The Portland Thorns didn’t celebrate after clinching a playoff berth with a 1-0 win over the Houston Dash Saturday night.

The Thorns had been so focused on rebounding from a shocking 6-0 loss to the North Carolina Courage in the lead-up to the game that the possibility of clinching a playoff berth hadn’t even come up. Many of the players didn’t even realize that the club had clinched after the win. Neither did the Thorns staff, who didn’t tweet out the news until the next morning.

Thorns coach Mark Parsons found out that the club had clinched after getting back to his office following the game Saturday night. Even then, his reaction was subdued. Clinching a playoff berth is nice, but Portland has much bigger ambitions.

“I think we’re chasing bigger goals,” Parsons said. “I think it’s important that we reached that goal, but the focus is on bigger goals."

The Thorns (11-5-6, 39 points) have made an appearance in the postseason in six of their seven years as a club. No other NWSL team has competed in the playoffs more than five times. Parsons, who spent two seasons as the head coach of the Washington Spirit, has led his clubs to the postseason in six consecutive seasons, more than any other NWSL coach.

Portland has gone on to claim the NWSL Championship title twice in its history. Parsons has won the trophy once, leading the Thorns to the 2017 NWSL Championship. Even then, he was so focused on congratulating his players after the victory that he never actually touched the coveted trophy. Parsons still believes that he and his team have a chance to hoist another trophy this season.

The Thorns watched the 2019 NWSL Shield, which is awarded to the top team in the regular season, slip away with their recent loss to North Carolina on Sept. 11. The disappointment of losing the Shield has only given the club more motivation in its pursuit of its third NWSL Championship trophy, even though Portland knows it will enter the postseason as underdogs alongside the powerhouse Courage.

“We missed out on the Shield and that’s disappointing," Parsons said. "I think that adds more fuel. So, now it’s about making that path to a championship easier and that starts with a home playoff game. It’s going to be tight right until the end. I’ve loved as a coach seeing the competitiveness in the NWSL this season. I think it’s made me and our staff and the players and our team better in such a challenging year.”

The Thorns still have work to do before they can turn their attention to the postseason. Portland currently sits in third place in the NWSL standings with two games left in the regular season. The Thorns are intent on securing the second seed in the standings. The top two teams in the NWSL standings will host home playoff games, something that the Thorns have done in each of the last three seasons.

But the club will have to make the most of its final two games of the regular season if it hopes to claim the second seed. Portland is two points behind the second-place Chicago Red Stars, but the Thorns hold a game in hand on Chicago. If Chicago beats Utah in its final game of the regular season Saturday, the Thorns would need to win their last two regular season games to move into second place.

“Home playoff games make a massive difference,” Thorns goalkeeper Adrianna Franch said. “You can see that from the past few years where we’ve had one. In front of our fans, they just take the game to another level. When we feel like our tank might be empty for one second in a game, all we got to do is hear our fans and then just get that little extra percentage.”

After eking out a win over Houston last week, the Thorns will face an even bigger challenge Sunday when they travel to face their rivals, Reign FC. The Reign are still fighting to clinch a spot in the postseason and will have a lot to play for Sunday. Portland has struggled against the Reign this year, falling 1-0 on two separate occasions to their rivals this season.

But after taking a step forward against Houston, the Thorns are determined to continue growing as a team as they try to hit their stride before playoffs.

“We’re naturally a team that always wants to see better,” Franch said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of game it is, whether we win or lose. There have been games where we’ve scored three or four and then come back out here and are like, ‘What’s another way to get better?’ That’s the mentality that we need to keep. Hopefully, we keep growing and peak at the right time.”

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg

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