Oh good! We lost our midfield and forwards so we signed ONE defender NTRP? ----> Kayla Morrison from the Melbourne Victory (in the A-league) Anyone know the name?
Wow was that a terrible game or what? Both teams were bad, and the officiating wasn't good either. My takes:
1. Norris' tactical nous is Parlow-Cone-esque. He sent out a bunch of scrubs and told them to break the press like they were good soccer players. Set them up to fail and made no adjustments to try to change that.
2. Not once, not one single time, did we play a long ball over the top despite OLR sitting with a high line and us with a couple rabbits. So there was no threat and they could press with all ten in our half.
3. We have two tall players with good heading skills. So you send crosses into the box, right? We attempted it twice and actually delivered it only once.
4. Our GM is a cheerleader, not a GM. We have literally known the date team would be short-handed since Christmas, yet the day arrives and we have nothing. This is inexcusable - if we had owners I think the GM search would be underway.
5. Hannah Betfort has been here for three years and her skills have not improved in any noticeable way. It's time to move on. or maybe convert to CB for one last shot?
7. One more not-win, or OLR win, and we will be officially eliminated from the Cup. Can't happen soon enough, so we can stop pretending.
Aside from the above, it was a lovely everning, there was a good sized crowd, there were a few moments of suspense or interest. Five seconds of quality can offset 90 minutes of frustration. That must be how the Reign fans felt -- wish it had been us.
The worrying thing about last night is that this plus Weaver is the group we’ve got for the league until August, and other that one nice buildup all I saw was Moultrie bombing from distance. This group had NOthing going forward. We better hope that adding Weaver to this mess will smarten it up, but my guess is not enough.
In 2015 it was obvious that Paul Riley (spit!) had no plan ready to deal with the absence of his international stars, and, indeed, that is the only season to date this club has finished below the red line.
Mark Parsons had Midge Purce and Simone Charley ready to go when the World Cup raptured the internationals four years later, so…
The mobhanded mess last night looked more 2015 than 2019.
I guess the counterpoint is there are only two *real* games until the World Cup and you will likely get some of the WC players back before the next league game on August 20.
Yeah, the WC final is also Aug 20th....so anyone not in that could possibly be available for the NC game. Hopefully, we aren't missing our whole offense when/if they get Kerolin back...
Especially when those two real games are KC and Gotham. Famous last words and all, but the former is, well, lol, and the latter without Lynn Williams aren't world-beaters either. Given the Thorns tendency to play down to their opponents I don't think they can sleep on these games, but at least we're not playing North Carolina or OL for real or whoever.
I dunno...I kinda feel the opposite about both of those games and would much rather be playing NC, who lost much of their starting roster to the WC. The players NC are losing to the WC have played 44% of the minutes for them, the highest of any team. This spreadsheet is pretty helpful to visualize which teams are losing who:
Kansas City...yeah, been dreadful much of the season. But, they ONLY lose Debinha out of their starting XI. Ball, Hamilton, Gautraut (and I think Lavogez) are just getting back from injury. You don't think that team could destroy us this weekend? I kinda do....Kizer, Cooper, and Larsson, with Labonta, Gautraut, and DiBernardo in midfield? That could be a problem and I probably give them the W honestly. Their defense is poor (but getting slightly better over the last couple games), but you have to have forwards that can A) keep the ball and B) exploit their rough defense, and I think we have neither. We also have a coach whose tactics are hopeless, so....Not sure I can count on Weaver, D'Aquila, Betfort, Vasconcelos, or Beckman to do any of that. Weaver can't do it all herself....but player for player I think our F line is one of the weakest ones in the league currently.
Gotham, they lose a few, but that game will be at home for them and they still have a ton of experienced former USWNT players on the team, and other contributing players as well- Long, Zerboni, Purce, Yaz Ryan, Krieger, Kawasumi, Nighswonger, Taylor Smith, ect... lots of experience, and, it just comes back down to our offense looking completely toothless. If we can't penetrate a backline of rookies and NTRP's against OLR, I'm not sure it's gonna get much better against league teams....unless again, Weaver can pull it all on her own and then we run the hell outta those games as fast as possible lol....
That's, well, very fair, and certainly better thought out than what I gave it! I think my hope is that Norris will stop being cute with player positions and that'll help stabilize some of the offensive woes, even just having Coffee at the 6 might assist in lobbing more balls upfield, but that's assigning a lot of adaptability to a coach who to say the least hasn't inspired much confidence.
Yeah, we kind of dodged a 2015 bullet there. Might include 8/20, but it's still only nine points and not 12 or 18.
Still. We pretty much knew that Mike Norris ain't Sir Alex. But last night pretty much completely pantsed him. I wish I thought that would make a difference.
I don’t think the coach is great - a blob of meh, basically - but I will also say the options are just…not good in key positions.
It’s interesting - RW last year and Norris this year (so far) haven’t deviated much from the overall system even without the first tier players. Now you could argue that they should, because Hannah Betfort isn’t Sophia Smith, and they still might.
But I remember 2019: Portland did very well during the World Cup period but reintegrating everyone ended up being messy, and at that point Mark almost had two plans, with the pre and post WC period and the WC period. But players remained throughout and seemed to struggle to adapt.
To me it was a lot about coaching. Organization was a mess and the only plan seemed to be to force the ball up or into the middle, regardless of the defensive structure. The defense appeared to be playing deep, clogging the middle and attacking the ball carrier (which I think is a good strategy against a B side).
Norris never appeared to have an answer or change anything. So often I wanted a pass backward out of pressure to maintain possession or a switch when the defense rotated to one side but it rarely happened. Just jam it up the middle as fast as you can and lose it.
Of course, playing players out of position just made things way worse than they needed to be. It almost felt like self-sabotage. Maybe Norris didn't want to play any more tournament matches? I know he's well-liked by the players, but I wish he was still an assistant and they went out and got a top-flight coach with a legit resume. Starting to feel like Wilkinson all over again...
Agreed on formation and position. The 433 with Betfort alone in the middle didn't work. She didn't have the capability to control under pressure and spring the ball wide. Bit disappointing couldnt at least control and to attacking mid. If going with they need to switch to 2 fwd and have her look to flick on, can't do that with the next closest player being 30 meters away, can't be left isolated like that. As stated earlier, even though lived seeing Coffey getting opportunity to be more offensive really needed her at 6, Porter was hot mess. At times, well actually often, she was essentially playing as a defender just in front of backline. Nothing to defend there made it super easy for Ol to get past our attacking line and would be able to run at our backline with free look upfield. She needed to step higher and get involved. Coffey would have seen that and filled that space.
It was absolutely coaching. One of the things about Norris has been that he's got the horses to drag this club through bad times. Without those thoroughbreds? Ugh; talk about exposed.
My guess is that 1) the Wilkinson mess left the club with no time to hunt up replacements, and 2) the sale process blunted the Peregrines interest in signing an expensive new hire. Plus, frankly, hiring semi-unknowns is a Peregrine tradition; the only "top flight" manager hired here was Paul Riley (spit!) and we know how that went. My confidence in the Peregrine ability to find and steal away someone with a legit c.v. is very low.
Watching some of the post match video, and apparently Norris told Reyes he was gonna throw her into F before the game. She was fine I guess (?), but like, wtf are we doing here lol.
Yeah, that's what happens when you start the season light on wingers, then get one on loan who isn't even going to be here during the period where you're even lighter on wingers. Like, what does KK do all day? Seems slow to react and ill-prepared for everything...can't even get NTRP's over the line on time.
At least we have this y’all: “Sam Coffey on wearing the captain’s armband for the first time tonight: ‘It’s such an honor. When Mike told me, I had to make sure he had the right person. … I love this club.’ #BAONPDX “
Captain Coffey for team Portland? Nothing else would make more sense, honestly. What a joy of a player and a person, to boot.
To cough up that hairball and realize our league lineup won’t be much different than that…woof. It’s also incredibly frustrating that the FO incompetence meant that instead of NTRP’s stinking up this game so Porter, Coffey, and Moultrie could get some damn rest, we had them going almost full games just to put almost the same lineup on the field against a fresh KC who have only lost Debinha. This is the game we needed them for…unless one of those NTRP’s are named Mia Fishel or some other competent pro-level forward. What a shitshow that was lol. Norris doesn’t have an uber talented roster to hide behind right now and boy does it show…Weaver, really gonna have to do it all. I get that maybe we can only raise the ceiling so much, but gaddamn that floor has got to come up from multiple players. I thought Liv was decent, but really not as dominant as we’re gonna need from her. Sam- good as usual. Reyes- had a pretty decent game as well. Everyone else was just….
Kuikka, Hubly, Menges, Kling in back. Hubly is told never to look for a pass, just boot it upfield. (Maybe even switch Kuikka and Menges and then let Kuikka push forward a bit.)
Reyes, Coffey, Moultrie, Vasconcelos in mid.
Weaver and DAquila playing very aggressive strikers, trying to create turnovers in the attacking third.
I'd probably go with a platoon between Kling and Reyes - not sure how that would be for Reyes on the left (she usually plays on the right if I'm not mistaken). Interesting idea putting her at mid, though. She would definitely be a defensive mid. Would love it if it meant Coffey moved up the field more as I think she has more to offer offensively.
D'Aquila definitely needs to play in the middle but I do like the idea of two attacking strikers harassing the defense (and goalie) looking for turnovers for the mids to pick up. I'd put Vasconcelos at right forward in that scenario.
Reyes played predominantly LB in college, but has proven she can do a decent job on the R also. With McGrady coming back (who is also only a LB), I imagine were going to see Reyes on the R side more often.
Of course, last night we saw a predominate RB (Natu) playing LB, and a predominate LB (McGrady) playing RB for....reasons? Both inverted because they weren't comfortable and we became super narrow. Same thing happened when Rhian tried to shove Natu into LB when she was trying to make "Beckie as a wingback" a thing. Just, totally unforced errors here!
I agree. Last night I kept wanting Sam to carry the ball further up the field. Yes she is a defensive mid, but only since she joined the Thorns. Reyes is also a defensive player that has some offensive skills. She recently scored the technically best header I have seen in years from a Thorns player. Norris was right on asking Reyes to playing forward for awhile! We were getting nothing from the three forwards last night and until Weaver gets back on the field it will stay that way. I was confident of Izzy, but she looked lost. I was hopeful for Betfort, but she she wasn't ready for that last night. Move Kling to the midfield to help Sam. Seattle had RP last night that looked like a diamond in the rough. She caused a lot of havoc for a person that had barely even scrimmaged with the Reign.
moving d-acquila to middle is better than betfort but her lack of production this season has soured any hope I had for her. Has not shown anything to make me think she will be much in this league
There's some squad issues - why the hell was McGrady at right back and Kuikka at left back - and D'Aquila, I'm sorry, she's not a winger. But some players are patently not good enough and we're short in attack. Maybe they were more attacking in college but Reyna Reyes and Sam Coffey have defensive brains now and that's hard to get out of
OL Reign also sucked but they scored on a set piece and that was enough.
Hope the Weaver thing is precautionary, cause while we may be able to get away with no Soph for a few games, we certainly can't get away with not having either.
Okay, can we get away with playing an academy team in whatever Challenge Cup games remain (since there's no way we advance now)? Pick-up squad from a rec league?
Yeah, I'm not mad at her, but I see she's struggling with being the only offensive target. What I mean is that she's going to have to find another level over the next several weeks.
I think we all knew that the dropoff from the starters was pretty huge...but this reeeeeally drive home HOW huge. I'm not sure this group could score if they played for 190 minutes, there's just nobody there outside Moultrie. The hopes I had for D'Aquila are fading fast, and Betfort we know.
There's just no real quality there, at least not tonight.
Yeah - think the only way we have any chance of a goal tonight is Moultrie getting selfish for the last few mins. Still playing like she has competent forwards in front of her.
I just wish they would actually give Izzy a chance at the 9. Why not shoehorn Betfort out of position, she’s already terrible in the 9, at least give someone a chance to be better…
D'Aquila was my biggest disappointment of the night. I expected her to be effective, and didn't see much from her. Not a fan of Betfort, so that performance wasn't surprising. Vasconcelos didn't show much either. But that was our attack for the game so getting zero goals was about right. Norris has some work to do in the next few days.
Wtf was that position change? We had 5 defenders on the field, and Reyes was playing what? Also, Tegan McGrady playing RB while Natu was playing LB was pure idiocy for the sake of idiocy. They literally play the positions eachother were playing. It’s a non-factor at the end of the day, but like, also, why?!
Announcer babbling about it being surprising the Thorns not scoring...oblivious to the heavy rotation, apparently. Sanderson immediately intervening to point out the missing scorers. Much lulz...
And Weaver on the bench (probably not wanting to play her after that knock) and no Sinc, Hina, or Crystal...tough to see where the goals are supposed to come from (although Liv is trying).
I don't care about the Challenge Cup (although I bet the players do: that's a fat prize pot), so whatever, but I'd like to see some of these players look WAY better than this.
I'm the same way about this Cup, but this is much the same group we have for the league, and they look pretty junior-high-recess out there tonight. Hope there's some real steep learning curves.
She had a spill soon after the goal, which nearly cost a second. Seemed rattled, which is what Bix gets tagged with.
That said IDK what the heck they're doing with the keepers ATM. Seriously doubt Ice Bear Academy has Kozal polished and ready to go, and benching Bix would crush her, leaving the squad effectively with one keeper.
Enh. Tough ball for the keeper; good service, your defender is tangled with the attacker, no real safe route to come out and claim it. Not a great reaction from Hogan, but not as shocking as some of Bixby's derps and definitely not with the bad body language.
This is lol. Man, Betfort literally cannot hold a ball longer than an AYSO player. D’Aquila not much better? I’m taking great delight in Reyes’ battles with #51. She looks frustrated and Reyes is just loving it lol. Huge smile on her face every time #51 is on the ground.
They just don't get enough opportunity to play 11 v 11 in game conditions. Granted, there's a reason why they're not playing, but you can't expect them to be strong when they don't see the pitch for months on end.
I don't expect awesome. But "simple competence" shouldn't be out of reach. Not "passing" directly to an opponent when there's no teammate nearby isn't exactly Pele'...
Especially when OLR had a much rotated squad as well and looked much more competent. The bar is low, but they looked like a better team. Also, like I said prior, our F depth doesn’t exist. They have pretty good depth at F, and two of their NTRP forwards looked better than all of ours who played tonight.
Yeah, this doesn't inspire a lot of confidence about what the regular season matches will look like during the WWC. I know we'll be able to throw Kuikka and Weaver out there too, but this is pretty much what we're looking at for the next number of weeks. Grim.
Yeah, this isn't exactly easy on the eyes, this match. Kinda glad I decided not to make the drive up to Portland (although teh Paramount+ stream is laggy AF for me and keeps flopping between sharp/blurry).
Yeah, I thought about dragging ass downtown but decided not to out of pure laziness, but seeing this crap I'm glad I didn't. This is some uglass soccer from both sides.
COVID has kept me out of commission for a few weeks but I'm hoping to go to the game Saturday and shoot pictures. I debated about going to this one but am glad I didn't.
Same. A big TV and reasonably priced adult beverages from my own fridge were too good to pass up. I do hate being able to see that my seats are vacant tonight, but definitely the right decision.
I thought Sinc was grooming Horan for the role, but to my eyes she never seemed to want it. Interesting that Vlatko is now leaning on her to step up in Bruun's absence. Now Coffey on the other hand... I think she's the next Captain.
Oh good! We lost our midfield and forwards so we signed ONE defender NTRP? ----> Kayla Morrison from the Melbourne Victory (in the A-league) Anyone know the name?
This was lol: In 2020, Morrison played in Sweden with Morön BK....
Now playing in Portland for Moron KK and Norris on... Thorns.
(Couldn't resist. Don't think the label is fair, but I also don't see a lot of sign of what our GM is actually doing.)
Wow was that a terrible game or what? Both teams were bad, and the officiating wasn't good either. My takes:
1. Norris' tactical nous is Parlow-Cone-esque. He sent out a bunch of scrubs and told them to break the press like they were good soccer players. Set them up to fail and made no adjustments to try to change that.
2. Not once, not one single time, did we play a long ball over the top despite OLR sitting with a high line and us with a couple rabbits. So there was no threat and they could press with all ten in our half.
3. We have two tall players with good heading skills. So you send crosses into the box, right? We attempted it twice and actually delivered it only once.
4. Our GM is a cheerleader, not a GM. We have literally known the date team would be short-handed since Christmas, yet the day arrives and we have nothing. This is inexcusable - if we had owners I think the GM search would be underway.
5. Hannah Betfort has been here for three years and her skills have not improved in any noticeable way. It's time to move on. or maybe convert to CB for one last shot?
6. Our "strikers" (Betfort, Vascancelos) won't shoot. WTF?
7. One more not-win, or OLR win, and we will be officially eliminated from the Cup. Can't happen soon enough, so we can stop pretending.
Aside from the above, it was a lovely everning, there was a good sized crowd, there were a few moments of suspense or interest. Five seconds of quality can offset 90 minutes of frustration. That must be how the Reign fans felt -- wish it had been us.
Challenge Cup Match Day June 28, 2023: "You Watched It. You Can't Unwatch It."
Lol, I told my partner last night that “it’s called the Challenge Cup because it’s challenging to watch .”
I could care less about the Cup.
The worrying thing about last night is that this plus Weaver is the group we’ve got for the league until August, and other that one nice buildup all I saw was Moultrie bombing from distance. This group had NOthing going forward. We better hope that adding Weaver to this mess will smarten it up, but my guess is not enough.
In 2015 it was obvious that Paul Riley (spit!) had no plan ready to deal with the absence of his international stars, and, indeed, that is the only season to date this club has finished below the red line.
Mark Parsons had Midge Purce and Simone Charley ready to go when the World Cup raptured the internationals four years later, so…
The mobhanded mess last night looked more 2015 than 2019.
I guess the counterpoint is there are only two *real* games until the World Cup and you will likely get some of the WC players back before the next league game on August 20.
Yeah, the WC final is also Aug 20th....so anyone not in that could possibly be available for the NC game. Hopefully, we aren't missing our whole offense when/if they get Kerolin back...
Especially when those two real games are KC and Gotham. Famous last words and all, but the former is, well, lol, and the latter without Lynn Williams aren't world-beaters either. Given the Thorns tendency to play down to their opponents I don't think they can sleep on these games, but at least we're not playing North Carolina or OL for real or whoever.
I dunno...I kinda feel the opposite about both of those games and would much rather be playing NC, who lost much of their starting roster to the WC. The players NC are losing to the WC have played 44% of the minutes for them, the highest of any team. This spreadsheet is pretty helpful to visualize which teams are losing who:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C-83VYVSEE4Fwj6qnVju-W70DTjLAty9QCrscNf-SOs/edit#gid=0
Kansas City...yeah, been dreadful much of the season. But, they ONLY lose Debinha out of their starting XI. Ball, Hamilton, Gautraut (and I think Lavogez) are just getting back from injury. You don't think that team could destroy us this weekend? I kinda do....Kizer, Cooper, and Larsson, with Labonta, Gautraut, and DiBernardo in midfield? That could be a problem and I probably give them the W honestly. Their defense is poor (but getting slightly better over the last couple games), but you have to have forwards that can A) keep the ball and B) exploit their rough defense, and I think we have neither. We also have a coach whose tactics are hopeless, so....Not sure I can count on Weaver, D'Aquila, Betfort, Vasconcelos, or Beckman to do any of that. Weaver can't do it all herself....but player for player I think our F line is one of the weakest ones in the league currently.
Gotham, they lose a few, but that game will be at home for them and they still have a ton of experienced former USWNT players on the team, and other contributing players as well- Long, Zerboni, Purce, Yaz Ryan, Krieger, Kawasumi, Nighswonger, Taylor Smith, ect... lots of experience, and, it just comes back down to our offense looking completely toothless. If we can't penetrate a backline of rookies and NTRP's against OLR, I'm not sure it's gonna get much better against league teams....unless again, Weaver can pull it all on her own and then we run the hell outta those games as fast as possible lol....
That's, well, very fair, and certainly better thought out than what I gave it! I think my hope is that Norris will stop being cute with player positions and that'll help stabilize some of the offensive woes, even just having Coffee at the 6 might assist in lobbing more balls upfield, but that's assigning a lot of adaptability to a coach who to say the least hasn't inspired much confidence.
Yeah, we kind of dodged a 2015 bullet there. Might include 8/20, but it's still only nine points and not 12 or 18.
Still. We pretty much knew that Mike Norris ain't Sir Alex. But last night pretty much completely pantsed him. I wish I thought that would make a difference.
I don’t think the coach is great - a blob of meh, basically - but I will also say the options are just…not good in key positions.
It’s interesting - RW last year and Norris this year (so far) haven’t deviated much from the overall system even without the first tier players. Now you could argue that they should, because Hannah Betfort isn’t Sophia Smith, and they still might.
But I remember 2019: Portland did very well during the World Cup period but reintegrating everyone ended up being messy, and at that point Mark almost had two plans, with the pre and post WC period and the WC period. But players remained throughout and seemed to struggle to adapt.
To me it was a lot about coaching. Organization was a mess and the only plan seemed to be to force the ball up or into the middle, regardless of the defensive structure. The defense appeared to be playing deep, clogging the middle and attacking the ball carrier (which I think is a good strategy against a B side).
Norris never appeared to have an answer or change anything. So often I wanted a pass backward out of pressure to maintain possession or a switch when the defense rotated to one side but it rarely happened. Just jam it up the middle as fast as you can and lose it.
Of course, playing players out of position just made things way worse than they needed to be. It almost felt like self-sabotage. Maybe Norris didn't want to play any more tournament matches? I know he's well-liked by the players, but I wish he was still an assistant and they went out and got a top-flight coach with a legit resume. Starting to feel like Wilkinson all over again...
Agreed on formation and position. The 433 with Betfort alone in the middle didn't work. She didn't have the capability to control under pressure and spring the ball wide. Bit disappointing couldnt at least control and to attacking mid. If going with they need to switch to 2 fwd and have her look to flick on, can't do that with the next closest player being 30 meters away, can't be left isolated like that. As stated earlier, even though lived seeing Coffey getting opportunity to be more offensive really needed her at 6, Porter was hot mess. At times, well actually often, she was essentially playing as a defender just in front of backline. Nothing to defend there made it super easy for Ol to get past our attacking line and would be able to run at our backline with free look upfield. She needed to step higher and get involved. Coffey would have seen that and filled that space.
It was absolutely coaching. One of the things about Norris has been that he's got the horses to drag this club through bad times. Without those thoroughbreds? Ugh; talk about exposed.
My guess is that 1) the Wilkinson mess left the club with no time to hunt up replacements, and 2) the sale process blunted the Peregrines interest in signing an expensive new hire. Plus, frankly, hiring semi-unknowns is a Peregrine tradition; the only "top flight" manager hired here was Paul Riley (spit!) and we know how that went. My confidence in the Peregrine ability to find and steal away someone with a legit c.v. is very low.
Watching some of the post match video, and apparently Norris told Reyes he was gonna throw her into F before the game. She was fine I guess (?), but like, wtf are we doing here lol.
“I don’t really want to play Morgan Weaver today but we need someone to fill in upfront”
Yeah, that's what happens when you start the season light on wingers, then get one on loan who isn't even going to be here during the period where you're even lighter on wingers. Like, what does KK do all day? Seems slow to react and ill-prepared for everything...can't even get NTRP's over the line on time.
At least we have this y’all: “Sam Coffey on wearing the captain’s armband for the first time tonight: ‘It’s such an honor. When Mike told me, I had to make sure he had the right person. … I love this club.’ #BAONPDX “
Captain Coffey for team Portland? Nothing else would make more sense, honestly. What a joy of a player and a person, to boot.
To cough up that hairball and realize our league lineup won’t be much different than that…woof. It’s also incredibly frustrating that the FO incompetence meant that instead of NTRP’s stinking up this game so Porter, Coffey, and Moultrie could get some damn rest, we had them going almost full games just to put almost the same lineup on the field against a fresh KC who have only lost Debinha. This is the game we needed them for…unless one of those NTRP’s are named Mia Fishel or some other competent pro-level forward. What a shitshow that was lol. Norris doesn’t have an uber talented roster to hide behind right now and boy does it show…Weaver, really gonna have to do it all. I get that maybe we can only raise the ceiling so much, but gaddamn that floor has got to come up from multiple players. I thought Liv was decent, but really not as dominant as we’re gonna need from her. Sam- good as usual. Reyes- had a pretty decent game as well. Everyone else was just….
Agree with all of that. The difference in coaching was on full display tonight.
I'll be glad when we're past this Canadianification era in every respect. It keeps leading to bad decisions and bad results.
Hear me out:
Kuikka, Hubly, Menges, Kling in back. Hubly is told never to look for a pass, just boot it upfield. (Maybe even switch Kuikka and Menges and then let Kuikka push forward a bit.)
Reyes, Coffey, Moultrie, Vasconcelos in mid.
Weaver and DAquila playing very aggressive strikers, trying to create turnovers in the attacking third.
I'd probably go with a platoon between Kling and Reyes - not sure how that would be for Reyes on the left (she usually plays on the right if I'm not mistaken). Interesting idea putting her at mid, though. She would definitely be a defensive mid. Would love it if it meant Coffey moved up the field more as I think she has more to offer offensively.
D'Aquila definitely needs to play in the middle but I do like the idea of two attacking strikers harassing the defense (and goalie) looking for turnovers for the mids to pick up. I'd put Vasconcelos at right forward in that scenario.
Reyes played predominantly LB in college, but has proven she can do a decent job on the R also. With McGrady coming back (who is also only a LB), I imagine were going to see Reyes on the R side more often.
Of course, last night we saw a predominate RB (Natu) playing LB, and a predominate LB (McGrady) playing RB for....reasons? Both inverted because they weren't comfortable and we became super narrow. Same thing happened when Rhian tried to shove Natu into LB when she was trying to make "Beckie as a wingback" a thing. Just, totally unforced errors here!
I agree. Last night I kept wanting Sam to carry the ball further up the field. Yes she is a defensive mid, but only since she joined the Thorns. Reyes is also a defensive player that has some offensive skills. She recently scored the technically best header I have seen in years from a Thorns player. Norris was right on asking Reyes to playing forward for awhile! We were getting nothing from the three forwards last night and until Weaver gets back on the field it will stay that way. I was confident of Izzy, but she looked lost. I was hopeful for Betfort, but she she wasn't ready for that last night. Move Kling to the midfield to help Sam. Seattle had RP last night that looked like a diamond in the rough. She caused a lot of havoc for a person that had barely even scrimmaged with the Reign.
moving d-acquila to middle is better than betfort but her lack of production this season has soured any hope I had for her. Has not shown anything to make me think she will be much in this league
Yikes. That was dreadful.
There's some squad issues - why the hell was McGrady at right back and Kuikka at left back - and D'Aquila, I'm sorry, she's not a winger. But some players are patently not good enough and we're short in attack. Maybe they were more attacking in college but Reyna Reyes and Sam Coffey have defensive brains now and that's hard to get out of
OL Reign also sucked but they scored on a set piece and that was enough.
Hope the Weaver thing is precautionary, cause while we may be able to get away with no Soph for a few games, we certainly can't get away with not having either.
Okay, can we get away with playing an academy team in whatever Challenge Cup games remain (since there's no way we advance now)? Pick-up squad from a rec league?
I said they should take volunteers from the Riveters lol.
Wait...this WASN'T a rec league squad? Oh, wow...shit. Gotta think about that for a bit...
Well better CC than league to stink it up.
Announcer still prattling about Thorns' offensive struggles. Comedy tier...
"It's hard to explain how this formerly brilliant sprinter has dropped in form since the accident that forced amputation of both legs..!"
Lmao exactly
Love to hear Norris explain this crap.
*shrug* “I dunno”
Norris v. Harvey. Enough said.
Offense finally showed up in the 91st minute...
Two hours of my life I'd love to have back (although I admit I've been doing more netsurfing that watching for a while now).
Got almost all the way through "Girls und Panzer - Little Army". The tankery has been more entertaining than this dreck.
Well...even an epic match would have some real competition from GuP. Panzer vor!
Miho in grade school? Cuteness to 11 + Pzkpfw IVs...
Well, I hate to give stick to a 17-year-old, but Moultrie has to do better than this.
She ran out of gas.
Yeah, I'm not mad at her, but I see she's struggling with being the only offensive target. What I mean is that she's going to have to find another level over the next several weeks.
She’s been the best Thorn out there all night. Not much she can do on her own.
Only attack we've had. Not okay, but at least she's fighting.
She's been the best Thorn on the field imo
I suppose...but on the other hand, she's been the best player on the side tonight. A low bar, but...
Too early to write off D'aquila? Man 90 minutes of nothing. don't think she won a meaningful 1v1.
She's been a complete nonfactor. Sure she's a rook, but you'd think she'd have produced SOMEthing in 90 minutes...
It’s been worse than nothing. Moultrie and Coffey have fed her solid balls that have gone from her feet straight to the nearest white shirt all night.
I think we all knew that the dropoff from the starters was pretty huge...but this reeeeeally drive home HOW huge. I'm not sure this group could score if they played for 190 minutes, there's just nobody there outside Moultrie. The hopes I had for D'Aquila are fading fast, and Betfort we know.
There's just no real quality there, at least not tonight.
Yeah - think the only way we have any chance of a goal tonight is Moultrie getting selfish for the last few mins. Still playing like she has competent forwards in front of her.
I haven’t given up but….this is very disappointing.
Izzy has been incredibly poor, and I hate how Betfort gets the 9 role.
I just wish they would actually give Izzy a chance at the 9. Why not shoehorn Betfort out of position, she’s already terrible in the 9, at least give someone a chance to be better…
D’Aquila has been really stunningly unimpressive tonight.
D'Aquila was my biggest disappointment of the night. I expected her to be effective, and didn't see much from her. Not a fan of Betfort, so that performance wasn't surprising. Vasconcelos didn't show much either. But that was our attack for the game so getting zero goals was about right. Norris has some work to do in the next few days.
Yeah. It's interesting to see how 1 non-regular can blend in, but 5-6 non-regulars lead to a complete breakdown.
Remember when we were all mad about not bringing in another winger besides Leon? Well....yeah. We have a left back playing RW rn.
Also why are Tegan and Kuikka playing on the wrong sides
And a CB playing DM and a RB playing LB, and a LB playing RB, and basically no forwards actually playing forward lol
Wtf was that position change? We had 5 defenders on the field, and Reyes was playing what? Also, Tegan McGrady playing RB while Natu was playing LB was pure idiocy for the sake of idiocy. They literally play the positions eachother were playing. It’s a non-factor at the end of the day, but like, also, why?!
Yeah, no idea what that was. It made us super narrow since everyone kept tucking inside.
Clearly, it's "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" out there.
Now we're gonna hit the afterburners - McGrady and Provenzano!
No stopping us now!
SD Champipple started someone named Jessica Shae Yáñez Couey in goal tonight.
This is about to go 2-0 or 3-0. Balcer and Barnes in.
There was something interesting. Hubs flapping cheeks to get forward.
I noticed that too. At some point she just started bombing forward. Not sure what that was about.
Announcer babbling about it being surprising the Thorns not scoring...oblivious to the heavy rotation, apparently. Sanderson immediately intervening to point out the missing scorers. Much lulz...
Yeah, well, it's one thing to know how hard this squad rides Smith, but it's another thing to see it. This group is an attacking black hole.
I mean, Weaver too. Having even one player who's a threat in behind matters tremendously.
And Weaver on the bench (probably not wanting to play her after that knock) and no Sinc, Hina, or Crystal...tough to see where the goals are supposed to come from (although Liv is trying).
I don't care about the Challenge Cup (although I bet the players do: that's a fat prize pot), so whatever, but I'd like to see some of these players look WAY better than this.
I'm the same way about this Cup, but this is much the same group we have for the league, and they look pretty junior-high-recess out there tonight. Hope there's some real steep learning curves.
The Attacking Black Hole. I love it!
“They scored four goals last week!” Who, who scored the goals, you’re so close to getting it
.... and it looks like Norris just DID adopt Wilkinson's "Try a New Position" approach, subbing in Kuikka for Betfort.
Those hellbent on Hogan for Bix, hit ctrl÷del.
That is ALL on Kling
She had a spill soon after the goal, which nearly cost a second. Seemed rattled, which is what Bix gets tagged with.
That said IDK what the heck they're doing with the keepers ATM. Seriously doubt Ice Bear Academy has Kozal polished and ready to go, and benching Bix would crush her, leaving the squad effectively with one keeper.
I know, Eck will unretire a second time!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah definitely agreed that she didn’t look great after the Bennett goal. Charged off her line too early and nearly gave Bennet a second too.
Enh. Tough ball for the keeper; good service, your defender is tangled with the attacker, no real safe route to come out and claim it. Not a great reaction from Hogan, but not as shocking as some of Bixby's derps and definitely not with the bad body language.
Yeah, Hogan just looks like a backup keeper. She needs a lot more time back there to show everything that a starter needs to have.
then Bixby has been rec-league level for weeks
No disagreement there.
Clever play, brutal defending from Kling, and I have NO idea how Portland can pull one back out of this primordial soccer soup.
Aw Kling: managed to hold Bennett onside AND not mark her at the same time.
The rarely-seen Daily Double!
Jeezus, that kick was like a school recess line!
Whow! Bennett's nails are like deadly weapons. Well, at least nine of them still are...
Between the two teams they have three shots on frame in forty-odd minutes
I think you mean "teams."
I like it, Moultrie! Go early and put your leg through it!
I was just about to ask if we would get a single shot on target tonight. Thanks, Liv!
I think we technically have 2 now, both Liv.
I'm thinking it might take a miracle to score tonight, JChrist. Do you care who wins and loses?
Of course I care. I have a thing about Thorns
Oh My You! Comment of the AD!
Keep shooting Liv. She's it tonight.
Well, it sure isn't Betfort. She doesn't know to go toward the post after laying it off to Kling.
Weinert- Reyes very entertaining.
Yeah, it's Rodman-Malone out there.
Holy Crap! ACFCNFT' is showing that their B team is superior to SD Champipple's B team.
That was some Peak Crap defending on AC's second...
At least the other game has some goals to show for the bleh.
Really not feeling like this was worth staying up for the 10:30 start time
I'm not feeling this was worth staying up for the 7:30 start time.
This is lol. Man, Betfort literally cannot hold a ball longer than an AYSO player. D’Aquila not much better? I’m taking great delight in Reyes’ battles with #51. She looks frustrated and Reyes is just loving it lol. Huge smile on her face every time #51 is on the ground.
Porter has been a pez dispenser, too. Flipped back to watch her intercept a poor OLR pass and immediately pass it right back. Ugh.
They just don't get enough opportunity to play 11 v 11 in game conditions. Granted, there's a reason why they're not playing, but you can't expect them to be strong when they don't see the pitch for months on end.
I don't expect awesome. But "simple competence" shouldn't be out of reach. Not "passing" directly to an opponent when there's no teammate nearby isn't exactly Pele'...
Especially when OLR had a much rotated squad as well and looked much more competent. The bar is low, but they looked like a better team. Also, like I said prior, our F depth doesn’t exist. They have pretty good depth at F, and two of their NTRP forwards looked better than all of ours who played tonight.
Yeah, there's been a LOT of that.
If it's gonna be this bad, why not bring back Wilkinson's "Try Out a New Position" approach?
Ted Lasso total football.gif
This is some seriously rec league shit. I've stopped watching and I'm just listening to the announcers while I fool around on the 'net.
I just went on a 45 minute Candy Crush winning streak, so it was a productive first half for me at least.
What level are you on now?
4150
Dammit! I tried like hell to advance during the first half, but I'm stuck on 4467.
Jumped 10 levels to 5520 this half. Glad we’re both being productive!
Yeah, this doesn't inspire a lot of confidence about what the regular season matches will look like during the WWC. I know we'll be able to throw Kuikka and Weaver out there too, but this is pretty much what we're looking at for the next number of weeks. Grim.
Just thinking that. Ugh.
Coffey, Reyes, Moultrie best Thorns by a large margin.
Looks like we have two different teams out there half the time.
"We've got the A team! We've got the B team!"
This made me lol
Betfort has been OK and done a couple of nice things.
Low bar.
Rubbish offside call. Nally kept Bennett onside, IMO. Crap defending, but lovely work from OLR, the $#&^$!
Only moment of excitement came off Betfort's lovely pass off the outside of her foot. Moultrie should have done better with the shot.
We are just out here kicking the ball, no thoughts, just vibes
I'm glad Chief is here at least. This game is exhausting to watch.
Portland reeeeeally struggling - again - playing out of the press because everyone is standing around. Luckily OLR is still pretty random, too...
Yeah, this isn't exactly easy on the eyes, this match. Kinda glad I decided not to make the drive up to Portland (although teh Paramount+ stream is laggy AF for me and keeps flopping between sharp/blurry).
"My eyes! The goggles do nothing!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWFF7ecArBk
I just pause it a couple of minutes for a buffer and there's no hiccups.
See, I just hiccup for a couple of minutes and it's just as entertaining.
Yeah, that seems to work. It froze for a bit and I resisted the temptation to "skip to live" and it's been okay.
Yes, no sense "skipping to live" tonight.
Yeah, I thought about dragging ass downtown but decided not to out of pure laziness, but seeing this crap I'm glad I didn't. This is some uglass soccer from both sides.
COVID has kept me out of commission for a few weeks but I'm hoping to go to the game Saturday and shoot pictures. I debated about going to this one but am glad I didn't.
Same. A big TV and reasonably priced adult beverages from my own fridge were too good to pass up. I do hate being able to see that my seats are vacant tonight, but definitely the right decision.
Yeah, mine, too.
It's doing the same for me
Christ but Porter looks like a rec league player out there...
Oh, Livvy! Gotta get that on frame - if for no other reason than to honor that pretty buildup..!
Captain Coffey. You love to see it.
I thought Sinc was grooming Horan for the role, but to my eyes she never seemed to want it. Interesting that Vlatko is now leaning on her to step up in Bruun's absence. Now Coffey on the other hand... I think she's the next Captain.