With 10 games left in the National Women’s Soccer League’s regular season, the Portland Thorns are in perfect position.
Having only lost twice in 14 games, Portland sits on top of the league, one-point ahead of the defending champions, North Carolina Courage, and three points in front of another major postseason threat, the Chicago Red Stars. Come the playoffs, two of the league’s three big talent bases are likely to be bracketed together in the semifinals, and although this wasn’t the case last season, the team that finishes first will probably avoid a championship-caliber opponent in the postseason’s first round.
While it may be too soon to become tunnel-visioned on the playoffs, this is the part of the schedule where teams are going to begin coming together. The prolonged runs we’ve seen from previous league champions – like Vlatko Andonovski’s teams in Kansas City, Paul Riley’s in Western New York and North Carolina, or Mark Parsons’ in Portland in 2017 – started around now, when the season moved away from its half-way mark and teams had a good idea of their potential.
That’s exactly where the Thorns are now. There are still position battles being waged, and at each level of the field, Parsons will have challenging decisions to make when he has his full squad. But as was evident in the opening moments of the team’s last game, against the Houston Dash, the Thorns are now capable of showing their best selves. Maybe that version can’t be sustained for 90 minutes, and perhaps it will be months before that is the team’s norm, but the level is there. It’s just a matter of showing it more often.
The next opportunity to do so comes Saturday against visiting Sky Blue FC (8:00 p.m. Pacific, Yahoo! Sports). Here are three areas of focus ahead of this weekend’s kickoff.
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Photo courtesy Craig Mitchelldyer/isiphotos.com
How do you build on 5-0?
Parsons didn’t hide the fact that, in his view, the Thorns caught Houston at the right time. It was a mid-week game, one before which the Dash had significant travel. Portland had gotten their Americans back, too. Last Wednesday was the first time Adrianna Franch, Tobin Heath, Lindsey Horan and Emily Sonnett had played at the expanded Providence Park, and they were doing so with motivation from the previous Friday’s disappointing, 2-2 draw in Utah.
All those factors helped give Portland a four-goal lead come Wednesday’s 23rd minute, something it would unreasonable to expect on Saturday. Throw that possibility out the window, and how can fairly assess the team’s progress?
You can turn your attention to underlying indicators – things like good chances created, expected goals, final-third or penalty-box entry passes – but there’s the idea of consistency. We’ve seen strong performances from the Thorns before. The 3-0, June 2 win over the Red Stars comes to mind. What we haven’t seen, though, is consecutive games with that level of execution. Part of that is the reality of playing a road-heavy schedule, as well as the team’s rotating lineups. Part is also a first-half team growing into their stretch-run selves.
But that stretch run is approaching, and with 10 games left in the season, you need to know your exceptions as well as your rules. Five-goal wins in the NWSL will always be exceptions, but can that level of threat become persistent? Can it become a role?
At a minimum, last Wednesday gave the Thorns a clearer view of their potential.
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Photo courtesy Craig Mitchelldyer/isiphotos.com
More massive changes
Even before the 2019 season started, focus was on the World Cup period – the span from early May through mid-July when teams’ top talents would be gone. Some would miss the entire 11 weeks. Others would be back sooner. Everybody would have to adjust.
Less discussed but still in the back of our minds was the post-World Cup period. We knew the United States were favorites to win in France, and if that status came good, U.S. Soccer was going to thrust their stars into a victory tour. Who knew how many games the Americans would miss, but in all likelihood, it was going to be more than zero.
Saturday makes one. As of mid-week, Franch, Heath, Horan and Sonnett were California bound, set to join their national team ahead of this weekend’s game at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl against Ireland. With all four players in Parsons’ XI for Houston, their absences mean significant changes for Saturday’s visit from Sky Blue.
That kind of language, though, overstates the problem. Thanks to the challenges of May and June, the Thorns are used to making these adjustments. Their ability to do so helped the team claw its way to the top of the league during the World Cup period, and with other teams tasked with managing their own losses, the depth Portland’s employed throughout the season could prove a competitive advantage, not a problem.
It’s a state that’s allowed Midge Purce to enjoy her best season as a professional, Gabby Seiler to make a Rookie of the Year case, and Elizabeth Ball to establish a starter’s profile during her second year as a pro. It’s allowed Meghan Klingenberg to remind people of her quality, Dagný Brynjarsdóttir to prove she’s reclaimed her level, and Katherine Reynolds to show why she’s such a stabilizing force.
The Thorns aren’t the Thorns without their biggest stars. Players like Heath and Horan are more than a part of a culture. They’re part of an identity. But as Portland’s showed throughout the season, their identity is resilient, even amid significant, constant changes. As much as any team in the NWSL, Portland is equipped to manage this chaos.
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Tougher than Houston
The Dash sit comfortably above Sky Blue in the standings, having claimed 11 more points this season than their New Jersey-based counterparts. But based on the teams’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as their different styles, Sky Blue should offer a bigger challenge. History tells us as much.
Portland has only lost once since 2017 against Sky Blue, but they’ve also been drawn twice, and only once have won by more than one goal. The aggregate score over those seven games is 11-8 in the Thorns’ favor, but in terms of a goals-per-game basis, that’s only a 0.43-goal edge per 90 minutes. That’s hardly a gap you’d expect between teams at the top and bottom of a league’s table.
Contrast that with how the Thorns have done against Houston – a team that has consistently finished above Sky Blue. Portland has outscored the Dash 19-7 since 2017, winning six times and drawing twice. Despite Houston generally being better than Sky Blue, Sky Blue has given Portland far more trouble.
Such was evident on April 28, when Portland conceded twice in the first 18 minutes en route to a 2-2 draw. The Thorns redeemed themselves one month later, taking a 1-0 victory out of Piscataway, New Jersey, but the broader history still held true. Even in victory, the Thorns were pressed by Sky Blue.
