Three stats: OL Reign vs. Portland Thorns

Heading into their doubleheader weekend, OL Reign hadn’t lost to the Portland Thorns at home in regular-season play since 2017. Unfortunately, that streak was broken on Saturday, as the Reign fell 2-0 to their rivals.

OL Reign created their fair share of chances — as Opta estimated both sides produced 1.3 expected goals (xG). But creating chances doesn’t win games. Scoring and preventing goals does. And the Thorns were much better at that in the Cascadia clash.

Here are three stats that help tell the story of the Reign’s home loss.

91

The Reign attempted a season-high 91 long balls with a low 47.3% completion rate for those attempts. It wasn’t the worst completion rate for long balls, but it…