Portland Thorns Media Availability: Jeff Agoos, Deyna Castellanos, and Rob Gale
Ahead of the home opener, Stumptown Footy attends the first trainings and media availability for the Portland Thorns.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: What is it like heading into your first home opener at Providence Park as President and GM of the Portland Thorns?
Jeff Agoos: I'm incredibly excited to be here for the first home game of thorns for the 2025 season, to have the passion of the fans here, to have the engagement of all of our fan section, including the Riveters. It's just going to be an incredible experience. So I'm really looking forward to this. This was something that existed in theory and is now really practical. I know the entire team is excited. The staff is excited. So we're really looking forward to tomorrow night.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: Even with everything that has happened, what are the front office’s goals and expectations for the 2025 NWSL season?
Jeff Agoos: Look, we're here to compete day in and day out. We think we have a team, whether it's with the injuries or without, that can compete to get into the playoffs, and that's going to be the goal for the season. You know, we hit an unfortunate spate of injuries in preseason, but we have a lot of players that are going to step up and given be given the opportunity to play through and show what they have. And so we are incredibly excited to see what that is going to look like throughout the season. And we have very ambitious goals, and we believe not only the city, but the fans and the club is ready to prepare to meet that challenge.
Guillermo Motta/Katu: This is basically a brand new year, starting from scratch, you know, from administration and then some changes in the roster. What is your message to the fans on this year and going forward?
Jeff Agoos: We believe we keep believing in the team. We keep believing in the ambitious spirit that we have. You know, this is one of the most successful teams over the course of of the NWSL history, and so we want to continue that theme. We want to support the efforts. Obviously, we have new ownership coming in with Alex and Lisa Bhathal all they have a very clear and ambitious vision of what this club can be, and so we want to deliver on that. We have a performance center that is coming in next year, $250 million multi-phase 63,000 square foot facility that will house the Portland Thorns and will house the WNBA team. I think those types of ambitious initiatives are really what the thorns is all about.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: Lucy Rushton and Angus McNab are very analytically-driven strategic advisors you’ve brought on board to join your front office staff, how influential have they been in that realm and the women’s soccer side?
Jeff Agoos: They've been incredibly supportive throughout the entire journey of the three months that I've been here. Interestingly, Angus has just had a child yesterday, I believe. So it's a third boy, so we wish him a real congratulations. But they both deliver on very different parts of the business, and they've been incredibly great strategic advisors and incredible support for myself, but also the organization as they as we've moved this forward through the first part of the season.
*Congrats to the McNab family!
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: You’ve brought in some of the top young talent in college soccer with Caiya Hanks and Pietra Tordin, but also have a few international slots to use. How excited are you moving forward, and also are you possibly adding more in the future?
Jeff Agoos: We’re excited about the future we have. I believe one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the NWSL and Caiya certainly is emblematic of that and Pietra, emblematic of the commitment to bringing in young talent and developing them. We have a fantastic technical staff that's been asked to deliver on that development, but we think there's an incredibly bright future because of the types of players that we've brought in, the legacy that they'll have here, and we hope to have them here for a long, long time.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: There are a ton of players on their last year of their contracts, how big of a priority is it to bring key players back?
Jeff Agoos: We're always looking at the future: Carlos, myself, Angus, Lucy, Mike Norris, and Mike Smith. We're always looking at what the options are to extend contracts based on performance and what the future is. So when we look at an organizational strategy, it's not just week by week, it's literally season by season. So we are making plans for not only 2025 but 26, 27, 28. So this is a long term planning, and we're just beginning that work.
Orlando Sanchez/KGW: How do you fill the void of a player like Sophia, a franchise player? How do you build a squad that can still be competitive and at the top of the NWSL?
Jeff Agoos: We celebrate Sophia. We see her as a full person, not just as an athlete. And we are celebrating her and her family, and we are very supportive of her pregnancy, and I know she'll be in the building tomorrow night, supporting the team. So we are incredibly supportive. We also lost players like Becky Sauerbrunn and Christine Sinclair. Those players are irreplaceable, not just for the Portland Thorns, but for the game. And we really believe that the players that are here today now have an opportunity to step up. This really opens the door for those types of players. We talked about with Caiya, Reilyn, Pietra, Alexa, Payton, there's just a number of players that have the opportunity now to step up.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: How have you handled everything that has happened this offseason?
Deyna Castellanos: With excitement. Really, I think being here is a great opportunity for me. I'm very happy to be a player for the Thorns.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: You just launched your signature cleat - Nike United Phantom. How special was that for you?
Deyna Castellanos: It's like a dream that I never had because I didn't know it was possible. Having it is something that is just so special -I think it's really good for the future generations that are coming because they now know that it's something that it could be true and possible. So yeah, it is something that I'm very honored.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: The Rose City Riveters, Portland Thorns supporters and fans, have led the way for women’s sports. What will it be like for you to walk out to them tomorrow as a Thorn for the first time?
Deyna Castellanos: I think that's the part that I'm more excited about tomorrow is living that experience. I know when I came here last season with Bay, it was something that it was very, very impressive. And for sure, it plays a big part against the visitor team. And for us, is something that it plays like a bigger part, because we have extra 20,000 players that come with us when we play at home. So it's gonna be very exciting.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: What were your conversations like when you joined the Portland Thorns? And then how big of a role did Lucy Rushton in bringing you here as well?
Deyna Castellanos: To be honest with Lucy I knew after I already, like, talked with Rob, Mike, about coming here, or the possibility of coming here. So obviously, for me, was very exciting. Having somebody that I already know and that I'm very grateful to because she brought me back to the US, but the conversations were more about like me coming back and being myself again as a player. That is something that I was lacking last year, and that's something that is very exciting for me this year, because I already feel better, and I already a feel like that old Deyna that everybody knows. So hopefully tomorrow I get to score, and everybody's happy.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: Rob has spoken highly of you, you know, just said how much you are enjoying your football again, but also the fact that he wants to play you higher up. Whether that is as a nine, as a 10, get that old Deyna back, like you said.
Deyna Castellanos: He [Rob Gale] gives me the freedom of playing as a nine When I'm playing as a nine I like to move around and just try to find those pockets. And obviously, playing has a 10 that's where I feel more comfortable, but he gives me the freedom to be higher - that's where he thinks I'm more dangerous and more effective for the team. And I really like that. I just love having the responsibility of, like an experienced player and leadership role."
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: Many will get to see you play for the first time tomorrow, what can they expect to see from you?
Deyna Castellanos: I just want to show them good attitude, good body language, energy, a lot of like fun playing & smiles. I think that's something that this group has, and have something that is very exciting. I just want them like to live here and enjoy like the show that is going to happen tomorrow night.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: One of the bucket list items you shared last week was going on Safari with your family. What was that experience like?
Rob Gale: Unbelievable to share that experience with me family, and my brother and his family too came along. And as you know, I was born in Africa and spent some of the early years in Tanzania - got to go and see the old house that we spent some time in at the International School in Moshi. If you get a chance to go and see nature in its, you know, natural habitat. And every now, it really is once in a lifetime experience. Although I want to do it again now, but no really, really nice time and enjoyable for me and my brother and the families all to get together. Very lucky.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: Tomorrow night will be your first home opener as the head coach of the Portland Thorns, what will that experience be like for you?
Rob Gale: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited by this group. Like I said last week, the worst place possible to start with what we've been working on in preseason, and what the team values and principles and what we've done in the preseason. Go away at Kansas, 9:45 in the morning, terrible conditions, the long journey, and you know, is really a tough ask. And five debuts, three, you know, NWSL debts, it couldn’t get much harder for them. Now at home, crowd behind us, wet, perfect Portland night, prime after dark or whatever you want. They are going to be excited. They've got the energy, the crowd is behind them. We're ready to go and get on the front foot and get the season rollin’.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: What were additional takeaways from the home opener, you want to get cleaned up before tomorrow’s home opener against Angel City FC?
Rob Gale: Biggest thing for us was just we gifted the goals. I said it on the day, and really, the unit, in the area of the field that we expected with the most experience, and where we'd be strongest, we weren't at the races which is unusual for us on the day.
That will be better this game, no doubt about it. The bravery on the ball, you know, the way we want the play, the identity, the counter pressing stuff, that wasn't quite there - little bit off. We look at every factor: the travel, the early start, the time changes, whatever else, zero excuses for the home opener. There won't be as many debuts - there might be a few.
I felt we just gave the ball away too much, especially back to goal. And you allow an opposition that without playing great, they're effective at what they do in transitional moments, very direct. And it's a shame, because the game plan was to build into and get back in.
But you can't, you can't give teams goals in this league, and you can't let an opposition like that get ahead and out of sight. So we'll look to rectify that tomorrow.
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: What's the injury status? I know you mentioned Sam Hiatt is on a little bit of pitch count.
Rob Gale: Yeah, I think she's closer, for sure. Sammy, so that's good news. And other than maybe one change from the last game where we're getting back to health, or closer to game health, for sure
Phuoc Nguyen/STF: What will it take for the team slow down Angel City FC tomorrow? Especially with Alyssa, Gisele, and possibly Christen Press.
Rob Gale: Don’t give them oppositions in transition. Make sure you deal with the threat and how we want the press and stop it the store. Stop them getting into key areas. Gisele got more touches in the box than any other player from right back in the in their home opener against San Diego. So you know they look to get forward, but then you got to take your opportunities with a team like that, then the spaces they give you as well. So got to be diligent at one end and make sure we're creating more attacking threats than them.
Guillermo Motta/Katu: What do you want your team's identity to be this year?
Rob Gale: It's definitely adaptation with personnel now, but identity doesn't change. What we know, what we are as Portland, and what the public expects is a front-foot team and an attacking, dynamic team. So identities, principles, that's not going to change.
It's just different ways of doing it - now by committee.
Editor’s Note: The transcripts won’t always be precise, but we make every effort to be as close to 100% as possible.
Training Photos from Diego Diaz
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