Ever since Soph went on her initial tear last year, the defensive strategy against her has been to beat her up. It’s a good strategy if you can get away with it, and nothing’s gonna change until the NWSL/USWNT/Thorns/someone does something about it with some early yellow cards and more proactive whistles. Few players get handled the same way, and its an NWSL thing -- it would not be sustainable in international competition or European leagues.
The same tactics were used against Vero. As with Soph, it works because it's such a rough league in terms of level of contact allowed. At first last night, Penso was calling things pretty tight and I was hopeful. That stopped happening around the 30 minute mark, unfortunately.
I wouldn’t say they’re “working” against Soph like with Vero or even someone like Andressinha- She’s in a bit of a rough patch goalscoring-wise, but she’s still running through and around people pretty consistently.
My fear is that she (and other stars that get beat up consistently) just say “F this” and take off given they have better options elsewhere. Horan was another example- She got assaulted weekly because she was so big the refs just let it go. The quality of reffing is still so bad, even with someone like Penso who is perfectly qualified.
It's harder to do with Soph than with Vero. The former's a faster, stronger player. But I think it's getting into her head a bit. She was _pissed_ at Penso yesterday.
Soph seems to like some contact, but she is really getting tired of it and and she should be worried. Maybe at some point she will learn as Alex Morgan did hit the ground and demand a penalty kick. With her and Alex a penalty kick is almost a sure bet goal. The ref won't always award it, but she will get some and defenders will back off. In this game she had sometimes three and four defenders on her. While that leaves teammates open, it is hard to pass out of a scrum like that. As MH said above the NWSL/USWNT/Thorns/someone needs to do something about it. Complain please!
Soph is so interesting because she has incredible balance and lower-body strength. I agree that she seems to like some contact, though I would say it's contact that she generates vs. contact that others generate. For someone so small, she has an uncanny ability to put defenders on her back and put them on their heels; it's like a master low-post player in basketball. She's also seems to like to get up into them a bit as part of getting them off balance and creating separation as she works to get around them. She's not quite the cinder block that Debinha is, but she's incredibly tough. That said... I'm sure she'd prefer to score some easier goals rather than get mugged. That would happen at Chelsea, with Kerr alongside her and Macario behind her.
I agree, she seems to like going through people like Tobin liked breaking ankles. But please don't talk about her going to Europe, I am easily depressed. Actually I think as long as her SO is here in the USA she probably won't and because Horan's fella is still over in Europe I am skeptical about her return.
Yeah, that's another rough league. Not unexpected, really: a lot of fans there often lament how "soft" the game has become (/smh). Kinda part of the culture, it seems.
Yeah, the WSL matches/teams may well be drawing a different crowd with a different attitude. Good attendance over there is such a recent phenomenon that it's hard to tell from an ocean away just what the WoSo culture is like.
Nice bounce back - Not much to take away and it didn't look like Norris changed anything anyhow, but a few notes:
1. I kept a close eye on the midfield most of the game- It seems very clear that the tactical instruction is for the 8s to play high and not drop into the midfield and isn't just a result of Sinc being bad and slow. Moultrie is clearly just better than Sinc and Chicago is a dumpster fire, but the base position of the 8s stayed the same. Especially Dunn, who is really just playing as a 10 now:(https://twitter.com/arielle_dror/status/1660446647254650886?s=20)
2. The press obviously works better with Liv, but they still need to develop a tactic for when that 15 minute blitz doesn't result in goals. It's a little too chaotic and exhausting to work consistently, but it sure as hell is fun when they can capitalize like they usually do against the bad teams.
3. Poor Coffey --who played her best game of the season today-- has to cover an absolutely *absurd* amount of ground. She's essentially just running horizontal wind sprints all game. This ain't gonna work any better than it did on the road trip when they play more teams that can overload the attacking midfield consistently.
4. Hina's so fucking fun! She and Dunn are developing a nice little rapport on the right- Look at how much of the Thorns attacking moments went through them.
5. Really impressive Moultrie finish. I think the list of Thorns that finishes that chance on their left foot is just her and Hina.
6a. #ProtectSoph! Atrocious refereeing by Tori Penso (ref families scare me), and Smith was absolutely livid with her most of the 2nd half- Not sure if they showed her get in Penso's face on TV, but she was very.....demonstrative with her frustration. She's also still looking a tad off her best and made a few classic selfish Soph shot-when-Weaver/Hina-was-through-on-goal plays, but she clearly just wants that goal- I wonder if that's why Norris left her in even though it would have been better to rest her with the game in hand.
It would be nice if the league tried to protect its biggest star from back-alley muggings. This happened often last season, too. The Thorns front office needs to raise hell with the NWSL.
I hope I'm wrong but I fear one day Soph is going to be badly hurt on a challenge that is permitted because teams are allowed to rough her up the whole game and only get punished late.
Just like her college days! She's posted a video where she was tackled in the box and the defender actually broke her ankle! And I'm not even sure there was a card...She was out a long time, and I think it was that injury that she was still recovering from when she came to the Thorns? I don't remember that part 100%...
She sat out the last part of the 2018 season but played the full 2019 season with Stanford, including winning the national championship, before coming to the Thorns
Yup, she played 13 matches 840 minutes in '18 as a freshman, 21 and 1,402 in '19 as a sophomore, winning College Cup most outstanding offensive player on a team with Catarina frickin' Macario.
So, a thirdish of a full college career then on to NWSL MVP. Pretty, pretty good.
Would not be difficult for their media folks to pull together a lowlights video of the more egregious no-calls. As to what to do with it, I'm not privy to league politics but perhaps quietly circulating them first, then if there's no positive effect throwing it up on the team Twitter page for all to see.
I don't know what they should do. This season began with what I thought was better game control by the refs but now it's looking like 2022 with teams basically saying "Hat trick? Not on our watch, missy!" and playing whack-a-Soph. It's working, because she's not scoring.
She's so strong and doesn't go down easily, so the ref lets more stuff go....She's been hit with a few nasty tackles, but most of it is just grabs and kicks as she's moving towards goal.
Ref missed at least one clear PK (I think for a tackle on Vasconcelos?) and Soph also could have had a few that probably were fouls but would have been light PKs.
Yeah how was that not a foul (and card)? Krueger (I think it was her) clearly stops Smith from having a clean shot by pulling back on her shoulder. With the pull, Naeher and Smith reached the ball at the same time.
What's happening is that they're teaching Smith to dive. If Smith goes down on that contact it's probably a PK, and Smith is going to learn that. (Incidentally that's not "simulation", which occurs when there's NO contact.) This is to the detriment of the game, but apparently that's what they want. I fear the US is adopting refereeing standards of the EPL, which IMHO has too much physicality at the expense of soccer skill.
Yeah, our best moments come in transition. We had better control today until 60' when the changes messed rhythm up. Agree about the midfield but Moultrie is just far better able to sit deeper and contribute than Sinc, and then get further up. If you look at the chalkboard, that passing balance is there.
Yeah, Moultrie definitely drops deeper more, but the combos are still almost exclusively down the wings. It's really noticeable when you look at their static state on a goal kick: My seat is at midfield in the East Terrace, and it's pretty dramatic how high the front 5 is and how alone Sam is from a birds eye view. Makes it so tough to play out when Sam is the only central link between defense and attack, but it's also what allows that press to eat up teams like Chicago.
Yeah, and I think the links were just better today. Sam was at 90% passing; Menges also 90%. With the caveat that this Chicago team is truly atrocious, this seemed much more the ideal: control with possession and then break quickly.
Yeah, agree with all of your analysis. I do still worry about the midfield and forward line being a bit too attacking for anyone but the most dire teams. For the Chicagos? Yeah, put 'em to the sword early and get that GD up up up! But, I feel like it could make the defensive side of the field collapse against less hapless teams. Liv DEF plugs holes better than Sinc so I"ll be curious (if not nervous) to see how it works against a team like SD, who will absolutely punish you if you are shaky defensively, or are leaving gaps. Absolutely we can't have Sinc starting that game with the same game plan. Having Liv in there just seems to make everything click a lot better, though. Dunn wasn't having to work as hard, Coffey was more present, and Hina! Hina was actually able to do more because Dunn and Moultrie (and Soph usually) really fits her style of play. Hina was an absolute pleasure to watch, and I hope this performance means that Norris knows h can't take Moultrie or Hina off. When Sinc and Vasconcelos subbed in, Sinc occupied the highest attacking mid/10 spot and Hina moved into the 8 with Vasconcelos on the RW. Aside from the obvious issues with Sinc in the midfield and our other midfielders having to work a little harder with her in, I thought Hina had some really good moments where she was able to shine more centrally in that role.
I would be surprised if Norris didn't go with this same XI next week, but they really need to work on the set piece and defending in transition part against SD. Players need to be reminded to be locked in as soon as Sheridan gets the ball, because so many of their goals come from Sheridan ---> player X (often Kornieck, if she's there) --->player Y (usually Morgan) ---> goal. Quick transitional attacks are what they've struggled with the most, and what SD is maybe most lethal with. I hope Norris watches that Spirit game where they utterly dominated SD...and takes some notes. Kornieck subbed in yesterday and I'm guessing will get good minutes vs. us as well.. and well, she's been our kryptonite.
Your note on Coffey....yah, can you imagine what this would look like against Parson's diamond? It could be a bloodbath if Norris doesn't adjust for that game specifically.
I'm laughing at your note on Moultrie, because I said the same thing to my partner. Those two players are just two or three steps ahead of everyone and are just technically sound and soooo silky smooth. Was also thinking Soph would do well to learn to read things like they do and get a few poachers goals herself...but yeah, the execution is tough to emulate!
Defense: just gonna mention this really quick before I mention the positives, but this game didn't really test our defense or Bixby, so I'm still a bit nervous those issues will persist. I did, however, think Menges looked a lot sharper with just her positioning, her touch, and her passing. That's good news. It's worth mentioning I thought Reyes looked a lot more comfortable on the ball than she has in the past. Again, we were up by 4 and against a terrible team, but I just wanted to mention that even her movement when she had the ball looked a bit better. I'm still not feeling a rookie left back play out of position, but, against Chicago, fine. It was interesting of Norris to take Hubly out and move Natu there. Maybe Hubs just needed a break? It was a weird move, even though Natu looked fine. After seeing her play CB with Finland, though, I think she's much better as a fullback. Her spacial awareness centrally wasn't great with Finland, but maybe that was a small sample size and also Finland is not a great team...I'm guessing he's looking ahead to the WC window and figuring out what kinda rotations he can make on the backline, because all of those players will be here. Rotating backlines (esp CB's) make me very nervous however, lol
Also also, #protectSoph, for real my gawd! I'm bummed that she wasn't taken out sooner. I get that she probably realllly wanted a goal (or a hattrick) against another terrible team, but, c'mon, give her a rest and let D'Aquila get more than just freaking 15 mins at left wing! Now, Ryan Clarke has said that she skipped the rose ceremony post-game and had to go get evaluated for a calf injury. Thanks Penso! I guess it is pretty encouraging though that we can score 4 goals, and not one of them is Soph.
It’s definitely been nice to get a few more data points without Sinc in the lineup because it’s really shown which issues are tactical and which are personnel-based.
The clear cut #1 issue to me is that Sam is being asked to be a Chara/Kante-style 6 when she’s really more of a Busquets-style distributor. She doesn’t have the physical traits to cover that much ground effectively over 90 minutes even if she’s fit enough to do the actual running. I almost wonder if it’s as straightforward as an in-game adjustment where Norris asks the midfield two to drop in and play deeper after that initial blitzing press. Any team with a ball-carrier/attacking mid a la Sanchez, Shaw, or Lavelle is gonna find those empty spaces verrry easily. I called Norris’ tactics naive, because he seems to think this team has such a talent edge that they can run teams out inside 15 minutes every game...but that’s not really how the NWSL works.
Agree that the set pieces still scare me, and even yesterday Naeher was able to hit Hocking in transition by passing over the attacking midfield and finding the gaps. There’s definitely some work to do, so let’s see if Norris can do it- we’ve suddenly hit the tough stretch of the schedule where I’d actually be fine with road points...but they kinda need as many points as they can get since they blew a few of the simpler games.
Finally got a chance to watch the replay. First, this game was likely won when Coach Norris finally wrote out his best team available for the starting lineup. Second, Moultrie needs to play all the time. She's seventeen and yet her savvy is up there with the best. She constantly makes herself available as a passing outlet by finding pockets of space. She's more than happy to take the long shot once in a while and she's pretty accurate. It mitigates Sinclair's weaknesses to bring her in as a sub.
Speaking of Sinclair, she can still be quite useful in attack with her experience and precision but holy cow is she a black hole on defense. She can't outrun anybody and is pretty easily dispossessed these days. I wonder what she herself thinks about her play.
Well, since she's getting up there in years he has to throttle back her minutes across the full season. Wait....
I know the Alyssa Thompson Nats bandwagon is chock full but I could see Liv on the squad just as easily. Granted, midfield is tougher to play at a high level but still, she's that good.
Tier 1: Chicago -- Week after week. leading the league in goals allowed and opponents' wins. Impressive consistency. Can they go wire to wire?
Tier 2: KC -- Despite a few weeks out of form, they've returned to their goal-conceding, points-dropping ways. Looking like a strong challenger to Chicago.
Tier 3: Houston -- After that dreadful Portland performance, Tiffany Salmon and crew have returned to form and are separating themselves from Louisville, Orlando, and NC, though ACFCNFT have been gaining ground of late.
Just listened to SportsBeat KC podcast about what's going on too.
It's a mess. Yes, the defense is thin, but they can't settle on a formation they want to run.
Potter preferred using a 3-back setup with Del Fava and Mace as wings. The GM wanted them to switch to a 4-back setup.
The new coach prefers using a 4-back setup, but they've been losing with it and apparently even Mace has said that not letting her play out wide takes away her greatest strength.
They're still without Ball, Loera, and Glas. But the coach is using a formation that doesn't fit their talent and what made them successful, and they didn't bring in players in the offseason who fit a 4-back setup.
Portland beat Naeher all day long on one-touch finishes.
Not only do those players deserve kudos, but we need to acknowledge everything that makes possible those one-touch finishes -- great passing, great movement, sending multiple players toward the goal, no overdribbling, and unselfish play.
Naeher actually didn't play badly. If she had, it would have been 7-0 or 8-0. She just got beat several times by some great offensive teamwork.
There's a reason she's USWNT #1. It doesn't really matter how many goals get scored against her, because she just doesn't beat herself.
So long as she has the mentality she appears to have, this Chicago team is actually a great place for her to be because she's getting tons of work back there.
On a day like yesterday, she either made an incredible save or she got beat by something that while it is of the quality she'll face in July and August she will have the benefit of better defense in front of her. The Nats are far less likely to give up so many one-touch finishes and one-timer strikes.
The only part of her game yesterday where I would give her some stick were the decisions to basically throw outlet passes onto the feet of backs or mids who weren't handling the Thorns' pressure. I know why she was doing it, but it wasn't working.... and she stopped.
Luckily (or unluckily) for her, Naeher's been through this before. 2014 Boston Breakers were dire, possibly worse than Red Stars are now. She just recently passed 500 career saves, but 106 of them were in 2014 alone. Between that and the whole media circus around 'Solo v Naeher' in 2019, she's weathered some pretty tough mental fortitude situations.
Feels like Dunn's goals have almost all been on cutbacks, which is great to see.
Naeher's save on Hina's right-footed drive was pretty sick, and she had a couple other nice saves. Chicago trying to play out of the back through the PDX press was a horror show and Naeher kept it from getting even uglier.
Dunn commented that teammates are kidding her that she's always been scoring the same goal. She said something funny along the lines of "Apparently the defenses don't think I'm good enough to need covering in front of goal."
I just saw that too lol. I do love how the article lists the top scorers and it’s all USWNT attackers (Morgan, Hatch, Williams) and then a USWNT “defender.”
In all seriousness, it’s probably a combo of Soph, Weaver, and Hina’s gravity, teams struggling to track midfield runners, and Dunn being exceptionally smart with her late runs into the box.
I think the amount of interchange between Hina, Dunn, and Soph, along with the constant Soph double-teaming is pulling defenses out of shape a lot. So Dunn arrives completely unmarked and is there to score the cutback. Should be tap-ins for anyone, but it's great that Dunn has been finishing them all so well.
Okay, Sophia Smith hasn't scored a goal in six games. From having a commanding lead in the Golden Boot race, with 4 goals in 2 games, she's now in a 2-way tie for 4th place in it. Should we be worried? Have defenders figured her out? Has she gotten the yips?
I'd say no. She's still looking incredibly dangerous, she's still getting lots of shots (in fact she's pretty far ahead in both the NWSL's shots and shots-on-goal statistics), she's working well with teammates, she's drawing defenders like flies and making space for teammates, and most importantly, she doesn't look out of sorts about her shots not going in the net. Also she's contributing a ton of assists - 5 so far, which is 2 more than anyone else. (Incidentally the NWSL season record for assists is 10, set by our very own Tobin Heath.) She's helping the team immensely, and if she keeps up what she's doing, she WILL start scoring again, and scoring in buckets.
Seems to be refs not halting Hack-a-Soph more recently is keeping her from the back of the net and to your point, scoring off her assists is a decent side-benefit, but for her general health, it would be nice to see them paying it more mind.
Although I absolutely agree that the league needs to encourage the refs to clamp down on rough play (I've been saying that from the beginning...), Soph's goal drought has a lot to do with additional defensive attention that's _doesn't_ involve constantly fouling her. Any competent coaching staff's going to be preparing their defense to mark a threat like her as closely as they can manage. Soph's occasionally forcing shots through the heavy coverage (scorer mentality, a good thing), but is also dishing some great assists.
Some of this is just good goalkeeping, too. In the Chicago match, Soph could easily have had a brace (along with a goal for Hina), but Naeher made some highlight reel saves.
I really like this comment a lot and I hope Soph is getting this advice from those she trusts. I remember Tony DeSicco giving Alex Morgan similar advice in 2015 when she was not scoring. There are lots of ways of contributing without scoring. Crystal Dunn must be loving the open shots she is getting. Liv is also seeing daylight everywhere. But I also hope the league looks at the refs unwillingness to call fouls.
Nah, she is constantly double teamed and often triple teamed. That others are playing off her and scoring is great for the Thorns. Teams are having to pick their poisen. If mates keep putting up numbers will eventually have to ease off of the doubling when she will start putting them in. Very hard for anyone to be constantly doubled and score.
Chicago's problems are many, but I do think that they are experiencing a similar problem with Nagasato that the Thorns have with Sinc. She's not fast, playing out of her best position, and loses the ball a lot. Maybe the strategic move would be to play all the rookies and use this year to start a rebuild.
If the Thorns had the game the Reign had yesterday after losing to the Courage a week earlier, a lot of us would be howling for Norris' head and calling for a crisis investigation into the state of the franchise ;)
Absolutely as we should! As off as the Thorns have looked in a few games, it wasn’t the level of dumpster fire that OL Reign looked like. If so? I’d be very concerned…they haven’t looked to their standard yet this season imo, but these last two games, plus 70 mins of the Louisville and Spirit games they have just looked old and tired and bad. And LH has been out-coached.
Surprisingly, Harvey IS getting blowback from fans for her decisions lately, namely in regard to Sonnet, but also just in general for some of her decisions. I think the threshold is much higher there, though, with the amount of time LH has spent at the club to build a rapport and trust with fans. With Norris? Well he’s a brand-new totally unknown HC who we’ve got no history to fall back on. Naturally if our championship team turns sideways with as much talent that we have, this fan base is gonna speak up!
These are two clubs with super high standards, for us, I like it that way. :)
You’re right on every point, but at some point the lack of a consistent league leader is more a product of the league’s relative parity than specific failings of the individual teams. There’s elements of both as with every league, but this level of parity and randomness feels unique to NWSL.
As an example, during the Thorns recent three game slide, they conceded 8(!) goals on 3.2 xGa, while scoring 7 on 5.4 xG. In the two game stretch they drew Houston and lost to SD in the CC, they conceded two on 1.6 xG (makes sense), but only scored once on 3.8xG. xG is simplistic and a significant piece of this are the structural issues we’ve identified that lead to teams outscoring their xG: Set piece defense, counter attacks, individual/keeper errors, etc....but there’s also a very real element of luck.
But yes, idk why Sonnett keeps getting the midfield look week after week especially with Quinn back, and the Reign are baaadly missing Lavelle’s creativity. No sympathy from down here !
I think Sonnett was playing d-mid in that game. Has she played that position before Reign? Seemed like an odd place for her given that she's not especially mobile.
Had to miss a home game for the first time in 4 years, and Natu went ahead and reportedly dropped a Käärijä celly and I missed it (Noooo!) . I really hope a video of that bubbles up at some point.
Hey, what happened to our friend jastefano, who used to provide all the social media dish and broke the news of Rhian and Emily wearing matching rainbow sneakers to some Thorns event?
Just finished watching the extended highlights of Gotham v Puget Sound WoSo Team. Long day for PSWST. Some dreadful mistakes by Barnes and Latsko, and Gotham made them pay. Farrelly had a nice game.
Two games in a row MP starts, two games in a row they get run off the field. Have they not seen how the Sinclair situation has played out here? But anytime the Reign lose is a great day in my mind.
Early in the match I was thinking she'd have to flip the graph to portrait orientation, to visually include both lines. Didn't the announcer say Chicago's xG was something like 0.09 at one point? (To think Naher had EIGHT stops, Bix zero.)
No, but she was a victim of bad defending and Portland's clinical finishes off of excellent passing. No keeper in the world is going to stop those goals today, and she did well to deny 3-4 others.
I didn't say she played badly, she made some nice saves especially on Sugita's blast she deflected off the post. But she was not happy, especially as goals 2, 3, and 4 were from players who were essentially unmarked.
I said she was a victim of bad defending, clinical finishes, and excellent passing, she did well to deny 3-4 goals, and no one in the world could stop the goals Portland scored.
Naeher played really well, saving several shots that would have been goals on most keepers. That Chicago still gave up 4 goals says a lot about the Red Stars' defense (and Thorns' attack).
Is the loan through June or until June? Cause I’d guess we won’t hear anything last possible second, which probably means right before or after the WC. Hell, if I were her I’d just take the rest of the season off.
"PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Thorns FC midfielder Lindsey Horan will join French side Olympique Lyonnais on loan until June 2023, the club announced today. In addition, she has signed a contract extension with Thorns FC through the 2025 season."
is what the release says. I don't expect her to play, but I do think we should hear something...
I strongly suspect Horan will take some time off before she goes to join the USWNT at the end of June. She's just been through a long, long season, and most likely needs a break both mentally and physically. Maaaaybe she'll want to play a bit to stay in game shape, but I doubt even that. If she does rejoin the Thorns this year, which seems unlikely, odds are it'll be post-WC.
Ever since Soph went on her initial tear last year, the defensive strategy against her has been to beat her up. It’s a good strategy if you can get away with it, and nothing’s gonna change until the NWSL/USWNT/Thorns/someone does something about it with some early yellow cards and more proactive whistles. Few players get handled the same way, and its an NWSL thing -- it would not be sustainable in international competition or European leagues.
So unfortunate and true.
SMH
The same tactics were used against Vero. As with Soph, it works because it's such a rough league in terms of level of contact allowed. At first last night, Penso was calling things pretty tight and I was hopeful. That stopped happening around the 30 minute mark, unfortunately.
I wouldn’t say they’re “working” against Soph like with Vero or even someone like Andressinha- She’s in a bit of a rough patch goalscoring-wise, but she’s still running through and around people pretty consistently.
My fear is that she (and other stars that get beat up consistently) just say “F this” and take off given they have better options elsewhere. Horan was another example- She got assaulted weekly because she was so big the refs just let it go. The quality of reffing is still so bad, even with someone like Penso who is perfectly qualified.
It's harder to do with Soph than with Vero. The former's a faster, stronger player. But I think it's getting into her head a bit. She was _pissed_ at Penso yesterday.
Soph seems to like some contact, but she is really getting tired of it and and she should be worried. Maybe at some point she will learn as Alex Morgan did hit the ground and demand a penalty kick. With her and Alex a penalty kick is almost a sure bet goal. The ref won't always award it, but she will get some and defenders will back off. In this game she had sometimes three and four defenders on her. While that leaves teammates open, it is hard to pass out of a scrum like that. As MH said above the NWSL/USWNT/Thorns/someone needs to do something about it. Complain please!
Soph is so interesting because she has incredible balance and lower-body strength. I agree that she seems to like some contact, though I would say it's contact that she generates vs. contact that others generate. For someone so small, she has an uncanny ability to put defenders on her back and put them on their heels; it's like a master low-post player in basketball. She's also seems to like to get up into them a bit as part of getting them off balance and creating separation as she works to get around them. She's not quite the cinder block that Debinha is, but she's incredibly tough. That said... I'm sure she'd prefer to score some easier goals rather than get mugged. That would happen at Chelsea, with Kerr alongside her and Macario behind her.
I agree, she seems to like going through people like Tobin liked breaking ankles. But please don't talk about her going to Europe, I am easily depressed. Actually I think as long as her SO is here in the USA she probably won't and because Horan's fella is still over in Europe I am skeptical about her return.
I mean the same thing happens in the WSL.
Yeah, that's another rough league. Not unexpected, really: a lot of fans there often lament how "soft" the game has become (/smh). Kinda part of the culture, it seems.
I don't think that's an accurate representation of fans in the WSL.
Yeah, the WSL matches/teams may well be drawing a different crowd with a different attitude. Good attendance over there is such a recent phenomenon that it's hard to tell from an ocean away just what the WoSo culture is like.
Nice bounce back - Not much to take away and it didn't look like Norris changed anything anyhow, but a few notes:
1. I kept a close eye on the midfield most of the game- It seems very clear that the tactical instruction is for the 8s to play high and not drop into the midfield and isn't just a result of Sinc being bad and slow. Moultrie is clearly just better than Sinc and Chicago is a dumpster fire, but the base position of the 8s stayed the same. Especially Dunn, who is really just playing as a 10 now:(https://twitter.com/arielle_dror/status/1660446647254650886?s=20)
2. The press obviously works better with Liv, but they still need to develop a tactic for when that 15 minute blitz doesn't result in goals. It's a little too chaotic and exhausting to work consistently, but it sure as hell is fun when they can capitalize like they usually do against the bad teams.
3. Poor Coffey --who played her best game of the season today-- has to cover an absolutely *absurd* amount of ground. She's essentially just running horizontal wind sprints all game. This ain't gonna work any better than it did on the road trip when they play more teams that can overload the attacking midfield consistently.
4. Hina's so fucking fun! She and Dunn are developing a nice little rapport on the right- Look at how much of the Thorns attacking moments went through them.
5. Really impressive Moultrie finish. I think the list of Thorns that finishes that chance on their left foot is just her and Hina.
6a. #ProtectSoph! Atrocious refereeing by Tori Penso (ref families scare me), and Smith was absolutely livid with her most of the 2nd half- Not sure if they showed her get in Penso's face on TV, but she was very.....demonstrative with her frustration. She's also still looking a tad off her best and made a few classic selfish Soph shot-when-Weaver/Hina-was-through-on-goal plays, but she clearly just wants that goal- I wonder if that's why Norris left her in even though it would have been better to rest her with the game in hand.
6b. RIP Bubble-braid Soph, we hardly knew ye :(
It would be nice if the league tried to protect its biggest star from back-alley muggings. This happened often last season, too. The Thorns front office needs to raise hell with the NWSL.
And perhaps the USWNT? I think they would prefer US Stars not to get injured by players unable to defend Smith routinely.
I hope I'm wrong but I fear one day Soph is going to be badly hurt on a challenge that is permitted because teams are allowed to rough her up the whole game and only get punished late.
Just like her college days! She's posted a video where she was tackled in the box and the defender actually broke her ankle! And I'm not even sure there was a card...She was out a long time, and I think it was that injury that she was still recovering from when she came to the Thorns? I don't remember that part 100%...
She sat out the last part of the 2018 season but played the full 2019 season with Stanford, including winning the national championship, before coming to the Thorns
Yup, she played 13 matches 840 minutes in '18 as a freshman, 21 and 1,402 in '19 as a sophomore, winning College Cup most outstanding offensive player on a team with Catarina frickin' Macario.
So, a thirdish of a full college career then on to NWSL MVP. Pretty, pretty good.
Thanks for clarifying! I remember her having some sort of leg injury when she first came here that kept her out a while...
I also don't appreciate the inconsistency of calls. Seems like it was getting called early on and nothing after the first half.
Would not be difficult for their media folks to pull together a lowlights video of the more egregious no-calls. As to what to do with it, I'm not privy to league politics but perhaps quietly circulating them first, then if there's no positive effect throwing it up on the team Twitter page for all to see.
I don't know what they should do. This season began with what I thought was better game control by the refs but now it's looking like 2022 with teams basically saying "Hat trick? Not on our watch, missy!" and playing whack-a-Soph. It's working, because she's not scoring.
Teevee did have an iso of Soph and ref...chatting face to face.
IMO there were at least two takedowns in the box that could have been called.
She's so strong and doesn't go down easily, so the ref lets more stuff go....She's been hit with a few nasty tackles, but most of it is just grabs and kicks as she's moving towards goal.
Ref missed at least one clear PK (I think for a tackle on Vasconcelos?) and Soph also could have had a few that probably were fouls but would have been light PKs.
That shoulder pull in the 81st minute really tells the story of how much defenders get away with trying to stop Soph.
Yeah how was that not a foul (and card)? Krueger (I think it was her) clearly stops Smith from having a clean shot by pulling back on her shoulder. With the pull, Naeher and Smith reached the ball at the same time.
What's happening is that they're teaching Smith to dive. If Smith goes down on that contact it's probably a PK, and Smith is going to learn that. (Incidentally that's not "simulation", which occurs when there's NO contact.) This is to the detriment of the game, but apparently that's what they want. I fear the US is adopting refereeing standards of the EPL, which IMHO has too much physicality at the expense of soccer skill.
It was Milazzo A consolation is she biffed pretty good colliding with Naeher
Yeah, our best moments come in transition. We had better control today until 60' when the changes messed rhythm up. Agree about the midfield but Moultrie is just far better able to sit deeper and contribute than Sinc, and then get further up. If you look at the chalkboard, that passing balance is there.
This was also a much better Menges game.
Yeah, Moultrie definitely drops deeper more, but the combos are still almost exclusively down the wings. It's really noticeable when you look at their static state on a goal kick: My seat is at midfield in the East Terrace, and it's pretty dramatic how high the front 5 is and how alone Sam is from a birds eye view. Makes it so tough to play out when Sam is the only central link between defense and attack, but it's also what allows that press to eat up teams like Chicago.
Yeah, and I think the links were just better today. Sam was at 90% passing; Menges also 90%. With the caveat that this Chicago team is truly atrocious, this seemed much more the ideal: control with possession and then break quickly.
Also on that note: that Sinclair cameo was brutal to watch from my perspective.
Yeah, agree with all of your analysis. I do still worry about the midfield and forward line being a bit too attacking for anyone but the most dire teams. For the Chicagos? Yeah, put 'em to the sword early and get that GD up up up! But, I feel like it could make the defensive side of the field collapse against less hapless teams. Liv DEF plugs holes better than Sinc so I"ll be curious (if not nervous) to see how it works against a team like SD, who will absolutely punish you if you are shaky defensively, or are leaving gaps. Absolutely we can't have Sinc starting that game with the same game plan. Having Liv in there just seems to make everything click a lot better, though. Dunn wasn't having to work as hard, Coffey was more present, and Hina! Hina was actually able to do more because Dunn and Moultrie (and Soph usually) really fits her style of play. Hina was an absolute pleasure to watch, and I hope this performance means that Norris knows h can't take Moultrie or Hina off. When Sinc and Vasconcelos subbed in, Sinc occupied the highest attacking mid/10 spot and Hina moved into the 8 with Vasconcelos on the RW. Aside from the obvious issues with Sinc in the midfield and our other midfielders having to work a little harder with her in, I thought Hina had some really good moments where she was able to shine more centrally in that role.
I would be surprised if Norris didn't go with this same XI next week, but they really need to work on the set piece and defending in transition part against SD. Players need to be reminded to be locked in as soon as Sheridan gets the ball, because so many of their goals come from Sheridan ---> player X (often Kornieck, if she's there) --->player Y (usually Morgan) ---> goal. Quick transitional attacks are what they've struggled with the most, and what SD is maybe most lethal with. I hope Norris watches that Spirit game where they utterly dominated SD...and takes some notes. Kornieck subbed in yesterday and I'm guessing will get good minutes vs. us as well.. and well, she's been our kryptonite.
Your note on Coffey....yah, can you imagine what this would look like against Parson's diamond? It could be a bloodbath if Norris doesn't adjust for that game specifically.
I'm laughing at your note on Moultrie, because I said the same thing to my partner. Those two players are just two or three steps ahead of everyone and are just technically sound and soooo silky smooth. Was also thinking Soph would do well to learn to read things like they do and get a few poachers goals herself...but yeah, the execution is tough to emulate!
Defense: just gonna mention this really quick before I mention the positives, but this game didn't really test our defense or Bixby, so I'm still a bit nervous those issues will persist. I did, however, think Menges looked a lot sharper with just her positioning, her touch, and her passing. That's good news. It's worth mentioning I thought Reyes looked a lot more comfortable on the ball than she has in the past. Again, we were up by 4 and against a terrible team, but I just wanted to mention that even her movement when she had the ball looked a bit better. I'm still not feeling a rookie left back play out of position, but, against Chicago, fine. It was interesting of Norris to take Hubly out and move Natu there. Maybe Hubs just needed a break? It was a weird move, even though Natu looked fine. After seeing her play CB with Finland, though, I think she's much better as a fullback. Her spacial awareness centrally wasn't great with Finland, but maybe that was a small sample size and also Finland is not a great team...I'm guessing he's looking ahead to the WC window and figuring out what kinda rotations he can make on the backline, because all of those players will be here. Rotating backlines (esp CB's) make me very nervous however, lol
Also also, #protectSoph, for real my gawd! I'm bummed that she wasn't taken out sooner. I get that she probably realllly wanted a goal (or a hattrick) against another terrible team, but, c'mon, give her a rest and let D'Aquila get more than just freaking 15 mins at left wing! Now, Ryan Clarke has said that she skipped the rose ceremony post-game and had to go get evaluated for a calf injury. Thanks Penso! I guess it is pretty encouraging though that we can score 4 goals, and not one of them is Soph.
It’s definitely been nice to get a few more data points without Sinc in the lineup because it’s really shown which issues are tactical and which are personnel-based.
The clear cut #1 issue to me is that Sam is being asked to be a Chara/Kante-style 6 when she’s really more of a Busquets-style distributor. She doesn’t have the physical traits to cover that much ground effectively over 90 minutes even if she’s fit enough to do the actual running. I almost wonder if it’s as straightforward as an in-game adjustment where Norris asks the midfield two to drop in and play deeper after that initial blitzing press. Any team with a ball-carrier/attacking mid a la Sanchez, Shaw, or Lavelle is gonna find those empty spaces verrry easily. I called Norris’ tactics naive, because he seems to think this team has such a talent edge that they can run teams out inside 15 minutes every game...but that’s not really how the NWSL works.
Agree that the set pieces still scare me, and even yesterday Naeher was able to hit Hocking in transition by passing over the attacking midfield and finding the gaps. There’s definitely some work to do, so let’s see if Norris can do it- we’ve suddenly hit the tough stretch of the schedule where I’d actually be fine with road points...but they kinda need as many points as they can get since they blew a few of the simpler games.
Finally got a chance to watch the replay. First, this game was likely won when Coach Norris finally wrote out his best team available for the starting lineup. Second, Moultrie needs to play all the time. She's seventeen and yet her savvy is up there with the best. She constantly makes herself available as a passing outlet by finding pockets of space. She's more than happy to take the long shot once in a while and she's pretty accurate. It mitigates Sinclair's weaknesses to bring her in as a sub.
Speaking of Sinclair, she can still be quite useful in attack with her experience and precision but holy cow is she a black hole on defense. She can't outrun anybody and is pretty easily dispossessed these days. I wonder what she herself thinks about her play.
Sam Coffey rules. That is all.
Tbf, the game was won as soon as the schedule makers put “Portland vs. Chicago, May 21” on the calendar.
That’s said, this is absolutely the best team the Thorns can start, and it needs to be the lineup going forward whenever possible.
Absolutely to Liv, pretty much a must play at this time.
Did Liv do enough to make it impossible for Norris to not start her. I hope so.
Well, since she's getting up there in years he has to throttle back her minutes across the full season. Wait....
I know the Alyssa Thompson Nats bandwagon is chock full but I could see Liv on the squad just as easily. Granted, midfield is tougher to play at a high level but still, she's that good.
INVERTED POWER RANKINGS
Tier 1: Chicago -- Week after week. leading the league in goals allowed and opponents' wins. Impressive consistency. Can they go wire to wire?
Tier 2: KC -- Despite a few weeks out of form, they've returned to their goal-conceding, points-dropping ways. Looking like a strong challenger to Chicago.
Tier 3: Houston -- After that dreadful Portland performance, Tiffany Salmon and crew have returned to form and are separating themselves from Louisville, Orlando, and NC, though ACFCNFT have been gaining ground of late.
And so on...
Only one correct answer here: fire the GM.
https://equalizersoccer.com/2023/05/22/kassouf-from-worst-to-almost-first-and-almost-back-in-kansas-city/
Just listened to SportsBeat KC podcast about what's going on too.
It's a mess. Yes, the defense is thin, but they can't settle on a formation they want to run.
Potter preferred using a 3-back setup with Del Fava and Mace as wings. The GM wanted them to switch to a 4-back setup.
The new coach prefers using a 4-back setup, but they've been losing with it and apparently even Mace has said that not letting her play out wide takes away her greatest strength.
They're still without Ball, Loera, and Glas. But the coach is using a formation that doesn't fit their talent and what made them successful, and they didn't bring in players in the offseason who fit a 4-back setup.
KC Masterpiece? No. KC Clusterf#$%? Yes.
Thorns are leaving the rest of the league in the dust on goal differential.
We're especially good on goals scored, with 22 in 8 games. That's almost 3 goals/game! The next best team is SD, with 15.
MarPar's team is as defensively good as you'd expect, giving up the least goals - 7, tied with Gotham. The Thorns are at 10.
Portland beat Naeher all day long on one-touch finishes.
Not only do those players deserve kudos, but we need to acknowledge everything that makes possible those one-touch finishes -- great passing, great movement, sending multiple players toward the goal, no overdribbling, and unselfish play.
Naeher actually didn't play badly. If she had, it would have been 7-0 or 8-0. She just got beat several times by some great offensive teamwork.
Their three back system needed to go like months ago, it honestly baffles me they're still doing it.
Naeher is still ridiculous awesome!
Totally agree.
There's a reason she's USWNT #1. It doesn't really matter how many goals get scored against her, because she just doesn't beat herself.
So long as she has the mentality she appears to have, this Chicago team is actually a great place for her to be because she's getting tons of work back there.
On a day like yesterday, she either made an incredible save or she got beat by something that while it is of the quality she'll face in July and August she will have the benefit of better defense in front of her. The Nats are far less likely to give up so many one-touch finishes and one-timer strikes.
The only part of her game yesterday where I would give her some stick were the decisions to basically throw outlet passes onto the feet of backs or mids who weren't handling the Thorns' pressure. I know why she was doing it, but it wasn't working.... and she stopped.
Luckily (or unluckily) for her, Naeher's been through this before. 2014 Boston Breakers were dire, possibly worse than Red Stars are now. She just recently passed 500 career saves, but 106 of them were in 2014 alone. Between that and the whole media circus around 'Solo v Naeher' in 2019, she's weathered some pretty tough mental fortitude situations.
Feels like Dunn's goals have almost all been on cutbacks, which is great to see.
Naeher's save on Hina's right-footed drive was pretty sick, and she had a couple other nice saves. Chicago trying to play out of the back through the PDX press was a horror show and Naeher kept it from getting even uglier.
Dunn commented that teammates are kidding her that she's always been scoring the same goal. She said something funny along the lines of "Apparently the defenses don't think I'm good enough to need covering in front of goal."
I just saw that too lol. I do love how the article lists the top scorers and it’s all USWNT attackers (Morgan, Hatch, Williams) and then a USWNT “defender.”
In all seriousness, it’s probably a combo of Soph, Weaver, and Hina’s gravity, teams struggling to track midfield runners, and Dunn being exceptionally smart with her late runs into the box.
I think the amount of interchange between Hina, Dunn, and Soph, along with the constant Soph double-teaming is pulling defenses out of shape a lot. So Dunn arrives completely unmarked and is there to score the cutback. Should be tap-ins for anyone, but it's great that Dunn has been finishing them all so well.
Okay, Sophia Smith hasn't scored a goal in six games. From having a commanding lead in the Golden Boot race, with 4 goals in 2 games, she's now in a 2-way tie for 4th place in it. Should we be worried? Have defenders figured her out? Has she gotten the yips?
I'd say no. She's still looking incredibly dangerous, she's still getting lots of shots (in fact she's pretty far ahead in both the NWSL's shots and shots-on-goal statistics), she's working well with teammates, she's drawing defenders like flies and making space for teammates, and most importantly, she doesn't look out of sorts about her shots not going in the net. Also she's contributing a ton of assists - 5 so far, which is 2 more than anyone else. (Incidentally the NWSL season record for assists is 10, set by our very own Tobin Heath.) She's helping the team immensely, and if she keeps up what she's doing, she WILL start scoring again, and scoring in buckets.
Seems to be refs not halting Hack-a-Soph more recently is keeping her from the back of the net and to your point, scoring off her assists is a decent side-benefit, but for her general health, it would be nice to see them paying it more mind.
Williams is the MVP right now. That's been another problem for KC.
Although I absolutely agree that the league needs to encourage the refs to clamp down on rough play (I've been saying that from the beginning...), Soph's goal drought has a lot to do with additional defensive attention that's _doesn't_ involve constantly fouling her. Any competent coaching staff's going to be preparing their defense to mark a threat like her as closely as they can manage. Soph's occasionally forcing shots through the heavy coverage (scorer mentality, a good thing), but is also dishing some great assists.
Some of this is just good goalkeeping, too. In the Chicago match, Soph could easily have had a brace (along with a goal for Hina), but Naeher made some highlight reel saves.
I really like this comment a lot and I hope Soph is getting this advice from those she trusts. I remember Tony DeSicco giving Alex Morgan similar advice in 2015 when she was not scoring. There are lots of ways of contributing without scoring. Crystal Dunn must be loving the open shots she is getting. Liv is also seeing daylight everywhere. But I also hope the league looks at the refs unwillingness to call fouls.
Nah, she is constantly double teamed and often triple teamed. That others are playing off her and scoring is great for the Thorns. Teams are having to pick their poisen. If mates keep putting up numbers will eventually have to ease off of the doubling when she will start putting them in. Very hard for anyone to be constantly doubled and score.
Can we all just take a moment to say: L'oL
https://twitter.com/Field0fVision/status/1660690765968752652
Even Chicago was better than that: https://twitter.com/Field0fVision/status/1660688046067466254
Double-wowzers. Canada provides the sole glimmer across two squads.
IMO Reign just "had an off day" but Red Stars? They don't have a ladder for climbing out of that crater they're occupying. Free the Hocking!
They SHOULD be better than this.
Nagasato, Roccaro, Davidson, Krueger, St Georges, Hocking, and Naeher SHOULD be better than this.
Chicago's problems are many, but I do think that they are experiencing a similar problem with Nagasato that the Thorns have with Sinc. She's not fast, playing out of her best position, and loses the ball a lot. Maybe the strategic move would be to play all the rookies and use this year to start a rebuild.
If the Thorns had the game the Reign had yesterday after losing to the Courage a week earlier, a lot of us would be howling for Norris' head and calling for a crisis investigation into the state of the franchise ;)
Justttt saayin
Absolutely as we should! As off as the Thorns have looked in a few games, it wasn’t the level of dumpster fire that OL Reign looked like. If so? I’d be very concerned…they haven’t looked to their standard yet this season imo, but these last two games, plus 70 mins of the Louisville and Spirit games they have just looked old and tired and bad. And LH has been out-coached.
Surprisingly, Harvey IS getting blowback from fans for her decisions lately, namely in regard to Sonnet, but also just in general for some of her decisions. I think the threshold is much higher there, though, with the amount of time LH has spent at the club to build a rapport and trust with fans. With Norris? Well he’s a brand-new totally unknown HC who we’ve got no history to fall back on. Naturally if our championship team turns sideways with as much talent that we have, this fan base is gonna speak up!
These are two clubs with super high standards, for us, I like it that way. :)
You’re right on every point, but at some point the lack of a consistent league leader is more a product of the league’s relative parity than specific failings of the individual teams. There’s elements of both as with every league, but this level of parity and randomness feels unique to NWSL.
As an example, during the Thorns recent three game slide, they conceded 8(!) goals on 3.2 xGa, while scoring 7 on 5.4 xG. In the two game stretch they drew Houston and lost to SD in the CC, they conceded two on 1.6 xG (makes sense), but only scored once on 3.8xG. xG is simplistic and a significant piece of this are the structural issues we’ve identified that lead to teams outscoring their xG: Set piece defense, counter attacks, individual/keeper errors, etc....but there’s also a very real element of luck.
But yes, idk why Sonnett keeps getting the midfield look week after week especially with Quinn back, and the Reign are baaadly missing Lavelle’s creativity. No sympathy from down here !
Yes at a certain point I feel more confident in saying that there are no good teams in the league this season.
I think Sonnett was playing d-mid in that game. Has she played that position before Reign? Seemed like an odd place for her given that she's not especially mobile.
Yeah she’s been there all season. Was a weird trade when it happened tbh
Had to miss a home game for the first time in 4 years, and Natu went ahead and reportedly dropped a Käärijä celly and I missed it (Noooo!) . I really hope a video of that bubbles up at some point.
Can't deny a cha cha cha request:
https://twitter.com/ThornsFC/status/1660779571224911873
Kiitos!!
I googled that person/song at Eurovision and I really wish I hadn't lol...
Hey, what happened to our friend jastefano, who used to provide all the social media dish and broke the news of Rhian and Emily wearing matching rainbow sneakers to some Thorns event?
Just finished watching the extended highlights of Gotham v Puget Sound WoSo Team. Long day for PSWST. Some dreadful mistakes by Barnes and Latsko, and Gotham made them pay. Farrelly had a nice game.
Yazmeen is a yellow card machine lol. One more and she sits.
Two games in a row MP starts, two games in a row they get run off the field. Have they not seen how the Sinclair situation has played out here? But anytime the Reign lose is a great day in my mind.
Who is MP?
...not counting Mark Parsons or Merritt Paulson, since I'm pretty sure neither of them is starting for Reign....
Megan Rapinoe
This formation is wonky, but THIS is what I like to see!
https://twitter.com/Field0fVision/status/1660686528689872897
Early in the match I was thinking she'd have to flip the graph to portrait orientation, to visually include both lines. Didn't the announcer say Chicago's xG was something like 0.09 at one point? (To think Naher had EIGHT stops, Bix zero.)
https://twitter.com/arielle_dror/status/1660446644549328896?cxt=HHwWgIDRjaDbi4suAAAA
Everyone looked on form today. But objectively speaking, Red Stars looked really out of sorts for 20 minutes that really decided the match
The Chicago goalkeeper did not have a happy day:
https://www.pdxcite.net/soccercityusa/wp-content/gallery/chi052123/chi052123-10.jpg
No, but she was a victim of bad defending and Portland's clinical finishes off of excellent passing. No keeper in the world is going to stop those goals today, and she did well to deny 3-4 others.
I didn't say she played badly, she made some nice saves especially on Sugita's blast she deflected off the post. But she was not happy, especially as goals 2, 3, and 4 were from players who were essentially unmarked.
That shot of Hina's was a goal against most other keepers (and against even Naeher more often than not). Hell of a save...
I don't think either of us said she played badly.
You said she did not have a happy day.
I said she was a victim of bad defending, clinical finishes, and excellent passing, she did well to deny 3-4 goals, and no one in the world could stop the goals Portland scored.
What did I miss here?
Naeher played really well, saving several shots that would have been goals on most keepers. That Chicago still gave up 4 goals says a lot about the Red Stars' defense (and Thorns' attack).
She got beat on one-touch finishes and one-timers, most of which she wouldn't face with good marking.
So Lyon have one game left to go...when do we think we hear more about Horan's future?
Is the loan through June or until June? Cause I’d guess we won’t hear anything last possible second, which probably means right before or after the WC. Hell, if I were her I’d just take the rest of the season off.
"PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Thorns FC midfielder Lindsey Horan will join French side Olympique Lyonnais on loan until June 2023, the club announced today. In addition, she has signed a contract extension with Thorns FC through the 2025 season."
is what the release says. I don't expect her to play, but I do think we should hear something...
I think we've heard something:
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland-thorns/2023/05/lyon-manager-lindsey-horan-on-loan-from-portland-thorns-to-stay-at-lyon.html
In my mind, club have to demand an actual transfer here. Nothing like what they pulled with Angel City with Gilles. You're in or you're out.
Rec’d x 1,000. Club needs to get value for her. This ain’t rec league.
I strongly suspect Horan will take some time off before she goes to join the USWNT at the end of June. She's just been through a long, long season, and most likely needs a break both mentally and physically. Maaaaybe she'll want to play a bit to stay in game shape, but I doubt even that. If she does rejoin the Thorns this year, which seems unlikely, odds are it'll be post-WC.
I have not seen her play untaped for a long time. The suspect knee could use a break. Let me rephrase: some R&R.
Saw something today about her remaining at Lyon. No idea the reliability or the source, but not shocked. She has no ticket unpunched in the NWSL.
Don't know if anyone saw this yesterday from Ryan Clarke on twitter in all the excitement...but he texted this:
"Ndamakong Suh was in the house for tonight’s Thorns match. #BAONPDX"
Someone asked if he was a possible investor...
https://twitter.com/RyanTClarke/status/1660423181986037760
Portland's own. A Boy Named Suh. He and Lillard should just buy the Thorns.
Grant HS's finest (kinda) babyyy