12 Comments

Maybe my 84-year-old mother-in-law will be the Thorns’ lucky charm. It will be her first soccer match in-person ever, despite watching competitions of all sorts on TV for years.

We pushed and prodded her for a long time, but the idea intimidated her. But coming to the stadium in June to watch our son graduate from high school eased her fears.

And yes, she’ll be wearing red.

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Let us know how she likes the more colorful bits of "Build a Bonfire" and "When the Thorns Come Marching In."

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Unfortunately, reserved seats for this one, not Riveters where we normally sit. But maybe the choice words will waft over.

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I’m less optimistic mostly because of the Thorns “win-draw-lose-win” form this season. We haven’t won two in a row consistently…well, all year. I’ll be thrilled if this breaks that duck, but unsurprised if it doesn’t.

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I wouldn’t call myself optimistic necessarily, but the home/road splits are pretty stark this year: They’ve taken 20 of their 32 points at home. More than that, the difference in how active they are at home compared to on the road is pretty noticeable to me just eye-test wise.

I’m also not as scared of SD’s offense, and the Thorns have matched up pretty well with them traditionally. Worried that SD’s defense will be tough to break down without Soph, but she’s certainly had her fair share of struggles against Girma anyhow.

Regardless, I think they need 3 points tonight because I’m *much* more worried about Gotham’s pace in attack next week. I’ll feel alright with 4 out of 6 going into LA, but I’d really prefer they did their business at home.

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What worries me are 1) without Smith it’s gonna be tough to break down a Girma-led SD backline, while 2) letting the Wave hang around a scoreless match risks a defensive derp and shipping a crap goal; hopefully ‘Brunn will put some steel into our backline to prevent that, but it doesn’t take Pele’ to make a deflection or a defensive error and suddenly we’re down a goal.

We’ll see. But I’ll be really happy to see a couple of early Thorns goals.

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Yeah, I have gotten accustomed to not being particularly optimistic this season about 2 good games in a row. I think we did have several in a row at the very beginning of season…but form since has been erratic. What’s more, our next 3 opponents have been in either decent-to-great form. They’ve all gotten more points out of the last 6 than we have. Also, San Diego has won the most away games of any team this season (5/9.) If Soph was healthy, I’d feel better about our ability to score more than we concede….

From Henderson:

“It's been a minute. Here's the NWSL Form Table (points in last 6 matches) as we head into the stretch run:

12 - ORL, AC

11 - CHI

10 - SD, KC

9 - GFC, LOU

7 - POR

5 - NC, HOU

4 - RGN

3 - WSH”

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The early results came at the expense of Orlando, KC, and Louisville. We’ve struggled to hold form since we stopped meeting tomato cans, as the table points out. Not dire…but not dominating, either.

I’d like to finish strong this season. Thumping SDW then Gotham would be a good start.

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Trinity got her revenge a winner at the 90th minute.

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KC is leading Washington in the first half. This year any team you think is pathetic is only one win away from looking dangerous.

I agree that SD’s offense does not appear as potent as last year but defensively they present problems.

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Kangites leveled. 65th minute, 1-1. Missed it live but replay showed Rodman getting hacked down inside the six, no call.

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WSH 2-1 final. Rodman winner in second half injury time.

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