Category: NWSL

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Portland Thorns 3, Racing Louisville 3

Photo by Kris Lattimore

It’s hard to write about a soccer game when there wasn’t much soccer being played.

When the Portland Thorns faced off against Racing Louisville on Sunday afternoon, nobody expected that the referee would make himself the main character and the game would set an NWSL record for the most number of fouls in a game (41, compared to the 25 the previous Thorns matches averaged). Thanks to two penalties and a brilliant headed goal by Reilyn Turner, the Thorns managed to eke out a win. Jessie Fleming said it best postgame when she said it was “embarrassing for Louisville, and embarrassing for the league,” to allow such blatant fouling and disjointedness.

Coming to the end of a three-game-week, head Rob Gale rotated his starting lineup, resting the Thorns’ only true outside back Reyna Reyes, and starting Hina Sugita in the No. 6 defensive midfield position while Sam Coffey was in Spain at a family wedding. Coffey had previously been the only Thorns player to see every minute. Gale described her as a metronome who “sets the tempo.”

As part of his squad management on the back of a congested three-game-week, Gale said, “It’s foolish at this stage of the season to be huge with minutes. We have a lot of young players, players who were squad players, who aren’t used to playing this many minutes. It would be irresponsible of me to push them too hard now, and it would cost us down the line. Squad rotation is very important, and I want to keep the players pushing each other, so that when they step up, they are able to perform.”

Hina’s heat map versus Racing

Hina, who does best as a free-roaming midfield player that can operate in both boxes, was asked to sit deeper. This rotation fundamentally affects the ways in which the Thorns’ attacking buildup is created, as they lose Hina’s creative ability going forward. Not including the penalty kicks, the Thorns created 0.54 expected goals—an abysmal outing. Hina’s heatmap shows that she very rarely got forward centrally, forcing the Thorns to try and build through their wide players. The only problem: the Thorns’ wide players are not actually wide players.

Photo by Kris Lattimore

The Thorns’ unbalanced roster construction has been a problem for the past several seasons, but is really coming to a head due to the current number of long-term injuries on the squad. With only two true wingers (Payton Linnehan and Alexa Spaanstra), Gale has resorted to playing central forwards Caiya Hanks and Turner out wide instead. By asking these players to be out of position, he is mitigating their strengths. We saw what could happen when Turner is able to find herself centrally: she scores a headed goal between the backs of two defenders. Unfortunately, Gale seems to be stuck in the mindset that Deyna Castellanos is the Thorns’ best option centrally, which time and time again has proven to be unsuccessful.

The game quickly spun out of control as Louisville scored their second and third goal in quick succession, both of which were egregious errors by the Thorns. Off a goal kick when trying to play out of the back, Mackenzie Arnold and Jayden Perry had a lapse in concentration and made a bad pass that was easily picked off by Racing and placed in the back of the net. Louisville is a high-pressing team, relying on the speed and stamina of forwards like Emma Sears to maintain the press. When up against such one-note opposition, sometimes it’s necessary to change up your style of play. If you know that you’re going to be under intense pressure on your backline, it’s up to the coach to recognize that and change up the style of play, using Macca’s long-ball distribution to switch the way the Thorns’ progressed the ball—especially without Hina operating in the midfield the way she usually does.

The third goal allowed by the Thorns started with a foul in the build up on Isa Obaze that left her on the ground and Racing outnumbering Portland in the box. Had the ref been competent, he would have called the ball back, but he didn’t. Ball don’t lie, however, and the Thorns were handed a lifeline when they earned a penalty in the fifth minute of first half stoppage time, with Jessie Fleming calmly slotting it home for her first ever (!!!!) goal in a Thorns jersey.

With twenty fouls recorded in the first half, the Thorns went into the locker room down 2-3. Gale said that during his halftime speech, there “wasn’t much tactically to change at half time due to the physicality of the other team and the nature of the game. We needed to stretch them better in a low triangle and deal with service in the wide area and stop giving away set pieces, because that is what they play for. Louisville goes long, dives, gambles on pressure and tries to slow down the game and they are effective at it. We rotated [Olivia Moultrie] into Jessie’s position, and at the end we just went for it with five at top and pushed for it.”

Momentum tracker via SofaScore

In a statistic that seems unbelievable, the Thorns are the only NWSL team that have not conceded in the second half, so clearly something that Gale is doing at halftime is working. With the frequent starting and stopping of play, it was hard for either team to create much rhythm. The inexperience of the Thorns’ roster showed through, with no Coffey on the field to step up and reset the tempo and place the Thorns back in control. This is one of the downsides of having your captain be a keeper, as it’s hard for them to reset the tone of the game from the penalty box. And unfortunately, no one in the outfield stepped up.

Jayden Perry celebrates scoring the game-tying PK. Photo by Kris Lattimore.

The biggest takeaway from the match, since there was hardly any quality soccer played by either side, is that Perry needs to be signed to a longer contract immediately. Her cool, calm, collected presence in the 100th minute to earn the team a point should be worth at least five years in a  Thorns kit, in my opinion. If the front office wanted to signal that they were serious about a long term rebuild, this should be one of their first moves.

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Portland Thorns 4, NJ/NY Gotham 1

Photo by Kris Lattimore

The air in Providence Park on a Tuesday night is different. After a frustrating one-nil loss to the Seattle Reign on Friday, and with the possibility of losing five games in a row to NJ/NY Gotham, the Portland Thorns took the field with something to prove to both themselves and the fans.

The Thorns’ first multi-goal game of 2025 arrived in spectacular fashion: a 4-1 thrashing of the juggernaut Gotham. It’s not that the Thorns have been unable to get near the goal—which is what their three goals across their first five games may have suggested. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The Thorns lead the NWSL in shots (60) and are second in expected goals (10.2), only behind Kansas City. With a front line whose most experienced players are sophomores Reilyn Turner and Payton Linnehan, it has taken a few matches for the young team to find their footing. The Thorns seem to be heating up at just the right time, before a congested slate of games before the league breaks for the Euros in June.

With such a quick turnaround between games—only two training sessions—the Thorns had very little time to focus in after Seattle. Speaking postgame, both Caiya Hanks and Jayden Perry credited the Thorns leadership team, in particular Sam Coffey and Jessie Fleming, for helping create the right mentality headed into Tuesday night.

“Sam gave us a great speech at the beginning: to play with intensity, and smile, and have fun, and that showed today,” Hanks said.

Perry focused on the Thorns’ change in approach to their training sessions as modeled by Fleming and Coffey, saying, “The intensity and response in the quality and the energy, we knew we could have given more in that game and gotten a different result. We had to switch our mindset, and that showed in this game.”

Head coach Rob Gale said postgame that “19 players featured between the two games,” and spoke of his pregame speech, which referenced the late Pope. “We have to do it together,” Gale said. “We are not a team of superstars. We are servants to the team, and are humble, serving something bigger than ourselves.”

Right from the whistle, these slight shifts were evident. The Thorns were on the front foot, and playing with intentionality as they moved the ball across the lines and into the penalty box.

Mimi Alidou’s goal by Kris Lattimore

Mimi Alidou, the 29-year-old Canadian, started her first game for Portland nearly two weeks after she arrived in the city and quickly showed why the Thorns brought her over from Portugal midseason . In just the seventh minute, Alidou redirected a ball from Hanks into the back of the net with ease, a lá Christine Sinclair.

When speaking about Alidou, Hanks said that, even though the two don’t follow each other on Instagram yet, they “have this weird connection. I just knew that she was going to be there in the box,” she said. “It’s really cool when you meet someone and just know that you are going to have a really good connection on and off the field.”

Unfortunately, the celebrations did not last long. Thorns let Gotham respond immediately, and the game went into halftime tied at one. Credit to Gale, quite literally coaching for his job, for making tactical changes at half time. The first half had the Thorns playing on the back foot, defending Gotham (and allowing them just three shots). But after conceding, the Thorns never regained solid spells of possession and thus weren’t able to play the style of soccer that they needed to.

But Portland came out of the tunnel at half time flying. Finally, importantly, things were starting to click. The Thorns’ second half was one of their best in ages on both sides of the ball.

“We all knew we were due for a win,” Hanks said. “We had an issue with coming out slow in our last games, and we had to come out with the intensity and the fire. The games we come out fast are the games we win; we saw that in Utah. Once one or two go in, they just start flowing, and we were due for that.”

Photo by Kris Lattimore

Hanks was the star of the show against Gotham. She had three shots on target and completely dominated Gotham’s right back on every dribble and pass. After recording her first career assist in the first half, she added her first professional goal in the second. When asked about what it felt like, she said, “I released all my thoughts, all my hesitations, and just hit it.”

With that, the flood gates were open. It seemed as though every touch was turning to gold, and the Thorns were running circles around Gotham, dictating the tempo and exhausting the traveling team.

The best sequence of the night was absolutely in the 70th minute when the Thorns won a penalty kick (without even needing a VAR review—how I love quick footballing decisions). Coffey stood over the ball, then, from the back line, came rookie Jayden Perry. She stepped up in front of a rowdy North End, and calmly sent Ann Katrin Berger, 2024 NWSL keeper of the year, the wrong way, becoming the first rookie to score a penalty this year.

Perry gets her rose by Kris Lattimore

Perry said postgame that she advocated for herself early into the preseason. As the designated penalty kick taker during her time at UCLA, she had never missed. “I told Rob that I am confident in PKs, and that if he let me take them, I would do that job,” she said. “My teammates and my coaches put their trust in me, and I knew that they had my back.”

In addition to slotting home her first professional goal, Perry had a solid performance at center back, winning all but one of her ground duels and all of her aerial ones and making four clearances. She is only signed through this season, and with the Bhathal family in attendance on Tuesday, they should swiftly lock Perry down to a longer contract.

Perry added: “Little Jayden would be crying right now. It’s such a dream to play at this level, and scoring my first goal brings so much joy to me and my mom and my sister, who were here today. Today, we were playing with that passion that we had as little kids.”

The fourth and final goal of the night came from Deyna Castellanos, who broke a 23-game scoring drought by capitalizing off a rebounded shot. Soccer is a funny sport, because despite having a 50% passing completion rate, losing the ball 20 times (per SofaScore), and having zero clearances, blocks, interceptions, accurate crosses, or duels won, Castellanos still plays ninety minutes and scores a goal. My only hope is that the goal unlocks something within her, and she is able to be much more productive going forward.

Air Turner by Kris Lattimore

There is still so much season ahead of the Thorns, but the win against Gotham was a statement to the rest of the league: Don’t underestimate the Thorns. We might be without Sophia Wilson and Morgan Weaver, but we have the best young talent in the league.

Maybe we should play more games on balmy Tuesday evenings in Portland.

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Portland Thorns 0, Seattle Reign 1

Photo by Kelsey Baker

The first Cascadia rivalry of the year was played in Lumen Field, and the hosts got the win.

Coming off their first victory of the year, spirits were high as the Portland Thorns hit the road to play Laura Harvey’s team. Even though the Seattle Reign had a rough start to the year with an aged roster, the seasoned coach has found a way to give to reinvent the Reign.

Seattle’s goal

Not even five minutes into the game, Lynn Biyendolo found an opening between Portland’s lines. The forward sent a horizontal pass to Maddie Dahlien on the left, where she faced Thorns defender Kaitlyn Torpey. The rookie beat the Matilda, but the tally wouldn’t have been possible if not for the complicity of Nérilia Mondésir.

Credit: NWSL
Credit: NWSL

As you can see in the image below, Mondésir occupies the space between Torpey and Sam Hiatt at centerback. She then steps back to leave the space open for her teammate.

It was an excellent off-the-ball job by the Haitian, but Portland’s backline was also to blame. Look at the acres of space between the center-backs and the Reign players available to make a run if Dahlien had chosen to pass instead of shooting.

Credit: NWSL
Credit: NWSL
Seattle’s plan in the first half: Long balls

It was clear that one of coach Harvey’s plans had to do with long balls to either Dahlien or Biyendolo. The rookie was Torpey’s nightmare, and she and Hiatt had to double-mark to stop the winger.

It was key, then, not only for the back four to be very attentive to any long balls and runs, but also for Bella Bixby to do the same and to intervene when necessary. And that’s exactly what she did several times during the match.

No doubt, Bixby’s interventions were pivotal and stopped Seattle from extending the lead. We can see that clearly in Biyendolo’s shot, where Bixby comes out of her line to shrink the striker’s angle.

Portland’s plan

Reilyn Turner had found the back of the net for Portland in two consecutive games, but she couldn’t do so for a third time. But she was still the player who stepped the most on Seattle’s box (five touches) and hit the crossbar in the second half.

As you could see in the video above, Hina Sugita was once again the most unpredictable player. She was successful the times she went through the wings and tried to make a pass or send a pass into the box.

If we talk about things the Thorns need to improve on, one of them is the players’ positioning inside the box. As you can see in the video above, the ball played by Sugita was good enough but Turner’s body angle wasn’t the best, knowing that she wasn’t going to have enough time to receive, accommodate her body, and shoot.

But there were still other areas of success, like Payton Linnehan with crosses. Even though she didn’t have much weight on the field, she was the player with the most crosses completed.

Payton Linnehan's distribution. Credit: NWSL
Payton Linnehan’s distribution. Credit: NWSL

On the other hand, Portland also need to improve on their passing. Let’s take this play, where Olivia Moultrie carries the ball, as an example:

Turner does an excellent job at receiving the ball with her chest and passing it with that sole movement, wasting no time making the pass in that way to Moultrie. Caiya Hanks sees the space in front of her and signals where she wants the ball, but instead of a vertical pass, Moultrie decides to continue with the carry. That gives Seattle time to close the space, and Moultrie can’t find an open teammate to pass to after that. As a result, she goes for a horizontal pass, and the opportunity gets lost.

So, we can see the Thorns didn’t play badly against the Reign, but there are important details they need to improve to maximize their chances and be able to take them.

Also, it would be good not to have to depend on only one player to score. Before Sophia Wilson, one of the Thorns’ main characteristics was the fact that pretty much anyone could score. And since they don’t have a clear striker nowadays, it’d be great if they could go back to being that kind of team.

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Portland Thorns 0, North Carolina Courage 0

Photo by Kelsey Baker

Three games into the 2025 NWSL season, the Portland Thorns are still searching for their first win. The club has managed to net only two goals across one away loss and two home draws. Last season, former head coach Mike Norris was given four games (3L, 1D) before being promoted to Technical Director, so head coach Rob Gale is on a very short leash before a potential reassignment. A failure to win all three points at home against a North Carolina team who are perennially terrible on the road should have been the final straw, but alas, it was not. Instead fans are left dissatisfied headed into the international break.

Game over game, there has been tremendous growth in the Thorns team—and that trend continued against the Courage. Gale fielded a starting XI with an average age of 24, the second-youngest in Thorns history, and Mackenzie Arnold had far and away her best game in Portland colors. The centerback pairing of Isa Obaze and Sam Hiatt is already strengthening, and the duo of Reilyn Turner and Caiya Hanks up front is one of the most exciting forward lines in the league in terms of raw potential.

It’s hard to look at a 0-0 draw and say that it was a good game or deserved, but for the defensive unit in particular, it was. Arnold played out of her mind, making five saves (including a penalty). She was commanding of her box, putting her body on the line several times. Her effort seemed to set the tempo for the rest of the team. Reyna Reyes won the most duels in the match (10) and Kaitlyn Torpey was the most accurate passer (94%), as both were tasked with starting the attack from the wide channels as well as defending. To complete the line, both Obaze and Hiatt had nine defensive actions apiece—and stifled the Courage’s forwards.

Leo wrote a very good article about the pressure that a new general manager is under to build a roster for a perennial powerhouse in under two months, and the roadblocks he has faced. I would like to expand on one signing in particular, Deyna Castellanos. By the time Jeff Agoos was named GM, there were very few free agent signings available, and most Big Name Players had already resigned with their clubs or chosen a new one by January. Castellanos was not a free agent, and had to be bought out of her million-dollar contract after a lackluster season in the Bay Area in order to be picked up by the Thorns. Castellanos has a lot of starpower in the NWSL, is the face of a new Nike campaign alongside Sophia Wilson, and was absolutely the Thorns’ biggest signing in their short offseason.

So, why would the coach bench her? Against the Courage, Gale tried a new formation, a 4-4-2, with a diamond midfield that relied heavily on progressing the ball through the center of the field. Castellanos played the point of that diamond, and in theory, this should have been a very successful lineup given the available players on the Thorns, with a lack of traditional wide forwards and outside backs healthy. Without Wilson to tailor the formation to, Gale seems to be setting up the team around Castellanos.

Unfortunately, during the 60 minutes she was on the field, it felt as though the Thorns were playing down a person. Her zero chances created, zero touches in the Courage’s box, zero accurate long balls or crosses, zero tackles, and one defensive action all point to a player that might as well have not been on the field—not someone who is supposed to be a creative centerpoint of a team’s attack. By not putting in much effort, Castellanos effectively stranded the two target forwards, Turner and Hanks, who then had to drop back further to receive the ball and had more work to do and players to beat once getting it.

One possible formation change could be sliding Olivia Moultire into the point of the diamond, allowing her more freedom centrally. I am also eagerly awaiting Pietra Tordin’s first start, as she has looked particularly bright in her fifteen minute cameos so far. The flare and vision that she has shown in limited minutes could also be positive for the No. 10 position, despite her playing more as a No. 9 in college.

Post game, Gale mentioned that there was “no way to keep the upward momentum going when you have 11 players gone for international break,” but perhaps that is not necessarily a bad thing. The Thorns have played better each game, but are still experiencing the same poor results. The break in play will allow for a reset before these next stretch of games against the Utah Royals (one point), Seattle Reign (four points) and NJ/NY Gotham (two points), all of which are winnable games.

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Kansas City Current 3, Portland Thorns 1

Photo by Kelsey Baker.

The Portland Thorns started their season on the wrong foot when they lost 3-1 to Kansas City Current last Saturday. It was an expected result, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

A new season has begun and with it a new reality for the Thorns. Gone is the mighty team that was feared by other clubs, gone is the experienced roster, and gone is Portland as one of the top spots in the world for players.

Of course, this piece is not meant to be a depressing one, but if you watched the club play in this 2025 season, you know what I’m talking about.

So, despite the loss, how did the Thorns do? Let’s see.

The backline

After Becky Sauerbrunn retired and Kelli Hubly went to Bay FC in the offseason, Portland’s backline ended up with a serious lack of experience.

Coach Rob Gale chose Reyna Reyes, Jayden Perry, Isabella Obaze, and Kaitlyn Torpey as the four-back for the debut against the Current. We have to remember that Obaze didn’t have the best of seasons last year, and Reyes wasn’t that impressive either. Nonetheless, Portland plans to rely heavily on them this season.

It was great to see Reyes stepping up big for the Thorns on Saturday. She recovered many balls, and since the team was playing mostly on the left side, the Mexican had to stay sharp. She did.

If we talk about the the less experienced defender on the field, it was a difficult game for Perry. It was expected, though. Imagine you’re a rookie and your first match as a professional soccer player is against one of the top teams in the league, and you’re tasked with marking 2024 Golden Boot and MVP Temwa Chawinga—a forward that if you blink, you’ll miss. What is more, Perry had to perform in a very new backline that is just getting acquainted with one another.

Nonetheless, and despite that, Perry did well in some departments as you can in the table below.

Defensive stats by the back four. Source: Opta

The Thorns got the short end of the stick in their opener. And that’s the thing: Facing KC in your first game of the season without the firepower Portland had last year, with a very new backline, and on the road was a recipe for disaster.

When it comes to defending against tricky players such as Chawinga or Debinha, you have to be tricky as well. On the first goal the home team scores, maybe it would’ve been good to make Chawinga fall into an offside trap, but to do that Portland’s entire backline needed to be on the same page.  That wasn’t the case in Saturday’s match and maybe won’t be for some time.

It would’ve been great to have Sam Hiatt available, since she has been around in the league for some time now. and she knows the drill. “Sam had a knee injury at the end of last year and a long RTP [return to play],” Gale said after the match. “We haven’t got her up to 90 minutes yet, as we just had to build that back. The medical and performance department has done a really good job in getting her close to being able to go 60 minutes.”

With Hiatt not ready to play, we can expect the coach to keep using the four defenders he used against Kansas City for the next few games. Hopefully, they will get more acquainted with one another and improve little by little.

We have the ball… Now what?

Portland tried to, in true Portland fashion, build from the back. The problem is that the team doesn’t currently have the personnel to do so.

Below we can see an image that was repeated over and over again on Saturday. Mackenzie Arnold passed the ball to the center-backs, and they moved it between them while Sam Coffey approached to help. Kansas City put a line of players high enough to prevent them from passing the ball to the middle.

The Current’s plan worked, and as a result, the Thorns’ backline was disconnected from the middle, which resulted in the center-backs sending long, aerial balls to the midfielders. After losing those aerial duels, Portland lost possession.

Credit: NWSL

The Current had many tools to make Portland pay for losing the ball so easily. Speed, individual brilliance, and scoring prowess are just some of them, and all of them were on display during the three goals the home team scored on the Thorns. Of course, the visitors didn’t make the task that hard.

Kansas City’s first goal was the result of a bad defensive effort. Their second was the result of individual brilliance, and the third a combination of both factors. Debinha’s class shined through in that third goal, but Portland’s entire defense was also hypnotized by the ball and didn’t mark her. As a result, she pushed the ball—which Obaze then couldn’t clear on time—against the back of the net.

Credit: NWSL
Olivia Moultrie

In brightest day, in blackest night, Olivia Moultrie will always show up. The youngest player on the roster is playing her fifth season with Portland, and she’s not even 20-years-old. How cool is that?

It’s really amazing to see her as one of the “veterans” and and as someone who has so many responsibilities in the team. Of course, it’s not ideal, but seeing Moultrie take on those responsibilities with no hesitation shows her maturity as a player. The first game of the season showed her strong mentality on the field; even though she contributed with a goal for Portland—the Thorns’ only one—she also missed another.

However, Moultrie had enough guts to step up on the penalty spot against a mighty opponent at a pivotal point of the match. If she had scored, the Thorns would have been back in the game. Yes, she missed. Some surely asked why Coffey didn’t take it. But Moultrie was also qualified to do so. Moreover, the penalty was also a learning opportunity and part of her journey as a player.

“I’ve grown as a player,” she said after the match. “I’ve grown as a person as I’ve been on this team. These things are a natural evolution for me. And it’s just like, how can I help my team? How can I do whatever I need to do for us to win games?

On Saturday, one of the few positive things we witnessed was that growth Moultrie referred to. She will keep showing up for Portland because that’s the kind of player she is. Age has never been a problem for her. Since day one, she was ready to take on the mantle of being the youngest player in the league, and she has always been up to the challenge.

That attitude and leadership will be key for the Thorns this season. Hopefully, her teammates will observe that and follow her example.

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Portland Thorns’ 2025 Roster Breakdown

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Thorns 0, Royals 0

The Portland Thorns have been resting on their laurels since their 2022 NWSL championship season and have not worked to cultivate a new identity in the two seasons since. After an uninspiring 0-0 draw to the worst team in the league, the Utah Royals, on Saturday night at altitude, it’s clear that the eight-week Olympic break cannot come soon enough. 

There are a multitude of valid reasons why the club has been in purgatory for several years, most notably being the sale of the club from Merritt Paulson’s cold hands. The ownership tumult has further complicated the club’s ability to find a permanent, competent head coach to step in after Rhian Wilkinson’s resignation. The club has been slowly leaking world class players from that 2022 squad, and they have not brought in many replacements. Coupled with the lack of tactics and willingness to change and adapt from former head coach Mike Norris and current interim Rob Gale, it seems almost like a miracle that Thorns have managed to dig out a niche in fifth place in the NWSL standings. (Even that placement feels less impressive when we’re reminded that over half—the top eight of 12—teams qualify for the postseason.)

It almost feels futile to try and break down the team’s tactics when it’s the same each week (get the ball to Portland’s wingers, who then are tasked with taking on the defense one-vs-one to get to goal), and the rest of the league has figured the Thorns out. But alas, I will try to. 

Against Utah, Gale chose to start Nicole Payne at right back and Reyna Reyes at left back, relegating the Thorns’ best defender, Marie Müller, to the bench. Müller has been consistently leading the Thorns on several stats, including tackles, recoveries, and crosses, and post game Gale clarified that her absence was to allow her to rest after the many minutes put on her legs in recent games. Against a dismal attacking side that has only scored seven games thus far, it seemed like a reasonable action. However, Müller’s absence required Reyes to play on her much weaker left side to accommodate Payne at right back. Payne is a good pure defender, but is weak in possession. She made  one progressive pass and only had two touches in the Thorns’ attacking third. For a team that likes their outside backs to push high and join the attack, these numbers are dreadfully low. Reyes, in her sophomore season with the team, is seeing the field markedly less, mostly due to the competition at her best position, right back. Her strengths are opposite those of Payne; Reyes is better on the ball due to her time in midfield at the University of Alabama, but she lost all of her duels on the night against the Royals. Her attacking play was much better, with 13 touches in the final third and two in the Royals’ penalty box, but on her weaker foot, her passing and distribution suffered. 

Like Gale said post game, “sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition,” and the Royals were able to successfully mark the Thorns’ midfield out of the game. Hina Sugita and Sam Coffey have been the fulcrum of the Thorns’ build this season, and other teams have begun to realize that if they press them high, then the Thorns are forced to play through their wingers, who are much more easily dispossessed. The Royals’ press led to many misplaced and overhit passes, particularly from Coffey, which resulted in easy turnovers and put the Thorns right back on the defensive foot. Gale has been asking Hina to play deeper to allow for Coffey to push forward, and the two of them work very well together. Still, Hina and Coffey ended up accounting for one through ball between the both of them, which meant Sophia Smith severely lacked opportunities to show off her skills in behind the defense, and Portland’s attack suffered greatly. 

The other most puzzling part of the Thorns’ lineup on Saturday was the inclusion of Ana Dias as the starting No. 9, which pushed Smith out wide. Dias put on a show in the charity match midweek, scoring a hat trick, and I had hoped that her confidence would translate to the league game. Which unfortunately was not the case. In her 75 minutes , Dias had one accurate pass and three shots, none of which were on target. She had three touches in the Royals’ box, and only 0.1 expected goals. To put it bluntly, she had a very poor showing. While Dias’ signing was relatively low stakes for a player with only seven appearances for her country and who had been playing in the Russian league (i.e, not a very competitive one), the gamble has not paid off, and the Thorns’ offense is lacking as a result. That she plays in the No. 9 position exclusively forces the Thorns’ best player to play in a position that she is not as successful in, and means that the crosses and plays into the box that Smith does get off are oftentimes wasted by Dias. Against a team like Utah that has allowed 27 goals thus far, it was a reasonable gamble for Gale to take, but unfortunately, the team is paying for it.

The Thorns have one more game before they take an eight week break, and it’s against the incredibly lost San Diego Wave, who just fired their head coach. On paper, it’s a home game that the Thorns should win handily, but, if the Wave press high and are disciplined at the back, it could easily turn into another 90 minute slog. The Olympic break cannot come soon enough, and hopefully the pause will give the Bhathals a chance to finally make an announcement about which world-class coach will come in and take over, hopefully lifting the Thorns out of their holding pattern and back to the top of the table where they belong. 

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Orlando Pride 2, Portland Thorns 1

Photo by Kelsey Baker

The Portland Thorns’ unprecedented six-game winning streak was bound to come to an end eventually, and a clash against top-of-the-table (!!!!) Orlando Pride on a sweltering Florida Friday night finally did them in.

Initially listed on the pregame availability report as “questionable,” the Thorns went the entire 90 minutes without Sophia Smith, who was “just a day or two too early with the low leg injury,” according to interim head coach Rob Gale. Her injury is not severe or lengthy enough to keep her out of the USWNT camp this week, but hopefully Emma Hayes doesn’t make a bad first impression and play Smith before she’s 100% sound.

Going up against the league leaders and their driving force Barbara Banda, Gale needed to prove that he was more than just a vibes merchant and can tactically guide the team—especially without crucial the support pillar of Smith. 

Here is what he got right, and what he got wrong.

Right: Izzy D’Aquila

Making just her third appearance of the season—and longest yet at only 28 minutes—Izzy D’Aquila came on and took full advantage of the opportunity to play at her best position as the No. 9, something she rarely got the chance to do under former head coach Mike Norris, netting the first regular season goal of her career. 

Bringing on D’Aquila in the 62nd minute was a smart change by Gale, and he deserves credit where it is due, but unfortunately, he also needs to be held accountable for his initial starting XI and the poor showing of the first half.

Gale started a front line of striker Christine Sinclair, left winger Olivia Moultrie, and right winger Janine Beckie. Only one of those three players was playing in their preferred and strongest position, and only one of them is fast (the answer is Beckie to both). With no speed up top, the Thorns were absolutely smothered by the Pride’s press in the first half and could not break through. Portland only managed three shots (and only one on target) in the first half to Orlando’s 14, and they only had six touches in the Pride’s 18-yard box—an absolutely abysmal stat line for the Thorns.  

Once Sinclair was removed from the game, the pace picked up immediately. The Thorns tripled their number of shots and entered the Pride’s box 15 times. While Orlando’s halftime substitution of Banda very well could have been the reason for the Thorns’ increased number of touches and possession, adding the speed of both D’Aquila and Payton Linnehan to the front line was a tremendous help in allowing the Thorns to successfully press. 

The question going forward becomes: How can D’Aquila get on the field more as a No. 9 when Smith’s name is written in on the starting XI in that position in permanent ink? With Morgan Weaver out until after the Olympics in August at minimum, and Linnehan still unable to play major minutes, the Thorns lack options out wide. In the 2023 season, D’Aquila got some minutes out wide, but did not get any return on goal involvements. The best course of action moving forward, and to prevent Smith from picking up additional knocks that can keep her off the pitch, is for D’Aquila and Smith to split minutes at the No. 9. Besides the season opener against the Kansas City Current where Smith played 75 minutes, she has consistently gotten 85 or more minutes in each game. While the Thorns rarely had the commanding 2+ goal lead that might have given Gale the confidence to sub Smith off early, a valid argument could be made that against consistently weak teams like the Houston Dash, Angel City, and the Utah Royals, D’Aquila can get the start and the bulk of the minutes while Smith rests. 

Another option that requires Gale to be a bit more bold in his formations is to have Smith and D’Aquila start in a front two. This change would allow the Thorns to build up the pitch centrally—the region where they have had the most success since Gale took over—and D’Aquila can unleash the through balls she consistently played forward for fellow Bronco Kelsey Turnbow at Santa Clara.

Wrong: Jessie Fleming

On the whole, the Thorns’ midfield had a collectively bad game, and it was probably Sam Coffey’s worst performance in a Thorns jersey. The starting trio of Hina Sugita, Coffey, and Jessie Fleming were unable to possess the ball, and they routinely lost it to the Pride’s intense pressure. However, 11 games and eight starts into the season, I think it is a fair time to examine how well Fleming has adjusted to the league and question whether or not she is a starting-caliber player for the Thorns. 

Fleming was pulled from the game at halftime, after a 45 minutes where she was clearly the weakest link of the three midfielders, and replaced by Linnehan. The move allowed Moultrie to slide back to her more natural central position. In those 45 minutes, Fleming had 10 completed passes over 16 total touches, and she won none of her duels or tackles. 

With two coaches already in her short tenure at the Thorns, it is possible Fleming’s poor positioning is due to a lack of clear instruction and tactics from the coaches. But regardless, with the international and elite club-level experience that Fleming has under her belt at only 25, her field awareness should be much higher. 

Per FBref, Fleming is in the 50th percentile of progressive passes compared to other midfielders and in the 80th for progressive runs. As the player at the top of the Thorns’ midfield triangle, Fleming should be the most creative player, playing balls forward to unlock the Portland forwards. However, that is not the role that she has been playing. She more often than not opts for short, less than 10-yard passes either perpendicular or backward (an average of 56% of her passes per-90 minutes are short; an average of 40% are medium, between 15 and 30 yards).

Despite playing in that more advanced midfield role, Fleming only has one assist on the season and holds an average of 0.12 expected assists per 90 minutes. For comparison, Moultrie, in the same eight starts, has 0.21  expected assists and 0.42 expected goals and assists per 90 minutes. As the two players are competing for the same position, it’s fair to say at this point that Moultrie is the more productive player and should be starting in that attacking midfield role. Moving her into that space also opens up a spot on the wing for Linnehan to slide into. 

As of right now, Fleming is not fitting into the system that Rob Gale is trying to play, and by placing her into the midfield, other players like Moultrie and Sinclair are forced to play out of position, which ultimately hurts the team as a whole. Fleming’s hefty transfer fee, international resume, and Barclay’s experience does not—and should not—make her a guaranteed starter in the league. 

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NWSL Soccer Thorns

More Connections, More Assists, More Goals

Sophia Smith cuts the ball across her body to beat a Washington Spirit defender.
Photo by Matthew Wolfe.
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NWSL Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Portland Thorns 0, NJ/NY Gotham 1

Photo by Kris Lattimore.

There’s no disputing that 2024 is a new era for the Portland Thorns. The club is under new ownership, majorly switched up their backline, have partnered with lesbian icon FLETCHER, and, on Sunday, lost their first ever home opener to reigning NWSL champions NJ/NY Gotham FC.

If one of those seems like it’s not like the others, it’s because it’s not: the Thorns are on something of an unprecedented losing streak, having failed to take a point out of their last four matches (unfortunately, a club record) across all competitions going back to last season.

Record aside, Sunday’s match looked to be a marked improvement on Portland’s season-opening 5-4 defeat in Kansas City. The Thorns looked more locked in, were making a collective effort to win balls (even if they struggled then use that possession to build out of pressure), and were ultimately denied from the scoreboard by two offside calls on two highlight-worthy Sophia Smith goals and a handful of brilliant saves from Gotham’s backline and goalkeeper Cassie Miller.

“I don’t think I could have asked for any more in terms of trying to win the game,” Thorns head coach Mike Norris said. “I’m not sure we could have done more without coming away with one or three points.”

The defense thing

Naturally, when a team concedes five goals in a game—as the Thorns did against the Kansas City Current last week—their defense is going to be something of a focus in the next one.

It also wasn’t shocking to see the changes Norris opted to make in Portland’s backline, with Becky Sauerbrunn replacing Isabella Obaze and Reyna Reyes stepping in for Nicole Payne in the Thorns starting XI. (Sauerbrunn and Reyes had both been limited in their minutes the week prior, as both were returning from national team duty and reintegrating with their club team.) And the changes, to Norris’ credit, left the team looking noticeably more settled in defense.

“This week, we really focused on team defending,” Sauerbrunn said. “When the people in front of you are really putting a shift in, it makes it a lot more obvious and easy for the backline to know where they need to be.”

Not a small portion of that can be credited to Sauerbrunn. Portland had looked to be missing her leadership against the Current—an issue amplified by the team playing a goalkeeper with relatively limited NWSL minutes and three of their four defenders making their league debuts.

“She just oozes confidence in terms of what she gives off and the belief and confidence that she has in other players,” Norris said of Sauerbrunn. And that mindset spreads to the players around her: “When you’ve got somebody with Becky’s experience in the backline, I think the leadership, the communication part, I think it just helps to bring the best out of other people as well.”

Fortunately, that best in others came out, with the Thorns showing a commitment to win one-on-one battles—not just in defense, but across the field—that had been missing last game.

“Eyes are on the backline,” Sam Coffey said, “but it starts with our No. 9, it starts with our frontline […] just making sure we are being our most front-footed, aggressive selves all over the field, and I think we did a much better job of that tonight.”

Photo by Kelsey Baker.
Did things just not go Portland’s way?

The thing is: Gotham definitely got lucky with Smith being offside on both her disallowed goals. The other thing is: Portland’s attack wasn’t nearly as fluid as we know it can be.

The Thorns did generate a fair number of chances—15 shots for 1.24 expected goals to Gotham’s nine shots and 0.72 expected goals—and were unlucky with the Smith offside calls and a couple shots that sailed just wide, but they also bypassed building possession through working through the midfield, a method that has traditionally helped Portland maintain control of a game’s tempo and find their moments to break down their opposition’s defense. Instead, the Thorns tried to use their width to move the ball up the flanks. It’s a decision that’s not unfounded given the skill of Reyes, Marie Müller, Morgan Weaver, and Janine Beckie, but Portland thrives on being a team that can hurt their opponent in so many ways, and confining their attack to the flanks limits those options.

And it’s not that the Thorns didn’t look good in the moments they attacked through the midfield: Jesse Fleming sent a beautiful through ball to Smith toward the end of the first half, and Hina Sugita added a new energy to Portland’s offense when she subbed on for Fleming in the 78th minute.

“She came on, she had an impact,” Norris said of Hina, “and that’s all you can ask from anybody coming off the bench.”

Hina’s presence on the field added another wrinkle to the Thorns going forward, and her connection with Smith added a fluidity that was lacking from portions of Portland’s attacking game.

I know it’s early in the year, and Norris is still figuring out his starting lineup for the season, but I’m honestly surprised to see a player of her skill sitting on Portland’s bench for the first 75 minutes of the game—especially in a match that could have used her flare.

When do we start asking about Norris?

We’re two weeks into the season, and Portland is the only team to lose their first two games and sits in last place. (The San Diego Wave could match that opening run, but they’ve only played one regular season match this year.) The Thorns, as mentioned above, have also lost their first ever home opener and are on their longest losing streak across all competitions in club history.

I think a number of factors are responsible for that—new ownership and offseason defensive upheaval among them—but I also think we have to start asking questions about Norris if the results continue.

Fortunately, we’re not there quite yet; Norris seems like a coach who has the respect of his players, and he has time to turn things around.

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