No more NWSL soccer for over a month? Nooooooo!!! Just international friendlies and regional cups (UEFA, CAF, and OFC in July, CONMEBOL running into early August…). For those of us who hold club >>>>>>>> country it’s a vast footy desert, barefoot-soccer-sunscreen-and-beach-read time…
Whaaa….
For a month and change I’ve got no matches to write up, no soccer to discuss. I watched the USWNT butcher the poor colleens from Eire and…ugh. Trying to analyze that would be like critiquing the techniques of clubbing adorable baby harp seals. Why?
So we’ve got a month to kill.
Is there anything about the Thorns, or about the league, or about the squad, you’d like to discuss?
If so, let me known in the comments! I got nothin’ but time.
One thing I’d like to note here that’s not really “soccer” but does have a bearing on the Thorns…specifically on the owners. It’s in this piece in the Oregonian:
“Less than three weeks before the expected launch of an official brand identity, the franchise, which is supposed to start play in 10 months, is now without its top executive. Multiple sources raised concerns of turbulence with the expansion team getting off the ground, pointing to a lack of connection between ownership and the city of Portland as well as women’s basketball.”
Hmmm. RAJ Sports diving headlong into a sport, a league, and a team, with little or no experience with the sport, the league, or the team? Why does that sound weirdly familiar?
I’ve been steadily resistant to the narrative “The Bhathals don’t care about the Thorns! They just want the WNBA!” and I think this makes the point that the RAJites aren’t exactly killing the WNBA thing, either.
But my concern about these owners is that they appeared to show up here without a competent soccer person. They relied on the former Peregrine hires like Karina LeBlanc and Mike Norris, and look where that got them.
Now I’m starting to wonder…what IS their sports cred? How good are they at this whole “assemble and curate a championship sportsball team” thing?
I dunno, but the news from the hoopsters doesn’t reassure me.
Thoughts?
(And don’t forget – any sort of vacation (read) writing? Example for some deep dives; pressing! Which Thorns are good? Who’s not? Who turns over, who doesn’t? Goals – where do they come from (for example, it seems like the Thorns aren’t good from setpieces. Are they bad, or is this not a good “score-from-setpiece” league?) and how.
Anything you’d like me to do a deep dive into?
In the comments!
- Thorns FC: Vacation, got to get away! - June 27, 2025
- Thorns FC: Good Enough for Government Work - June 25, 2025
- Thorns FC: Impressed - June 18, 2025
