The Portland Thorns watched the NWSL Shield slip away during a horrific nine-minute stretch Wednesday night.

The Thorns entered Wednesday’s game with a chance to take a five-point lead in the race for the NWSL Shield, which is awarded to the top team in the regular season. Instead, Portland (10-5-6, 36 points) coughed up three early goals in arguably their most important regular season match of the year en route to a devastating 6-0 loss to the North Carolina Courage (11-4-4, 37 points) in front of 17,517 fans at Providence Park. It was the most lopsided loss in Portland’s club history.

"They were very, very good,” said Thorns coach Mark Parsons about the Courage. “Outstanding performance from them... On the other side, we were on the other side of our form and our performance. We were probably at our worst.”

With their win, the Courage moved into first place in the NWSL standings and took a one-point lead in the NWSL Shield race. North Carolina holds two games in hand on Portland, making them the front-runners to claim their third consecutive NWSL Shield.

The Thorns remain in second place in the NWSL standings with three games left in the regular season, but the club’s grasp on the second seed is far from secure. Portland is just one point ahead of the third-place Chicago Red Stars. The top two teams in the NWSL will host home semifinal playoff games.

“We’re embarrassed by our performance,” Thorns forward Hayley Raso said. “I think we need to have a really tough week of training and move on and look toward the next game.”

Portland looked overmatched from the start Wednesday night.

The Courage caught Thorns goalkeeper Adrianna Franch flat-footed in the 15th minute when midfielder Debinha scored off a cross from Crystal Dunn following a smart dummy by Jessica McDonald. Dunn then fired a shot off the post in the 21st minute that the Thorns were unable to clear. The ball landed at the feet of Debinha, who sent a shot toward goal that was redirected into the net by Lynn Williams.

Portland’s inability to defend basic crosses and the club’s sluggishness throughout Wednesday’s game was mind-boggling, especially given that the Thorns entered the match as the top team on the NWSL table. Williams scored North Carolina’s third goal on a cross from Merritt Mathias in the 24th minute after defender Katherine Reynolds, who was starting in place of a suspended Emily Sonnett, was slow to step to the ball.

“It just felt like we were a step behind on everything," Reynolds said. “They were able to control the game and we could never really catch up."

The Thorns came together in a team huddle to try to regroup following the third goal, but the game was already lost.

Dunn scored off a cross from Jaelene Hinkle in the 61st minute before Williams nabbed the hat trick in the 68th minute after the Thorns allowed Debinha to dribble straight down the middle of the field before finding Williams. Debinha then chipped the ball into the box in the 89th minute for Kristen Hamilton, who scored the sixth goal of the night.

“Physically, we weren’t there,” Raso said. “I think mentally, once we went down a couple of goals, it’s hard to bounce back from that.”

The match felt reminiscent of last year’s NWSL Championship Game at Providence Park where the Thorns suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Courage, but Portland’s performance Wednesday night was much worse.

Portland will now have the weekend off to regroup before hosting the Houston Dash at Providence Park on Sept. 21.

“We really need to take a look at the game film and we need to recommit as a team and figure out what it is that we want,” Reynolds said. “I’m pretty sure that everyone here wants to win another championship, but we all need to decide that together... That was unacceptable tonight and we can never have a performance like that again if we want to be the champions.”

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg

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