It’s been a rough start to the season for the Thorns. Can they turn it around in North Carolina? Who knows — but we do know you’ll have the match thread to chat through it.
WHO: Portland Thorns at North Carolina Courage
WHAT: NWSL Matchday 4
WHERE: WakeMed SoccerPark | Cary, NC
WHEN: kickoff at 4:00 p.m. PT, streaming on NWSL+, broadcast locally on FOX Channel 12
I think Bella keeps a few of those early goals out thus preventing chase. Not having Kuika and Kling moving quickly up the flanks seems to bring extra pressure and mistakes.
But manager is mostly behind the tactical deficiencies.
The blame on the pitch should fall mostly on the defenders. Hogan's got some issues (her distribution being the biggest one, imo), but our defensive porosity is mostly on the back line and a couple other field player issues. That back line has a level of mutual understanding and coordination that I'd expect from a U15 team...in its first week of training camp. Slow to react (ballwatching), unsure of _how_ to react, and prone to dumb mistakes on fundamental matters (like staying ball-side of your mark, etc.).
There are also some factors outside their control making the defense (back line and DM) look worse. One of the worst of these is the zonal marking on set pieces and other situations. Zonal marking only works (to the degree it _ever_ works) with players who are very much on the same page. The Thorns' defense isn't even in the same branch of the library. The 4-3-3 formation also does an uncoordinated defense no favors. It's resulting in Sam being overworked and exposed when she tries (as she should) to facilitate some offense. This team needs to switch to a proper double pivot in the defensive midfield STAT.
If a lot of that sounds like a coaching issue, that's because it's a coaching issue. ;)
Enh. The bulk was standard coachspeak, but to me the weird thing is him saying “the way we want to play” and my followup would be “and what way IS that?” because, like COL Kurtz, I don’t see any methods at all.
That was the coachspeak part to me. He's just saying (in effect) "you're gonna say what you're gonna say and I'm gonna just do my thing here". Not well spoken, but pretty much what every coach under siege says.
Would Oregon consider Mike Norris for a head coaching position? The answer is no. It’s time to end this experiment and call it what it is … a failed try.
I’ve never been a #NameOut kind of person. I stuck by Riley (spit!) in 2014 when lots on this site were howling for his head. “Who are you going to replace him with?” was my consistent reply. If you don’t have a better option, how does that help?
I was willing to give Mike Norris a shot after Amoros outcoached him last fall. He’d gotten to the semi, after all! Couldn’t be that bad, right? Maybe with a chance to assemble his preferred squad he’d take off.
Well. That’s that. Instead this team has looked appalling; underprepared and unformed, tactically adrift and incohesive. It’s time to cut the losses, if only to stop the slide before it can get in people’s heads.
He’s done less with talent than any coach we’ve ever had. We are among the most talented teams in the league and are in last place. Id argue that he left two wins on the field with roster management. Longing for the average tactical mind of Parsons is a nice sign of what we think of Norris.
Honestly, I thought he was a stretch when he was hired as an assistant. Still believe that even now
Man, the lowest of bars…I don’t know what that game tells them that they don’t already know. A win against Houston shouldn’t save that man’s job lol…if it’s worse? Well, we’ve already seen how bad it is lol. A loss to Houston at this point isn’t surprising either. KK has gotta be super embarrassed also. Let Lowdon interim and conduct a real, thorough search.
This is about as rock bottom as you can get with this group of players, so the Bhathals have some reallll work to do. On the bright side, we'll probably get to see first hand how they're going to go about making changes.
(And, as I will post every week until morale improves, thank GOD KK/Bhathals got the Smith deal done asap)
I do think the coaching situation needs to be addressed, but I wouldn't stop there in my examination.
The problem is, they'll probably need to bring in an external consultant, as they do not have the requisite knowledge to make such decisions and Karina is probably another piece to consider replacing.
The next move doesn't always bring improvements, alas. The Milwaukee Bucks are a great example -- fired the head coach, hired the external consultant, and they've had a losing record since the change was made. Also have an underperforming superstar who has had difficulty finding his fit, playing alongside another superstar who seems a bit thrown off by the changes too.
True, I cannot imagine they wanna make their entrance as new owners by standing idly by and being patient watching this shitshow. They're gonna make a good impression and I can't imagine this goes on much longer. Rich people don't like to be embarrassed lol...
And thank you, it's the only thing keeping me sane with this lol...
I wonder if Moultrie's fully back to form after that nasty ankle turn int the Gold Cup. It's been awhile, and she continued playing, but that one was pretty gruesome looking at the time and I wonder if she's still got any lingering effects.
That would also be my preferred midfield, but this is wayyy beyond a personnel problem sadly.
Thing is, Fleming has played much worse than I've ever seen her. Hina had a poor game today. Even Sam --the best of a bad bunch-- hasn't been all that good. I agree that Moultrie has been bad.....but who hasn't been?
At the risk of repeating myself, I don't believe that Fleming fits here. At the least, she needs much more room and allocation of roles that belong to other people than I think is going to work here.
I honestly can't comprehend feeling comfortable enough to make that kind of statement with any confidence whatsoever after watching the first 3.5 NWSL games of her career -- especially with Norris as her coach-- but regardless, as ever, I very much disagree.
I will feel good about evaluating her fit when I feel like this team has a competent coach, and not before. I could point to pretty much every player on this team and say that they "don't fit" in some way based on how the start to this season has gone.
I say it from having watched how she plays next to Sam, and their effect on each other, and by comparison how she looks playing for Canada. It's a night-and-day difference, and what explains it is that she has a ton of responsibilities for Canada, including roles that belong to Sam here. To be fair, she has a ton of reps built up with Canada that she doesn't have here; that obviously helps too. I'm not doubting whether she's a very good player; I'm questioning the fit. Maybe a new gaffer will help a lot. More time with your teammates probably helps too. But, again, what I see is that she's most effective when she does a lot of the stuff that Sam does for us. Even playing a dual pivot, you don't want them doing the same things and needing to do the same things to be most effective.
ATM there's not one player that has impressed me enough to say they are a good fit for the team. There's no connection between any of the players and they all seem lost.
Yep: Fleming was terrible, Hina was largely invisible, Moultrie was a defensive liability, and Sam played well below her ability. Multiple good-to-great players ALL playing poorly? Again, that points to coaching issues (plural).
Fleming at least has been better with Canada lately so it's more than just her being out of form - which she was for club and country for the majority of last year. When your entire midfield seems out of step and playing well below their abilities something is definitely up.
Actually, I think it is hard to figure out the problem.
The coach is the easy answer.
The problems run deeper.
Sometimes what looks like it should be dynamite on paper doesn't work, or it takes a long time to work, or it only works for a time but not permanently.
This is easier to see in basketball because each player on the court has so much more impact on the game, but the list is LONG re: teams that were loaded with talent which *should* have produced great results but which did not.
I'd like to think our Thorns could find a way to play like the Beautiful Game Spurs (San Antonio, not Tottenham), but you have to have at least 3 things for that to happen: A great coach and coaching staff, an equally great superstar willing to be coached hard so that others fall in line, and a group of versatile players who have "gotten over themselves" and put winning over all else.
It frustrating to hear literally the same shit after every presser. Do they even believe what they're saying or is that just what's been ingrained to say? Like, WHAT'S CHANGING? The coach is who I'm talking about. Players weren't good either, but this has been a mess for a long time now...
Just comprehensively outcoached and outplayed. Not so much on the concessions themselves, but because the squad needed prevent an early concession to escape Carolina’s possession game and couldn’t. And because the play going forward was so slow and crude tactically, the roster used so poorly that the team looks utterly adrift.
The best way I can sum it up is that this is the worst I've ever seen literally every single player on the roster play over the course of their careers. To the woman. Half the roster are high-end internationals and they all look totally clueless. Meanwhile, Nahas has his roster (talented, but not THAT talented) playing like Barcelona.
I know I couldn’t. But it doesn’t take a master painter to point out the problems with a finger painting.
The problem is, I think, that Norris is a finger-paint-grade HC. The guy was a keeper coach for years, not good training for someone who has to design a tactical vision for a whole squad.
Absolutely agree. The defensive problems look to be largely coaching issues. Lack of coordination/understanding, reliance on zonal marking, failure to recognize that some players aren't suited to the defensive demands the chosen formation makes, etc.
They're running around chasing the Courage passing patterns like the 8 year olds I coach. Clearly have not been told how and when to press and who to mark.
I think it’s largely the game state. Carolina can sit back and play keep away and we aren’t pressing (or not well enough) so we’re just chasing and it looks just that bad.
Yeah, individually she's had some really poor quality work today. Dawdling on the ball along the backline after she's been pickpocketed multiple times...I didn't blame Obaze for just booting it away lol. She doesn't look national team quality at all...or even starting quality on this team tbh. I feel like she's gotten slower this season compared to last...and she wasn't super quick prior.
She had a bright patch last year, too, but slowly regressed after the WC break; she had the chance to be huge in the two games when the internationals were gone and failed to step up, then kind of slid out of the XI.
I keep wanting her to break out, but that just seems to elude her.
Lol. Now, I wanna know what your opinion is if you heard Parsons was taking over. Is your bar lowering after repeated blows to the stomach that Norrisball produces? Lol.
I very much hope they don't make a panicked decision because of this mess and just go with ol' familiar...
I'd rather just go with Lowdon, but I wouldn't be mad if they brought Parsons in on a clearly-stated rest-of-year interim basis with the intent to hire a new coach for next year. I don't know why he'd do that though.
I'd say they're pretttyy close to quitting on him. Even if he's a good dude, players --especially star internationals-- know when a manager is out of his depth, especially when it makes them look bad. Hell, I know that just from high school and college soccer.
Hard to tell if it’s disaffection or just disorganization because there’s no tactical vision. Both? I know I’d be furious if I was part of this cluster.
I'd say the latter leads to the former. Even if they don't dislike him personally, at some point his professional failures become too hard to separate from.
Norris and KK are in very different buckets, however you feel about her. She's given him a top three most talented roster that looks like they don't know how to play soccer because of how shitty a manager he is.
I can’t think of anyone on the bench who makes me think “huge game-changer” which is kind of the problem. As kielbj points out, I don’t think it’s a player/roster issue. It’s a coaching/system issue.
I'd probably do Kling for Reyes, not because Reyna has been bad, but because they need to get a little more control. Other than that, this is pretty clearly a coaching issue and not a personnel problem, so subs probably don't change anything. We've seen enough variations of different elevens to know that by now.
Norris wants so badly to be a 4-3-3 coach but he has no idea how it's supposed to function, what his players are good at, or how to defend out of it. It's like playing a video game but not having any idea what the controls are. Nahas is just running circles around him *playing the same damn formation*, and that's with the Courage playing much sloppier than they usually do.
Individually, I think the defenders have been fine with the exception of a few Becky giveaways. NCC really hasn't had any good chances, and both goals were really well taken.
As Sanderson just said, the Courage are getting overloads every time on the right because Liv is constantly failing to get back properly. Same shit that happened when Norris tried the 4-3-3 last season.
Watch how deep the Courage midfielders come to make sure their defenders have options- It's always two dropping and the third staying high, and it's never the same two. Never any gaps between their lines and they always know exactly where the gaps in the Thorns' press are. Just a supremely well-drilled team.
Our midfield has never been good at ballwinning since the Horan/Henry/Brynjarsdottir roster. Our keeper distribution doesn’t help, but our midfield makes it worse.
I said this elsewhere also....just looks to be even slower than last season. Is that just her turning into an adult and that's more just how she is now? I dunno. Sometimes looks like she moves in slow motion.
She's never been a fast runner, but her processing has slowed down. I do think that can pretty safely be attributed to the lack of shape the Thorns play with in general fwiw.
I think Bella keeps a few of those early goals out thus preventing chase. Not having Kuika and Kling moving quickly up the flanks seems to bring extra pressure and mistakes.
But manager is mostly behind the tactical deficiencies.
Serious question for people who know more about soccer: is Hogan more to blame, or our defenders?
The blame on the pitch should fall mostly on the defenders. Hogan's got some issues (her distribution being the biggest one, imo), but our defensive porosity is mostly on the back line and a couple other field player issues. That back line has a level of mutual understanding and coordination that I'd expect from a U15 team...in its first week of training camp. Slow to react (ballwatching), unsure of _how_ to react, and prone to dumb mistakes on fundamental matters (like staying ball-side of your mark, etc.).
There are also some factors outside their control making the defense (back line and DM) look worse. One of the worst of these is the zonal marking on set pieces and other situations. Zonal marking only works (to the degree it _ever_ works) with players who are very much on the same page. The Thorns' defense isn't even in the same branch of the library. The 4-3-3 formation also does an uncoordinated defense no favors. It's resulting in Sam being overworked and exposed when she tries (as she should) to facilitate some offense. This team needs to switch to a proper double pivot in the defensive midfield STAT.
If a lot of that sounds like a coaching issue, that's because it's a coaching issue. ;)
Thanks. That was my sense, but appreciate the additional perspective
Good News: We're still only 3 points out of 6th-8th.
Bad News: Even Loovull and Houston are ahead of us.
Currently EVERYONE else is ahead of us. Were last, dead last, alone on 1 point.
Loovull did the second-most Loovull thing ever tonight: 0-0 draw of San Diego.
The most Loovull thing ever is the 2-2 draw, whichever way it comes about.
This season is over. May as well go with interim coach and start evaluating for the future.
https://x.com/itsmeglinehan/status/1779325338738127318
What in the *hell* does this even mean? I don't want to keep mocking him for not being a good public speaker, but this is straight gibberish.
It's a lot of words to not say anything lol
Talkin' soft but sayin' nuthin....
Enh. The bulk was standard coachspeak, but to me the weird thing is him saying “the way we want to play” and my followup would be “and what way IS that?” because, like COL Kurtz, I don’t see any methods at all.
Do Long Bridge scene comes to mind here too:
https://youtu.be/JInEj95yoUQ?t=57
https://youtu.be/JInEj95yoUQ?t=170
It was the "I cannot be driven by the pressure of my day-to-day and the longer vision of the pressure of the job" part that got me confused lol
That was the coachspeak part to me. He's just saying (in effect) "you're gonna say what you're gonna say and I'm gonna just do my thing here". Not well spoken, but pretty much what every coach under siege says.
Coach speak with a nonsense filter on it.
Would Oregon consider Mike Norris for a head coaching position? The answer is no. It’s time to end this experiment and call it what it is … a failed try.
Here’s the thing.
I’ve never been a #NameOut kind of person. I stuck by Riley (spit!) in 2014 when lots on this site were howling for his head. “Who are you going to replace him with?” was my consistent reply. If you don’t have a better option, how does that help?
I was willing to give Mike Norris a shot after Amoros outcoached him last fall. He’d gotten to the semi, after all! Couldn’t be that bad, right? Maybe with a chance to assemble his preferred squad he’d take off.
Well. That’s that. Instead this team has looked appalling; underprepared and unformed, tactically adrift and incohesive. It’s time to cut the losses, if only to stop the slide before it can get in people’s heads.
Lowdon should be in charge Monday.
He’s done less with talent than any coach we’ve ever had. We are among the most talented teams in the league and are in last place. Id argue that he left two wins on the field with roster management. Longing for the average tactical mind of Parsons is a nice sign of what we think of Norris.
Honestly, I thought he was a stretch when he was hired as an assistant. Still believe that even now
https://x.com/ThornsFC/status/1779315586507456794
Lolll Thorns are getting ratio'd
As they should
True or false: Norris will ever coach another Thorns game
False Dichotomy? Schrodinger's Coach?
A stat I just saw:
“Since July 1, 2023 @ThornsFC are 3-8-2 with a goal differential of -9.“
How does that dude still have a job…!
They play Houston --who has looked even worse than the Thorns-- at home next week. I wonder if that's kinda his last chance.
(I hope he's fired tomorrow, but I doubt he will be)
Man, the lowest of bars…I don’t know what that game tells them that they don’t already know. A win against Houston shouldn’t save that man’s job lol…if it’s worse? Well, we’ve already seen how bad it is lol. A loss to Houston at this point isn’t surprising either. KK has gotta be super embarrassed also. Let Lowdon interim and conduct a real, thorough search.
This is about as rock bottom as you can get with this group of players, so the Bhathals have some reallll work to do. On the bright side, we'll probably get to see first hand how they're going to go about making changes.
(And, as I will post every week until morale improves, thank GOD KK/Bhathals got the Smith deal done asap)
I do think the coaching situation needs to be addressed, but I wouldn't stop there in my examination.
The problem is, they'll probably need to bring in an external consultant, as they do not have the requisite knowledge to make such decisions and Karina is probably another piece to consider replacing.
The next move doesn't always bring improvements, alas. The Milwaukee Bucks are a great example -- fired the head coach, hired the external consultant, and they've had a losing record since the change was made. Also have an underperforming superstar who has had difficulty finding his fit, playing alongside another superstar who seems a bit thrown off by the changes too.
"There must be some kinda way outta here,
Said Sophia to Motzkin.
There's too much confusion.
My patience is wearin' thin."
- from Dylan's classic "All Along the North End"
True, I cannot imagine they wanna make their entrance as new owners by standing idly by and being patient watching this shitshow. They're gonna make a good impression and I can't imagine this goes on much longer. Rich people don't like to be embarrassed lol...
And thank you, it's the only thing keeping me sane with this lol...
Moultrie just isn't the Moultrie of last season. I would like to see Sugita, Coffey, and Fleming in the midfield to see how that goes.
Also a new coach and probably a new keeper too.
I wonder if Moultrie's fully back to form after that nasty ankle turn int the Gold Cup. It's been awhile, and she continued playing, but that one was pretty gruesome looking at the time and I wonder if she's still got any lingering effects.
That would also be my preferred midfield, but this is wayyy beyond a personnel problem sadly.
Thing is, Fleming has played much worse than I've ever seen her. Hina had a poor game today. Even Sam --the best of a bad bunch-- hasn't been all that good. I agree that Moultrie has been bad.....but who hasn't been?
At the risk of repeating myself, I don't believe that Fleming fits here. At the least, she needs much more room and allocation of roles that belong to other people than I think is going to work here.
I honestly can't comprehend feeling comfortable enough to make that kind of statement with any confidence whatsoever after watching the first 3.5 NWSL games of her career -- especially with Norris as her coach-- but regardless, as ever, I very much disagree.
I will feel good about evaluating her fit when I feel like this team has a competent coach, and not before. I could point to pretty much every player on this team and say that they "don't fit" in some way based on how the start to this season has gone.
I say it from having watched how she plays next to Sam, and their effect on each other, and by comparison how she looks playing for Canada. It's a night-and-day difference, and what explains it is that she has a ton of responsibilities for Canada, including roles that belong to Sam here. To be fair, she has a ton of reps built up with Canada that she doesn't have here; that obviously helps too. I'm not doubting whether she's a very good player; I'm questioning the fit. Maybe a new gaffer will help a lot. More time with your teammates probably helps too. But, again, what I see is that she's most effective when she does a lot of the stuff that Sam does for us. Even playing a dual pivot, you don't want them doing the same things and needing to do the same things to be most effective.
ATM there's not one player that has impressed me enough to say they are a good fit for the team. There's no connection between any of the players and they all seem lost.
Yep: Fleming was terrible, Hina was largely invisible, Moultrie was a defensive liability, and Sam played well below her ability. Multiple good-to-great players ALL playing poorly? Again, that points to coaching issues (plural).
Fleming at least has been better with Canada lately so it's more than just her being out of form - which she was for club and country for the majority of last year. When your entire midfield seems out of step and playing well below their abilities something is definitely up.
Right! She went on international duty and looked great! As did Sam and Soph!
It's not hard to figure out the problem here lol
Actually, I think it is hard to figure out the problem.
The coach is the easy answer.
The problems run deeper.
Sometimes what looks like it should be dynamite on paper doesn't work, or it takes a long time to work, or it only works for a time but not permanently.
This is easier to see in basketball because each player on the court has so much more impact on the game, but the list is LONG re: teams that were loaded with talent which *should* have produced great results but which did not.
I'd like to think our Thorns could find a way to play like the Beautiful Game Spurs (San Antonio, not Tottenham), but you have to have at least 3 things for that to happen: A great coach and coaching staff, an equally great superstar willing to be coached hard so that others fall in line, and a group of versatile players who have "gotten over themselves" and put winning over all else.
Keep hearing in press conferences how theses lessons in losing will help the team grow and get better.
They looked better on opening day. What gives?
It frustrating to hear literally the same shit after every presser. Do they even believe what they're saying or is that just what's been ingrained to say? Like, WHAT'S CHANGING? The coach is who I'm talking about. Players weren't good either, but this has been a mess for a long time now...
Just comprehensively outcoached and outplayed. Not so much on the concessions themselves, but because the squad needed prevent an early concession to escape Carolina’s possession game and couldn’t. And because the play going forward was so slow and crude tactically, the roster used so poorly that the team looks utterly adrift.
The best way I can sum it up is that this is the worst I've ever seen literally every single player on the roster play over the course of their careers. To the woman. Half the roster are high-end internationals and they all look totally clueless. Meanwhile, Nahas has his roster (talented, but not THAT talented) playing like Barcelona.
Only one common denominator!
Yep. This kind of shapeless muddle is coming off the training ground. It’s not execution, it’s the system.
I've watched a lot of Courage this year, and that went pretty much EXACTLY how I thought Nahas vs. Norris would go. Norris has just gotta be gone.
Put Flemming on a milk carton.
She does have a certain youthful countenance befitting a lost child....
So the part where I said this one is a “must-not-be-a-shitshow”? Well…Dias just subbed on in the fucking 87th minute.
Seriously, this should really be the end of the line for Norris. Give Lowdon…shit, give Vytas!…a shot. This has got to change.
I think half the people who comment on this site could do a better job coaching.
I know I couldn’t. But it doesn’t take a master painter to point out the problems with a finger painting.
The problem is, I think, that Norris is a finger-paint-grade HC. The guy was a keeper coach for years, not good training for someone who has to design a tactical vision for a whole squad.
I know I think I could. That is, of course, almost certainly delusional on my part, but I still think it. =P
Remember when we had one of the best defenses in WoSo? I liked those days.
Thing is, as individuals these are not bad defenders. Brunn, Obaze, Reyes, Muller… there’s a lot of quality there! It’s not a player problem, IMO.
Absolutely agree. The defensive problems look to be largely coaching issues. Lack of coordination/understanding, reliance on zonal marking, failure to recognize that some players aren't suited to the defensive demands the chosen formation makes, etc.
Hublub (long useless ball)
Hubly just looked off Fleming and Coffey to chip a ball straight to Murphy. Cmon now.
Given that this was in NC, reminds me of this scene from Bull Durham for what should have happened to Hubs as a result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBUS3vQtDCA
The Double Bird Cometh!
They're running around chasing the Courage passing patterns like the 8 year olds I coach. Clearly have not been told how and when to press and who to mark.
Somehow we look worse in the second half
I think it’s largely the game state. Carolina can sit back and play keep away and we aren’t pressing (or not well enough) so we’re just chasing and it looks just that bad.
Fleming just straight up playing on the RW. This man is a war criminal.
I will pay to watch Morgan Weaver fight Mike Norris in a cage match.
Ask and thou shalt receive…
Liv is just wayyyyy too slow on the ball. Really, really disappointing start to the season from her.
Part of this is Norris, of course, but still not great.
Yeah, individually she's had some really poor quality work today. Dawdling on the ball along the backline after she's been pickpocketed multiple times...I didn't blame Obaze for just booting it away lol. She doesn't look national team quality at all...or even starting quality on this team tbh. I feel like she's gotten slower this season compared to last...and she wasn't super quick prior.
Liv just keeps giving it away. Rather see Gramma Sync right now. At least she can make a pass.
Ask and THOU shalt receive!
She had a bright patch last year, too, but slowly regressed after the WC break; she had the chance to be huge in the two games when the internationals were gone and failed to step up, then kind of slid out of the XI.
I keep wanting her to break out, but that just seems to elude her.
https://x.com/DiCiccoMethod/status/1779301935914557628
lmao
Lol. Now, I wanna know what your opinion is if you heard Parsons was taking over. Is your bar lowering after repeated blows to the stomach that Norrisball produces? Lol.
I very much hope they don't make a panicked decision because of this mess and just go with ol' familiar...
I'd rather just go with Lowdon, but I wouldn't be mad if they brought Parsons in on a clearly-stated rest-of-year interim basis with the intent to hire a new coach for next year. I don't know why he'd do that though.
Kinda sad, really.
Hubly and Fleming on?
Well, this is now my preferred 11 minus Hubly! Not that it matters!
Yeah. With no hope of holding on to the ball the chances of getting back into this one are looking slim…
I like how Obaze has looked. Much less harried than Hubly (who is about to come on for her lol)
I really didn't understand that sub. Coaches generally don't sub CB's unless they've been dire...and I don't think she was the problem?
She had a knock and she played a lot over the break, so I assume it was pre-planned. I sure hope she starts again, I thought she looked good.
On top of this shit sundae is the cherry that this club is not really entertaining to watch, either.
I'd say they're pretttyy close to quitting on him. Even if he's a good dude, players --especially star internationals-- know when a manager is out of his depth, especially when it makes them look bad. Hell, I know that just from high school and college soccer.
Hard to tell if it’s disaffection or just disorganization because there’s no tactical vision. Both? I know I’d be furious if I was part of this cluster.
I'd say the latter leads to the former. Even if they don't dislike him personally, at some point his professional failures become too hard to separate from.
True. I worked for someone like that. Nice guy personally, disaster as an employer. Ended up poisoning the personal side, too.
Sometimes I wish I drank.
Never too late to start, never too late to quit.
Looks like he changed back to the double pivot? Lolol snipsnap snipsnap
Nope, nvm, just Hina dropping deep to try to get a touch :(
Jurgen Klopp will be free soon.
Y’all I’m so sick of watching this team lol.
I’m ready to just take it on the chin if it actually means Norris out. KK as well. They both gotta gooooo
Norris and KK are in very different buckets, however you feel about her. She's given him a top three most talented roster that looks like they don't know how to play soccer because of how shitty a manager he is.
Well, folks, that's a wrap. We're down 0-2, thanks to the work of a player who was nothing but a squad player for us.
Time to make the change that should have been made over the international break. See if it's possible to reboot the season.
Welcome to your new team, Ms. Bhathal Merage. Soon to feature 1 point from the first 12 possible.
What changes would you make at halftime?
Fire Mike Norris. I’ve never heard of a coach losing their job at halftime, but today would’ve been a perfect first.
The coach.
I can’t think of anyone on the bench who makes me think “huge game-changer” which is kind of the problem. As kielbj points out, I don’t think it’s a player/roster issue. It’s a coaching/system issue.
I'd probably do Kling for Reyes, not because Reyna has been bad, but because they need to get a little more control. Other than that, this is pretty clearly a coaching issue and not a personnel problem, so subs probably don't change anything. We've seen enough variations of different elevens to know that by now.
Yeah at least if some old heads are there maybe they can go rogue lol…
That’s kind of the problem.
Fire the coach. And the GM while you're at it.
Norris wants so badly to be a 4-3-3 coach but he has no idea how it's supposed to function, what his players are good at, or how to defend out of it. It's like playing a video game but not having any idea what the controls are. Nahas is just running circles around him *playing the same damn formation*, and that's with the Courage playing much sloppier than they usually do.
Individually, I think the defenders have been fine with the exception of a few Becky giveaways. NCC really hasn't had any good chances, and both goals were really well taken.
Perhaps he doesn't know any other formations?
What’s ridiculous is that Carolina has tried to hand us goals. Twice one of their defenders passed right to Weaver in front of their goal.
We can't buy a goal today
Is parsons still in Portland?
Isn’t he in the Netherlands?
As Sanderson just said, the Courage are getting overloads every time on the right because Liv is constantly failing to get back properly. Same shit that happened when Norris tried the 4-3-3 last season.
Love so much of her game, but Liv isn't defensive-minded and takes a beat or two longer to react than someone with her lack of pace can get away with.
Shea playing a #10 this game. But a #10 in a 4-3-3 still has to do some defending.
She's not. She's playing as an eight (there's no ten in a true 4-3-3), but she's not tracking back so it looks like a 10.
I'm only partially blaming her. It's 95% Norris' fault for failing to understand what his players are good at and what they aren't.
What’s odd is that he went to the double pivot fairly often last season. I don’t er his fixation on trying to shoehorn this group into the 4-3-3.
Agreed. A coach has to understand how not to expose his players' weaknesses.
His obsession w the 4-3-3 is bizarre given this roster.
We're sure he knows that other formations do exist, right?
C’mon. This has to be curtains for Norris.
ZEEO defensive pressure on that cross. Ugh. 2-0.
That’s why you’re supposed to be BALL-side, Muller. Sigh.
*sigh*
Morgan that's gotta end up in the net, wayyy too slow
Took one touch too many…
every . . . single . . . game (not just her)
Announcers finally said something I can agree with. Hogan can't play out of the back
Yeah, definitely not in her tool kit.
Watch how deep the Courage midfielders come to make sure their defenders have options- It's always two dropping and the third staying high, and it's never the same two. Never any gaps between their lines and they always know exactly where the gaps in the Thorns' press are. Just a supremely well-drilled team.
Each player always has at least 2 outlets. Every player, every time!
Nahas has done good work. I’m envious.
Feels like this squad is all just a step too slow. Second to every ball.
And the backline is still playing like they met last week.
Beckie won one long ball from Hogan. Have we won ANY others?
Our midfield has never been good at ballwinning since the Horan/Henry/Brynjarsdottir roster. Our keeper distribution doesn’t help, but our midfield makes it worse.
Moultrie has no defensive instincts, she's either failed to track or left NCC players all alone three times. Once again, SHE'S NOT AN 8!
I'd agree with that. She has all the tools and the instincts of someone who has done a ton of offensive skills work, not total game.
Is it me or has she considerably slowed down. foot quickness, running speed, decision making
I said this elsewhere also....just looks to be even slower than last season. Is that just her turning into an adult and that's more just how she is now? I dunno. Sometimes looks like she moves in slow motion.
She's never been a fast runner, but her processing has slowed down. I do think that can pretty safely be attributed to the lack of shape the Thorns play with in general fwiw.
How in hell was that not a foul near midfield?
Smith alone with the ball in front of goal - just what we want. But no.
Looks like Thorns #8 is a #8.