Three games into the 2025 NWSL season, the Portland Thorns are still searching for their first win. The club has managed to net only two goals across one away loss and two home draws. Last season, former head coach Mike Norris was given four games (3L, 1D) before being promoted to Technical Director, so head coach Rob Gale is on a very short leash before a potential reassignment. A failure to win all three points at home against a North Carolina team who are perennially terrible on the road should have been the final straw, but alas, it was not. Instead fans are left dissatisfied headed into the international break.
Game over game, there has been tremendous growth in the Thorns team—and that trend continued against the Courage. Gale fielded a starting XI with an average age of 24, the second-youngest in Thorns history, and Mackenzie Arnold had far and away her best game in Portland colors. The centerback pairing of Isa Obaze and Sam Hiatt is already strengthening, and the duo of Reilyn Turner and Caiya Hanks up front is one of the most exciting forward lines in the league in terms of raw potential.
It’s hard to look at a 0-0 draw and say that it was a good game or deserved, but for the defensive unit in particular, it was. Arnold played out of her mind, making five saves (including a penalty). She was commanding of her box, putting her body on the line several times. Her effort seemed to set the tempo for the rest of the team. Reyna Reyes won the most duels in the match (10) and Kaitlyn Torpey was the most accurate passer (94%), as both were tasked with starting the attack from the wide channels as well as defending. To complete the line, both Obaze and Hiatt had nine defensive actions apiece—and stifled the Courage’s forwards.
Leo wrote a very good article about the pressure that a new general manager is under to build a roster for a perennial powerhouse in under two months, and the roadblocks he has faced. I would like to expand on one signing in particular, Deyna Castellanos. By the time Jeff Agoos was named GM, there were very few free agent signings available, and most Big Name Players had already resigned with their clubs or chosen a new one by January. Castellanos was not a free agent, and had to be bought out of her million-dollar contract after a lackluster season in the Bay Area in order to be picked up by the Thorns. Castellanos has a lot of starpower in the NWSL, is the face of a new Nike campaign alongside Sophia Wilson, and was absolutely the Thorns’ biggest signing in their short offseason.
So, why would the coach bench her? Against the Courage, Gale tried a new formation, a 4-4-2, with a diamond midfield that relied heavily on progressing the ball through the center of the field. Castellanos played the point of that diamond, and in theory, this should have been a very successful lineup given the available players on the Thorns, with a lack of traditional wide forwards and outside backs healthy. Without Wilson to tailor the formation to, Gale seems to be setting up the team around Castellanos.
Unfortunately, during the 60 minutes she was on the field, it felt as though the Thorns were playing down a person. Her zero chances created, zero touches in the Courage’s box, zero accurate long balls or crosses, zero tackles, and one defensive action all point to a player that might as well have not been on the field—not someone who is supposed to be a creative centerpoint of a team’s attack. By not putting in much effort, Castellanos effectively stranded the two target forwards, Turner and Hanks, who then had to drop back further to receive the ball and had more work to do and players to beat once getting it.
One possible formation change could be sliding Olivia Moultire into the point of the diamond, allowing her more freedom centrally. I am also eagerly awaiting Pietra Tordin’s first start, as she has looked particularly bright in her fifteen minute cameos so far. The flare and vision that she has shown in limited minutes could also be positive for the No. 10 position, despite her playing more as a No. 9 in college.
Post game, Gale mentioned that there was “no way to keep the upward momentum going when you have 11 players gone for international break,” but perhaps that is not necessarily a bad thing. The Thorns have played better each game, but are still experiencing the same poor results. The break in play will allow for a reset before these next stretch of games against the Utah Royals (one point), Seattle Reign (four points) and NJ/NY Gotham (two points), all of which are winnable games.
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