Tag: crystal dunn

Categories
Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Racing Louisville 2, Portland Thorns 1

Photo by Matthew Wolfe.

Down Sophia Smith and on the second match of a two-game road trip, the Portland Thorns took on Racing Louisville on Saturday. Portland has yet to take points from two back-to-back road games this season, and they weren’t able to break that streak in Kentucky; after leaving with a draw against the Washington Spirit the weekend before, the Thorns fell 2-1 to Racing in a match that didn’t feel like Portland’s best work—even without Smith.

So, where did the Thorns go wrong?

Set pieces, for one. They’ve been one of Portland’s weaker points all season, and Racing took advantage. Both of Louisville’s goals—an Abby Erceg header and a brilliant strike from Thembi Kgatlana—came off corner kicks.

But that wasn’t the only thing Portland struggled with.

“We’re probably our own worst enemy,” defender Meghan Klingenberg said after the game. “We gave the ball away in spots that we don’t usually give the ball away in, and that led to some counterattacks and transitions that were difficult to defend because we were in a big shape. I think that typically doesn’t happen to this team.”

The first six minutes

Make no mistake: Racing was ready for this one. They came out with an aggressive press in midfield, showing organized marking and pressure when the Thorns had the ball and a commitment to pick off passes, go forward, and turn any chance they had into a shot.

“Credit to Louisville,” Thorns goalkeeper Bella Bixby said. “Their tactic was to be high-pressing and have all their numbers around the ball, and they did that well.”

The Thorns, for their part, were caught on the back foot and were rather lucky (more on that soon) to get out of those opening minutes without conceding a goal.

Perhaps just as impressive was Morgan Weaver, who won the ball off Louisville goalkeeper Katie Lund, took the ball to the left, and sent her shot into the back of the net in the sixth minute. It was a very Weaver goal: making something out of nothing, and—even if it wasn’t in the dying moments of a game—scoring for Portland at a time they really needed it. (In my game notes, I described the goal as, “Morgan Weaver doing Morgan Weaver things.”)

Even if Weaver scoring didn’t allow Portland to shift into the commanding attack we’re used to seeing them Thorns, it at least settled the game down and opened up chances for both sides.

Luck and Bella Bixby

As alluded to above, the Thorns were lucky to go into the half 1-0. Racing finished the match with 26 shots to Portland’s 15—a stat that normally favors the Thorns—putting nine of them on target to the Thorns’ four. They ended the game with 1.8 xG, with many of their best chances coming before Weaver’s goal in the first half:

That the Thorns didn’t concede early—and that Louisville wasn’t able to get on the scoresheet until Erceg broke through in the 60th minute—was largely due to two factors: luck and a stellar performance from Bixby.

In many of those opening chances, Racing struggled to direct their shots on frame, giving the Thorns a lucky break.

But Louisville did direct quite a few of those on target, calling on Bixby to make seven saves on the night. (Prior to Racing, she’d made an average of three and a half saves per game in regular season competition.)

“I definitely think it was one of my busier games in terms of goal-defending,” Bixby said. “I find myself in games, oftentimes, most busy with defending the box in terms of crosses.”

It wasn’t only that Bixby was busy in goal; even with the two goals against, she did well to defend her net. “A really big performance from her,” Portland head coach Mike Norris said. “She kept the [Thorns] in the game far longer than we probably should have been.”

Especially with a shaky—by her standards—middle of the 2023 season, it’s nice to see Bixby finding her form and giving Portland a fighting chance when they were on the back foot, even if they didn’t go on to win.

Formation or fatigue?

“They played a good game,” Klingenberg said of Louisville, “and I think their transition was pretty lethal. But I think we played right into it. We shot ourselves in our own foot.”

It’s not the first time Portland’s come up against that kind of pressure, Klingenberg said. And she’s right: the Thorns have had a target on their backs since the first time they stepped on the field as the reigning NWSL champions and beat the Orlando Pride 4-0 in their opener. And they’ve found ways to win despite that.

For some reason, though, Portland just wasn’t good enough in this one.

We can probably chalk some of it up to fatigue: the Thorns haven’t been home since before their matchup against the Spirit, and being on the road for that long can weigh on you.

“If we were more crisp, if we connected passes, if we skipped over top of their press, then we could have gotten past it,” Klingenberg said, and I think we can attribute at least some of that lack of sharpness to Portland’s road stint.

But I also wonder how much of it is up to tactics and the Thorns’ formation. As Jaiden wrote last week, it’s important for Norris to play to the strengths of the forwards he has available. In this case, that’s Weaver and Hannah Betfort. Weaver, obviously, got her goal, and Betfort got a couple chances off and showed well in her off-the-ball pressure, but I don’t think the Thorns were feeding the ball into either of them nearly enough.

I think some of that could’ve been helped by formation—maybe by pushing Olivia Moultrie more centrally into the space of Hina Sugita and asking Moultrie to open up space while Sugita takes on defenders on the wing.

I think a lot of that could’ve been helped by letting Crystal Dunn play before the 61st minute—maybe in the place of Moultrie and slipping Sugita into that wider position—and letting her open up space going forward. Even in her half hour on the field, Dunn tied Betfort and Weaver for first on the team in shots and was fourth in expected goals—despite playing significantly fewer minutes than everyone in front of her.

Tactics or tiredness, Portland has a chance to rest and regroup after this one. They have two weeks between Louisville and their next match against OL Reign, where they’ll take on a Seattle side that’s won only one of their last five matches but has a lot to play for with Megan Rapinoe appearing in her last Cascadia Rivalry game in Providence Park.

Categories
Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Courage 3, Thorns 3

Photo by Kris Lattimore.

Last Saturday, the Portland Thorns earned their second consecutive 3-3 draw, fighting back from going down a goal three separate times against the North Carolina Courage.

“I think to find ourselves down three times, it’s probably hard for to wrap me head around,” Thorns head coach Mike Norris said after the game, “but group kept pushing”—showing a resilience and rebound that Norris said he was “really proud of.”

So, let’s break all that down.

In defense of Emily Menges

Portland was unlucky to go down in the first minute, after a North Carolina cross deflected weirdly off of Thorns defender Emily Menges. It’s the third time the Thorns have conceded off an unfortunate deflection this year—the first being a Meaghan Nally own-goal against the San Diego Wave—and I’m not really sure what to make of that happening twice in the first month and a half of 2023 play. Are the new white kits cursed? Possibly.

North Carolina’s other two goals came in the forms of a brilliant individual effort from Kerolin and Courage rookie Olivia Wingate nutmegging Menges and getting off a cross to meet Victoria Pickett’s near-post run.

“I don’t want to be a team that’s conceded three goals,” Norris said, “but I didn’t think it was a poor defensive performance. I thought it was anything but that, to be honest.”

I don’t think Norris is outright wrong—it wasn’t an awful defensive performance—but the Thorns definitely could’ve been better on North Carolina’s third goal.

In that play, the Courage are working the ball up Portland’s left flank. As we’ve alluded to above, Kerolin sends a ball ahead to Wingate, who drives endline and ‘megs Menges. Klingenberg has been drawn out to mark Kerolin, so it’s center-back Kelli Hubly who has to step to Wingate, leaving Pickett in space.

As we see above, Hubly stepping leaves Natalia Kuikka marking two Courage players (Pickett near post and Tyler Lussi far post). Dunn and Sam Coffey have been standing at the top of the box and are just beginning their runs to cover—but it’s too late.

Of the goals, this one feels the most like a situation that could’ve been avoided with a little more communication and anticipation. Even if Menges doesn’t get beat here, the Thorns are defending three-on-three, which is a situation they’d want to avoid.

(In Menges’ defense, she also wasn’t the only Thorn to get beat on a North Carolina goal; Coffey dove in too early against Kerolin on the Courage’s second goal, getting beat and leaving Kerolin with far too much space in the center of the field.)

Still, I don’t think that’s a cause for concern, yet. Even though individual players got beat on North Carolina’s second and third goals, Portland’s other defenders weren’t able to effectively drop back and cover—an issue that will hopefully resolve itself as the team gets more used to playing together. Or as Crystal Dunn put it postgame, “We’re still early enough in the season where we know that it’s just these growing pains that we’re going to go through.”

Portland can still hurt you in so many ways

Outside of capitalizing on their chances, North Carolina, for their part, put together a pretty solid performance against the Thorns—especially in their work limiting Portland’s space in midfield. The Thorns, for their part, were forced to play wide or find quick passes through the center of the park, the latter of which they struggled to do consistently.

“We’re a team that’s at our best when we’re fluid,” Dunn said, “when we’re able to break teams down and not be stagnant.” Portland’s second goal was a prime example of that, she said.

In the buildup to the goal, we can see the Courage’s pressure—and the Thorns successfully playing out of that through quick passes. After Sophia Smith’s flick on to Meghan Klingenberg’s overlapping run, Dunn just has to push toward goal from where she’s sitting at the top of North Carolina’s box to get on the end of the cross.

Portland’s other two goals—the first from Dunn and the third from Olivia Moultrie—show another area where the Thorns found success: in their late runs out of midfield.

While we’re here, let’s take a moment to appreciate Moultrie’s game-tying goal—the cherry on top of her impressive performance off the bench.

It’s still incredibly silly that, as a 17-year-old, she isn’t eligible for a player of the week nomination after that.

Categories
Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Current 1, Thorns 4

Photo by Nikita Taparia.

It isn’t easy to follow up a 4-0 season-opening home victory, but the Portland Thorns did just that Saturday in Kansas City. Portland’s 4-1 win over last year’s NWSL Championship runners-up—featuring a dominant first half and a Sophia Smith hat trick—positions them at the top of the NWSL table, tied on points with the San Diego Wave.

Despite soccer being a game of two halves, the match was something of a three-act performance: the opening 45 minutes where the Thorns dominated, Kansas City threatening and scoring early in the second half, and Smith doing Sophia Smith things in the last 10 minutes to dam the Current’s attempted comeback.

Here’s a takeaway from each of those.

 1. The first half (or: Crystal Dunn)

As Jaiden wrote in their takeaways last week, the Thorns have started their 2023 season where they left off last year. Which is to say they’re still absolutely stacked with talented players who are used to playing together and won the NWSL Championship in 2022. And the Thorns have someone who was missing for much of their 2022 campaign: USWNT star, 2019 World Cup champion, and 2015 NWSL MVP Crystal Dunn.

It was Dunn who opened the scoring for Portland on Saturday, when Sam Coffey found her near post on a short corner kick and Dunn had time to control the ball, look up, and slot her shot past AD Franch.

The third-minute goal set the tone for Portland—and for Dunn’s performance, specifically—that first half.

“She was everywhere,” Smith said after the game, “defensively, offensively, spinning people.”

For Dunn, it was exactly the game she was looking for. “I literally love playing in the midfield,” she said. “It’s honestly where I feel like I’m most authentic to who I am as a player. When I’m able to connect with the forwards to be able to put them in the best position to succeed, it fills me with so much joy.”

And find her teammates she did. Dunn completed an impressive 92.3% of her passes against the Current—far ahead of anyone else on the team.

“She was doing it all,” Smith said. “It’s so much fun to play with her because you trust and you know that she’s going to be right there with you when you go to press and she’s going to be right there with you when you’re attacking.”

But Dunn wasn’t alone in her standout first half. “What I felt all of the first half was just us connecting and people making the right passes making the right decisions,” she said. “Even if it didn’t work out, it was collectively just getting back on the same page and working hard to win the ball back.”

2. Beginning the second half (or: the questions)

The thing is, we’ve seen the Thorns look really, really good this season, but we’ve seen them look really, really good against teams that are not at their best. The Orlando Pride were… not great when Portland beat them in their season opener, and Kansas City could almost field an entire star-studded XI from their injury report on Saturday.

That’s not to say that rookie Gabrielle Robinson didn’t make a few key blocks on Smith in the first half or that Franch’s positioning didn’t stifle a couple promising looks from the Thorns, but the Current’s defense was a very scrapped-together-last-minute kind of deal.

But something clearly happened during Kansas City’s halftime because they came out of the locker room ready to fight. After conceding all of one shot in the first half, the Thorns were caught on the back foot in the second, stuck defending as the Current forced one turnover and resulting chance after another.

“They fixed some things,” Portland head coach Mike Norris said. “They came up with a different energy, which we didn’t match. We had to ride that storm.” And though they did ride it, the Thorns didn’t come out unscathed; they conceded their first goal of the season to an unmarked Cece Kizer header in the 58th minute.

“I think how the team responds says a lot more about us riding the wave of momentum,” Dunn said. “We were able to get back into it, keep our heads high, staying together, everyone was positive. I think that’s really what this team is about—just being able to solve problems and do it in a way that’s positive and encouraging for everybody to kind of get on the same page.”

Although the Thorns were able to claw their way back into the game, the early second half is a good reminder that scoring four goals every match is probably not a sustainable practice, especially this season.

Maybe it’s just me still having flashbacks to 2019—does that one Courage game still haunt anyone else?—but there is a pretty large part of me that cares less about winning games 4-0 and more about Seeing That Mike Norris is Preparing for a World Cup Year.

“The key is for us to be consistent,” Norris said of upcoming international player absences, “just in terms of the environment that we create every day. The expectations that we have of the players is a big piece, regardless of who’s in or who’s not.”

All this is to say that the Thorns are really good right now, and it’s probably safe to assume that will hold true in the near future. But Portland hasn’t really played against another full-strength squad yet, and this is a year where we’ll have players in and out of the team more so than usual, and this is Norris’ first season as a head coach in this league. I’m not ready to make judgements about what we’ve seen so far means for the rest of the season yet. Still, I’m excited to watch what we have going in the meantime.

3. The last 10 minutes (or: Sophia Smith)

As mentioned above, the Current came out of the gates swinging in the second half, and it was the first time this year—in the admittedly small sample size of two games—we’ve seen the Thorns stuck trying to simply keep their opponents from scoring. The important part here is that KC cut Portland’s lead in half, and the Thorns needed something to turn the momentum back in their favor.

That something—or, rather, someone—was, unsurprisingly, Smith, who’d already put away a Portland penalty in the first half. In the 83rd minute, Smith scored her first goal in the run of play, taking on four Current players on the dribble before sneaking a shot past Franch.

“Soph is just out there doing Soph things,” Dunn said in the postgame press conference. “I expect nothing less.”

Soph continued to do Soph things in the 88th minute, finding space at the top of the box and sending a low ball into the back of the net. “I was so shocked that I had more than two seconds to think about what I was going to do,” she said. “That was definitely new to me.”

Bonus: KC takes an L (or three)

Mostly I am still obsessed with the KC photoshop here, although I do think there should be three Smiths.

Categories
Soccer

NWSL Semifinal Preview: Let the Players Play

Credit: Kris Lattimore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Soccer Thorns

Takeaways: Thorns 1, Courage 0

Credit: Nikita Taparia

The Thorns recorded their first ever win away against the Courage on Sunday. The game was touted as a “top of the table clash,” and Kelli Hubly said afterward that “rivalry between the Courage and the Thorns might be bigger than that against the Reign” because both teams have won multiple NWSL titles. Despite the 1-0 scoreline and the Thorns’s 2-0 loss in Cary earlier this year, Portland dictated the tempo from the beginning and dominated in shots, possession, and passing. 

The Courage didn’t look as threatening as they have previously this season—they were unbeaten in their last seven games—and weren’t able to get many shots off. While this could be attributed to internal issues and player turnover on the team, the Thorns’s midfield have to get credit for effectively pressing and shutting down North Carolina’s box midfield.

In the above image (Thorns are moving left to right), it’s easy to see how much space the diamond midfield had. Angela Salem has the ball in the center of the pitch, and she has several easy passes to choose between. There are four Courage players within about a 10-yard radius, all of whom are behind the play. She chooses to play it forward to Crystal Dunn, who holds the ball and feeds it through for Sophia Smith to go 1v1 on goal. 

Due to the fact that the Thorns can never seem to have all their forwards healthy at the same time, Christine Sinclair has transitioned into playing the No. 9 striker role since she returned from the Olympics. This switch allows Crystal Dunn to slide forward play the No. 10 center attacking mid, where she’s been more successful than she was in the deeper midfield positions in the diamond. Here, she is able to be a playmaker. With 50 touches and 76% passing accuracy, Dunn was an effective link between Sinclair and Smith up top and the midfield. The combination of those lines allowed the Thorns to outshoot the Courage 23-11. 

In this image (Thorns are moving right to left), you can see Portland’s midfield holding their wider shape—as they did throughout the game—and consistently beating out the Courage’s. Lindsey Horan (bottom middle) plays the ball centrally, and Rocky Rodríguez is able to easily receive it. Due to the high press and wide shape, Rodríguez has several options to keep the ball moving around North Carolina. 

The strength and consistency of the midfield against North Carolina is an example of the “Thorns mentality”—a phrase that players and coach Mark Parsons have repeated throughout the season. After the game, Parsons said they “want to be constantly improving and playing as a team because that will push [the team] towards [their] best.” He shouted out Dunn and Salem as two players who exemplified that mindset. As the last third of the seasons approaches, the Thorns will look to build on the consistency and success they have begun to expect. 

Sophia Smith, tied for most goal on the Thorns with Charley, has been an example of the Thorns’ mentality. Staying with the Thorns all summer has been the ideal opportunity to get consistent minutes, and I don’t think I can say enough good things about Smith’s recent form. Against North Carolina, she had eight shots, a mere three fewer than the entire Courage team, with five on target. Probability says that if you shoot enough, one is bound to go in, but that statement cheapens Smith’s goal. Sinclair played a perfectly-weighted ball over the top, and Smith slipped between the two Courage center backs to go to goal. Seeing that Murphy was off her line, Smith knew she couldn’t take unnecessary touches, or Murphy would get the ball. 

In this still, right before Smith struck the ball, Smith’s body is facing toward the left hand side of the goal. However, she doesn’t go there. Reading the keeper well, Smith strikes the ball with the outside of her right foot, sending it to the near post and catching Murphy off-balance.

Smith leads the entire league in shots, and while she isn’t consistent yet on her conversion rates, her ability to read the game and control her body allows her to score at crucial moments. Goals like the one in Sunday’s game are not an accident or a statistic probability; they are well-intentioned. As Smith continues to grow into the league, she will become even more lethal. 

Also of note, it was good to see Tyler Lussi back on the field after so long out! Hopefully Simone Charley can come back soon because the Thorns’s front line will truly be frightening with all forwards fit.

Portland now heads off on international break, with the six players called up by their national teams joined by Mark Parsons as he officially begins coaching the Dutch National Team.

Categories
Soccer Thorns

Four Takeaways: Portland 2, Tacoma 0

Photo by Matthew Wolfe

The Thorns earned their third victory of the Challenge Cup last night, a 2–0 win over OL Reign, which clinched their spot in the championship on May 8. A beautiful free kick by Lindsey Horan in the 17th minute and a weird chaos goal by Simone Charley early in the second half were the difference between the two teams. Here are a few of my takeaways from the match:

1. “I hope [my rose] never dies” -Crystal Alyssia Dunn Soubrier

Crystal Dunn made her long-awaited Thorns debut last night, and as promised, she’s getting a lot of freedom to roam and create. On paper, she slotted in at the No. 8 in the midfield diamond, but she played that role a little differently from how Rocky Rodríguez has been handling it. She was very much still in a box-to-box role, but tended to sit higher up the field in the attack, often swapping places with Christine Sinclair as she found space between the Reign’s lines.

We’ve been misled a little—Merritt Paulson said at least once Dunn would be playing at forward—but I love her in this position, especially since it lets both Sophia Smith and Simone Charley fit in the lineup. Mark Parsons’s attitude toward this role seems not unlike how he outlined Tobin Heath’s job; in short, get her the ball in possession and let her figure it out.

At times, Dunn, Smith, and Horan looked to not quite be on the same page as each other and the rest of the team, but that’s understandable given how little training time they’ve gotten since the international window ended.

2. The Reign didn’t really show up

The team formerly known as the Seattle Reign put up a pretty lackluster opposition last night. For a lot of the first half, they struggled to defend in an organized way, often giving the Thorns too much time and space, not choosing the right moments to press, and leaving players unmarked and passing lanes open. I am struck by this image of all of Becky Sauerbrunn’s passes, which shows how content the Reign were to let her make one particular entry pass into the final third over and over:

A map showing Becky Sauerbrunn's passes

When the Reign did apply pressure, they often focused on Lindsey Horan, and they did succeed in turning her back towards her defense a number of times. At other moments, though, she either broke through the pressure or combined with Sinclair or Dunn to keep moving the ball forward. On top of those players’ individual skill, Portland often had an overload in the midfield, with Natalia Kuikka and Meghan Klingenberg pushing forward and Smith dropping back.

The Thorns also found a number of chances on good old-fashioned balls over the top, as Sauerbrunn and Kelli Hubly were both given as much time as they wanted throughout the first half. Again, sometimes that didn’t matter—Hubly hit a few that were pretty aimless—but with Charley’s speed and dribbling ability up top, that route is a real threat for the Thorns.

The Reign switched on more in the second half, especially once Jess Fishlock and Megan Rapinoe came on. Those two players both looked to have some ideas going forward, and Fishlock in particular (no surprises here) provided defensive grit the midfield had mostly lacked. Nevertheless, Tacoma’s back line kept making weird errors, and their offense was unlucky on the handful of chances they put together.

3. Um?

Sort of a subsection to the last one: I don’t want to take anything away from Lindsey Horan’s free kick, which was gorgeous, but it’s not hard to see what’s about to happen here. I’m not sure why the Reign were set up like this:

A screenshot showing Lindsey Horan lining up a free kick, with an arrow showing the path the ball will take

4. Some highlights from the stats

Like they did against Kansas City, Portland significantly out-passed the Reign, with 79.5% accuracy at full time against their opponents’ 71.3%. Six Thorns starters completed at least 80% of their passes, led by Kuikka at 86.2%.

Charley had a record-breaking night:

And most remarkably, the Thorns as a group broke their record for most shots in a competitive match:

Categories
Not Soccer Thorns

A Definitive Ranking of the Best Eleven Photos from Thorns Media Day

Simone Charley. Unrelated to the photos from Thorns media day. Photo by Kris Lattimore.

Well, you saw the title of this post. Let’s not waste any time gabbing away, hm?

11.

This one is good because Meaghan Nally’s friends and family get to enjoy her radiant smile, and also her enemies can see how strong and healthy her teeth are to know she will not be easily defeated.

10.

You’re in the front row at a One Direction concert, and Harry Styles points right at you.

9.

Four women who went to Harvard Law are starting a boutique firm together. The office is a casual environment—one of them even brings her dog to work—and they do lots of pro-bono work for low-SES and undocumented clients. “We’re sort of like a family,” they say.

8.

A true story about me is that one time Nadine Angerer called me a “soft egg,” which I guess means I’m squishy and delicate? It wasn’t an insult, but it also wasn’t a compliment. It was just an observation, like everything Germans say. Then she laughed good naturedly like this:

7.

The most popular girl in school asks you to prom. She could have gone with anyone, but she chose you, the eccentric loner who eats lunch in the library and listens to bands no one else has heard of. You’re so different from everyone else, and she just wants to get to know you.

6.

The girl who sits next to you in pre-calc asks you to prom. Your only real interactions are checking your homework together and passing notes about substitute teachers. She knows you don’t know each other very well but she thinks you’re really funny and thought it might be fun to hang out for the night? She really hopes this isn’t weird.

5.

I like this photo because Crystal Dunn is being very clear about what club she plays for.

4.

You’re sixteen years old and you just read one of your poems at an open mic night for the first time. Your big sister is going to college an hour away, and you invited her, but you weren’t sure if she’d come—but she did, and she’s so proud of you.

3.

This season on The Bachelorette:

2.

She is the captain of this battle station and she will gladly crash it into Alpha Centauri before she gives an inch to the insurgent scum, damn it!

1.

Oh, hello. Surprised to see me in your chambers? I’ve been waiting for you. That’s right, I know all about what happened to the queen’s prized jewels. The captain of the guard awaits only my command. You won’t last long in Her Majesty’s dungeon—and just when we were getting to be such good friends! Unless… we can work something out?

Categories
Soccer Thorns

Crystal Dunn? Crystal Dunn.

Photo by Matt Wolfe

Unless you’ve had your head under a rock for the last six hours, you’ve likely heard the news: Crystal Dunn is a Thorn.

It’s not poppycock this time—thanks to OL Reign taking one for the team(s) and “facilitating” the trade. The 2019 World Cup Champion, two-time NWSL Champion, NWSL golden boot winner and MVP of the 2015 season’s move to Portland (finally) extends beyond the offseason.

In exchange, the Thorns sent the Reign $150,000, a 2021 international slot, and Portland’s natural first-round pick in the 2022 college draft. Here are a few of our takeaways about the big news:

[incoherent screaming]

With multiple expansion drafts on the horizon and no clear answer to whether soccer in the traditional sense will even be possible in 2021, the Thorns’ future—like that of many teams in this league—is uncertain (more on that in a minute). What looks pretty watertight at this juncture is that Portland’s midfield is going to involve all of Lindsey Horan, Crystal Dunn, and Christine Sinclair.

Those players aren’t going anywhere, which is, uh, crazy? It feels like cheating. Then again, when Dunn went to North Carolina, that also felt like cheating—so maybe what it boils down to is that having Crystal Dunn is cheating.

Dunn is one of the few players in the world who can genuinely bend a game to her will. She can score practically at will and is equally dangerous at both dribbling and passing. She’s a defensive threat, too. It’s hard to overstate how huge an acquisition she is for the Thorns, especially when you start to think about her connecting with oh, say, Sophia Smith.

What does this mean for the expansion draft?

This looks like a superteam for now, but not so fast. Three expansion drafts are looming in the next two years, with one—for Racing Louisville—happening in less than a month. Don’t expect this to be the last move Portland makes this offseason.

Assuming the rules are the same as they were in 2015, the Thorns will be able to protect nine players, including two USWNT-subsidized players. As things stand, the two protected subsidized players have to be Dunn and Horan. We’d already expected them to lose at least one keeper, likely AD Franch, but now she, Heath, and Sauerbrunn will all be on the chopping block. (Sophia Smith is blissfully saved by the fact that USWNT allocations won’t be announced until after the expansion draft.) Sauerbrunn probably doesn’t get taken—she’s 35 and has made it clear she wants to settle down in Portland. We think she tells any interested team she’ll retire rather than report.

Photo by Nikita Taparia

Heath? Harder to say. She also owns a home here and clearly likes playing for the Thorns. She also holds the same leverage as any elite player in this league: she can always decide to extend her time in Manchester rather than move to Louisville or Sacramento. However: it’s not hard to imagine, say, Louisville picking up her rights, her deciding to stay in England for 2021, and then forcing a trade to LA for 2022.

Of course, that’s assuming the Thorns can scam them into taking the rights of someone who probably doesn’t plan on playing for them, but the Thorns have a pretty solid track record when it comes to taking advantage of other teams (see: The Alex Morgan Trade). That’s also assuming Angel City wants Heath on their side, but it’s hard to imagine a team saying no to her if she asks.

The No. 10 problem, solved

We’ve all been dreading/denying the inevitable: that one day, sure as the cruel sea beats cliffs into sand, Christine Sinclair will have to retire. That she’s had an almost unbelievably long and consistent career doesn’t change how problematic this is for the Thorns in the long term.

A situation that we think epitomizes this pretty well was last year, when the Thorns tried three different players at the No. 10 while Sinclair was away for the World Cup. Dagný Brynjarsdóttir, Ana Crnogorčević, and Andressinha—may she be free forevermore—are all good players, but the team’s reliance on an all-time great in that position showed in her absence.

Dunn is the answer to that, positionally at least. As far as Sinclair’s importance to the locker room, there’s of course no real replacement, but Mark Parsons seems to think Dunn has some of the same qualities as a leader, too. “She has such a contagious energy about her that just wants to make you be better when you’re around her,” he said in an interview released by the team today. “But what she doesn’t get praise enough for is her leadership, and the way that she leads. By example, and by being positive, and by being driven. She’s had a lot of success, and it’s not by luck.”