The Thorns: Analyzing what went wrong - Part I
How were the Thorns affected by a lack of ball carriers?
I think it’s safe to say that the Portland Thorns 2024 season has been a bust. This year has continued a downhill slide that started last year when coach Mike Norris took over. The signs were all over the place by the end of the 2023 season and were hard to ignore, yet inside the Thorns sphere feelings were positive that 2024 would be Portland’s rebirth once they figured out what was going wrong, and once they signed some needed reinforcements during the off-season.
The extra help came — but most of it was not what the team needed. Out of all the new thorns (new signings and rookies), the only one who made an impact was Marie Müller, and that wasn’t hard to foresee. After all, her data was accessible and the German league was easy to watch for scouts.
The fact that many key components of this team departed in the last two years —players and staff — put the club in a difficult position that could only be solved by those who were familiar and high-up enough to make an impact.
The thing was, neither the club nor the GM knew the culture well enough to keep the boat afloat, leaving it leaking and sinking.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Stumptown Footy to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.