Challenge Cup breakdown: The facts that matter ahead of Saturday's final

Mike Donovan

Portland Thorns FC take on NJ/NY Gotham FC on Saturday at Providence Park in the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup Championship. Portland enters the championship match with a 3-0-1 record in the pre-regular-season tournament while Gotham is 2-0-2, having drawn its last two matches.

Dating back to last year, Thorns FC is unbeaten in its last eight matches and was the winner of the 2020 Fall Series' Community Shield - the award given for the best record among teams in the competition.

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Saturday’s Championship will be the fourth cup final for Portland, joining the team's title-winning seasons in 2013 and 2017 and it’s runner-up finish in 2018. Gotham FC, meanwhile, will be competing in its first club final as an NWSL side. In 2009, the club, then known as Sky Blue FC, won inaugural Women's Professional Soccer league championship. Since joining NWSL in 2013, the team has qualified for the playoffs just once.

When the teams square off in the Championship, it will be the first meeting between the clubs since August 4, 2019, when the match finished in a 1-1 draw at Providence Park. Portland is unbeaten in its last six against the New Jersey-based side, with a record of 3-0-3 in those matches. Just one player from Gotham FC who played in its last victory over Thorns FC (June 17, 2017) is expected to play in Saturday’s match: defender Mandy Freeman.

Portland showcased a wide variety of attacking options in the group stage of the competition with the club’s six goals scored by six different players. In all, nine different players have scored or assisted for Thorns FC in this year’s Challenge Cup. On the other side of the field, goalkeeper Adrianna Franch has led the way with two shutouts and just two goals allowed in four matches. Franch is tied for the best goals against average of any goalkeeper this year in NWSL.

The only goalkeeper with more shutouts in 2021 in NWSL is Gotham FC’s DiDi Haracic, who has delivered three shutouts in four matches in the Challenge Cup. In the four matches this year, former Thorns player Midge Purce leads the side with two goals while another former Thorn, Ifeoma Onumonu, leads Gotham FC with two assists despite only starting one match in the Challenge Cup.

Also featured in the Championship will be the two most prolific active goalscorers in women's international soccer. Thorns FC's Christine Sinclair has scored 186 goals for Canada while Gotham FC's Carli Lloyd has notched 124 for the United States.