Hearts Put Four Past Charlotte in Rampant Win

PORTLAND, Maine – Just as everyone predicted coming into the evening, Portland Hearts of Pine (6-4-9, seventh place) ran rampant against Charlotte Independence (8-7-7, fifth place) at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Saturday night, winning 4-2 behind goals from Masashi Wada, Jay Tee Kamara, Ollie Wright, and… Sean Vinberg?

When it’s your night, it’s your night.

Wada opened the scoring in the 28th minute when Wright played a perfect ball to him at the edge of the penalty area, leaving the Yokohama native a clean look at the goal. Wada needed just one touch to bury the ball in the top left corner of the net, effortlessly scoring his third goal of the season and bringing the sold out crowd of 5,710 to its feet. 

Six minutes later Kemali Green was called for a handball in the penalty area when he lowered his head to head a corner clear, only for the ball to miss his head and graze his arm instead. Charlotte defender Nick Spielman stepped up to take the penalty, and sent it low and left past Hunter Morse.

Kamara came on for Walter Varela in the 63rd minute, and wasted no time making his presence felt. In the 69th minute he received a pass from Michel Poon-Angeron just inside the Charlotte half, turned, then split a pair of defenders with a through ball that left Vinberg – filling in at right back in place of an injured Colby Quiñones – one-on-one with Charlotte goalkeeper Matt Levy. Vinberg, nominally a center back for Hearts, coolly slotted the ball home in the far corner of the goal before being mobbed by his teammates.

In the 78th minute, captain Mikey Lopez stripped the ball from Anthony Sorenson, then fed Wright charging upfield. Wright skipped past both Clay Dimick and Spielman, then played Kamara through on goal. Kamara took one touch to control the ball, then rolled it past Levy into the goal.

Less than 10 minutes later Portland increased its lead to 4-1 on the back of an absolutely blistering counterattack. Left back Nathan Messer, deep in Portland’s penalty area, launched the ball towards Evan Southern on the halfway line. The ball took one bounce, then Southern headed it in the direction of Wright, streaking down the left wing. 

The lethal Londoner, who on Tuesday was named to USL League One’s Team of the Week for the previous round, blew past Charlotte defender Pele Ousmanou, took two touches, and then sent the ball past a sprawling Levy into the bottom far corner of the net. The goal, Portland’s third in 18 minutes, was Wright’s team-leading seventh of the season and fifth in league play, and combined with his assists on Wada’s and Kamara’s scores almost certainly guarantees him Team of the Week honors for a sixth time.

In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Juan David Moreno added a second goal for Charlotte with a curling effort from long range.

The four goals were the most Portland had scored in a match since a 4-2 win over USL Championship side Detroit City FC in the Jägermeister Cup on May 31, and saw Hearts leap from 10th to seventh in the standings.

NEXT UP: With the three points from tonight’s match, Portland moved past, among others, Greenville Triumph SC in the USL League One standings. The two sides meet in South Carolina at 7:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday night, with the match streaming live on ESPN+.

GOALS

POR – Masashi Wada 28’ (Ollie Wright), Sean Vinberg 69’ (Jay Tee Kamara), Kamara 78’ (Wright), Wright 87’ (Evan Southern)

CLT – Nick Spielman 36’ PK, Juan David Moreno (90’+5)

DISCIPLINE

YC – Omar Ciss (CLT 54’), Mikey Lopez (POR 81’), Michel Poon-Angeron (POR 83’)

RC – NONE

LINEUPS

PORTLAND – Hunter Morse, Nathan Messer, Kemali Green, Séga Coulibaly, Sean Vinberg, Mikey Lopez (C), Michel Poon-Angeron (Pat Langlois 84’), Masashi Wada (Natty James 88’), Ollie Wright (Mickey Reilly 88’), Walter Varela (Jay Tee Kamara 63’), Noah Kvifte (Evan Southern 84’)

Unused substitutes – Kash Oladapo, Shandon Wright

CHARLOTTE – Matt Levy, Fabrice Ngah, Nick Spielman, Javen Romero, Anthony Sorenson (Pele Ousmanou 86’), Clay Dimick (C), Omar Ciss (Christopher Jaime 74’), Bachir Ndiaye, Jon Bakero (Rafael Jauregui 74’), Tumi Moshobane (Juan David Moreno 74), Souaibou Marou (Christian Chaney 67’)

Unused substitutes – Amal Knight, Paolo Alcocer