Chicago, IL – The Red Stars, still aiming for their first win of the season, will play the Portland Thorns for the third time at 2 p.m. PT / 4 p.m. CT on Saturday. This is Chicago’s first trip to Portland and will mark the introduction of German internationals Sonja Fuss and Inka Grings for the Red Stars.
The Red Stars (0-4-2, 2 points) dropped both home matches against the Thorns with a 0-2 scoreline each time. The Thorns (6-1-1, 19 points) are currently tied with Sky Blue FC for first place in the league. This will be Chicago’s first game in over a week, after a close loss to the Western New York Flash on the road last Friday.
Portland, who has two games in hand on Chicago, secured their last win in Seattle off a controversial penalty kick that put the Thorns up 1-0 in the 84th minute. They have won 6 of their last 8 games.
On Saturday, however, the Thorns will compete without four of their most prominent players— goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc, defender Rachel Buehler and forwards Alex Morgan and Christine Sinclair, as they will be participating in the June 2nd friendly between the United States and Canadian National Teams (LeBlanc and Sinclair for Canada, and Buehler and Morgan for the United States).
The Red Stars will also be without a few key players as goalkeeper Erin McLeod and defenders Carmelina Moscato and Rachel Quon will don Canadian jerseys for the Canada-U.S. match Sunday. USWNT midfielder Shannon Boxx is still recovering from minor knee surgery and has not travelled with the USWNT or the Red Stars this weekend. Leslie Osborne, who suffered an MCL injury on May 12th is making the trip with the team, but is listed as questionable for the match. Utility player Lauren Fowlkes recently announced her retirement from professional soccer in order to pursue a Physician’s Assistant degree at Northwestern University.
Despite the loss of notable players, Chicago will be debuting their two internationals Fuss and Grings, who will bring considerable talent and experience to the field. Fuss, a world-class defender and World Cup champion along with Grings, a prolific goal-scorer and reigning German Bundesliga all-time goals-leader, have over 150 combined caps for their country. They spent the last two seasons with FC Zürich Frauen in Switzerland.
Red Stars vs Thorns FC kicks off Saturday at 2:00 pm PT (4:00 pm CT) at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, Ore., and will be streamed live, for free, online. Fans can also follow the Red Stars Twitter account for live in-game updates: @chicagoredstars.
Stay tuned to www.chicagoredstars.com for further details or follow the team on twitter @chicagoredstars and on facebook.com/chicagoredstars.
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