Sophia Wilson red carded in chaotic Boston victory

In a game that epitomized NWSL After Dark chaos, the Boston Legacy defeated the Thorns 4-2 in Portland.

The Thorns entered the matchup looking to jump up the table into playoff-hosting position, but that goal took a massive hit when U.S. women’s national team forward Sophia Wilson was dealt a straight red card in the 22nd minute. Wilson was automatically sent off for pulling her opponent’s hair in a tussle with Boston defender Laís Araújo.

It is just the second red card of Wilson’s NWSL career — the other coming in 2024, when she was on the bench and received a second yellow for wasting time by hiding the ball under the bench. As a result, Wilson will miss the Thorns’ matchup against Bay FC when they return to play on October 18.

The Legacy quickly took advantage of their player advantage. Alba Caño opened the scoring in the 35th minute. Sarah Schupansky doubled the lead four minutes later with her first goal for Boston.

Portland would not go away, however. Fifteen minutes into the second half, Pietra Tordin was fouled by goalkeeper Casey Murphy in the box and awarded a penalty kick. The forward, who was called up to the senior USWNT for the first time this last week, converted from the spot.

The game continued to be tightly contested, so Boston brought in their super subs, Aleigh Gambone and Amanda Gutierres. Three minutes after coming in, Gutierres scored her fifth goal off the bench this season to return the Legacy’s two-goal cushion.

Just two minutes after that, Shae Harvey scored for Portland to make it a one-goal contest once again. The goal was the former Stanford Cardinal’s first professional tally, having signed with the Thorns ahead of this season.

But Gutierres was not done and scored a second goal three minutes later. She has now scored an NWSL single-season record six goals off the bench, in addition to being the first player in NWSL history with multiple braces as a substitute in one season. As a team, Boston have scored a league-record eight stoppage-time goals this season and lead this year’s NWSL with 12 goals scored by substitutes.

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