October 2022 – Rose City Review

From the moment the first whistle blew, the Thorns dominated the 2022 NWSL Championship game. Despite the fact that this unique group of players had never taken the field together for a final, they looked as though they did so every week. The pressure was high—not only to cap off their successful 2022 campaign with a victory, but also to make a name for themselves as people, not just an agglomeration of players marred by the abuse and scandal in the fabric of their club. The victory cannot erase the history of abuse in the club, nor can it force Merritt Paulson to sell both teams once and for all, but the overwhelming joy the players exude makes you feel that, for a second, it could be possible.

I distinctly remember the end of the 2021 season. It was sad and unceremonious, a home defeat in the playoffs and a silent goodbye to those players. It wasn’t the sendoff they deserved, and it reflected the confusion and fractured nature of the league at the time. This year was an entirely different narrative.

The Thorns had several X-factors when coming to DC that propelled them to a comfortable victory over Kansas City. The first, of course, is Sophia Smith.

In the fourth minute, Smith proved to the world why she was deserving of the league’s MVP title. Capitalizing on the mistake of the KC backline, she took a deft touch around AD Franch and calmly slotted the ball into the open net. It wasn’t arrogance; it was confidence to take on one of the best keepers in the world one-on-one and make her look silly.

To celebrate, Smith just shrugged.

After the game, when asked about her celebration, Smith said, “There’s been a lot of people who think I don’t deserve to win MVP, so that’s a little bit of… that’s that.”

Every day we get to watch Sophia Smith play for the Portland Thorns is incredible. Her talents and composure on the pitch are not to be taken for granted, and watching her play is pure joy. Head coach Rhian Wilkinson put it best when she said that, “Soph is one of the best players this country has produced.” Absolute legend behavior, and she’s only 22.

The league’s youngest MVP and Championship MVP kept the same pressure up the entire game.

“Not every game is that fun,” Smith said, and she was right.

Despite all the trauma in the wake of the Yate’s investigation report, the Thorns seemed to come together to weather the storm. The chemistry between all 27 players who made the trip—a fully healthy roster—was evidence that they leaned on one another during difficult times and really wanted to work for one another. After all, soccer is a team sport.

Wilkinson pointed out that the players had the right to collapse after the release of the report, but they chose not to—largely thanks to the leaders on the team.

The Thorns didn’t collapse. Instead, they flourished. They cruised to a victory and made it look easy. When Christine Sinclair was subbed off to let Crystal Dunn close out the game, the passion as she screamed “let’s go!” was palpable. The players knew how well they were playing, and it allowed them to unlock new heights.

Yazmeen Ryan, in only her second year in the league, showed why she was a starter in the Championship game with her dynamic runs on the right wing. Natalia Kuikka shut down every attack down the right flank. Becky Sauerbrunn and Sam Coffey rarely misplaced a pass down the center of the field. Morgan Weaver’s high press was relentless. Each and every player was having fun, and thus, were playing in ways that showcased their full abilities.

Meghan Klingenberg is the epitome of the Portland Thorns. Since joining the team in 2016, her pregame huddle speeches have become iconic, and her spunk and exuberant personality have helped to bring younger players into the fold. While she doesn’t wear the captain’s armband or receive a lot of press, she silently retains her position as a rock at the core of the Thorns.

Kling’s work ethic and love of the game is infectious, but so is her sadness. Watching her cry as she crossed the podium to receive her medal, knowing the tsunami of off-field events that her and the rest of the team had to endure was emotional. For me, crying is cathartic. It’s a release of so many pent up emotions that I feel I cannot share. Watching and loving the Thorns over the 2022 season has been hard. It’s been hard to reconcile my admiration of the players themselves with my hatred for the front office, and I’m not even directly involved with the FO.

But, I also know how hard it can be to find joy in the things you love when so many external factors are collapsing in on you. During a traumatic experience at my job in Montana, I couldn’t find the energy to watch or care about the Thorns, something that I have relied on as an outlet each week for the past ten years of my life. As cliche as it sounds, moving back to Portland and returning to Providence Park helped me reinvigorate my love for the team. Watching them achieve an incredible milestone, three stars, in such a fun and dominant manner, was incredible. It felt like a rush of relief, that everything the players have been playing for mattered. Kling’s raw emotion felt like a dam bursting; these players have the ability to celebrate this milestone, despite the lack of support from their employers and without those who they have lost over the past year. The players deserve to feel all the emotions—positive and negative—but so do the fans.

The Welcome Home Rally at Portland International Airport on Sunday felt intimate. The players and the fans were connecting on the same level, with no on-field barriers or front office to divide them. The pure joy as Smith lifted Dunn’s baby Marcel in the air, wearing a Championship medal and starting the crowd in a “Marcel” chant was contagious. Players took turns hoisting the trophy in the air, cheering one another on. Shelby Hogan was wearing a space helmet. Everything felt perfect.

Bella Bixby put it best when she said that, “our connection to our supporters was integral. The Riveters have been with us this whole year and stuck by us, and that’s really all we can ask for.”

Riveters, the trophy is for all of us. It’s for the players and the supporters and the coaches. It’s not Merritt Paulson’s trophy. We can celebrate this incredible achievement, and continue to pressure sponsors tomorrow.

The trophy is home. We have our third star. It’s time to keep building a constellation.

The Thorns are in the semifinals of the NWSL playoffs for a seventh time in their history. They face off against the San Diego Wave, against whom they are 2-2-1 in 2022—between the regular season and Challenge Cup matches. Their most recent meeting was a disappointing Portland 0-2 loss at home in August. San Diego revealed in their quarterfinal game that Taylor Kornieck, who has scored three of the Wave’s six total goals against the Thorns, and Alex Morgan were healthy enough to go the full 90 minutes and into extra time, despite missing out of the USWNT’s European tour the week prior due to injury.

With a bye due to the Thorns’ second-place league finish, the international players have had time to reintegrate with the squad, and the players have had time to decompress and refocus their energy after a frustrating 3-3 draw with last-place Gotham FC to end the regular season. The USWNT internationals had a positive break, despite their two losses, with Sophia Smith scoring a banger in Wembley, Sam Coffey making two more strong appearances, Crystal Dunn getting her first USWNT minutes as a mother, and Becky Sauerbrunn anchoring the backline.

The semi-final will come down to who wants it more. San Diego, an expansion club, have already made history by reaching the playoffs and will want to put a cap on their impressive inaugural season. The Thorns, however, have played nice soccer on the pitch whilst being plagued with the abusive history and culture of their club’s ownership. They will want to win for themselves, to find joy in the sport despite all the difficulty surrounding it.

The Thorns and the Wave are evenly matched. Having Crystal Dunn back in the roster against San Diego for the first time could be the game-changer that pushes the game open in Portland’s favor. Both Morgan and Smith, top two in the Golden Boot race, are still consistently scoring, and each team’s defense will need to do all they can to limit the opposing striker’s time on the ball.

Tactically, it should be a thrilling and fun game to watch at home in Providence Park. But the choice to attend the game has been heavily debated in the weeks since the Yate’s Report dropped on Oct. 3. Since then, Merritt Paulson, Gavin Wilkinson, and Mike Golub, all implicated in the report, have resigned from their positions at the head of both the Timbers and Thorns. The caveat is that Paulson and his family’s company, Peregrine Sports, still own both teams, making him still financially involved despite his public resignation. This is the holdup that many fans are divided on.

I want to make my position clear, which is that it is necessary for Paulson and Peregrine Sports to sell both teams. So long as he collects a paycheck from PTFC, the players are not truly free to speak their minds and feel safe within the organization. Everyone deserves to feel safe and respected within their job, and so long as someone who covered up abuse is at the head, that culture can simply not exist. Much like the art cannot be separated from the artist, the NWSL and its club cannot be fully separated from their abuses until they are burned down and restructured.

At the same time, I am allowed to state that opinion because I am not employed by the Thorns. I do not owe Merritt or any other management anything, and I have no fear of being reprimanded, fired, or abused for stating my opinion. The vast majority of the players who are in the middle of the abuse do not have that luxury.

When reporters repeatedly ask players and head coaches to speak out on the abuse that is occurring within their organization, the players often do not have the ability to speak freely on these issues. Their job, housing, and lives depend on being employed by these clubs. And with Paulson, someone with a reputation for retaliation, still at the helm, the players must protect themselves first.

Sauerbrunn, in a media appearance for the USWNT stated, “It’s my opinion that every owner and executive and U.S. Soccer official who has repeatedly failed the players and failed to protect the players, who have hidden behind legalities and have not participated in these investigations, should be gone.”

Sauerbrunn, beloved USWNT Captain and stalwart of the league, has an innate level of protection that other players do not have. It’s unlikely that Sauerbrunn will be removed from the roster of either team she plays for because she has spoken out. Dunn and Smith, on the other hand, do not. Dunn, just returning from maternity leave, does not have a solidified spot in rosters. We’ve seen USSF cut players like Megan Rapinoe and Christen Press from rosters due to them speaking out, and it would be easier to do on a player just returning from an absence. Smith, despite all her talent, is still barely 22 years old. Her career is just starting. She can’t jeopardize that by rebelling against her employer.

At open practice on Oct. 21, two days out from their important semi-final match, Sauerbrunn, Dunn, and Smith were all asked questions relating to the Yates Report and Thorns’ ownership. Sauerbrunn had set a precedent by speaking her dissent of Paulson owning both teams, and fans and media now expect all players to be able to be this free with their words and form a concrete opinion.

All three players spoke about how they wanted fans to be there for them, cheering in the stands to support the players. They dodged questions about ownership and a sale of the team, which in one light can read as though they are in support of Paulson and his ownership. Silence is often associated with complacency and complicity, but when you’re asking an employee about their employer, this is no longer the case. I admit that myself, as a fan, want the players to speak out about Paulson and Peregrine Sports, but I need to stop putting that pressure on players.

It is unacceptable to expect a player to comment on their employers without fear of retribution.

There are rookies, players with just one or two years in the league, practice players, on field staff and trainers, all of whom don’t have much of a voice in the league. Using their voice could cause them to end up without a job, or without a support structure.

The best result from the semifinal game will be the Thorns playing freely and with passion. Aside from a win, of course.

It’s up to the fans individually if they want to show up in person at Providence Park on Sunday and cheer for the Thorns. It’s unacceptable that Paulson is still profiting off of the players and fans right now. But, the players still have to play. The season isn’t over yet. What media and fans can do now is stop expecting answers out of players. Direct this energy towards sponsors, upper management, and the like. They’re the ones who have the power to make change. Demand it of them.