The Thorns Prediction Game – Hiatus Edition

Well, here we are, all eyes on the antipodes as the Big Dance begins, and still (at least in my case) shaking our heads over the dreary little run of poor form our club has struggled through over the past several weeks.

Sadly I think we’re getting used to that form; three of our punters correctly called Gotham with all three points, tho no one predicted the score and the notion of Hannah Betfort scoring was beyond the Thorns fans event horizon.

Still, the points for our players, while thicker on the ground that for the Thorns players, were pretty lean; Pastabake and Daniel Stratton shared top honors by getting the result and one scorer (Allie Long, unfortunately) correct. SincFan reaped the “fun” points for the superheroic tale of Kelli Hubly, Barbie Girl.

Note that I added a point to SincFan and Pastabake for splitting the “fun” points from Kansas City (not that there was much fun to be had…) and will proceed to do that going forward if no one picks up a winning vote tally

Torneo de Clausura:

I’ll repost this before the next league match in August; this is to update scores, and also to act as an open thread for the next month or so.

Any strong feelings about the club, or the league? Any sort of ideas about the World Cup?

My overwhelming sense is one of growing frustration that not only is there no visible progress on the sale of the Thorns, but there is no reporting or, well…anything…about the sale.

We don’t have the slightest idea where the negotiations are, or even if there still ARE negotiations. We’ve heard nothing from the Strong group – assuming that group is still the primary bidder – regarding their intentions if and when the sale goes through.

I’m hearing a lot of talk about how the deal needs to happen for the club to move forward, and, while I agree that it’s hard to see the lack of aggressive preparation for the World Cup-affected matches as anything but stemming something between “tangentially” to “largely” from the owner’s lack of engagement, it’s impossible to tell based on what we know now whether the new owners will be a vast improvement, a minor uptick, same-old/same-old, or even clumsier and less soccer-wise that the Old Gang.

Obviously, I WANT the sale to move the club forward. I’d like to see a plan to keep the Thorns in contention for Shield and Championship over the next five and ten years.

But will it?

Right now, I argue that we haven’t the slightest idea.

Could the New Era be worse that the Paulson Era? Sure! For all that he may be a thin-skinned rich prick, Paulson invested a lot of time and money in the Thorns. As owners go – and let’s not forget that includes the management of clubs like Chicago and Salt Lake – he was a “good owner”. His personal dickatude doesn’t change that.

At this point all we can do is wait and hope…and we have little or no idea what we’re waiting and hoping for. We know what we want to be done with. We don’t know what we’re gonna get, and in the immortal words of John Travolta; could be peaches, could be meatloaf.

So.

Thoughts?

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John Lawes

Soccer-obsessive. Stats geek. Thorns supporter. Former Slide Rule Pass and Stumptown Footy Thorns beat writer. One of those people who's "often mistaken but never wrong"...

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