In the 23rd minute of Portland’s tournament-opening loss to North Carolina, something amazing happened. It started with Steph Labbé sending an arcing pass to Debinha in the midfield. As Debinha tried to settle the bouncing ball onto the turf, Kelli Hubly—the second sidekick in the sadly defunct Midge Purce-led dance team, she of the rolled-up shorts—charged in, got her body between the ball and her opponent, and, under pressure, completed a flailing left-footed pass to Lindsey Horan.
I have watched this sequence about eight times, both in the interest of describing it accurately above, and because I love it. I find the whole thing deeply relatable.
I’ve written a lot of words about people like Horan and Christine Sinclair and Tobin Heath over the last few years, because I like watching them play. When I get the chance, I also enjoy talking to them and hearing their coaches and teammates talk about them. But Horan and Sinclair and Heath are not the same as me.
At the same time as them being different and better than me is a major reason I like watching them, sometimes it starts to feel ridiculous writing about these people and their feats. They are basically beyond my comprehension. Their brains have a fundamentally different kind of connection to their bodies than mine does, and their bodies are also quite a bit stronger and better. There’s an inherent absurdity to me not just criticizing, but making any observations at all, about someone like Lindsey Horan. It’s like congratulating a cheetah for being fast.
Hubly, though—we are at least recognizably the same species. She’s not a hyper-competitive monster like everyone at the highest level of the sport. She’s clearly talented, to have gotten this far, but she’s talented in the way regular human beings are. She made the team, and has stayed on it, by dint of honest hard work. You get the feeling watching her that she is always trying very hard.
I have this image seared into my head which I’m not even sure is real—I’ve asked our photographers and none of them remember having captured it—of Hubly having just messed something up, either given away a goal or conceded a penalty. I believe it’s 2018, because I think she’s wearing that godawful white kit with the tire tracks on it, but I might just be remembering the Thorns kit I most associate with disappointment. She may or may not be sitting on the ground. She looks absolutely shellshocked, eyes wide, jaw tense, and I’m projecting here, but to me this is the face of someone not just deeply embarrassed about what’s just happened, but also in mortal fear of the potential longer-term personal consequences.
Thinking about that image, I can feel what that’s like viscerally in my body. I don’t think many of us can really empathize with what it’s like to do something like win a World Cup. I imagine I’d feel very happy! But I can’t picture it. Feeling like you’ve just let everyone around you down and that you might also lose your job because of it, though? That I can understand.
Another thing I can understand is the much smaller-scale victory Hubly had on Saturday. She wasn’t perfect. Lynn Williams, being Lynn Williams, burned her a few times. She let some crosses in. But she had also very clearly heard and understood her instructions for the game. She judiciously applied pressure in the areas it was needed, didn’t bite when Crystal Dunn or Jaelene Daniels tried to dribble around her, sensibly cleared the ball a number of times.
In part, as Mark Parsons pointed out in a Zoom call a few days ago, she was finally playing a role she’s actually suited to, rather than being tossed in as the third center back behind Meghan Klingenberg. This is not the story of a breakout moment, about how Hubly is good enough to replace Ellie Carpenter, about how she’s going to start for the Thorns going forward. She’s always going to be a serviceable NWSL player. But you know what? That’s fucking hard. Playing multiple seasons as the fifth or sixth defender on the depth chart and still showing up to work every day with a smile on your face, ready to keep doing your best—that takes a level of tenacity I’m not sure I can relate to. We don’t appreciate what that takes enough.
When those smaller-scale victories come, for Hubly or any of the other mortals in this league, celebrate them. We’re all out here doing the best we can.
Katelyn and Tyler review the first two Thorns games of the NWSL Challenge Cup, discuss the suburban Utah masterpiece that forms its setting (including the playground), talk the Thorns diamond and their excitement about the young players on display.
June 9, 2011 was a perfect day for soccer in the Midwest.
Almost a decade has passed since Sporting Kansas City christened then-Livestrong Sporting Park, but Rick Dressel, the team’s Director of Team Administration, recalls every detail perfectly.
He remembers watching The Cauldron come to life for the first time—the electric atmosphere as the temperature dropped and kickoff loomed. That night, a recorded 19,925 fans filled a stadium with an official capacity listed at 18,467. The final result—a 0–0 draw against the Chicago Fire—may not have been the most entertaining, but it’s a night that will always stick with him.
“That night compared to the night we won it all back in 2013, as far as the energy goes,” Dressel said. “It was a beautiful night, perfect soccer weather. The energy of the place, the players’ energy level, just everything was like a cup final. To do that for the first time—and we’ve experienced opening up stadiums before as a road team, and always have thought that was pretty cool—you can feel the electricity, and that night’s atmosphere is one I will never forget.”
In the 25-year history of Major League Soccer, just five teams—including Sporting—have started their seasons with at least eight consecutive road games. From lack of chemistry to inconsistent results, each team undoubtedly faced its struggles, but also developed a sense of camaraderie. To many in these organizations, the trips came to define much more than the current season; they defined a new era with a new stadium, oftentimes more exciting and fortuitous than the one it left behind.
Six games into their 2019 season, the Timbers were in trouble. Sitting on just one point nearly halfway through their twelve-game season-opening road trip, the team needed a spark.
Portland had opened the season with a 3–3 draw against the Colorado Rapids in what was one of the coldest regular-season games in league history. In that match, a late equalizer from Rapids rookie Andre Shinyashiki provided a preview of the rough weeks to come.
In their third game, the Timbers lost 3–0 to FC Cincinnati, one of the league’s worst teams at the time. In their fifth, Portland gifted the San Jose Earthquakes their first win of the season in another 3–0 defeat.
Shortly after their loss at Avaya Stadium, Portland held a team meeting.
“Once we had that reflection, some words were said, and some feelings were vested in that moment,” forward Jeremy Ebobisse said, “but we started to turn it around and played better together.”
“You know that the first five games of the year do not make or break your season,” goalkeeper Jeff Attinella said. “Obviously you want to get out to a good start, but I think the circumstances that we were in were beyond challenging when you’re thinking about coming off a Cup final.”
The team seemed to find a spark of momentum in Frisco, Texas the next game. A controversial handball called in the 95th minute denied the Timbers a late point against FC Dallas, but the result gave players a bit of hope. The next week, the Timbers picked up their first win of the season, beating the Columbus Crew 3–1 at Mapfre Stadium.
“When they scored early in that game in Columbus to go up 1–0, you could just feel the team loosen up, because they hadn’t scored first in any game that year,” Timbers TV play-by-play announcer, Jake Zivin, said. “Columbus had some good chances in the first 30 minutes, and you don’t want there to be that feeling of ‘here we go again.’ Then they score and you could sense the mood rise. From then on it was like, ‘Okay, they’re back. This is what we’re used to from them.’”
The Timbers celebrate after another goal in a 4–0 win over the Houston Dynamo | Photo by Kris Lattimore
By the time the 12th and final game rolled around, the Timbers were sitting on 11 points. 90 minutes later, they would leave Chester, Pennsylvania with three more after defeating the Philadelphia Union 3–1. As summer—and a long homestand at newly renovated Providence Park—approached, the Timbers had just five road games remaining on their schedule.
“Given the adverse conditions, having the cross-country trip, that was a game we were willing to concede, but we came out flying and in good form,” Ebobisse said. “That was the end of our road stand as well, so we got over this massive hump, and that was a major boost for what was to come.”
If, in March of 2011, you had asked Callum Williams to point out Salt Lake City or San Jose on a map, you may have been met with a blank stare.
The 21-year-old broadcaster from Birmingham, England took a chance on American soccer when he traded his job with the BBC for a play-by-play broadcasting position with Sporting Kansas City. Just six days after landing in Kansas City for the first time, he was off to Los Angeles to cover the team’s first game of the season against Chivas USA.
Williams learned a lot about North America and its intricacies during that opening road trip. Vancouver, BC became one of his new favorite cities, and now he has family there. Williams estimated that he spent more time at Chicago’s Midway Airport than he did at his new home in Kansas City over the season’s first few months.
“I’ve never heard of Columbus, Ohio. I’ve certainly never heard of Denver, Colorado, and all these other places,” Williams said over Zoom. “For me, I relied a lot on adrenaline, and because I was so young and because I had such enthusiasm for the new challenge, it all went by in a flash, really.”
Necessary tasks like getting a Social Security number, viewing apartments, and obtaining a driver’s license took a back seat to jetting around the United States and calling games for a struggling Sporting side that couldn’t seem to find any positive momentum.
Graham Zusi, who played a role in Sporting’s 2011 team, attempts a slide tackle on Diego Valeri | Photo by Nikita Taparia
That season, Williams forged a solid working relationship with head coach Peter Vermes, who always took the time to talk to the young broadcaster and answer his questions.
Despite the criticism that Vermes received when his team sputtered out of the gate, Williams and Dressel both believe that he was a big reason as to why the team didn’t break early on.
“The way Peter coaches, he tends to have a really good group of guys because of the way he coaches and the way he expects everybody to put their chair in,” Dressel said. “We typically have really good players, so I can’t think of any challenging moments in that respect.”
Behind the leadership of Vermes, Sporting rallied in the second half of the season, making its way to the 2011 Western Conference Finals before eventually being eliminated by the Houston Dynamo.
Nick Hagglund arrived in Toronto to what appeared to be a team in transition. The tenth pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft draft would be joining a team that finished ninth in the East a season ago, but also one that just spent big money to land Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley.
With just ten games remaining in Hagglund’s rookie season, the team fired head coach Ryan Nelsen and promoted its academy director, Greg Vanney, to the role. This all came with looming renovations to BMO Field, which would force Toronto to start the following two seasons with long road trips.
Vanney was keenly aware that spending long weeks away from home spelled potential disaster, but also figured that the trip could help the team build chemistry. Luckily for him, his second theory proved correct.
“For us, it felt like [the road trip] set a good foundation for the rest of the season, so that when we came into our form, we were defensively sound and we were able to play the soccer that we wanted to,” Hagglund said.
In Hagglund’s mind, there was no bigger reason for the team’s eventual upswing than Bradley’s leadership. Yes, the talent was there, with players like Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore, but many acknowledged that Bradley was the glue that held everything together. In many ways, he was TFC’s culture.
When asked to expand on Bradley’s influence, Hagglund brings up his first-ever MLS game against the Columbus Crew. Like any rookie would be, he was anxious, but Bradley soothed the 22-year-old’s nerves by telling him to relax, play simple, and find him. And that leadership wasn’t just displayed on the field.
“He cared about the whole organization,” Hagglund said. “It wasn’t just about the team. He cared about the organization from the top to the bottom, doing things the right way, and demanded those things to be done the right way. From how the field is to how families are taken care of, he truly embodied what the club was about.”
Luke Wileman, who often calls TFC’s games for Canada’s The Sports Network, spent a lot of time around the team during those seasons. He believes that Toronto’s 2017 treble-winning team would not have been possible without the culture and work ethic that Bradley set back in 2015.
“You need leaders in those situations, and I think one of the reasons TFC has been so successful is because of the change in culture, expectation, and leadership that Michael Bradley brought when he originally came in,” Wileman said. “It’s those kinds of leaders that you need to build that culture. Michael Bradley is invaluable in terms of setting the standard and holding players accountable. That was a key for TFC.”
Nick Hagglund (left) attempts to defend Sebastian Blanco | Photo by Kris Lattimore
According to those who spent time around the four teams, the importance of having a leader on these long road trips cannot be understated. Yet, while DC United had veterans, the abundance of younger players made the team’s 14-game opening road trip in 2018 all the more unique.
United played 12 of their first 14 games on the road, but their two home games came at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and 4,000-seat Maryland SoccerPlex, respectively. When the team began to play at Audi Field, many within the organization still joked that they still felt as if they were going to National Airport.
“You don’t think that in a few months, in the heat of summer, Wayne Rooney is coming, but you knew what was coming at the end of the summer in Audi Field, a new stadium. You’re just going to get energy from that,” DC United play-by-play voice, Dave Johnson, said.
The young core of players bought into that idea. They knew going into the season that the trip wouldn’t be easy, but they committed to growing together as a team, and by the end of the season it paid off.
By the end of the road trip, whether it was seven weeks or 14, every team expected to come home to either a brand-new or renovated stadium for a lengthy homestand. While these opening road trips seemed to drag on, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel.
Hours before Toronto FC’s first game at freshly renovated BMO Field, the organization held a grand reopening ceremony to celebrate a project years in the making. Vanney, Mayor John Tory, and then-Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president Tim Leiweke were among those in attendance to usher in a new era of soccer in Canada’s biggest city.
The sun shone down in Toronto, and the mood couldn’t have been better. With the team returning home on eleven points, there was plenty of optimism around the organization. With a new roof in place and expanded capacity, the team finally had a home that matched its ambitions.
“When the team signed Defoe and Bradley, [Leiweke’s] big thing was, ‘Why can’t we be great?’” Wileman said. “‘TFC has had all these things go wrong, but why can’t we be great? Two years later, they make the playoffs for the first time, they have Altidore, Bradley, and Giovinco in. Now they are opening up this stadium that looks so much better than it used to.”
“Seeing the stadium for the first time, it was like ‘Wow,’” Hagglund said. “This is a true football stadium. This is going to be packed. You’re going to live for the darkest nights where it is rainy, where it is cold, and the lights are on with the place packed and ready for big games.”
Minutes before kickoff of the first game at newly renovated Providence Park | Photo by Nikita Taparia
In DC, opening night at Audi Field felt just as surreal, but for a completely different reason. If you were to have told Johnson, who started calling the team’s games back in 1996, that he would be covering the club in a brand new venue in the heart of Washington, DC, he might have laughed. This was Washington, after all, where politics and bureaucracy often make it impossible to land a downtown stadium. Johnson brought up past examples in which local professional teams tried and ended up with stadiums in Landover, Maryland.
Little did he know that 24 years later, Wayne Rooney would be suiting up for United the same summer that sporting excitement in the city was reaching all-time highs. It was a far cry from past seasons of playing at a run-down RFK stadium, to say the least.
“There’s no lightning in a bottle story here,” Johnson said. “Soccer has been laid down for fifty years. In Washington, DC, go look at 1980, when Johann Cruyff played with the Diplomats. They averaged 20,000 fans a game. Look at what Portland did, or what Seattle did in the old NASL. All of this doesn’t just happen overnight. People grow up with the sport, and that’s why you reach your position now.”
When asked to look back and reflect on whether or not the road trips and the hassle were worth it, nearly everybody took a moment to collect their thoughts. At the end of the day, nothing compared to the feeling of coming home: the packed stadiums, the unique energy, the chance to be there for a unique moment in franchise history.
“This stadium changed absolutely everything in [Kansas City], and I think that leading up to the stadium, it’s a story that doesn’t often go told honestly,” Williams said. “A lot of people weren’t really fans at the time, or only started following it when the stadium was built. It was a period of adjustments, a stage of a lot of those players’ lives where they had to prove they could play at this level as well. It was a fascinating introduction to the world of Major League Soccer, and it was a stage of my life that I will never forget.”
In its second game in the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup, the Portland Thorns played the Chicago Red Stars to a 0-0 draw.
With both teams playing last Saturday, lineup rotation was no surprise. Only four of the players who started for the Thorns against North Carolina did so again today, while Chicago showcased a completely different starting XI.
1. Chaos is the name of the game
We saw it in yesterday’s 3-3 draw between the Utah Royals and Houston Dash: chaos is fun. Today’s match was less back-and-forth on the scoreboard—and, admittedly, a little less fun because of it—but scrappy play and all-out attacking soccer set a somewhat similar tone throughout the game.
From a very physical midfield battle with few fouls actually called to Autumn Smithers making her NWSL debut at centerback to Morgan Weaver running full-steam at Chicago’s backline, this morning’s match stood in stark contrast with last night’s build-out-of-the-back game between Sky Blue FC and OL Reign.
2. Lots of chances, finishing needs work
The Thorns got a decent number of looks on goal in the opening 20 minutes of the match, especially finding success through Weaver and Simone Charley’s wide runs. Both of Portland’s forwards found a handful of crosses in the first half, trying to find the central run of Lindsey Horan or try their own luck on frame.
Weaver had success putting Chicago’s defense under pressure with her speed, cutting inside, and beating the Red Stars backline to get on the end of through-balls, while Charley was tasked with dropping back more and beating players on the dribble.
Unfortunately, too many of Portland’s chances were directed high or straight at Chicago’s keepers, never really testing Emily Boyd or Cassie Miller.
Making runs out of midfield, Celeste Boureille looked sharper than she has in a while, threading balls ahead to Weaver and earning her own looks on goal. If she had been slightly quicker in taking those shots, that’s yet another potential scoring opportunity for Portland.
3. Christen Westphal is (almost) a solid utility defender
Earning her first start for the Thorns alongside Smithers—a player making her professional debut—and in front of a goalkeeper playing in her second ever NWSL game, Christen Westphal had a lot of defensive responsibility in this match. With two of Portland’s veteran defenders, Becky Sauerbrunn and Katherine Reynolds, sitting out the game with injuries, this game became Westphal’s chance to prove herself as a reliable depth piece.
And, for the most part, she did just that: anchoring the Thorns defensive line, finding a handful of blocks against a similarly-untested Chicago attack, and carrying that performance outside when Emily Menges came in at halftime.
However, as a team that likes to push high with wingbacks, or play out of the center with the distribution of Reynolds (or now-departed Emily Sonnett or Elizabeth Ball), Westphal’s performance left gaps to be desired. Often, she’d get on the end of balls and simply play it out rather than working her way up the field, or she’d push high to win a ball but miss the header.
Granted, Chicago wasn’t giving Portland all that much time with the ball at their feet, and granted, she’s coming off two injury-ridden seasons, but that’s something Parsons will want to see more of as Westphal earns more time in the future.
4. At some point, we’re going to have to play more than 20 minutes without Lindsey Horan
It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that Horan was everywhere in her time on the field. Whether she was making the run to be Portland’s target in the box or dropping back to help out Madison Pogarch or combining with Celeste Boureille in midfield, her presence was clearly felt across the pitch. And yeah, the Thorns didn’t get as much out of her as they would have liked last year, but otherwise that’s been her role throughout her time with the club.
However, we all saw how battered her shin looked after coming off for Raquel Rodríguez in the 69th minute, and at some point or other in this tournament, the Thorns are going to have to play significant time without her and without Christine Sinclair in the No. 10. Rodríguez can fill one of those roles, but not both—she may be good, but she’s only one person. Boureille showed promise stepping in at the No. 8 today, but she’s still a clear step below The Great Horan. With only three days off between this game and the next, we’ll see what Parsons pulls together.
Players have been tested, teams are beginning to filter into Orlando, and we are just over a week away from kickoff of the MLS is Back Tournament.
Nearly four months have elapsed since LAFC and the Philadelphia Union played to a 3-3 draw back in early March. And before Inter Miami and Orlando City take to the field, Rose City Review talked to Joe Lowery—who currently co-hosts the MLS Assist Podcast—about the Timbers’ potent attack, defensive question marks, and the many ways in which they could create chaos in Orlando.
(The conversation below has been edited for clarity and length)
Kyle Pinnell: It’s been about a week since the draw. What were your initial thoughts on Group F, and more specifically, the Portland Timbers?
Joe Lowery: It’s going to be really interesting in terms of the on-field stuff, right? It’s going to be interesting to see how teams take things and how coaches want to approach the group stage which is actually worth points long term. There are a lot of questions as far as that goes, but looking specifically at Group F, there are a lot of unknowns in that group, I think.
You have LAFC, and we kind of know what we are going to get from them, although it will be interesting with the addition of Andy Najar to see how that is going to change things if he gets minutes. With the Timbers, Houston, and the Galaxy, to be honest with you, those teams all have large question marks around them.
The Timbers, I don’t think they defended well. Their defensive block, which is really really important to how they want to play, wasn’t very solid. The Galaxy are still trying to figure out how to attack with Chicharito and Cristian Pavón, and then the Houston Dynamo are right in this revamp under Tab Ramos, and they’ve only had two games to sort that out—those games were without Alberth Elis. We don’t really know what the Dynamo look like, we know what the Timbers want to be, and we know what the Galaxy want to be, but they aren’t there yet either. There are a lot of unknowns, especially after LAFC, in that group.
Pinnell: Yeah. We know how the Timbers want to play, they want to press and play a beautiful style of soccer, but that has turned into counter-attacking, playing long balls over the top, and hoping for interesting results. Over the first few games of the season, what have you seen when you watched the Timbers?
Lowery: With the Timbers, it’s interesting to me because every coach says that they are going to play with the ball, every coach wants to have the ball for the most part. The Timbers, in a way, still have the pieces to do that. They have two of the highest skilled on-ball players in the league with [Diego] Valeri and Sebastián Blanco. You think about having those two guys as attacking midfielders in a possession scheme, that sounds pretty nice, I love that idea. You have Diego Chará who is nice on the ball as well and he can do things in possession as a number six.
They have options here in certain spots, but not all the way around, and I think that is the problem here. They have guys along the backline, specifically center backs, that I don’t think are great with the ball. I’ll have to watch them more, but they never stood out to me as being these offensive powerhouses, which makes it difficult to keep possession a lot of the time.
Whether it’s the center backs or it is the fullbacks or the team not having that cohesion in possession, so often I think they revert to what seems to be their DNA for one reason or another. That’s sit in a defensive pocket, press occasionally, and then win the ball and have Diego Valeri and Sebastian Blanco be the playmakers on the fast break. They can do more things than that. They can hold the ball and play through those guys in possession, but for some reason, they seem to continue to go back to that counter-attacking style, which is fine, it’s a totally viable approach, it just seems like they are lacking a little bit in terms of their tactical identity with the ball on the field.
Photo by Kris Lattimore
Pinnell: Going back to what you’ve seen out of the Timbers, when you watch them in Orlando, what will you have to see change to make it seem like the team is going in the right direction or that you’re seeing positive change?
Lowery: I think with the Timbers, seeing them shore up their defensive block would be big. Because I don’t think they’re ever going to be the team that has the ball for 60 percent of the game, or at least not in most games. When you’re not that team, your defensive block is really important because you’re playing against the ball for a lot of the game.
Going back to LAFC as an example, imagining a matchup between those two teams on the field, right now I don’t have a lot of confidence in the Timbers’ defensive shape to be able to contain a possessive team like that. But if they come in, they understand their roles in a defensive block—if they’re in a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, whatever it is—they understand their assignments, where they need to be, and how they’re going to shift to deny penetration and force the ball wide if that’s what [head coach] Gio [Savarese] wants to do. They’re going to need to know when to trap, when not to trap, and when to step versus when not to step. If they can work that out, and if they have worked that out in this last three-month break, that’s going to be a great asset for them. That takes the Timbers from being a bad team in my mind to being a dangerous team that you don’t really want to play.
Pinnell: Looking at Diego Chará, he sometimes drops into the backline to help the team build possession and carry the ball into the midfield. How do you see the Timbers getting the ball from the backline, which you’ve said yourself doesn’t have any players excel at playing out of the back, into the midfield where they can be more dangerous?
Lowery: Having [Diego] Chará drop a little bit is a look that I actually really like with the Timbers. Maybe it’s Valeri, maybe it’s Blanco, maybe it’s Paredes dropping in a little bit; it allows the midfielders to get touches on the ball and distribute, which I appreciate. You just find the balance with that because you also want Valeri and Blanco higher up the field as well. Maybe you bring one of them down deeper into midfielder and you have the other one staying a little higher, that’s fine. I like that rotation with [Diego] Chará dropping from his six spot in between the center backs, moving the center backs out wide, pushing the full backs a little higher, and then you have Valeri and Blanco in those interior channels or in the middle of the field.
Then you have Yimmi Chará or whoever else is playing up front, that allows you to get those guys touches off of passes from Valeri and Blanco. Moving [Diego] Chará deeper I actually think is a pretty sustainable and successful look for the Timbers.
Pinnell: Now, when you observe the roster as a whole, who are some important players that you will be keeping an eye on?
Lowery: I want to see if/when/where Jeremy Ebobisse plays. I don’t think anybody really knows where he is going to play. I think that he should play as a [No.] 9 or as part of a front two, but that can be difficult with needing to give Valeri some touches up top, or how do you defend as part of a front line in a defensive block. I want to see where Ebobisse factors in, because I think he has something to bring to the table that he hasn’t had the chance to show for the Timbers.
Outside of that, I want to see more from Paredes as well in midfield. He’s a guy who is the unsung hero of that midfield in a lot of ways. [Diego] Chará gets a lot of headlines, and then Valeri and Blanco get the rest, so it’s a little challenging to know exactly what impact he’s going to have in this tournament. I like him as a player; I want to see more of him and focus on him more in that Timbers midfield. So Ebobisse and Paredes are the two guys for me that I am curious to watch with a more analytical eye on this tournament.
Photo by Kris Lattimore
Pinnell: We started our conversation by talking about Group F as a whole, and honestly, the two teams that advance from the group could be a toss-up. With every team having questions, it might come down to which team has the most tactically adept coach who can tinker enough to find that formula to get them through the group. What coach do you think gives his team a distinct advantage for that second spot?
Lowery: So far, Barros Schelotto has been very predictable with how he plays, getting crosses into the box early and often throughout games. I think that unless we have a come-to-Jesus moment there with Barros Schelotto, then we’re going to see the same thing which is fairly predictable in a lot of ways.
Tab Ramos, I just straight up don’t know. Houston’s roster I don’t think is as talented as the Galaxy’s, maybe more similar to the Timbers in that regard. And with Gio Savarese, they’ve got the MLS Cup appearance, sure, but I’m not necessarily convinced that the Timbers are the finished product right now either. I’m not sure whether one coach has the tactical edge over another, to be quite honest with you.
Outside of Bob Bradley—I think he’s the number one guy in this group if we’re looking at just coaches. In terms of talent, though, if the Galaxy don’t advance from this group, and they actually try because we don’t know how the on-field quality is going to be, with Cristian Pavon especially—who I think is right up there with Carlos Vela in terms of best player in MLS, I think we’ll see that if we get a season this year—if they don’t make it out of this group, that’s going to be a little more unfortunate for them than it is for the Timbers or Dynamo. But as far as coaches go, I think it’s pretty even.
Pinnell: I agree, Bob Bradley definitely seems to be a level above most other coaches in this league. In an article that I recently published, I mentioned how the Timbers might be able to exploit space between lines. In a tournament like this, how do you think that the team could create that space?
Lowery: I think first of all that LAFC and Houston will open themselves up, which is good for a team like Portland because they want to attack into that open space. Looking at the Galaxy, that’s a different question. A lot of times they are going to get forward just because of the roster they have. They have the attacking talent, so it would be ridiculous for them not to get forward.
Still though, the Galaxy don’t play the same way that LAFC do or that Tab Ramos wants to do with Houston. So against a team like the Galaxy, they’re going to have to have possession a little bit more. They’re going to have to rely on their playmakers to get balls in from the backline or from Diego Chará, and then allow Diego Valeri’s off-ball movement, which is very very good, and have that captain them to better possession results. They have the tools in possession, and in the attack especially.
Getting the ball to Diego Valeri is one thing, but once they get the ball there, if they can get the ball there, then you are really cooking with something. If Valeri and Blanco can get on the ball in dangerous spots and get the ball to those spots in the first place, then the Timbers can pose a real threat with the ball against a team like LA. Creating and exploiting space in possession is going to be the thing for them, and I really do think that it comes down to how well their playmakers can get into spots and then distribute from there.
The rest of our conversation with Lowery is available in audio format for our $10 Patrons. You can find it under the “Patreon” tab on our website.
There was a tweet today, from a certain talking head/professional troll in the soccer space, about how we’ve reached the point—four years after Colin Kaepernick lost his job for declaring his life mattered as much as those of his white teammates, four years after US Soccer prohibited its players from publicly standing with him—where athletes find it hard not to kneel for the anthem.
It’s an incredibly inane, annoying take, engineered to provoke outrage, and that’s why I’m not linking to it here. Still, I think it expresses a line of reasoning that appeals to broad segments of white America, and that line of reasoning is worth unpacking.
To get the obvious out of the way: being wrong about this issue, or any human rights issue, is not brave, merely evil.
To dig down a little further: if you were an alien just finding out about human customs, seeing the photo at the top of this article with no further context, you probably would come to the conclusion that human beings kneel on one knee before sporting events, and that not doing so is a breech of custom that takes a certain amount of courage. This is how our species is wired, for the most part; it’s difficult for us to do things other than what people around us are doing.
But that conclusion willfully erases context. These players didn’t all show up to the stadium and put on their Black Lives Matter shirts because they saw everyone else was wearing them; nobody scrambled to take a knee when the anthem started to avoid looking out of place. This was a concerted, intentional effort by players on both teams—across the whole league, even. They had talked about this. They had listened to each other. This was not an easy decision.
Conversations within teams didn’t all start right away. Simone Charley talked to The Equalizer about how hard it was, in the days after George Floyd’s murder, showing up to training and deciding to act like soccer mattered, and seeing how easily that decision came to her white teammates.
In Portland, it took a few days for those conversations to start—prompted by both Black and white players, but in particular, according to Sophia Smith, by AD Franch—and nobody should take for granted that they started at all. They happened because Black women on these teams did the work of talking to their white teammates about experiences those same teammates haven’t always been willing to listen to. This sport is as white as it’s ever been, and many of the players who kneeled today come from backgrounds that haven’t forced them to ever think critically about racism—that have, in fact, actively discouraged it.
So while it’s true there’s been a massive, sudden shift in public opinion over the last month on the acceptability of publicly opposing racism, don’t think for a second that this show of support for Black lives was a foregone conclusion. It wasn’t the brands that brought us here. It was Black players fighting for their lives and finally being heard by their teammates.
Furthermore, there are stark facts here, facts that will be recorded in history: these players took their stance in an empty stadium, but that empty stadium was on broadcast television. As the first American sports league to return to play. That’s the biggest platform women’s club soccer has ever been on.
The players knew what this platform meant. It meant they were opening themselves up to criticism that no doubt would also have been directed at male athletes doing the same thing, but which, no doubt, will be more vicious thanks to their gender. Have things changed since 2016, when Crystal Dunn didn’t kneel because she was afraid—for good reason—USSF might “rip up her contract“? Of course. But you’d have to be an alien to sincerely believe there won’t be backlash.
But this is what can’t get lost in the noise: the players also knew how significant the moment was, and they knew they had to take it, and use it to say something. It’s okay for us to be proud of that.
The danger is in letting this gesture exist as a mere gesture, and in deciding once the tournament is over that we’ve all done enough. It’s great that we’ve finally reached the point in this league where players can express solidarity against racism and police violence without fearing for their jobs. Now it’s on us, at home, to commit to standing with them and doing the actual work of putting an end to those things.
Portland Thorns team in Black Lives Matter warmups. Rob Gray / ISI Photos
The NWSL Challenge Cup has begun, marking the return of live professional sports to the United States.
In a reminder of just how much has been going on in the world outside the NWSL bubble, all the starting players wore Black Lives Matter warm-up shirts and Black Lives Matter armbands throughout the game, and took a knee for the national anthem. Which was played by a saxophonist in a suit, with slicked-back hair, who could not resist getting in some delicious licks at the end of a very smooth rendition of the Star-Spangled banner.
This strange image just about summed up the odd sensations of watching live sports again: the seriousness of the threats against life around the globe—Black life in particular—weighs on us all. We stand in solidarity.
The Thorns played better than expected for a young squad who saw significant departures in the off-season, and it was only a late defensive lapse that cost the Thorns a point in stoppage time. Leaving Lynn Williams unmarked is a very familiar way to lose against North Carolina, but the competitiveness showed by a young team in what was effectively a preseason game was admirable. Simone Charley notched her first goal for the team off a Lindsey Horan header for the only Thorns goal in a 2-1 opening day loss.
1. Raquel Rodríguez is the real deal
The Thorns swapping an iconic defender in Emily Sonnett for the player taken after her in the 2016 College Draft was a huge moment in the off-season. Rodríguez (affectionately called “Rocky”) has been a solid NWSL contributor for years, but did a midfield already stacked with talent really need another attacking player?
Yes, it turns out. Rodríguez was a killer addition in midfield, keeping the team ticking over well, holding the ball up and waiting for support, and even putting in some impressive defensive play. Getting overrun by North Carolina’s four midfielders has been an issue for the Thorns in the past, and Rodríguez’s competitive energy and strength were much-needed additions. It looks like this pairing with Lindsey Horan might work out after all.
2. Bella Bixby is ready for the spotlight
She got thrown directly into the fire against the team that shoots more than any other team in the league, but Milwaukie, Oregon’s own Bella Bixby had an impressive NWSL debut. She got tempted off her line unadvisedly for the Courage’s first goal, but otherwise showed well in her first competitive minutes, getting called upon regularly to defend her near post, nabbing everything she could in the air and holding some real rockets from distance.
AD Franch being a late scratch for the whole tournament was bad news for the team. But this is such a weird tournament, one where the Thorns get to try out stuff they normally wouldn’t. Giving Bixby a chance after two years with the club feels right, and she didn’t disappoint. It’s hard to feel like the future isn’t secure.
3. Parsons has some clever squad management plans
Seeing Tyler Lussi and the newly-signed Marissa Everett in the starting lineup threw a few people for a loop. While both players who have made an impact in their minutes for the club, they seem like they would be further down the depth chart than others. After halftime though, it quickly became clear what the plan was: Morgan Weaver and Simone Charley were double-subbed on for the starting forwards and immediately went to work, with Charley scoring and both looking dangerous the remainder of the game.
Charley has been minutes-limited in her time with the club, even in normal NWSL play. She’s clearly a sprinter who leaves it all on the field, and up against tired defenses, this could be a real game changer. Weaver is still getting used to professional fitness. Especially in the opening stages of this tournament, both can be maximized by holding them in reserve from the start. And with five substitutions now allowed per game, why not? It’s a pretty different approach to soccer than most people think of (where your best players must always start) but it’s worth a shot, and it will be interesting to see if it stays the same through the knockout rounds.
4. Aggressive defense works, except when it doesn’t
The Thorns defense has many qualities. They are not as fast as the North Carolina Courage’s attackers. Therefore, they should sit back as deep as they can, right?
Wrong. Becky Sauerbrunn, playing in her first game in Thorns colors, played her markers incredibly aggressively, coming well upfield to head away from Lynn Williams. Kelli Hubly, starting her first game in a while, looked excellent going to ground to win balls near the edge of North Carolina’s penalty box to unsettle them and prevent them from having an easy time building out of the back. It’s hard to say it didn’t work.
And yet, at the same time, the winning goal was conceded because Sauerbrunn was caught upfield trying to cut out a pass, which left two Courage players unmarked at the back post, when most would probably say that the team should have been trying to protect a point.
There’s no doubting that the Thorns made a real impact on the Courage’s midfield buildup in this game, and it cut down on their shooting opportunities throughout. Looking a little foolish once or twice on the break is normally a trade-off that the team will take. Some one has to step up and be the hero in that kind of situation, and looking at Bixby’s face after she conceded, she clearly felt like it should have been her. Those kinds of decisions will get more automatic for her in the future, but she shouldn’t feel too bad about it: the team made a calculated gamble—one that meant that they would sometimes end up in those situations.
With the NWSL set to become the first American sports league to attempt a restart, the eight teams—minus the Orlando Pride, who, as we learned Monday, will sit out due to multiple positive COVID-19 tests on the team—that will participate in the Challenge Cup released their rosters yesterday.
One thing is certain: between a huge amount of offseason tumult and a stack of last-minute contracts—not to mention yesterday’s announcement that Tobin Heath will not participate—this won’t be a Thorns team we’ve ever seen before. A few of our thoughts on the newly announced roster are below.
Katelyn Best
Let’s just have fun, ok?
The Thorns, presumably, had a plan heading into this season. Amid whispers of a needed culture change, the club sent half the roster packing, snagged two promising young forwards at the draft, and made moves for Becky Sauerbrunn and Rocky Rodríguez. Fill in a few more blanks, and it’s easy to envision a good soccer team materializing—but those blanks never got filled. What we’re left with is pieces to a whole that never got finished.
Things were cast into even more doubt last week with the departure of Ellie Carpenter. With her departure, Sauerbrunn—a legendary but aging, and slowing, center back—starts to look less adequate as the season’s big defensive acquisition. The team has options at right back, but it’s hard to envision any of them filling Carpenter’s shoes on day one against North Carolina.
But here’s the good news: soccer is a game. More good news: this “season” isn’t real. Even more good news: historically, the Thorns have played some of their most fun, memorable games without their veterans. This isn’t the same as a World Cup or an Olympics—Lindsey Horan and Christine Sinclair will be there—but the tight schedule means we’re sure to see more squad rotation than we normally would. The sheer volume of new names on this roster means it’s impossible to guess which players are going to be the Meg Morrises or Simone Charleys of this tournament.
That’s not to mention the proven names new to this Thorns roster; Rodríguez obviously falls into that category, as does, I would argue, Sophia Smith. This group of forwards, in particular, is mostly quite young, and none of them are French, but I’d bet they’re going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Wacky stuff is going to happen in this tournament. Let’s enjoy it, yeah?
Photo by Nikita Taparia
The Lindsey Horan conundrum
I have this theory that’s going to sound ridiculous when I say it, but bear with me: Horan is a problem. More specifically, the role Horan plays for the Thorns is a problem.
In 2016 and 2017, Portland deployed Horan and Amandine Henry in the central midfield as dual No. 8s. Both could play disruptor, both could set plays in motion, and both could make forward runs and score themselves. They would trade off on these duties, one sitting back while the other pushed into the attack, and this worked because Henry is just as good at all those things as Horan.
When Henry left, Mark Parsons wanted to continue using the same system, swapping Andressinha in alongside Horan. This went… less well. Andressinha simply isn’t a strong or physical enough player to fill that role. Since then, a succession of players have been tapped to fill that third midfield slot, including Celeste Boureille, Dagný Brynjarsdóttir, and Gabby Seiler. Boureille, for a moment in 2018, worked well; she doesn’t have Henry or Horan’s creative brilliance, but she proved to be a good disruptor deep in midfield. Seiler, for a still briefer moment in 2019, looked even more promising. But none of them have played as Horan’s double like Henry did—unsurprising, seeing as none of them are in the conversation for being the best central midfielder in the world.
This is the question: is there another player anywhere on earth capable of playing a second No. 8 alongside Horan as effectively as Henry did?
Parsons intends to try again with Rodríguez. On its face at least, this makes a lot more sense than trying to convert Andressinha into a No. 8 did, seeing as Rodríguez has played a box-to-box role in the NWSL, you know, ever, although never in the same system; at Sky Blue, she played alongside Sarah Killion, a much more defensive player than Horan. The question is how well Rodríguez can partner with a player who, at any moment, can show up anywhere on the field.
I’d describe myself as curious, leaning toward optimistic about this. At any rate, I’m excited to see Rodríguez, who I think has been underperforming for a few years, in a new environment. And if it doesn’t turn out? Try her at right back, why not!
Photo by Nikita Taparia
Leo Baudhuin
What the heck is going on with defense?
With all of nine players listed as defenders on this roster, one presumably would not have as many questions about Portland’s back line as I do. With a schedule that has the Thorns playing their opening three games over the course of nine days, rotation is going to happen, and I think it’s going to happen sooner than we expect.
If you look at a back four of Meghan Klingenberg, Emily Menges, Sauerbrunn, and Katherine Reynolds, something comes to the forefront pretty quickly: three of them are over 30 and two of them aren’t particularly fast. (Menges, of course, is the exception in both these statements, and Sauerbrunn isn’t slow, per se, but as Katelyn points out above, she’s definitely past her peak.) And while they’re all very capable players, the quartet leaves something to be desired against a fast, high-pressing North Carolina.
On the other hand, Parsons isn’t exactly known for throwing young players into the line of fire. But if these games don’t really matter, there’s no time like the present to experiment, right? Yeah, there’s still Kelli Hubly and Christen Westphal—and where is Seiler going to play? As the No. 6 in a diamond midfield? Somewhere in defense?—but I personally think it would be very cool if Madison Pogarch got the start on Saturday. And why not give Meaghan Nally and Autumn Smithers some time in this tournament while we’re at it?
Photo by Nikita Taparia
Some good news
Guess what I remembered today? Two-time NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year Adrianna Franch still plays for the Thorns. Not only that, but she won’t be missing games that she could be playing with the Thorns for national team duty.
Given the experimentation we’re going to see with this team, having arguably the best keeper in the league—and undisputedly the one with the best handling—means, worst comes to worst, at least we’ll see some great goalkeeping.
Tyler Nguyen
Young attackers will be in the spotlight
Tobin Heath has chosen to stay at home for this tournament. That is her right as a player, and it’s one that all the players in the NWSL have, as guaranteed by the negotiations between the player’s association and the league. Looking at the state of coronavirus cases in the US and Utah specifically, it’s a perfectly reasonable decision to make, and knowing how much she lives for soccer, it has to be an incredibly painful one.
What it means for the team is that, with the departures of Midge Purce, Hayley Raso, and Caitlin Foord in the offseason, no regular-rotation players from the 2019 forward line will play in the NWSL Challenge Cup. Sure, Christine Sinclair is listed as a forward, but you and I both know that’s not how it works, and in a compressed schedule, it’s even less how it works. Sinclair is simply not going to be running around full tilt for 90 minutes on three day’s rest, as much as I’m sure she wants to.
No, the forward line is going to a rotation of players who, while extremely talented, haven’t proven themselves as starters in the NWSL yet. This is going to be an attacking bullpen with no hierarchy and no secure starting places. Expectations are high for some of the talent on hand, but there’s quite a bit of depth, so the team can afford to take some risks if things need to be shifted around.
Heath has such gravity in the team and is so important that when she’s in the team they will almost always play in a very specific way, with Heath one of the three up front drifting inside. No one plays exactly how she does, so without her, Parsons has experimented with back threes, relying on wingbacks for depth. But with Carpenter’s departure, the team has only one proven attacking option from deep in Klingenberg.
So where is the attack going to come from? Sophia Smith and Morgan Weaver, the Thorns’ first-round draft picks, were both wide players who specialized in cutting inside and shooting in college. The Thorns could, in theory, play only them up top and load up another player in midfield to get more creation there. That would mean leaving Simone Charley and Tyler Lussi out of lineups though, and both are high-energy players whose styles of play, in totally different ways, can completely throw defenses off guard. Charley’s ability with the ball at her feet on the break, and Lussi’s combination of strength and shooting mastery will both likely prove useful up against different defenses. Marissa Everett showed off a knack for poaching shots in her limited minutes last year, impressing the team enough to earn a contract this year, and Anika Rodriguez, yet another undrafted player the Thorns picked up this offseason, flashed some creative passing playing alongside Ashley Sanchez at UCLA. The depth probably doesn’t even end there. Parsons loves throwing young defenders into the fray as attackers: this is where Pogarch got her first minutes for the club, so the new defenders could absolutely see some minutes there. The possibilities seem endless. It’s now on these young players to make the most of their opportunities.
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