janine beckie – Rose City Review

When the Portland Thorns lost Emily Menges, Crystal Dunn, Rocky Rodríguez, and Natalia Kuikka during the offseason, there were plenty of jokes that the Thorns were going to win every game 4-3 in 2024. In 2023, the Thorns allowed the third most goals in the NWSL, behind only the floundering Chicago Red Stars and Kansas City Current. Despite that, they still ended with the best goal differential amongst all teams, establishing the precedent for a high-scoring front line and leaky defense. Add the fact that the Thorns started three brand-new-to-the-NWSL defenders on Saturday’s opening game against Kansas City, and the 5-4 scoreline was to be expected.

Putting the goals aside, when rewatching the game with a clearer mind and less emotions, there isn’t reason to pull the panic alarm on the Thorns’ season—yet. In an effort to be less of a pessimist this season, here are some positives to take away from the Thorns’ 2024 season debut:

1. The didn’t roll over and die after conceding early and in quick succession

I’m sure we all remember the horrific 5-1 loss to Angel City to close out the 2023 season and watch the shield slip from the Thorns’ grasp. While the Thorns now hold the cursed record of being the first team to allow five goals in back-to-back regular season games, the two performances couldn’t be more different. The worrying trend last season was that once the Thorns went behind, it would lead to the opposition scoring again, rather than the Thorns fighting back to end on top. Although they didn’t manage to complete their comeback against Kansas City to salvage a point, they did manage to come back from being 1-5 down to end the game 4-5.

The individual efforts of Janine Beckie and Sophia Smith can’t be discounted in the comeback. Both players scored braces and led by example, quickly grabbing the ball out of the net and pushing the Current to restart quickly. It is this type of attitude that I want to continue over the course of the season. Postgame, both Beckie and Thorns head coach Mike Norris talked about the team’s halftime changes, with Beckie saying that there are a lot of “what ifs” in a game, and that they needed to keep going “one goal at a time”—exactly what the team did.

2. Janine Beckie did the impossible: came from from a long-term ACL injury better than she was before

Beckie returned to the field 366 days after her initial ACL injury at Providence Park (we were still in the beginning of preseason this time last year!), and now she has the unique distinction of being more in-form than she was before the injury. While it may be premature to predict her play for the rest of the season based on 45 minutes of game time, Beckie looked the sharpest player on the field. Her two goals were outstanding, and showed a marked improvement on her accuracy and finesse. Assuming she will only grow stronger and more fit over the next several months, she will become a real threat. In the 2022 season, Beckie played 19 games and only recorded two assists. She has already exponentially increased her output.

3. Plenty of time for the team to gel; this is going to be the longest regular season yet

With only three preseason games, one open to the public and two behind closed doors, the Thorns had very little time to play together in a game-like environment. Add the fact that six players were gone for a month at the Women’s Gold Cup, and makes sense why it looked like the Thorns had never met one another in the first half of play. Postgame, Norris said he is slowly working on reintegrating the players that had been absent for the majority of preseason, and the balance of including these Gold Cup players and those who weren’t on international duty was off. The biggest coaching fumble came on the decision of who to start on the back line. Kelli Hubly was the only returning player, and has historically been more of a follower than a leader, often being paired as second to Menges or Becky Sauerbrunn. She had a big ask on Saturday to lead the line, and unfortunately she did not pass the test. Alongside her was Isabella Obaze, Marie Müeller, and Nicole Payne, all of whom made their NWSL debuts. Of the debutantes, Obaze impressed me most, collecting an assist and completing 41 of 43 passes. Her long balls and passes into the final third were enticing, and with more time to train with Sauerbruun, she could become a formidable center back.

The largest omission to the starting back line was Reyna Reyes. She is coming off a very strong rookie campaign, where she moved into a starting role over club legend Meghan Klingenberg, and has a commanding presence on the field. Alongside brand-new players, Reyes could have helped to anchor and guide the team from the back. Despite being at the Gold Cup with Mexico, Reyes’ familiarity with Noris’ tactics and game plan would have been a huge asset. She came on in the final 15 minutes and was immediately a difference maker, winning tackles and aerial duels, alongside making four recoveries—rate better than Hubly’s three over the course of the entire ninety minutes.

With 26 regular season games, there is more wiggle room for dropped points, and dropping them early is okay, so long as we see continued growth over the course of the season. If the Thorns are still looking this disjointed next month, then alarm bells can be raised.

4. New goalkeeper coach—can he teach the Thorns’ goalkeeper union how to improve their distribution?

Nadine Angerer stepped away from the coaching staff in the offseason, and the Thorns brought in Australian Jordan Franken in her stead. He formerly coached the Australian Women U-23 and U-20 teams, as well as Melbourne City in the A-League. Having only been in Portland since the beginning of March, it’s fair to say that he hasn’t had much time to work with any of Portland’s keepers. However, the best keeper of the weekend, Lysianne Proulx for Bay FC, who made a whopping eight saves in her league debut, credits Franken as “instrumental in her development.” If Proulx is a marker for the type of style and play that Franken teaches, I am excited to see how much Shelby Hogan et al. can grow under his tutelage.

To put it bluntly, Hogan did not have a good game on Saturday. With Bella Bixby out pregnant and Lauren Kozal and Kat Asman yet to make their NWSL debuts, Hogan is the defacto Thorns No. 1 for the start of the season. While I haven’t been able to attend training to see how Asman and Kozal are fairing against Hogan, I think it is the right call to play Hogan ahead of them, simply because there is so much change at the back for the Thorns. Hogan’s, albeit minimal, NWSL experience can help settle a nervy defense. In her appearances last season, including the start in the Thorns’ sole playoff game, Hogan’s weakness has always been her distribution. She is a good shot-stopper and a penalty kick god, but she isn’t good with her feet. Against KC, she only completed 13 of 21 passes and 6 of 13 long balls. For a team that wants to build out of the back and through their midfield, a successful buildup needs to start with a quality distribution from the keeper. The Current’s first goal came directly off of a major error by Hogan, who passed the ball straight to Debinha. These types of errors cannot happen by a starting level keeper in the NWSL.

The other major error that Hogan repeated was hesitating and reacting too late. Poor defense—allowing the Current’s forwards to easily slice through to goal—aside, KC’s second and third goal were the result of Hogan coming out early but stopping around the PK mark, which allowed an open angle for the Current to shoot from. If she is going to come out and be aggressive, she needs to commit to it. Otherwise, she should stay on her line to give herself the best shot at stopping the shot. Maybe it was nerves, but we have seen Hogan be aggressive in the box, and her confidence needs to be brought back up to where it was.

5. New ownership means we can finally leave the holding pattern that the Thorns have been in since MarPar left

Prior to this most recent offseason, the Thorns had not made a non-Canadian major signing since Hina Sugita in January 2022, which Mark Parsons and Merritt Paulson can take most of the credit for. Around the league, teams have seen an influx of international talent join their rosters, while the Thorns have been looking in from the outside. With the Bhathal family officially owners, the Thorns have begun their new era, and with it comes new recruits. There are still three international spots open on the roster; with the European season wrapping up shortly, I am keeping my eyes open for another elite striker, as well as a seasoned center-back to join the team.

The Thorns recorded their second straight loss against the San Diego Wave at home on Saturday evening. Coming into the home match, the Thorns were averaging over four goals a game in Providence, yet have scored only one goal over the last two matches while conceding five. After spending several weeks sitting alone at the top of the table, the Thorns have fallen to fourth place with just five games left to clinch a playoff position. Dropping more points could put them in danger of making a postseason run.

While it is nearly impossible to identify just one thing that went wrong, let’s take a look at several factors that could have contributed to the Thorns’ downward trend.

Photo Credit: Kris Lattimore

Too few subs, too late

In a move unlike ones we have seen previously from head coach Rhian Wilkinson, she waited until the 80th minute to make any changes to the Thorns’ formation. In a must-win game to remain at the top of the table, the Thorns started the strongest eleven players they had in a 4-3-3.

Both Sophia Smith and Morgan Weaver started, when usually Wilkinson starts one or the other, with the second player ready to come off the bench and make an impact with their fresh legs on a tired defense. With both Weaver and Smith on the field, Wilkinson was left with few options of a different style of attacking player when neither of her starters were able to produce. Smith regularly had two or three defenders surrounding her touch-tight, making it hard for her to complete her signature spin-and-dribble-out-of-pressure. Weaver is known for her infinite engine and power for the entire 90 minutes. Against the Wave she had the only two shots on target, and delivered four crosses. She was the most dangerous attacker, but wasn’t able to connect her crosses with the players making runs into the box, oftentimes seeing the ball frustratingly roll across the entire box only for a Wave player to clear it on the opposite touch line.

Both forwards played all 90 minutes of Saturday’s game, and while in theory Wilkinson starting her two top producers gives the Thorns the best chance of netting goals, when it doesn’t work out, there are no backup options. Ideally, a player like Yazmeen Ryan would start in one of those wide forward spots in order to provide service, and if she isn’t connecting with either Smith or Weaver, then there is an opportunity for a change to be made and for a different perspective to attack the opposing defense.

Photo Credit Kris Lattimore

Janine Beckie and Yazmeen Ryan got eleven minutes each, both of whom were attacking-minded substitutions. When they made their appearance, the Thorns shifted to a three-back, pushing Beckie up along the right side in front of Kuikka. In her short cameo, she created one chance, which tied her with the second most for the Thorns. Ryan applied similar pressure from the moment she appeared on the pitch, making several dangerous dribbles into the box, but was unable to get her shot off.

Olivia Moultrie, Portland’s third and final sub, only got three minutes. In an interesting and previously unseen formation move, Sam Coffey slid back to play the third defender as Wilkinson made another attacking substitution. Although Moultrie only got two touches, her change showed that the Thorns were capable of changing their formation and structure of attack mid-game.

Time can’t turn back, and the Thorns will never get those three dropped points, the game against San Diego begs the question of what could have happened if these changes had been made sooner. For eighty minutes the Thorns tried to score using the same tactics, namely feeding balls to Smith and expecting individual brilliance. However, once it became clear that Naomi Girma and the rest of the Wave’s backline was too strong to penetrate this way, a different tactic needed to be implemented, and a change in personnel was the obvious way to do this.

Defensive Lapses

Simply put, the Thorns’ defense was not organized enough to effectively stop San Diego’s attack. Post-game, Becky Sauerbrunn commented on where she thought the game was lost for the Thorns.

“A lot of credit to San Diego. I think they’re very good at what they do, and even though we knew what they were going to do, they still got that second goal on us. It’s tough to win games when you’re letting goals in,” said Sauerbruun, finishing that she thought the Thorns’ heads remained high despite the loss.

The Wave’s first goal was allowed because they were able to have an unmarked player at the top of the box. A missed clearance by Kuikka allows the ball to be picked off by the Wave and passed back to McNabb making an open run at the top of the eighteen. Rocky Rodriguez makes a last-ditch effort to close her down, but was ultimately too far away and too late to prevent the shot from going off.

Both Morgan Weaver and Sauerbruun mentioned post-game that the Wave’s plan was to flick the ball off of Taylor Korniek’s head onto Alex Morgan, and that is exactly how the second goal came about. While it is hard for any player to match Korniek’s aerial abilities and height, it is possible to shut down the second pass to Morgan and prevent her from running at goal with no defenders.

Photo credit Kris Lattimore

While it is hard to be consistent for an entire ninety minutes, small changes and closer marking from Thorns players could have changed the outcome of the game, not allowing open players in their own box.