. Montoya had made a change on the set pieces though, as Castellanos was back to taking corner duties. In the 60th minute, Kundananji and Castellanos got a two-on-two rush, Kundananji carried the ball for quite a bit, into the box before passing it to Castellanos who tied the game at two a piece.

Bay nearly took the lead just a couple minutes later, a shot from Princess went into the box. The ball bounced around and Castellanos fell attempting to knock it into the net. It went out for a corner and the game remained tied for the time being.

A similar situation happened in the 71st when a Boade shot was saved by Shelby Hogan and bobbled in front of the net before a foul was called against Bay FC. After a short delay, Jen Beattie left with an injury being replaced by Kayla Sharples.

Maya Doms also entered the game replacing Anderson. Immediately afterwards, Portland once again took the lead with Smith’s second goal of the night, this time from distance.In an attempt to restore the tie, Asisat Oshoala came into the game in the 82nd minute replacing Princess.

Still trailing by one, Bay FC was given 8 minutes of stoppage time to attempt to tie it up. Following a collision with Proulx, Morgan Weaver had to be carried off the pitch due to an apparent leg injury. Due to the injury, Portland had to finish the game with ten players since they had already made all possible substitutions which gave Bay a chance.

Despite a few quality attacking opportunities, they were unable to tie it up and Bay FC’s losing streak grew to three games. The 3-2 win for Portland also extended their winning streak to three games, continuing to be undefeated since their coaching change.