I said this in another post but what’s annoyed me most about the new owners is they come in saying big statements and then it’s just silence. So now we are just left wondering and hoping they are doing what needs to be done. It’s been a year almost where we assume they’ve been working hard but the total silence makes fans uncomfortable .
The second defender that was added is a big question mark that I hope was still Karina . It was a very risky unnecessary move that they paid for. Hoping it turns out okay but who knows. With only one international spot left they need to use it well. The only internationals that have lived up to the international spot standards are Marie & Hina. Obaze has shown potential but was injured.
We need to hear about
-New GM
-New HC
-Training Facility plans
-Signing a class goalscorer .
Hopefully we get good news this week and this month.
As I put in my comment on the other thread where I went through every team's usage of their spots, "international slot standards" are mostly not a thing. There are very few teams that even fill their allocated number of slots, and even fewer teams that utilize those slots for star --or even starter-- level players. Star internationals are simply too expensive and unreliable to have more than 2-3 of based on the realities of the NWSL's salary and transfer caps, as well as the growth of the game in Europe.
So, if you're getting a few true hits (Hina and Marie) and a few starter-level/high potential youngsters (Fleming and Obaze) from your six, you're really doing just fine. In no way was signing Diaine "very risky," even if it may not turn out to be an important (or even good) signing.
(Also, while she might very well suck, I guarantee that none of us have watched her play a second of soccer and therefore are basing our opinions on a few fan twitter threads, so I do find the general consternation a little more a reflection of the --very reasonable!-- general angst and mistrust around the org than anything specific to the player)
@kielbj, I think I am in agreement with you re: Fleming.
Why is it that all season long I thought Portland Thorns fans wanted to have Fleming walk the plank? While, kielbj, you consider her to have high potential. Note that I don't think I've ever been negative about Fleming; I looked at her as the "Swiss Army Knife" of the Thorns...having to be Sinc's younger legs in the offensive press, and moments later being the semi-defensive mid-fielder for the forwards who couldn't.
I'd like to see Fleming improve to be that "assist-machine" that is Hina -- one corner of the midfield triangle feeding Soph, Weaver, and whomever is the right-side wing.
Folks around here were --totally fairly-- disappointed in Fleming because she came in with such a high rep and never reached those heights in 2024. I thought that she --quite unfairly-- got the brunt of the blame for what was almost entirely an organizational problem.
I hope she sticks around cause I still rate her highly and very much still think she has the ability to be a really important piece. I don't know that it really happens for her (or the team) without a new coach, but I guess we'll find out.
I was definitely underwhelmed with Fleming before it really settled in how much the problems are/were coaching, even though I knew the coaching was dire. It didn't help that she was another Canadian and plays positions where we already had/have starters. Even with Rocky moving on, there was still Coffey, Moultrie, Sinc, and Hina competing for midfield starting spots, with increasing depth added. It just didn't make sense. I admittedly hadn't seen much of Fleming play either, so I didn't know what hype I was supposed to get and information I could find online about where to expect her to play was as all over the place as it often is with WoSo players. It seemed like she could play everywhere from fullback, to wingback, to winger, to box-to-box midfielder, to CAM. I think I had her penciled in as a winger at first, probably in no small part to the glut of midfielders and assuming she wasn't going to displace a starter there. Moultrie was already grumbling about her playing time. With Sinc playing more midfield than forward at times, that situation was exacerbated. Anyway, I've since seen more of what Fleming is capable of and hope we find some way to utilize her talents. We're still stacked at midfield though, so I'm not sure what the pecking order might be.
With Daiane’s lack of games in three years+ multiple surgeries + turf! + Amanda’s words it does seem like they are hoping a lot lines up. They could have signed a cb from college or a FA . I do hope it works out and she’s able to consistently contribute so our CB’s don’t have to play every game. Becky played 31! Just this year. Our CB’s need to be able to count on rest some games. They were played until exhaustion this year due to lack of depth.
It's certainly not an inspiring move by any means, but she's probably very cheap and they're presumably not bringing her here to be a starter- Even if Becky leaves for some reason, they still have Obaze and Hiatt. If Becky and Hubly (or Obaze) both leave and they have to rely on Diaine for big minutes, I'll be singing a slightly less optimistic tune. As of now, it seems likely that they'll have Obaze, Hiatt, and Becky ahead of her.
But yes, I generally agree- I'd prefer they filled out their depth with college players (which might happen, since Phuoc hinted at another young CB) instead of someone with her profile. Just pointing out that it's hardly a massive move in either direction.
Brunn’s spot is gonna be hard to fill. Hopefully she will consider an AC job next season; her experience is worth keeping.
If the FO knew she had this planned it makes the deckchair-shuffling less okay. With a big hole in the backline opening up (Hiatt? Mmmmmaybe, maybe not…) and nobody but Ken to provide a rebuilding scheme? That’s…not encouraging.
I bet they see Hiatt replacing her, then adding a college CB to go with Diaine and maybe Hubly on the bench. That...doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence.
Maybe should’ve sprang for Erceg for a year instead of Daiane for backline leadership. Or I dunno, found a better CB elsewhere!
So far we haven’t really improved our worst line. If they can pull in someone like Reale, I’ll feel a little better, but that’s still a young line and a brand new CB pairing.
The franchise's approach is starting to remind me of some parents leaving town for a few days, and giving their teen children some spending money while they're gone.
"This is for food and gas, and use whatever's left from that to sign a replacement for the blonde woman w/ the tight ponytail."
I think my hope was that Hiatt would replace Hubly. Swapping 'Brunn for Hiatt is a lateral move at best. Daiane? Meh. Depth based on her scouting reports.
No arguments there. It's hardly what I would call aggressive personnel moves.
That said, my point is more that we need a new coach because unless Gale pulls some hitherto undiscovered ability out of his ass I'm not sure it will matter whether the CBs are average or slightly above average.
Quite possible that they do something special for her at the start of the season. Two possible reasons she didn't do anything earlier: 1 - she didn't know she was done until after the season ended and she thought about going back in for another year and the energy/passion wasn't there; and 2 - she didn't want to take away from Sinc.
I'm invested in the Thorns, though also a Timbers fan. My comments are for the Thorns:
With the two recent defender signings, it makes me think someone knows what she or he is doing since I see that as a huge need area as the "getting younger" process advances. The players who are not under contract do not surprise me. I would like to see a new attacker, but that seems like something that will take a lot of work and possible $$ and I generally am not a fan of there being a lot of public information out there on something that takes care and sometimes behind the scenes work.
My other big thing is a grass field and I would like to hear about that from the team. If Providence Park never will be grass, please tell us. If there is the possibility of the Thorns playing somewhere else where there could be grass, please tell us.
And of course, the General Manager and Coach situation are critical. Names of candidates aside, please at least tell us what the status of the process is.
On the other hand ... doling out the information on a planned schedule designed to maximize our experience is ok with me too. That may include keeping us on the hungry side and letting our anxiety build some.
All I can say is ditto to everything you said Sam! Hoping and refreshing pages looking for a crumb of hopeful news, but also trusting (naively???) that they ARE working on things. Someone said in a post a while back that our organization tends to keep things pretty hush hush and leaks don't happen as much. Hoping that is true and there are all sorts of good things to be announced in the next month. :)
I'm totally with you Sam, very frustrated here. I do like the rumors for the Timbers striker, and the Thorns signings are great, but I did expect there to be more action by now. My assumption for the Timbers is that they have to figure out the Evander thing first before doing anything else. I'm thinking that they have a big hill to climb there, and so many other things will depend on what happens with him. I'm less concerned about the Thorns at the moment, but do we have a new GM yet? I liked the Mark Parsons article a couple of months back....I hope the front office read it!
I see that for the second year the “preseason” will include an appearance at the Great Coachella Valley Carrot Festival. Can a humble fan make a request?
CAN WE HAVE A DECENT FUCKING STREAM??!!
Last time it was a disgrace, an insult to fans and players. It made the old NWSL YouTube streams look like studio film productions.
We help pay your club. It’d be nice if we could, y’know, see it play.
It took nearly a year, but I'd forgotten just how bad that was.
But now it all comes back: mediocre field footage interrupted visually by endless, static interviews w/ coaches and management culminating in a torturous session w/ that alien space pod from AC. And, IIRC, once they finally got back to the field of play, the video crapped out.
I believe my e-mail of complaint to that "channel" used the phrase "this would have embarrassed a none too bright middle school A/V club," and I said it was the most nightmarishly incompetent sports broadcast I'd seen in fifty years.
The video didn't crap out; after 90 minutes (air time, not game time) they switched to their scheduled programming - golf? monster trucks? I don't remember. What I remember is that it was a gratuitous and *intentional* slap in the face, which cut us off when the game was getting interesting.
Yep. And I’m old enough to remember the “protect the Precious” open mike weather delay fuckup from Maryland. And the YouTube “stream” endlessly buffering from Rochester. That CVI shitshow made all them look like auteur brilliance.
As Beckenbauer points out; this ain’t rocket science. You know the clubs will be recording the game(s?) to do analysis. Even the single midfield camera would be better than the hot mess we had last time.
Yeah, my HS FB and BB games were recorded by a parent showing off his new camcorder. Those definitively amateur productions, dating back forty years, blew that preseason fiasco away. It's simple enough to follow the action.
What was astonishing was that it apparently didn't occur to anybody that they could and should run the audio over the game footage. As a result the "broadcast" played like some failed 1949 Westinghouse experiment.
The frustrating thing is that the most frustrating part of the Thorns Peregrine FO was how utterly opaque it was. Any news - signings, trades, waivers - if it emerged at all, was often a long wait. I'd hoped the new owners would see the opportunity to change that and engage the fanbase.
Okay, no.
SOMEthing's going on; two signings, four waivers...but the player moves are just moving deckchairs, frankly, if Ken's in the technical box in 2025; the man couldn't lead four GIs to the latrine. So the HC hire is central, and, since the GM needs to be able to work with them, that need to happen ASAP...and we don't have a clue where they even are in the process or who the candidates are.
So am I "worried"? I have no idea if I should be or not! There may be a brilliant plan at work. There's just no way to tell enough to BE worried.
(And on the deckchairs, FWIW? Hiatt? Fine. Daiane? Meh. D'Aquila? Sad ending to poor player development. Sheva, Kozal, Asman? Who knows? No idea how good they are/could be...)
I’d love to say I am confident that the Thorns will do the right thing. Right now, I have no expectation. They made a lot of moves last year that look promising and some non moves that cost our team. Mike Smith was kind of hired out of nowhere, but he seemed to atleast have an understanding of how players skill sets would translate to the league.
Like you, my biggest issue has been whom they’ve chosen as the coach.
I was surprised when Gale was selected over Lowdon to be the head coach. Frankly didn’t see him as qualified to be an assistant when he was hired and for him to be our second coach hired in a row without a background of success was irritating.
My expectations aren’t high; so far RAJ has seldom failed to miss an opportunity. But I DO still hope…and the HC move seems so obvious that even this mob can’t miss seeing it.
But so far, nothing. And the club just announced they’re doing that damn Carrot Festival preseason thing in February, so there’s about six weeks to have a squad ready to play. That’s not encouraging…
A nice homage to Brunn on Equalizer. She is a special person and will be in NWSL Hall of Fame for sure. I would love to see her as an AC. The players respect her so much and the Thorns and USWNT need to honor her in 2025.
With the news of the Denver expansion and retirements this GM hire is more important than ever. This club hasn’t planned for long term since Parsons. Now is the time to start crafting the future of this team and what it looks like. What do they want to be? Is barely making it to playoffs enough for ownership? Is the performance enough ?
The reality is the first portion of the off-season would've been planned weeks and months ago, which means it would've been planned by Karina LeBlanc and Rob Gale.
Here's the thing: I still maintain that, if the Timbers hold on to Evander, they're only one or two defensive pieces away from being an elite team in MLS. So the optimist in me says that they're finalizing a new deal for Evander to keep him happy this season (GIVE THE MAN HIS DAMN RELEASE CLAUSE ALREADY!!!!!), and once that happens, they'll get those defensive pieces, and be on their way.
That does, of course, depend on Ned being good at squad-building, which...well, the jury's still out. But I'm in a holiday spirit, giving mood, so I'm being optimistic.
Would be a good add for them while Sullivan is out, but still a kinda weird fit imo given the Spirit are all about athleticism and versatility and Narumi is the opposite of that. On the other hand, Hershfelt compensates well in an O'Sullivan-y way, so maybe it would make sense.
I think it could be more like a Jona fit than a Spirit fit upon initial thought, but I still think she could be good for them. They also just have basically only Herschfelt in defensive midfield. I think they could do a lot worse than a Herschfelt/Narumi/Santos (or Bethune) midfield. Adding Narumi can add some defensive steel and allow Herschfelt to get forward more (she offers more going forward.) Her passing is excellent, and I think she’s a good progressive passer from what I remember. Nice to have when you’re trying to get forward quickly.
It would be interesting to see her in a system that didn’t constantly require her to have/need the ball.
I think the idea of a "Jona fit" is an interesting question. She certainly fits the profile of what I would have thought that term to mean based on Barca, but the players they've brought in since he got the job haven't (wisely, I think) tried to replicate Barcelona and the possession numbers aren't very high.
So yeah, I think she fits into the midfield pretty nicely regardless --she replaces most of what Sullivan does with better passing but without the athleticism-- but it does raise some interesting questions for me about whether he wants them to be more of a possession-oriented team going forward.
(Or it could just be an opportunistic get, who knows)
Here's hoping KK has arisen from the long hibernation season of Canada, and made Narumi an offer. Assign Gale the task of writing an announcement that Narumi accepted. You know, Gale the actor(ing) GM?
I like Narumi, but she's not someone I'm interested I'm in. Slow, technical, possession-based six who isn't as good as the one we already have (Coffey) and isn't good enough going forward to replace Hina or Fleming. Gotta spend the resources elsewhere imo.
Perfect fit for the Courage though, which is why I'm so surprised they let her go.
You know who the Timbers should sign if Evander goes? I'm not kidding (or delusional) when I say this, even though people will think I am:
Marcus Rashford.
He's done at United, and his playing reputation, quite unfairly, is shot in Europe because it didn't work out for him at United. So, bring him here and let him spend a couple years here, be out of the European spotlight for a while, rebuild some confidence in his game, and then he can go back to Europe for one last big payday.
And oh by the way, he's a really good person, as well - his work to eradicate child hunger by providing free meals to kids in schools (the day after getting benched for last weekend's Manchester derby, he delivered over 400 meals to local elementary schools!) and to unhoused families over the years is a great fit for the ethos of the Timbers/TA, he'd be a legend here within months.
Ned would never do it, because such a move would require a level of ambition that seems to be beyond him, but oh man would that be an amazing statement signing to make.
What concerns me on both the Thorns and Timbers front is how nostalgic both franchises are and the city at large. Hard decisions need to be made in both camps and I worry that neither team is brave enough to do so.
I said this in another post but what’s annoyed me most about the new owners is they come in saying big statements and then it’s just silence. So now we are just left wondering and hoping they are doing what needs to be done. It’s been a year almost where we assume they’ve been working hard but the total silence makes fans uncomfortable .
The second defender that was added is a big question mark that I hope was still Karina . It was a very risky unnecessary move that they paid for. Hoping it turns out okay but who knows. With only one international spot left they need to use it well. The only internationals that have lived up to the international spot standards are Marie & Hina. Obaze has shown potential but was injured.
We need to hear about
-New GM
-New HC
-Training Facility plans
-Signing a class goalscorer .
Hopefully we get good news this week and this month.
As I put in my comment on the other thread where I went through every team's usage of their spots, "international slot standards" are mostly not a thing. There are very few teams that even fill their allocated number of slots, and even fewer teams that utilize those slots for star --or even starter-- level players. Star internationals are simply too expensive and unreliable to have more than 2-3 of based on the realities of the NWSL's salary and transfer caps, as well as the growth of the game in Europe.
So, if you're getting a few true hits (Hina and Marie) and a few starter-level/high potential youngsters (Fleming and Obaze) from your six, you're really doing just fine. In no way was signing Diaine "very risky," even if it may not turn out to be an important (or even good) signing.
(Also, while she might very well suck, I guarantee that none of us have watched her play a second of soccer and therefore are basing our opinions on a few fan twitter threads, so I do find the general consternation a little more a reflection of the --very reasonable!-- general angst and mistrust around the org than anything specific to the player)
@kielbj, I think I am in agreement with you re: Fleming.
Why is it that all season long I thought Portland Thorns fans wanted to have Fleming walk the plank? While, kielbj, you consider her to have high potential. Note that I don't think I've ever been negative about Fleming; I looked at her as the "Swiss Army Knife" of the Thorns...having to be Sinc's younger legs in the offensive press, and moments later being the semi-defensive mid-fielder for the forwards who couldn't.
I'd like to see Fleming improve to be that "assist-machine" that is Hina -- one corner of the midfield triangle feeding Soph, Weaver, and whomever is the right-side wing.
yes I very expected an 8 with a 10 skillset and would be the combination piece our midfield needed.
Folks around here were --totally fairly-- disappointed in Fleming because she came in with such a high rep and never reached those heights in 2024. I thought that she --quite unfairly-- got the brunt of the blame for what was almost entirely an organizational problem.
I hope she sticks around cause I still rate her highly and very much still think she has the ability to be a really important piece. I don't know that it really happens for her (or the team) without a new coach, but I guess we'll find out.
I was definitely underwhelmed with Fleming before it really settled in how much the problems are/were coaching, even though I knew the coaching was dire. It didn't help that she was another Canadian and plays positions where we already had/have starters. Even with Rocky moving on, there was still Coffey, Moultrie, Sinc, and Hina competing for midfield starting spots, with increasing depth added. It just didn't make sense. I admittedly hadn't seen much of Fleming play either, so I didn't know what hype I was supposed to get and information I could find online about where to expect her to play was as all over the place as it often is with WoSo players. It seemed like she could play everywhere from fullback, to wingback, to winger, to box-to-box midfielder, to CAM. I think I had her penciled in as a winger at first, probably in no small part to the glut of midfielders and assuming she wasn't going to displace a starter there. Moultrie was already grumbling about her playing time. With Sinc playing more midfield than forward at times, that situation was exacerbated. Anyway, I've since seen more of what Fleming is capable of and hope we find some way to utilize her talents. We're still stacked at midfield though, so I'm not sure what the pecking order might be.
With Daiane’s lack of games in three years+ multiple surgeries + turf! + Amanda’s words it does seem like they are hoping a lot lines up. They could have signed a cb from college or a FA . I do hope it works out and she’s able to consistently contribute so our CB’s don’t have to play every game. Becky played 31! Just this year. Our CB’s need to be able to count on rest some games. They were played until exhaustion this year due to lack of depth.
It's certainly not an inspiring move by any means, but she's probably very cheap and they're presumably not bringing her here to be a starter- Even if Becky leaves for some reason, they still have Obaze and Hiatt. If Becky and Hubly (or Obaze) both leave and they have to rely on Diaine for big minutes, I'll be singing a slightly less optimistic tune. As of now, it seems likely that they'll have Obaze, Hiatt, and Becky ahead of her.
But yes, I generally agree- I'd prefer they filled out their depth with college players (which might happen, since Phuoc hinted at another young CB) instead of someone with her profile. Just pointing out that it's hardly a massive move in either direction.
Today I’m a bit more stressed about the roster building. Becky will leave a big hole and minutes we aren’t sure Obaze or Daiane can fill.
Brunn’s spot is gonna be hard to fill. Hopefully she will consider an AC job next season; her experience is worth keeping.
If the FO knew she had this planned it makes the deckchair-shuffling less okay. With a big hole in the backline opening up (Hiatt? Mmmmmaybe, maybe not…) and nobody but Ken to provide a rebuilding scheme? That’s…not encouraging.
Well I certainly hope we have another CB signing in the pipeline now.
I’m so sad, she didn’t let us celebrate her one last time.
Ya know, somehow I'm not surprised that she chose to go out quietly without having a big celebration game. I'm sad though.
I bet they see Hiatt replacing her, then adding a college CB to go with Diaine and maybe Hubly on the bench. That...doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence.
Woof on the downgrade (and ambition) there.
Maybe should’ve sprang for Erceg for a year instead of Daiane for backline leadership. Or I dunno, found a better CB elsewhere!
So far we haven’t really improved our worst line. If they can pull in someone like Reale, I’ll feel a little better, but that’s still a young line and a brand new CB pairing.
The franchise's approach is starting to remind me of some parents leaving town for a few days, and giving their teen children some spending money while they're gone.
"This is for food and gas, and use whatever's left from that to sign a replacement for the blonde woman w/ the tight ponytail."
Loooool exactly right hahaha.
Except the parents never came back and instead it's become more like Lord of the Flies...
I think my hope was that Hiatt would replace Hubly. Swapping 'Brunn for Hiatt is a lateral move at best. Daiane? Meh. Depth based on her scouting reports.
No arguments there. It's hardly what I would call aggressive personnel moves.
That said, my point is more that we need a new coach because unless Gale pulls some hitherto undiscovered ability out of his ass I'm not sure it will matter whether the CBs are average or slightly above average.
Quite possible that they do something special for her at the start of the season. Two possible reasons she didn't do anything earlier: 1 - she didn't know she was done until after the season ended and she thought about going back in for another year and the energy/passion wasn't there; and 2 - she didn't want to take away from Sinc.
I’m afraid the defense is going to be mid. It’s not inspiring a lot of confidence. Lots of questions and not a lot of answers or certainty
I'm invested in the Thorns, though also a Timbers fan. My comments are for the Thorns:
With the two recent defender signings, it makes me think someone knows what she or he is doing since I see that as a huge need area as the "getting younger" process advances. The players who are not under contract do not surprise me. I would like to see a new attacker, but that seems like something that will take a lot of work and possible $$ and I generally am not a fan of there being a lot of public information out there on something that takes care and sometimes behind the scenes work.
My other big thing is a grass field and I would like to hear about that from the team. If Providence Park never will be grass, please tell us. If there is the possibility of the Thorns playing somewhere else where there could be grass, please tell us.
And of course, the General Manager and Coach situation are critical. Names of candidates aside, please at least tell us what the status of the process is.
On the other hand ... doling out the information on a planned schedule designed to maximize our experience is ok with me too. That may include keeping us on the hungry side and letting our anxiety build some.
All I can say is ditto to everything you said Sam! Hoping and refreshing pages looking for a crumb of hopeful news, but also trusting (naively???) that they ARE working on things. Someone said in a post a while back that our organization tends to keep things pretty hush hush and leaks don't happen as much. Hoping that is true and there are all sorts of good things to be announced in the next month. :)
And if I can't find any good news on the socials, I can at least get a good chuckle out of Jeremy ripping on stupid moves that Seattle is making. 😁
I'm totally with you Sam, very frustrated here. I do like the rumors for the Timbers striker, and the Thorns signings are great, but I did expect there to be more action by now. My assumption for the Timbers is that they have to figure out the Evander thing first before doing anything else. I'm thinking that they have a big hill to climb there, and so many other things will depend on what happens with him. I'm less concerned about the Thorns at the moment, but do we have a new GM yet? I liked the Mark Parsons article a couple of months back....I hope the front office read it!
An open letter to the Bhathals:
Dear Owners;
I see that for the second year the “preseason” will include an appearance at the Great Coachella Valley Carrot Festival. Can a humble fan make a request?
CAN WE HAVE A DECENT FUCKING STREAM??!!
Last time it was a disgrace, an insult to fans and players. It made the old NWSL YouTube streams look like studio film productions.
We help pay your club. It’d be nice if we could, y’know, see it play.
Yours in hope.
It took nearly a year, but I'd forgotten just how bad that was.
But now it all comes back: mediocre field footage interrupted visually by endless, static interviews w/ coaches and management culminating in a torturous session w/ that alien space pod from AC. And, IIRC, once they finally got back to the field of play, the video crapped out.
I believe my e-mail of complaint to that "channel" used the phrase "this would have embarrassed a none too bright middle school A/V club," and I said it was the most nightmarishly incompetent sports broadcast I'd seen in fifty years.
The video didn't crap out; after 90 minutes (air time, not game time) they switched to their scheduled programming - golf? monster trucks? I don't remember. What I remember is that it was a gratuitous and *intentional* slap in the face, which cut us off when the game was getting interesting.
Ah, thanks for the correction. I think I must have given up in disgust, since I was up a few hours past the point when I'd normally go to sleep.
Yep. And I’m old enough to remember the “protect the Precious” open mike weather delay fuckup from Maryland. And the YouTube “stream” endlessly buffering from Rochester. That CVI shitshow made all them look like auteur brilliance.
As Beckenbauer points out; this ain’t rocket science. You know the clubs will be recording the game(s?) to do analysis. Even the single midfield camera would be better than the hot mess we had last time.
Yeah, my HS FB and BB games were recorded by a parent showing off his new camcorder. Those definitively amateur productions, dating back forty years, blew that preseason fiasco away. It's simple enough to follow the action.
What was astonishing was that it apparently didn't occur to anybody that they could and should run the audio over the game footage. As a result the "broadcast" played like some failed 1949 Westinghouse experiment.
HUDL isn't really that expensive for a big club. Easy to stream to youtube
The frustrating thing is that the most frustrating part of the Thorns Peregrine FO was how utterly opaque it was. Any news - signings, trades, waivers - if it emerged at all, was often a long wait. I'd hoped the new owners would see the opportunity to change that and engage the fanbase.
Okay, no.
SOMEthing's going on; two signings, four waivers...but the player moves are just moving deckchairs, frankly, if Ken's in the technical box in 2025; the man couldn't lead four GIs to the latrine. So the HC hire is central, and, since the GM needs to be able to work with them, that need to happen ASAP...and we don't have a clue where they even are in the process or who the candidates are.
So am I "worried"? I have no idea if I should be or not! There may be a brilliant plan at work. There's just no way to tell enough to BE worried.
(And on the deckchairs, FWIW? Hiatt? Fine. Daiane? Meh. D'Aquila? Sad ending to poor player development. Sheva, Kozal, Asman? Who knows? No idea how good they are/could be...)
I’d love to say I am confident that the Thorns will do the right thing. Right now, I have no expectation. They made a lot of moves last year that look promising and some non moves that cost our team. Mike Smith was kind of hired out of nowhere, but he seemed to atleast have an understanding of how players skill sets would translate to the league.
Like you, my biggest issue has been whom they’ve chosen as the coach.
I was surprised when Gale was selected over Lowdon to be the head coach. Frankly didn’t see him as qualified to be an assistant when he was hired and for him to be our second coach hired in a row without a background of success was irritating.
Curious to see what’s next.
My expectations aren’t high; so far RAJ has seldom failed to miss an opportunity. But I DO still hope…and the HC move seems so obvious that even this mob can’t miss seeing it.
But so far, nothing. And the club just announced they’re doing that damn Carrot Festival preseason thing in February, so there’s about six weeks to have a squad ready to play. That’s not encouraging…
Ken...incompetent player developer.
A nice homage to Brunn on Equalizer. She is a special person and will be in NWSL Hall of Fame for sure. I would love to see her as an AC. The players respect her so much and the Thorns and USWNT need to honor her in 2025.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGRGIrnC8cA
This is lovely
With the news of the Denver expansion and retirements this GM hire is more important than ever. This club hasn’t planned for long term since Parsons. Now is the time to start crafting the future of this team and what it looks like. What do they want to be? Is barely making it to playoffs enough for ownership? Is the performance enough ?
The reality is the first portion of the off-season would've been planned weeks and months ago, which means it would've been planned by Karina LeBlanc and Rob Gale.
Here's the thing: I still maintain that, if the Timbers hold on to Evander, they're only one or two defensive pieces away from being an elite team in MLS. So the optimist in me says that they're finalizing a new deal for Evander to keep him happy this season (GIVE THE MAN HIS DAMN RELEASE CLAUSE ALREADY!!!!!), and once that happens, they'll get those defensive pieces, and be on their way.
That does, of course, depend on Ned being good at squad-building, which...well, the jury's still out. But I'm in a holiday spirit, giving mood, so I'm being optimistic.
Was very much NOT expecting the Courage to let Narumi go- She's a massive piece of how they play. Wonder if she's staying in the league.
Read that she recently started following the Spirit, as well as Jona.
She’s be perfect for his system (esp with Andi out a long while), and I’m sad about it lol.
well she did join the spirit. nice job abell
Would be a good add for them while Sullivan is out, but still a kinda weird fit imo given the Spirit are all about athleticism and versatility and Narumi is the opposite of that. On the other hand, Hershfelt compensates well in an O'Sullivan-y way, so maybe it would make sense.
I think it could be more like a Jona fit than a Spirit fit upon initial thought, but I still think she could be good for them. They also just have basically only Herschfelt in defensive midfield. I think they could do a lot worse than a Herschfelt/Narumi/Santos (or Bethune) midfield. Adding Narumi can add some defensive steel and allow Herschfelt to get forward more (she offers more going forward.) Her passing is excellent, and I think she’s a good progressive passer from what I remember. Nice to have when you’re trying to get forward quickly.
It would be interesting to see her in a system that didn’t constantly require her to have/need the ball.
I think the idea of a "Jona fit" is an interesting question. She certainly fits the profile of what I would have thought that term to mean based on Barca, but the players they've brought in since he got the job haven't (wisely, I think) tried to replicate Barcelona and the possession numbers aren't very high.
So yeah, I think she fits into the midfield pretty nicely regardless --she replaces most of what Sullivan does with better passing but without the athleticism-- but it does raise some interesting questions for me about whether he wants them to be more of a possession-oriented team going forward.
(Or it could just be an opportunistic get, who knows)
Here's hoping KK has arisen from the long hibernation season of Canada, and made Narumi an offer. Assign Gale the task of writing an announcement that Narumi accepted. You know, Gale the actor(ing) GM?
I like Narumi, but she's not someone I'm interested I'm in. Slow, technical, possession-based six who isn't as good as the one we already have (Coffey) and isn't good enough going forward to replace Hina or Fleming. Gotta spend the resources elsewhere imo.
Perfect fit for the Courage though, which is why I'm so surprised they let her go.
I was thinking of Narumi only as depth off the bench and/or injury substitute, behind Coffey, Hina, Fleming.
Yup!
You know who the Timbers should sign if Evander goes? I'm not kidding (or delusional) when I say this, even though people will think I am:
Marcus Rashford.
He's done at United, and his playing reputation, quite unfairly, is shot in Europe because it didn't work out for him at United. So, bring him here and let him spend a couple years here, be out of the European spotlight for a while, rebuild some confidence in his game, and then he can go back to Europe for one last big payday.
And oh by the way, he's a really good person, as well - his work to eradicate child hunger by providing free meals to kids in schools (the day after getting benched for last weekend's Manchester derby, he delivered over 400 meals to local elementary schools!) and to unhoused families over the years is a great fit for the ethos of the Timbers/TA, he'd be a legend here within months.
Ned would never do it, because such a move would require a level of ambition that seems to be beyond him, but oh man would that be an amazing statement signing to make.
Well I am not feeling good.
https://x.com/ThornsFC/status/1869070922185105453
Congratulations on a great career. It would be nice to see her doing NWSL games on TV.
Or, ahem, coaching them, in some capacity.
What concerns me on both the Thorns and Timbers front is how nostalgic both franchises are and the city at large. Hard decisions need to be made in both camps and I worry that neither team is brave enough to do so.