Imani Dorsey didn’t make her professional debut until June 8, halfway through the National Women’s Soccer League season. She was drafted six months earlier, having just completed an All-America-caliber senior season at Duke before learning fate had cast her with Sky Blue FC. Amid the New Jersey team’s offseason makeover, she stood to play a significant part.
Some of that was the nature to the team she was joining, one weakened by a number of offseason departures (Sam Kerr and Kelley O’Hara, the most prominent). Part of that, though, was the quality of Dorsey, herself. Versatile, with an attacking game that complements an all-around profile, the Maryland native came out of school without any weaknesses. Still, compared to the high standards of the NWSL’s elite, she didn't offer any day-one, clear-standout strengths, either. The component, little-bit-of-everything profile portended a valuable role player; or, in the ideal situation, the type of player who quietly thrives below the national team radar.
By the time Dorsey debuted, though, her team was mired at the bottom of the NWSL standings, half-way to what could prove a historically difficult season. At 0-14-5, SBFC is on track to become the only winless team in the league’s six-year history. Even if they break through over their final five games, Sky Blue would have to go on an unforeseen run to avoid finishing with the worst record since the NWSL’s 2013 debut.
Where Dorsey fits into this picture, though, comes down to her team’s fortunes since she claimed a spot in Sky Blue's best XI. In her 10 starts in midfield, the 22-year-old has three goals and one assist, and despite her late start to the season, her performance amid a weak first-year class puts her in fringe contention for Rookie of the Year honors. Four of Sky Blue’s five points, this season, have come since Dorsey entered Denise Reddy’s starting lineup, and over those last 10 games, the league’s last-place team has finished within one goal of their opponent in seven of them.
Portland Thorns FC have seen the new and improved Sky Blue twice over that period. The first time, June 27 at Providence Park, saw Reddy’s team take what felt like an unlikely point, with a late penalty helping the team to a 1-1 result. In time, that draw seemed less aberrational, making the 2-1 victory Portland took in New Jersey on July 21 all the more impressive. The Thorns were largely outplayed that day, hanging on with the two-goal lead the team forged in the match’s early minutes, but as the season's progressed, those three points at Yurcak Field have proven ever more valuable.
On a team level, it is a season that’s mirrored the club's first-round pick's, with both Dorsey's and Sky Blue’s 2018s plagued by slow starts. But as Dorsey’s come to the campaign, her team has, too, so much so that now, even though they have the worst record in the NWSL, Sky Blue aren’t playing like the league’s worst squad.
Come Wednesday night (8pm PT, NWSLsoccer.com), Portland will face a team that transcends their record – one that has, on form, deserved to win a number of games they’ve drawn over the last two months. That’s not to say the Thorns will draw, too. But that is to say Portland, if they approach Wednesday’s opponent as if they’re the old Sky Blue, will learn how far Dorsey and her team have come.
What to watch for on Wednesday:
- A short turnaround means nothing much has changed for the Portland Thorns since their Saturday draw, but it also means some of the depth a nearly-healthy team has accumulated over the season could be rotated in for major minutes. Will Caitlin Foord see her first start of the season, in place of Ana Crnogorčević? How about Andressinha, coming off a strong Saturday, seeing time in place of Celeste Boureille or Hayley Raso? And will Midge Purce get back into the starting XI to spell Ellie Carpenter? They’re all options at head coach Mark Parsons’ disposal.
- Wednesday’s game will be the next-to-last home match of the regular season, as well as the team’s last action in Portland this week. On Thursday, the Thorns leave for the east coast ahead of Saturday’s game against the Washington Spirit at Audi Field. Like their game against Sky Blue, the Thorns will be expected to deliver three points in that one.
- Despite the presence of U.S. internationals Carli Lloyd and Savannah McCaskill, Sky Blue’s leader in goals is somebody who spent most of 2017 as a substitute in Seattle. But thanks to an offseason trade, Mexican international Katie Johnson has been able to make 11 starts (amid 16 appearances) this year, her four goals in 958 minutes producing a strike rate which would, if she had played more minutes, leave her just outside the league’s top five in goals scored. Regardless, Johnson’s first year in New Jersey is establishing her as a legitimate NWSL forward option.
- And finally, Wednesday's game marks another return of University of Portland alum Amanda Frisbie, who put in one of her season’s best performances at left back during the June 27 draw. An attacker turned center back in college, Frisbie was an All-American and the West Coast Conference Defender of the Year in 2013. Amid an NWSL journey that has seen her drafted by Seattle, play for Western New York, Kansas City, Boston and Sky Blue – around stints in Iceland and Australia – the Texas native is now up to 53 career appearances in the NWSL, 25 of which have come over the last two seasons.
