Angelina Anderson Shuts Out Portland Thorns as Angel City Grinds Out 0-0 Draw at Providence Park

Ninety-four minutes in, with 20,652 people at Providence Park holding their breath, Jessie Fleming finally got a clean look. The ball came loose off a corner, the Portland Thorns midfielder struck it from the center of the box, and the shot smacked off the left post.

That was as close as anyone came. Angel City FC survived the late siege and walked out of Portland with a 0-0 draw on Sunday afternoon, and with a little piece of history: according to Angel City, it became the first team to take points off the Thorns at Providence Park this season.

Ninety Minutes of Near Misses

This was not a dull 0-0. It was a tense, physical one, the kind that looks empty on a scoreboard and feels exhausting in person.

Angel City struck first in the chance column. In the second minute Riley Tiernan, back in the starting lineup after coming off the bench in the previous match, crossed for rookie Taylor Suarez, whose shot forced Mackenzie Arnold into a save at the top right corner.

Portland answered with sustained pressure. Reilyn Turner was everywhere, firing five shots on the afternoon, though none found the target. Angel City's recap credited Sarah Gorden with a key block on Turner in the 20th minute and with chasing down Sophia Wilson when the Thorns striker looked to be through in the 30th. Pietra Tordin had a shot blocked, Turner had two more turned away or wide, and the half ended scoreless with both teams' best work coming from their back lines.

The second half opened with the play of the day. In the 50th minute, Tordin crossed for Wilson in the center of the box, and Wilson hit a first-time shot that Angelina Anderson dove to stop. It was Anderson's only save of the match. It was also the only Portland shot on target all afternoon.

Angel City pushed back. Suarez spun past two defenders in the 55th minute, per the club, and forced Arnold into another stop. Evelyn Shores had two headers miss in a 10-minute span. In the 69th minute, Casey Phair, on as a 64th-minute substitute, rose at the left post and headed a ball toward the top left corner that Arnold kept out.

Portland's afternoon got harder as it went. Isabella Obaze and M.A. Vignola both left the field because of injuries in the second half, forcing two unplanned changes.

Anderson and the Wall in Front of Her

Anderson's box score says one save. Her impact was bigger than that. The Wilson stop came early enough in the half that a goal there would have flipped the entire match, and it gave her defense the platform to spend the next 40 minutes clearing everything in sight.

"I feel like I needed a big save like that, and I was just happy to be able to come up big in that moment," Anderson said. "That's the position of goalkeeping, it's how can you impact the game in moments that you need to impact."

The club said it was her second shutout of the season, and it was a team project. Angel City made 31 clearances, compared to 12 for Portland, and Head Coach Alex Straus singled out Gorden for praise.

"This last period has been the best I've seen of Sarah," Straus said. "After she was on the bench a couple of games, she has grown a lot."

Midfielder Carina Lageyre, per the club, made her first professional start and lasted until Claire Emslie replaced her in the 80th minute. "I felt ready, and I felt like the girls around me had full faith and trust in me as well," Lageyre said.

Nealy Martin also hit a milestone, making her 100th NWSL regular-season appearance according to Angel City.

The Turning Point That Never Turned

Every 0-0 has a moment when it almost becomes something else, and this one had a handful packed into the last five minutes. Turner had a header blocked in the 88th minute. Sam Hiatt put a header just wide of the left post off a corner in the 92nd. Wilson had a shot blocked in the 93rd.

Then came Fleming's strike off the post, after which, per Angel City, its defense cleared the danger before the Thorns could go again. Had that ball drifted a few inches the other way, Portland keeps its perfect home record and this is a very different story. Instead Prisca Chilufya came on for Suarez in the 95th minute to help see out the final seconds, and the visitors exhaled.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: 11 apiece. Angel City put three on target; Portland put one.
• Clearances: Angel City 31, Portland 12.
• Corners: Portland 10, Angel City seven. Neither team cashed in from a set piece.
• Fouls: Angel City committed 16 to Portland's seven, and both Martin and Emily Sams were booked.

What It Means

Portland moves to 6-2-2 with 20 points, but the Thorns have now gone two matches without a win after a 3-1 loss at Louisville the week before. This was also the first time all season Portland failed to score; the Thorns had found the net in each of their first nine matches. Their three previous home matches had all ended in wins.

For Angel City, now 3-1-4 with 10 points, the draw snapped a four-match losing streak that included a 2-1 home loss to these same Thorns in late April. Straus pointed to that game when he looked at the bigger picture.

"We came here and we created enough to score a goal today," Straus said, adding, "We saw that when we played [Portland] at home in L.A. a couple of weeks ago, and we saw it today, that these are two teams that are pretty even in performance."

Angel City heads home to host the Kansas City Current on Wednesday at BMO Stadium. Portland also turns around quickly, hosting Bay FC on Wednesday.

Final Whistle

Think of it as a heist movie where nobody gets the diamonds. Portland cased the joint for 90 minutes, picked every lock it could find and still walked away empty-handed. Angel City, coming off four straight losses, will take the empty vault and the alibi.

"I'm proud of the players that we got away with a point in a very difficult away game," Straus said. "At the same time, we can still do better, and that's what we are striving for."

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes as reported by Angel City FC.