Quietly, the best new player on the squad is Marie Muller. At both ends of the pitch, she's playing close to perfect football. She looks like she's been an NWSL'er and Thorn for a long time. Good job to the FO for finding her and I hope she is happy with the move and wants to stay a while.
- Have a fucking debut rook! It's rare you see rookies come in and light up a match like Linnehan did: Inches away from a goal and an assist, and it was her quick thinking on the throw-in that lead to the Moultrie goal that put the game away. It's early yet, but I'd loveeee to see her get the RW role opposite Weaver at some point this year. Looked electric.
-This is probably the Thorns best midfield three at the moment, and I'm glad Gale recognized the need to axe the 4-3-3 in his first match as interim. I'd like to see a little (a lot) more evidence against better teams, but I'm willing to consider the possibility that Fleming might be better suited to playing as a 10 in the NWSL in some matches like she did tonight. She wasn't perfect --still too many times when she was slightly out of step with her teammates-- but she also had some real excellent moments and looked like the Jessie Fleming I know for the first time tonight.
- It's a privilege --not a problem--to have Fleming, Moultrie, and Hina as options at 8/10. Hina should be a locked-in starter when available, but I'm totally fine with rotating Fleming and Moultrie, or even playing both with Hina on the wing. Good teams have multiple options and I'm not at all concerned about a minutes crunch.
- Obaze is just better than Hubly straight up. Her teammates trust her with the ball and she has the ability and confidence to play passes Hubly just can't. She gets that spot.
- Hogan, on the other hand....man. Just bummed for her that she hasn't taken advantage of this opportunity because it might be career-defining. Starting GK spots are real hard to come by, and she very nearly cost us the game when she dallied on the ball and allowed Ordonez to make a tackle.
- Weaver needs to wake up! Waaay too slow and hesitant from her so far this season.
- Müller's legit, what a second half from her. Everywhere offensively and defensively.
- This Soph on the wing thing better *only* be something they do when Sinc's in the game.
If you weren’t able to see him closely, Rob Gale certainly is a more fun coach to *watch* as an audience member. He actively turns around and pumps up the bench players and the crowd. When we score he gets excited and jumps up and down and pumps his fist. When Shelby Hogan narrowly avoided disaster he turned to the audience with big eyes and a shocked grin shaking his head. I make no claim that his actual tactics are a big improvement over Norris, but he is definitely bringing some emotion and energy to the field.
Finally planted my official Portland thorns rose kit right before the game. I guess that was the problem and I’m sorry that my procrastination got us off to such a bad start this season.
Sinclair exceeding expectations didn't make her great. She was fine though. She played a clever game in that she would spend some time up front mixing it up and then would take breaks and go hang out in the midfield for a while. She was on one of those breaks when Sophia scored. It's not a coincidence that the speed of the game, which favored the Thorns, changed as soon as she came out. I hope this is not the beginning of the start Sinc every game and let her play 60 minutes. It stifles everyone else.
I hadn’t lost faith in Hogan but she was shaky and her distribution is poor.
Maybe playing fullbacks on their natural sides and consistency on the back line helps?
Thorns and Timbers are both better pressing and playing on the front foot.
Houston is bad so I don’t want to get carried away. But the Thorns played well. I don’t like what Rob Gale said about the tactics not being a problem and placing blame more on the players. By my eyes, he changed the tactics, the formation, and the starting XI so…. Not convinced this isn’t just a coach got fired bump, beating up on a poor team, and the players just taking it on themselves. We’ll see over the next few matches.
We could and should have scored more. I’m encouraged by the opportunities created. Just need more poise in the finishing. Campbell is a good keeper though.
Our defense didn’t stress me out too much but getting a lead sure helps. Not sure how threatening Houston really is though.
That was fun. I love to see 4 different goal scorers and for Liv to maybe be getting her mojo back. Happy for Sinclair too. I don’t want to take Smith for granted but I know even she’s had some dry spells. Good to see Beckie showing spark again too.
1) Smith draws defenders like a black hole draws, well, everything. On Moultrie's goal, Smith has the usual two defenders near the sideline, but then escapes them and moves toward the box - requiring a third defender, one running back to guard Moultrie, to step toward Smith instead. That's why Moultrie had so much time and space to tee up and fire off her shot. I hope Smith, and the rest of the team, can keep taking advantage of this gravity effect.
2) Speaking of Moultrie, her two touches on her goal were just perfect. The first touch received the ball and moved it away from a nearby defender, and the second put the ball just inside the post. Well done!
3) Sinclair also had a beautiful touch on her goal. That shot was harder than it looked and players miss it all the time.
4) Because Houston's defense is so terrible, Jane Campbell sure gets a lot of practice. I counted at least six 1-v-1's or close-range shots in this game (2 by Smith, 1 by Sinclair (not her goal), 2 by Beckie, 1 by Linnehan), of which two were goals.
5) So glad Beckie got a goal she could celebrate! The Thorns were behind for all of our first-game goals, when Beckie previously scored, so a big celebration wasn't appropriate. Hooray for her!
6) Speaking of Beckie, she runs so effortlessly it's just beautiful. She's like Lynn Williams that way, so fast with no wasted motion.
7) Sauerbrunn moved into midfield a lot more than she has previously, which helped our attack. But it also contributed to Houston's goal: Sauerbrunn made an attacking run WAY upfield, but we lost the ball and Houston quickly got it to Alozie in our box on the right - right in the space that would have had another defender if Sauerbrunn had stayed home. Alozie had plenty of space to pick out her cross because she was only loosely marked in a dangerous spot. I wonder if this will make Sauerbrunn stop the midfield runs. (The episode was reminiscent of Spain's goal in the World Cup final: right back Lucy Bronze made an attacking run up to the center circle, but Spain recovered the ball, quickly located the gaping hole in the defense, and scored off it.)
8) I'm glad Hogan got a kick blocked but nothing came of it. Hopefully it was a good lesson for her about how fast NWSL forwards can close her down. Hogan's experience was free but that Dash defender's lesson, when Smith similarly closed her down, was not.
Something worth mentioning re: new coach Draco...I really liked his subs and timing for all of them last night. It was so refreshing! I thought Sinc prob could've come out at half, or at least before 60', but otherwise I think every sub and the timing for each was what I would've done. I was very pleasantly surprised.
She's here, she's there, she's every f"&#$ing where, Hina, Hina!
Quietly, the best new player on the squad is Marie Muller. At both ends of the pitch, she's playing close to perfect football. She looks like she's been an NWSL'er and Thorn for a long time. Good job to the FO for finding her and I hope she is happy with the move and wants to stay a while.
Houston tax notwithstanding, really encouraging performance:
- Have a fucking debut rook! It's rare you see rookies come in and light up a match like Linnehan did: Inches away from a goal and an assist, and it was her quick thinking on the throw-in that lead to the Moultrie goal that put the game away. It's early yet, but I'd loveeee to see her get the RW role opposite Weaver at some point this year. Looked electric.
-This is probably the Thorns best midfield three at the moment, and I'm glad Gale recognized the need to axe the 4-3-3 in his first match as interim. I'd like to see a little (a lot) more evidence against better teams, but I'm willing to consider the possibility that Fleming might be better suited to playing as a 10 in the NWSL in some matches like she did tonight. She wasn't perfect --still too many times when she was slightly out of step with her teammates-- but she also had some real excellent moments and looked like the Jessie Fleming I know for the first time tonight.
- It's a privilege --not a problem--to have Fleming, Moultrie, and Hina as options at 8/10. Hina should be a locked-in starter when available, but I'm totally fine with rotating Fleming and Moultrie, or even playing both with Hina on the wing. Good teams have multiple options and I'm not at all concerned about a minutes crunch.
- Obaze is just better than Hubly straight up. Her teammates trust her with the ball and she has the ability and confidence to play passes Hubly just can't. She gets that spot.
- Hogan, on the other hand....man. Just bummed for her that she hasn't taken advantage of this opportunity because it might be career-defining. Starting GK spots are real hard to come by, and she very nearly cost us the game when she dallied on the ball and allowed Ordonez to make a tackle.
- Weaver needs to wake up! Waaay too slow and hesitant from her so far this season.
- Müller's legit, what a second half from her. Everywhere offensively and defensively.
- This Soph on the wing thing better *only* be something they do when Sinc's in the game.
If you weren’t able to see him closely, Rob Gale certainly is a more fun coach to *watch* as an audience member. He actively turns around and pumps up the bench players and the crowd. When we score he gets excited and jumps up and down and pumps his fist. When Shelby Hogan narrowly avoided disaster he turned to the audience with big eyes and a shocked grin shaking his head. I make no claim that his actual tactics are a big improvement over Norris, but he is definitely bringing some emotion and energy to the field.
Finally planted my official Portland thorns rose kit right before the game. I guess that was the problem and I’m sorry that my procrastination got us off to such a bad start this season.
No independent confirmation, or denial, as to whether this was the Houston Dash team charter pulling into Portland in advance of Saturday's match.
I mean, they DO know that Portland isn't REALLY Southern BC, right?
https://youtu.be/Kq6LW3WLhYs?t=21
Finally a Thorn who doesn't seem determined to turn every throw-in into a 50/50 ball
Lol:
https://twitter.com/DasGherkin/status/1781879410049892844
Sinclair exceeding expectations didn't make her great. She was fine though. She played a clever game in that she would spend some time up front mixing it up and then would take breaks and go hang out in the midfield for a while. She was on one of those breaks when Sophia scored. It's not a coincidence that the speed of the game, which favored the Thorns, changed as soon as she came out. I hope this is not the beginning of the start Sinc every game and let her play 60 minutes. It stifles everyone else.
I doubted Sinclair but she was great.
I hadn’t lost faith in Hogan but she was shaky and her distribution is poor.
Maybe playing fullbacks on their natural sides and consistency on the back line helps?
Thorns and Timbers are both better pressing and playing on the front foot.
Houston is bad so I don’t want to get carried away. But the Thorns played well. I don’t like what Rob Gale said about the tactics not being a problem and placing blame more on the players. By my eyes, he changed the tactics, the formation, and the starting XI so…. Not convinced this isn’t just a coach got fired bump, beating up on a poor team, and the players just taking it on themselves. We’ll see over the next few matches.
We could and should have scored more. I’m encouraged by the opportunities created. Just need more poise in the finishing. Campbell is a good keeper though.
Our defense didn’t stress me out too much but getting a lead sure helps. Not sure how threatening Houston really is though.
That was fun. I love to see 4 different goal scorers and for Liv to maybe be getting her mojo back. Happy for Sinclair too. I don’t want to take Smith for granted but I know even she’s had some dry spells. Good to see Beckie showing spark again too.
Just found out that the Jess-Fishlock-to-Tziarra-King goal last weekend was the first spouse-to-spouse assist/goal in the NWSL. More power to them!
Further thoughts about that game:
1) Smith draws defenders like a black hole draws, well, everything. On Moultrie's goal, Smith has the usual two defenders near the sideline, but then escapes them and moves toward the box - requiring a third defender, one running back to guard Moultrie, to step toward Smith instead. That's why Moultrie had so much time and space to tee up and fire off her shot. I hope Smith, and the rest of the team, can keep taking advantage of this gravity effect.
2) Speaking of Moultrie, her two touches on her goal were just perfect. The first touch received the ball and moved it away from a nearby defender, and the second put the ball just inside the post. Well done!
3) Sinclair also had a beautiful touch on her goal. That shot was harder than it looked and players miss it all the time.
4) Because Houston's defense is so terrible, Jane Campbell sure gets a lot of practice. I counted at least six 1-v-1's or close-range shots in this game (2 by Smith, 1 by Sinclair (not her goal), 2 by Beckie, 1 by Linnehan), of which two were goals.
5) So glad Beckie got a goal she could celebrate! The Thorns were behind for all of our first-game goals, when Beckie previously scored, so a big celebration wasn't appropriate. Hooray for her!
6) Speaking of Beckie, she runs so effortlessly it's just beautiful. She's like Lynn Williams that way, so fast with no wasted motion.
7) Sauerbrunn moved into midfield a lot more than she has previously, which helped our attack. But it also contributed to Houston's goal: Sauerbrunn made an attacking run WAY upfield, but we lost the ball and Houston quickly got it to Alozie in our box on the right - right in the space that would have had another defender if Sauerbrunn had stayed home. Alozie had plenty of space to pick out her cross because she was only loosely marked in a dangerous spot. I wonder if this will make Sauerbrunn stop the midfield runs. (The episode was reminiscent of Spain's goal in the World Cup final: right back Lucy Bronze made an attacking run up to the center circle, but Spain recovered the ball, quickly located the gaping hole in the defense, and scored off it.)
8) I'm glad Hogan got a kick blocked but nothing came of it. Hopefully it was a good lesson for her about how fast NWSL forwards can close her down. Hogan's experience was free but that Dash defender's lesson, when Smith similarly closed her down, was not.
9) Winning sure beats losing.
Also, Sophia Smith everybody. A goal, an assist, and set up another goal. Not a bad night's work.
Our throw-ins are looking SO much better. They're happening quickly, and as a result we even scored a goal off one. Keep it up, Thorns!
Something worth mentioning re: new coach Draco...I really liked his subs and timing for all of them last night. It was so refreshing! I thought Sinc prob could've come out at half, or at least before 60', but otherwise I think every sub and the timing for each was what I would've done. I was very pleasantly surprised.
A little late, but Week 5 Recap time! Featuring:
- The Spirit's very ahead of schedule rebuild and Gotham's issues
- Orlando proving me right and the (possible) denouement of Stoneyball in SD.
- The Thorns' hybrid 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 under Malfoy (+ Payton Linnehan love)
- A look at Chicago's 4-4-2 and why it's been working (+ GOD Seattle sucks!)
https://www.theeaststandnwsl.com/post/nwsl-recap-week-5-there-s-something-brewing-in-dc