NWSL Challenge Cup 2020: North Carolina Courage vs Portland Thorns – tactical analysis

We are getting to the busy end of the NWSL Challenge Cup. The quarterfinals came this past weekend and with them some very interesting matchups to be seen. One of these was a rematch of the opening game of the whole tournament in the match between the North Carolina Courage and the Portland Thorns. The top-ranked seed entering the play-off bracket against the bottom-ranked seed seemed to suggest another victory for North Carolina would be the outcome. However, Portland, who lost all four of their matches in the build-up to this one, pulled off the upset of the tournament by beating the defending NWSL champions 1-0 on the day.

This tactical analysis will break down the key point from this tight contest this past Saturday. It will cover North Carolina’s attacking outlets through the channels, before breaking down the key points on both the offensive and defensive side of the game for Portland, and how they came out successful as they look to carry this momentum into the semi-finals midweek.

Lineups

North Carolina came into this match at full strength, setting up in their patented 4-2-2-2 formation, a system we have also seen signs of being used by Pep Guardiola for Manchester City in the Premier League, a tactic that might pay dividends come their Champions League push. Williams and Hamilton led the line with Debinha and Dunn pulling the strings right behind them. O’Sullivan and Mewis present the perfect double-pivot to offer the Courage a combination of offensive and defensive contribution. The defence remained unchanged with Hinkle and Merrick in the full-back positions and Abby Erceg partnering Abby Dahlkemper.

For Portland, the biggest change came in goal, with Eckerstrom covering due to injury. Weaver, the second-overall draft pick from this summer, partnered Lussi up top with Sinclair in behind. Horan and Rodriguez joined Salem in a midfield-three protecting the defence and restricting the area North Carolina’s attacking talent had to work with as we will go into later. In defence, Klingenberg and Reynolds looked to provide the side width in attack from full-back due to the narrow nature of the formation, while Hubly and Menges started in the centre of defence.

North Carolina’s attacking focus

As the dominant force in the NWSL, North Carolina set out as they meant to go on in this quarterfinal of the Challenge Cup. Within the first minute they had broken through Portland’s defence using tactics we would see consistently throughout the duration of the match.