Orlando was stunned.

Friday night at Providence Park was supposed to be quiet for the best team in women’s soccer. The Pride wrapped up the league shield on Sunday and were confident enough in the security of their undefeated season that they rested some of their starters – such as Marta – for their match against the Thorns.

Why not, right?

Portland hadn’t won a league since July and the Thorns were without stars Sophia Smith and Hina Sugita. This would be Orlando’s league-leading 18th win of the season. It should have been Portland’s seventh loss in the last eight games.

“It’s a David versus Goliath story,” Portland’s Morgan Weaver told the broadcast team before the game. “But why not us?”

Weaver took that mentality to heart. It was her goal in the 13th minute that shocked the Pride. Then it was Christine Sinclair’s goal in the 55th that shattered the foundation of Orlando’s record-setting season.

It was Portland 2, Orlando 0. And in a rollercoaster of a Thorns year, the results don’t get more unexpected than this.

“We needed that,” Sinclair said in her post-match interview.

The Thorns (9-11-4, 34 points) entered Friday with their postseason hopes on a string. Portland had lost six of its last seven games and no team in the NWSL had posted a worse record over its last ten games. After a 2-1 home loss to Utah on Saturday, played without the services of Smith and Sugita, and having just announced the repositioning of general manager Karina LeBlanc within the organization, the chance to pick up points against Pride Friday was unlikely. .

Orlando (17-1-6, 57 points) had allowed just two goals in its last 11 games.

Orlando hadn’t trailed in a game since March 22 until Olivia Moultrie lined up for a corner kick in the 13th minute on Friday. Moultrie pulled off a kick that Reyna Reyes knocked to Morgan Weaver on the left side of the net. The 26-year-old collected the pass and quickly whipped out a shot with her left foot to beat goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse for the 1-0 Portland lead. Weaver, who missed much of the season after knee surgery in May, celebrated by slapping the Thorns emblem on her uniform.

“There’s a lot of talk about the ‘Thorns aren’t great.’ These are the thorns. They are not winning. What’s going on?” Weaver said. “And I don’t think anyone on the outside really knows. I think sometimes inside we don’t even really know. And I think that this locker room has been so great for me. Yes, we are down, but we also pick each other up. And I think that was just a reminder that we have each other’s backs through the tough times.

“This is why we are Portland.”

The Thorns left the field at the half with the lead and then didn’t have to wait long to fill the lead. Sinclair, playing in her second game at home since announcing her retirement at the end of the season, received a pass from Sam Coffey at the top of the penalty area in the 55th minute, looked quickly at the net and then shot. the center that split a defender’s legs on the way to the back of the net. It was Sinclair’s 80th goal of her Portland career in all competitions and came in a match where she briefly left the field in the 40th minute after a hard collision.

“It hasn’t been the best run for us over the last few months,” Sinclair said. “We wanted to give them their first defeat and we had to show up as Thorns. And you saw that tonight. If we play like that, I wouldn’t want to play against us in the play-offs.”

In an attempt to salvage its perfect record, Orlando made massive substitutions in the 63rd minute, bringing on Barbra Banda, Emily Samsl, Ariana Leal and Marta, but the Thorns defense handled each Orlando surge smoothly. Portland keeper Shelby Hogan finished with four saves and recorded her eighth clean sheet of the year.

“Even in difficult times, we will continue to climb,” Weaver said. “We are still going to work hard. We don’t take a break. Our team is committed to making the playoffs. We want to make it to the play-offs. We want to win championships.”

Next: The Thorns travel north on Tuesday to take on Vancouver in the final match of the Champions Cup group stage. The Thorns return to NWSL play in Louisville on Oct. 19.

– Tyson Alger for The Oregonian/OregonLive