The Portland Thorns have been resting on their laurels since their 2022 NWSL championship season and have not worked to cultivate a new identity in the two seasons since. After an uninspiring 0-0 draw to the worst team in the league, the Utah Royals, on Saturday night at altitude, it’s clear that the eight-week Olympic break cannot come soon enough.
There are a multitude of valid reasons why the club has been in purgatory for several years, most notably being the sale of the club from Merritt Paulson’s cold hands. The ownership tumult has further complicated the club’s ability to find a permanent, competent head coach to step in after Rhian Wilkinson’s resignation. The club has been slowly leaking world class players from that 2022 squad, and they have not brought in many replacements. Coupled with the lack of tactics and willingness to change and adapt from former head coach Mike Norris and current interim Rob Gale, it seems almost like a miracle that Thorns have managed to dig out a niche in fifth place in the NWSL standings. (Even that placement feels less impressive when we’re reminded that over half—the top eight of 12—teams qualify for the postseason.)
It almost feels futile to try and break down the team’s tactics when it’s the same each week (get the ball to Portland’s wingers, who then are tasked with taking on the defense one-vs-one to get to goal), and the rest of the league has figured the Thorns out. But alas, I will try to.
Against Utah, Gale chose to start Nicole Payne at right back and Reyna Reyes at left back, relegating the Thorns’ best defender, Marie Müller, to the bench. Müller has been consistently leading the Thorns on several stats, including tackles, recoveries, and crosses, and post game Gale clarified that her absence was to allow her to rest after the many minutes put on her legs in recent games. Against a dismal attacking side that has only scored seven games thus far, it seemed like a reasonable action. However, Müller’s absence required Reyes to play on her much weaker left side to accommodate Payne at right back. Payne is a good pure defender, but is weak in possession. She made one progressive pass and only had two touches in the Thorns’ attacking third. For a team that likes their outside backs to push high and join the attack, these numbers are dreadfully low. Reyes, in her sophomore season with the team, is seeing the field markedly less, mostly due to the competition at her best position, right back. Her strengths are opposite those of Payne; Reyes is better on the ball due to her time in midfield at the University of Alabama, but she lost all of her duels on the night against the Royals. Her attacking play was much better, with 13 touches in the final third and two in the Royals’ penalty box, but on her weaker foot, her passing and distribution suffered.
Like Gale said post game, “sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition,” and the Royals were able to successfully mark the Thorns’ midfield out of the game. Hina Sugita and Sam Coffey have been the fulcrum of the Thorns’ build this season, and other teams have begun to realize that if they press them high, then the Thorns are forced to play through their wingers, who are much more easily dispossessed. The Royals’ press led to many misplaced and overhit passes, particularly from Coffey, which resulted in easy turnovers and put the Thorns right back on the defensive foot. Gale has been asking Hina to play deeper to allow for Coffey to push forward, and the two of them work very well together. Still, Hina and Coffey ended up accounting for one through ball between the both of them, which meant Sophia Smith severely lacked opportunities to show off her skills in behind the defense, and Portland’s attack suffered greatly.
The other most puzzling part of the Thorns’ lineup on Saturday was the inclusion of Ana Dias as the starting No. 9, which pushed Smith out wide. Dias put on a show in the charity match midweek, scoring a hat trick, and I had hoped that her confidence would translate to the league game. Which unfortunately was not the case. In her 75 minutes , Dias had one accurate pass and three shots, none of which were on target. She had three touches in the Royals’ box, and only 0.1 expected goals. To put it bluntly, she had a very poor showing. While Dias’ signing was relatively low stakes for a player with only seven appearances for her country and who had been playing in the Russian league (i.e, not a very competitive one), the gamble has not paid off, and the Thorns’ offense is lacking as a result. That she plays in the No. 9 position exclusively forces the Thorns’ best player to play in a position that she is not as successful in, and means that the crosses and plays into the box that Smith does get off are oftentimes wasted by Dias. Against a team like Utah that has allowed 27 goals thus far, it was a reasonable gamble for Gale to take, but unfortunately, the team is paying for it.
The Thorns have one more game before they take an eight week break, and it’s against the incredibly lost San Diego Wave, who just fired their head coach. On paper, it’s a home game that the Thorns should win handily, but, if the Wave press high and are disciplined at the back, it could easily turn into another 90 minute slog. The Olympic break cannot come soon enough, and hopefully the pause will give the Bhathals a chance to finally make an announcement about which world-class coach will come in and take over, hopefully lifting the Thorns out of their holding pattern and back to the top of the table where they belong.
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