Thorns’ Midterm Grades

Last post asked a question of the readership; what should we do to while away the lonely, barren days of midsummer without Thorns soccer?

Player midterm grades! was the most common response. So.

I thought about doing a long post in the “Jamie from H.R.” style, but I took a couple of stabs at it and just couldn’t work up the give-a-fuck. Because, frankly, the current roster can be broken down into three main groups:

The Good Students: That’s the people who are doing well this season, and we know it to the point of “beyond controversy”: Wilson, Weaver, Coffey, Sugita, Reyes, Turner, Tordin, Perry, both the keepers, Hanks, and Moultrie.

There’s no real point in taking these players’ 2025 apart to break down the mechanics of “why or why not:. They’re doing well, or were before they got hurt, or as well as they can given KenBall (I’m mostly looking at Olivia Moultrie here…) and we all know why; they’re good (or great) players.

Sorry, Ken, love ya’, man, but you ain’t the guy who takes an average player and your system makes them great.

Or good.

The Squad Players: Peyton Linnehan, mostly. I’d also include two players we’ve seen a bit, Alexa Spaanstra (163 minutes over 8 matches including a start) and Mallie McKenzie (402 minutes in 11 games, 3 starts).

I include Spaanstra and McKenzie because so far as I can tell their “roles” on the squad are just “generic forward/defender”. They aren’t played in any particular game state; McKenzie isn’t Gale’s “hold-a-slim-lead-with-rocklike-defending” back, Spaanstra doesn’t give you tons of forechecking or late-game scoring heroics. They don’t do, or are, anything particularly special or unique or distinctive.

They’re perfectly serviceable squad players like hundreds of others, but if they were swapped out tonight for…well, anyone, would we even notice?

Hey! Everyone needs squad players!

But we don’t need to use up bandwidth discussing them.

The “Do I Even Know Your Name” Students: Players we just haven’t seen, or seen enough, or just don’t really have a reason to go in depth. This includes Hirst (3 matches, 39 minutes), Daiane (1 match, 7 minutes), Messner, Kelley, and Boeckman (never played a minute).

Oh, and two players have already been waived, Wade-Katoa and Linnehan.

That leaves a group of players worth discussing, because their play and roles to date are neither hands-down good, obviously rotten, boringly meh, or completely “WTF knows”: two attackers (Mimi Alidou, Deyna Castellanos), one midfielder (Jessie Fleming), and three backs (Kaitlyn Torpey, Sam Hiatt, Isabella Obaze).

So that’s who we’re going to look at, working from back to front.

The backs include two centerbacks (Hiatt, Obaze) and a fullback (Torpey). Let’s work from the outside in.

Kaitlyn Torpey

2025 Stats:
Matches Played: 10
Matches Started: 10
Minutes Played: 772 (Full 90 three times, 65-85′ six times, pulled at halftime (Seattle away) once)

2025 PMRs:
Kansas City (Away) 3-1L : “(+0/-3 : +0/-1 : +0/-4) Before we consign the newest Thorns Matilda to the dustbin of soccer history let’s recall Reyes’ disastrous debut match and her subsequent rise. Yes, Torpey was rough as a cob, but better and more experienced fullbacks have been run over by the Chawinga Express. Let’s see how, and whether, she recovers.”

Angel City (Home) 1-1D: (80′ – +4/-6 : +0/-3 : +4/-9) Hot mess. I’m okay with her replacement(s) not being Marie Muller; few players are. But this poor goof? I’ve been unimpressed with many of the recent Matildas, and Torpey’s season so far hasn’t changed that.

North Carolina (Home) 0-0D: (+5/-5 : +4/-1 : +9/-6) Last week I was ready to give up on the Matilda. This time? Enh…not terrific, not awful. Brings a lot going forward, but makes a lot of defensive errors, which since she’s a back is kind of a problem. But better than the first two games, so let’s see how she shapes.

Utah (Away) 0-1W: (64′ – +5/-2 : +3/-3: +8/-5) The Matilda seems determined to become This Year’s Hubly; decent defending for long periods then a colossal, horrifying derp.

Torpey’s were in the second half, first at 46′, when she was loafing somewhere in Zion Bank as St. Georges took off through her space, and then in the 61st minute when she stepped up to Double Bird to tackle and was utterly undressed, giving St. Georges a free run at goal.

Torpey does some nice work going forward, so there’s that, and so far the impact of her derps has been more psychological that physical, but, still…ugh.

Seattle (Away) 1-0L: (45′ – +3/-4) I’m not sure if Ken is telling her to tuck inside, or she’s doing it on her own. Either way, she lacks the pace to cover that open space out to the touchline, so she gets torched. I’m not ready to give up – quite – but she’s not had a truly solid match yet, so the clock should be ticking.

McKenzie (45′ – +3/-2) The problem is that Torpey’s replacement isn’t all that, either. The loss of Marie Muller is a real problem this organization hasn’t solved.

Louisville (Home) 3-3D: (83′ – +2/-2 : +1/-0 : +3/-2) The Thorns backline didn’t cover themselves with glory last Sunday, so it’s hard to slather on the praise, but Torpey wasn’t bad, and that’s good. Largely kept Sonis and Ary Borges in check, so, okay.

Torpey missed the Gotham win (before Louisville) and Orlando (right after) and the next game in San Diego before returning to the squad in Houston.

Houston (Away) 4-1W: (+5/-2 : +1/-1 : +6/-3) I’m still kind of nervous about the Other Australian, but in general Torps defended well, and her tackle for gain started the 26th minute attack that produced Tordin’s Shimmy Goal, so, nice! Keep this going!

Then it was my turn; I missed her performance in the away loss at Bay FC.

Washington (Home) 2-0W: (78′ – +7/-0 : +7/-4 : +14/-4) I now think of the Australian as “Abell’s Rival”, like those high school manga where the cute girl is the deadly enemy of the smart girl or something. Every time her name appears in the XI our friend ABell4 goes utterly postal about how Torpey suuuuucks. And I admit, Torps has played some real stinkers. But not last weekend. Marking, tacking, positioning,passing..? Oi! Oi! Oi! Well played, sheila!

Chicago (Home) 1-0W: (75′ – +4/-2 : +0/-0 : +4/-2) I noted at the time that Chicago hadn’t generated enough attack to provide any sort of test to assess the backline, and so all the numbers were pretty low.

Based on her PMRs Torpey’s season looks like this:

That’s…not bad. Steady improvement over the season…and, remember, the MD 13 Chicago number (+2) reflects Chicago more than Torpey…

How does Torps stack up against the rest of the league?

Here’s her FBRef “Scouting Report”:

That is pretty bad. The only real positive stat is her passing percentage, nearly 9 of 10 completed, but the raw passing numbers are pretty low – below the 40th percentile league-wide – so that’s not as significant as it could be.

How does Torpey compare directly to her peers? Let’s look at her numbers versus Emily Sams, Casey Krueger. Gabby Carle, and Kayla Sharples.

Passing:

Defending:

In possession:

Not…great. Dead last of the five in her tackling success, next to last in take-on and progressive dribbling distance.

So the numbers alone suggest that Torpey is a marginal starter; in most game states she’s purely a reserve…but my thought is that her PMRs suggest that she’s improving, and that her metrics may be dragged by early season problems that she’s outgrowing.

The club simply doesn’t have a better option now, but when Marie Muller comes of the DL, well…

Grade: C- (as a starter) C+ (as a reserve).

Sam Hiatt

2025 Stats:
Matches Played: 10
Matches Started: 10
Minutes Played: 900 (Full 90 ten times)

2025 PMRs:
Angel City (Home) 1-1D: (+8/-2 : +0/-1 : +8/-1) The turnover section made it sound like I was picking on Hiatt. I’m not. She was the best of the backs against ACFC; her terrific recovery run and crushing tackle on Thompson’s 45th minute run closed down a truly horrifyingly dangerous half-chance only to be repeated less than a minute later. The second half numbers really reflect ACFC drifting out of the match rather than anything problematic in Haitt’s part.

North Carolina (Home) 0-0D: (+0/-3 : +1/-2 : +1/-4) A very Hublyesque mixture of decent centerback play punctuated with horrific derps, both awful short clearances in the second half plus the failure to track Shaw in the 31st minute that ended up forcing Arnold to dive and punch a Shaw shot around her post. Not Hiatt’s best work.

Utah (Away) 0-1W: (+3/-1 : +2/-2 : +5/-4) The Bad Girl of the Backline, Hiatt always seems to be either on her ass or in your face, which is not ideal for a supposedly-rock-solid centerback. I was hopeful that the downratings I read from her work in Seattle and Gotham were exaggerated, but now I’m not so sure. She still makes terrific plays like the 57th minute run and tackle, but her fundamental defending often looks iffy and her passing can be, as it was in the 9th minute, downright horrifying.

Seattle (Away) 1-0L: (+1/-1 : +2/-2 : +3/-3) One of these minuses was the 86th minute post, where Hiatt was 1) ballwatching as AMC drifted in and 2) keeping AMC onside. That turned out not to be a problem because Seattle already had all the goals they needed, but…

So far I’m not really satisfied with Hiatt, either. The defensive issues aren’t largely individual, but the individual defenders aren’t killing it, either.

Hiatt didn’t play in the Gotham win here (this was part of the “Wow, who IS this Perry kid, anyway!?” run…) or the Louisville away draw.

Orlando (Home) 1-0W: (+4/-2 : +4/-2 : +8/-4) Perry’s progress has made Hiatt my “back I worry about”, though, and she did have some issues; caught lollygagging on the Banda run in the 11th minute, and was doing something (texting? ballwatching?) when Marta blew her doors off in the 28th minute.

But in general? Solid and, like her unit, kept Orlando in front of them and largely in check.

San Diego (Away) 1-1D: (+1/-0 : +1/-0 : +2/-0) Like all the Portland defenders, barely tested.

Houston (Away) 1-4W: (+3/-2 : +5/-1 : +8/-3) Same as above; solid 89 minutes with the occasional brainfart. If she and her backline can clean those up? This team could challenge for the star. Can they?

Washington (Home) 2-0W: (+9/-2 : +6/-0 : +15/-2) So my “rival” is Sam Hiatt; she scares me sometimes with the way she has positively Hublyesque brainfarts; missing marks, poorly timed tackles, lack of understanding of her teammates.

But like Torpey, there was none of that last weekend. Just rock-solid defending and excellent passing – best passing on the squad both in total numbers and completion accuracy. Terrific work.

Chicago (Home) 1-0W: (+5/-1 : +1/-1 : +6/-2) As with Torpey; Chicago spent the whole match in a defensive crouch, so Hiatt was barely tested. Did fine when called on.

Here’s Hiatt’s PMR plot:

Kind of like Torpey’s with the rising trendline, but without the utterly dire performances on Matchdays 1-3 to pull the low end down.

Here’s Hiatt’s FBRef Scouting Report:

Couple of things stand out:
1) Hiatt is the “stay-home” centerback; note how few progressive carries compared to the progressive passes.
2) She’s also a “positional” defender; makes more blocks and clearances than tackles or interceptions. Strong in the air.

How does she compare to a peer group? Passing:

Defending:

Possession:

Fairly average passing, both in raw numbers and completion. Not a strong tackler, and fairly meh taking opponents on – low numbers (0.2/Gm) as well a indifferent success (half the time). In possession Hiatt is sort of just there; doesn’t get lots of touches, or try to get past opponents (tho she succeeds a lot when she does.

That’s very Hiatt; she’s been a squad player everywhere she’s gone, and she’s one here.

Everyone needs squad players!

But…the problem is that at the moment she’s also as close to the “Sauerbrunn Replacement” – the veteran backline leader – as we have. And she’s…not ‘Brunn. Even in her last seasons Sauerbrunn was what she was; a highly skilled international and student of the game. She was skilled enough that she could use her field vision to help manage the backline…

(That was the theory, anyway. I’m not sure I ever really saw that in practice; I never saw more organization in back when ‘Brunn was there or less when she wasn’t. I don’t doubt that she was a leader and mentor in practice. But on matchday? I dunno…)

…in ways that Hiatt just doesn’t show. She’s not a boat anchor. But the backline could use a truly outstanding centerback, and that’s not Hiatt, either.

Grade: C.

Isabella Obaze

2025 Stats:
Matches Played: 9
Matches Started: 9
Minutes Played: 748 (Full 90 six times, 80+ twice, pulled at halftime once)

2025 PMRs:
Kansas City (Away), 3-1L: (+1/-3 : +1/-1 : +2/-4) On the other hand…Obaze has seen this Vlatko Show before. To get skinned by Chawinga is not in itself a shame, but to be exposed repeatedly suggests naivety or hardheadedness.

Whiffed on a chance to clear away the cross that Debinha converted, tho it was a desperation play so somewhat pardonable, but still not a good outing for her or the backline in general.

Angel City (Home) 1-1D: (+1/-1 : +5/-1 : +6/-2) Fine in general with no big errors, and “steady” is kind of centerback 101.

North Carolina (Home) 0-0D: (+4/-3 : +2/-0 : +6/-3) On the other hand (or foot…) Obaze’s block of the Betfort post pays for a lot of awshits. Which she didn’t have, really. Solid match.

Obaze missed Utah away (Perry got her first start) and Seattle away (Perry again) before returning to the pitch for Gotham here:

Gotham (Home) 4-1W: (84′ – +1/-0 : +3/-2: +3/-3) Hmmm. Hard to tell; the Thorns backline did well as a unit, but of the group Obaze looked the least convincing. Not going to downrate her for one game, but has me looking hard at her, because…

Daiane (6′ – +4/-0) …her replacement looked very skilled. Admittedly short minutes and at a point when Gotham was on fire and sinking, but…I’d like to see more.

The next match Obaze was back in, but this time for Hiatt alongside Perry instead of being swapped out for Perry…

Louisville (Home) 3-3D: (+3/-1 : +2/-1 : +5/-2) See the Torpey comment as well as the “turnover” section for a critical headed clearance; okay on a rough afternoon.

Then against Orlando here Ken mix n’ matched his backline again; Hiatt and Perry were the CBs and Obaze had to move outside:

Orlando (Home) 1-0W: (89′ – +6/-1 : +1/-0 : +7/-1) As discussed, with Hiatt helped put a muzzle on Banda and Marta and kept them controlled most of the game. I wondered which centerback had “drawn the short fullback straw” before kickoff, but Obaze performed like she’d been running the touchline her whole life. Well done.

Repeated her role as RB at San Diego for the next match, but was yanked at halftime to get Caiya Hanks on.

San Diego (Away) 1-1D: (45′ – +0/-1) Gave Morroni a bit too much space (that’s the minus) but otherwise decent. Given the lack of Wave attack, not really a factor in the match.

Obaze then missed almost a month, returning for the Washington match here:

Washington (Home) 2-0W: (+4/-0 : +4/-2 : +8/-2) Not quite up in the same rarefied altitude as Hiatt or Reyes, but good enough and well-integrated in the overall excellent backline play.

Chicago (Home) 1-0W: (+1/-2 : +5/-0 : +6/-2) Same note as Reyes (i.e. Chicago sucked so hard that they didn’t really provide enough measure to rate the backline); good enough.

How’s that look over the season?

Wow. “Peaks and Valleys” much? Of the three defenders we’ve looked at Obaze:
1) has “improved” much less over the season – from a mean of +1 to +4 compared to Torpey (-4 to +6) and Hiatt (0 to +7), and
2) tends to play decently well when she plays well, and moderately poorly when she doesn’t. Lots of ups and downs, but no huge ups or downs.

That’s “steady” which is kind of what you want in your centerbacks.

How does she look against her peers? Well..

What’s more interesting is to compare this to her CB partners:

Look where the green is.

Perry and Obaze are the “attacking” centerbacks (assists, take-ons, shot-creating actions). Hiatt is the “defending deep” (blocks, clearances, aerial duels) version.

Here’s her comps. Passing:

Defending:

Possession:

Not much to choose from there. Like the other two Thorns we’ve looked at, the sort of middling numbers you’d expect from a squad player.

Obaze does have the advantage of flexibility; she can play fullback and has done well there. Other than that, kind of same-same as Torpey and Hiatt; not really a star player, not anything special, but solid regular starting play or front-bench reserve.

Grade: C+ (half a grade for versatility…)

Here’s the thing, though.

These “squad players” (as well as better teammates such as Reina Reyes) have been solidly decent this season. Here’s the league xG-to-goal differential chart as of Matchday 13 (h/t to Chris Henderson):

Portland’s 12GA is second in the league behind KC and Orlando, and the xG against (17.64) is sixth, behind KC, San Diego, Gotham, Bay FC, and Orlando – and the last two are within a goal of Portland.

How did we look against actual shots?

About the same; seventh, behind the same five plus Seattle.

Arnold and Bixby between them have made a big difference, saving Portland something like 2 to 5 goals over the first half of the season. But the DMs and backline helped by keeping the shots and shots-on-goal down.

Poor sad sorry Utah…

Defenders Cumulative Grade: C+/B-

So pretty much what you’d think; decent, perfectly serviceable common- or garden-variety defenders. Nothing terrific, nothing awful, but slowly improving over the course of the season so, fine.

If anything, the problem is depth. Right now we have one “very good” fullback (Reyes) and several “just fine” ones (McKenzie, Torpey) as well as a defender who can play acceptably wide (Obaze) but is preferable as a centerback. Once you have to leave Reyes out of the XI, though? Things get iffy pretty quick.

A bit better with centerbacks: it’s Perry, Hiatt, Obaze, and Daiane. If Ken wants to go with a three-centerback set? That’s a bit tight. But there’s depth enough for his preferred 4-3-3/4-2-3-1. What I think we’re missing is a real Girma- or Menges- or Sauerbrunn-grade backline commander. And that’s kind of beyond the scope of this piece.

The Midfield

Jessie Fleming

2025 Stats:
Matches Played: 12
Matches Started: 7
Minutes Played: 666 (Full 90/80+ three times, 60+ four times, subbed on at halftime once, late match sub (13-32mins) four times).

2025 PMRs:
Kansas City (Away), 3-1L: (64′ – +3/-1 : +2/-1 : +5/-2) Fleming wasn’t able to overcome the incoherence of KenBall, but she put in a decent shift aside from appallingly poor shooting, particularly a 35th minute Palmer moonshot. Not bad, just not good enough.

Fleming missed the Angel City home draw but returned for:

North Carolina (Home) 0-0D: (31′ – +7/-0) Solid work in relief (of Castellanos) with the caveat, like Moultrie, she didn’t really put the Damned goal in danger. Tough in possession and on the tackle, smart, effective passes. At the moment looking like the better option than Castellanos.

Utah (Away) 1-0W: (21′ – +4/-0) Decent work, but at a time when the Thorns were on their heels. As discussed, I’d kind of like to see a full match from her. What little we have seen has looked good.

Seattle (Away) 1-0L: (+4/-2 : +4/-3 : +8/-5) Same problem as her teammates; Harvey, like the Cylons, had a plan, Ken didn’t, so Fleming battled both and lost.

Gotham (Home) 4-1W: (63′ – +8/-1 : +3/-1 : +11/-2) I’d really like to see if Fleming can do the facilitating/distributing job better than Castellanos. Fine as the other half of the double pivot, but seems like there’s an attacker inside her that we aren’t seeing now.

Louisville (Home) 3-3D: (74′ – +7/-1 : +3/-2 : +10/-3) Scored the expected penalty but nothing else (xG 0.08 on two other shots), largely because she had to track back a lot. Solid shift that also struggled with the utter shapelessness of Ken’s “attack”.

Orlando (Home) 1-0W: (19′ – +2/-0) Saw out the win working hard. Nothing remarkable, but a good solid working shift.

San Diego (Away) 1-1D: (70′ – +6/-1 : +0/-1 : +6/-1) Disappointing; given the opportunity to exploit the opponent’s handicap Fleming did little to exploit open space or overloads but, instead, virtually disappeared in the second half.

I said I didn’t want to break down Portland pressing, but Fleming was notable for her lack of success. I tracked her attempting 23 presses (15 first half, 8 second). She succeeded 7 times (5 first half, 2 second), so less than a third of the time. Moultrie probably had the second most presses (19) but succeeded 8 times.

Houston (Away) 1-4W: (45′ – +5/-0) Up by three Fleming had little to do going forward, but instead concentrated in helping deny Houston midfield, and did that well.

I missed the Bay FC loss, so her next appearance in TFC is for:

Washington (Home) 2-0W: (+9/-4 : +3/-1 : +12/-5) Definitely up there for WotM; two assists showcasing her skills (one a clever meg, the other a visionary long serve), busy, tough on the tackle, possibly her best match (outside threatening the goal directly) of the season.

Sofascore sure thought so (her 8.6 the highest rating of any player on the field).

Me? Well…let’s keep the discussion going.

Chicago (Home) 1-0W: (88′ – +7/-1 : +6/-2 : +13/-3) Well played overall, yet…lacked something she showed against Washington. Not sure why. Still on a run of extremely effective form, so not really an issue. But I’d love to see her more incisive in the attack.

Based on her PMRs Fleming is the best player in this group:

Her late-match subs are shown with a black box around the data point; note that two of her lowest four numbers are not due as much to performance as just short minutes. Overall, outstanding; no negative net numbers, and a rising trendline that’s pulled down a bit by the defensive half in Houston on Matchday 10.

If Fleming has struggled this season it’s with this;

Her matchlog reads like a fucking dartboard. Here’s where she played and when:
Matchday 1: right mid – started
Matchday 3: center mid – sub in
Matchday 4: center mid – sub in
Matchday 5: center mid – started
Matchday 6: defensive mid – started
Matchday 7: left mid – started
Matchday 8: center mid/forward – sub in
Matchday 9: attacking mid – started
Matchday 10: attacking mid/right wing – sub in
Matchday 11: defensive mid – sub in
Matchday 12: attacking mid – started
Matchday 13: right mid – started

Twelve matches, seven starts, three CM, one CM/FW, two AM, one AM/RW, two DM, two RM, one LM.

It’s a wonder she managed to do anything at all just trying to remember her assignments. That she did, and did well, is pretty terrific.

Here’s Fleming’s comps. Shot and goal creation:

Passing:

Defending:

Possession:

If Fleming has an issue, it’s her lack of scoring threat. She creates goal-scoring opportunities for others, but for herself? No.

She’s also a very attacking-side midfielder. Defending? Nope.

But her passing and progressive runs are just fine. She’s a good weapon to have, but she needs more stability from her manager and from the squad around her. And a Wilson-grade scorer in front wouldn’t hurt…

Overall, though?

Grade: B+ and her missing out on top marks is more because of her boss than on her.

Forwards

We’ve got to the front of the pitch, and our final two players. First…

Deyna Castellanos

2025 Stats:
Matches Played: 12
Matches Started: 8
Minutes Played: 695 (Full 90/80+ four times, 70+ three times, subbed off at 58′ once, four short late-match sub-ins 3-26mins).

2025 PMRs:
Kansas City (Away) 4-1L: (87′ – +2/-1 : +5/-0 : +7/-1) Deyna Castellanos was as close to a bright spot as Portland had. Active, clever, creative, of the slew of forwards on the Portland roster Reina Deyna looked head-and-shoulders better than anyone else in black in Kansas City.

Let’s hope that is a starting point.

Angel City (Home) 1-1D: (73′ – +2/-2 : +1/-2 : +3/-3) Troubling. Despite being played as a sort of AM/false 9 – where she looked dangerous against Kansas City – the reign of Queen Deyna was short. She shot poorly, and contributed no more than a handful of passes to the attack otherwise last Friday.

If Ken is going to start her, Castellanos needs to be better.

North Carolina (Home) 0-0D: (59′ – +1/-4 : +2/-2 : +3/-6) So far the reign of “Queen Deyna” has been a single match, making Lady Jane Grey look like Victoria Regina. Soft as jello, easily dispossessed, and seldom in threatening positions, last Saturday Castellanos looked like all the negative reviews she earned at her last two gigs.

Not sure what happened, but I’m wondering if the formless mass that is GaleBall isn’t getting in her head. Or maybe she just is who her detractors said she was. I hope not. The squad needs her to be better or Ken has to bench her for…

Utah (Away) 0-1W: (84′ – +5/-4 : +4/-1 : +9/-5) Hmmm.

I really want to like Castellanos. When she’s on point, as she was in the goal sequence, she’s got a deft touch and some clever movement. But she’s often – often as in “usually” – not on point. She’s soft as warm butter, gets dispossessed easily, drifts out of matches for long periods and seems to have developed little or no rapport with her teammates. She’s not a threat on goal (no goals in 299 minutes so far, xG 0.4 in four matches).

At this point I’m not sure if Ken wouldn’t be better off moving Moultrie to the #10/false 9 and starting Fleming.

Seattle (Away) 1-0L: (25′ – +6/-2) Better than Sugita, which is kind of both shocking and gratifying after a string of poor outings from Castellanos. But we’ll see if this is really an improvement or just a blip; I’m not really convinced.

Gotham (Home) 4-1W: (+5/-4 : +7/-4 : +12/-8) Hmmm.

So finally got her goal…but. Still not really effective for much of the match. Fades in and out. When she’s good, she’s good…but she’s often not very good. Castellanos is still very easy to shove off the ball and lacks the bite to be an effective center forward.

I’d love to see better from her, but at the moment she still seems to be a curious choice to start at the #9. Seems better at the #10 to the extent Ken plays a #10 (i.e. not much) but we have several players who look as good or better there. Kind of a headscratcher.

Louisville (Home) 3-3D: (74′ – +3/-1 : +3/-4 : +6/-5) I hate to keep hammering on her, but she’s kind of the Poster Child for KenBall right now; flailing in a rudimentary “system” that’s not working and lacks the pure genius of the Wilson/Rodman/Chawinga/Banda sort to break out of it. Even with Wilson Ken couldn’t get the job done. With poor Castellanos instead? Hopeless. It’s becoming painful to watch and must be even more painful to be inside of.

Orlando (Home) 1-0W: (88′ – +4/-2 : +3/-3 : +7/-5) I’d still like to see her 1) control the ball better in tight space; you’re supposed to be a #10, Deyna…”ball control” is kind of what they do, 2) hold onto the ball better (see the “pressing” stats, above), and 3) shoot better. Two shots off target? C’mon. If you’re going to start over players like Fleming or Hanks or Tordin, you need to show something more positive.

In fairness, this was much better from Castellanos that we’ve seen so far, though. So…

San Diego (Away) 1-1D: (79′ – +3/-6 : +3/-1 : +6/-7) Castellanos is a very frustrating player because she shows moments, flashes, of genuine skill and tactical nous, then disappears for long stretches. She makes nifty passes like the lob to Moultrie that earned the red, then throws the ball away like she has no idea where her teammates will be or are going.

Houston (Away) 1-4W: (14′ – +3/-1) Some nice distribution, but didn’t need to do more than help keep the boot on Houston’s neck, did, so, fine. But the difference between her starts and Tordin’s in this one couldn’t be more brutal.

Castellanos and I both missed Bay FC, so no harm no foul…

Washington (Home) 2-0W: (23′ – +3/-0) It’s troublesome that when describing a player’s shift as “not troubled” can be considered a sort of boost to their form. But Castellanos simply hasn’t really done any work to deserve a stronger accolade than that bare “mmmmkay” sort of brush-by. Unfortunate, because I don’t think she’s jakin’ it. But she’s struggled to make an impact this season and still hasn’t.

Chicago (Home) 1-0W: (2′ – no rating) So much for Reina Deyna; two minutes of garbage time? That’s just sad, and an indictment of the process that brought her here.

Castellanos’ work doesn’t look better in graphic form:

The lack of consistency is as bad or worse that the net ratings themselves. Like Fleming, to give Castellanos a bit of benefit-of-the-doubt she was also jacked around the pitch a bit. Here’s her progression:
Matchday 1: center forward – started
Matchday 2: Left mid – stared
Matchday 3: center mid – started
Matchday 4: center forward – started
Matchday 5: center forward -started
Matchday 6: center forward – started
Matchday 7: left wing/forward – started
Matchday 8: left wing – started
Matchday 9: center forward – sub in
Matchday 11: defensive mid – sub in
Matchday 12: attacking mid – sub in

Not as insane as Fleming, but few starts at the #10 that’s supposed to be her best position. Supposedly Castellanos can work as a CF, but she certainly hasn’t here. She completely lacks winger’s skills, but just before she was relegated to the bench Ken started her twice at left wing.

Here’s FBRef on her metrics compared to her NWSL group:

All the red? That’s a problem. Not a scoring threat, not creating goals (assists, pass completions, progressive carries…). Her one strength is passing forward (#10 skills, so…).

The bottom line for Portland is that she was a risk when she was signed, and the risk didn’t pay off. The theory was that she’s been misused by her last two coaches, and that if allowed to play as she had in college and at Atletico Madrid she’d return to productive play. That theory appears to have been wrong.

KenBall makes things a bit harder to assess, but it’s safe to say that definitely hasn’t happened here or yet. As she stands now, Castellanos is a liability to the team.

Grade: F.

I really hate writing that. I don’t think Castellanos is without talent, or is jakin’ it, or is a bad person, or whatever. I think that the right gaffer at the right club might find a way through for her. But, again…as of today? Ken is not the right gaffer and the Thorns are not the right club.

Mimi Alidou

2025 Stats:
Matches Played: 10
Matches Started: 4
Minutes Played: 405 (Full 90/80+ twice, 60-70 twice, subbed in for 20-30 twice, four subs for less than a quarter hour).

2025 PMRs
Utah (Away) 0-1W: (21′ – +3/-2) Had a sitter in the 63rd minute that she headed tamely right into McGlynn’s frantic hands. Other than that not much of note. Good intelligent positioning, rubbish finishing. No way to tell what we have yet. We’ll see.

Seattle (Away) 1-0L: (12′ – +5/-1) Better this week! We’ll see if she grows into minutes if she gets more minutes.

Gotham (Home) 4-1W: (83′ – +6/-0 : +3/-0 : +9/-0) Another player I liked when I saw earlier glimpses, and I liked this full-match outing even more. Nice feel for space (as the goal showed), clever with movement, and good behind the ball, too; four of her nine pluses are defensive.

Louisville (Home) 3-3D: (16′ – +4/-0) Another nice little outing from this newcomer; she’s got a nice sense for open looks and moves to get them. Slick passer, too (86%).

Orlando (Home) 1-0W: (71′ – +8/-0 : +2/-0 : +10/-0) Young Alidou did a lot more good defensive work than attack (five of her pluses are defensive, and FBRef has her with a cumulative xG of 0.14 off one shot). So not a bad shift on the day, but I’m not sure the whole “winger problem” is really solved. Ken still has more forwards than he can play because so many of them are center forwards and so few are true wingers.

I like what she brings, though, so I hope she continues to start to see if she can start bringing more attack.

San Diego (Away) 1-1D: (11′ – +1/-1) Won the individual dual with Morroni, so, yay, Mimi Alidou! Other than that..?

Houston (Away) 1-4W: (+7/-2 : +3/-0 : +10/-2) Tidy assist on the Tordin goal, and otherwise did well to get into space to offer a linkup between the sixes and forwards, though her passing (see the plot above) could have been tidier. Her minuses are for appalling shooting; I’d give her the edge on Moultrie at this position other than that, because though Moultrie hasn’t been all that deadly this season she can be, and opponents have to respect that. Alidou starts putting those one frame, though..?

Washington (Home) 1-0W: (23′ – +4/-1) Good shift to see out the win.

Alidou only played two minutes against Chicago and got no rating.

That’s nice!

Alidou is hard to find comps for; she hasn’t played enough for FBRef to run a “scouting report”, and her comps all have much higher minutes. But I think her play has been enough to consider her a very useful depth piece.

The real question for me is “what is she depth FOR”? In her four starts she’s played ACM (Gotham), right wing (Orlando), attacking mid/right wing (Houston), and center forward/left wing (Bay FC). Here again I think we’re dealing with Gale; he doesn’t seem to have a good sense of what his attacking players are good at, so he tends to mix n’ match them, doing things like putting Moultrie at the wing and Alidou at CF.

Still…Alidou has looked good so far, and seems to be promising for the last half of the season.

Grade: A-/B+ (as a starter), A (as a reserve)

Wrapping up

I think we’re seeing a pattern here in just these six; all the players we’ve looked at have strengths and weaknesses, like all players.

What seems to be the issue – where there are issues – is that they don’t seem to fit into the squad in ways that minimize those weaknesses and maximize those strengths.

And that is a coaching issue.

I’ll be the first to admit; Gale has done better than I thought he would after last season’s late-season collapse. Good wins over Gotham, Orlando, and Washington. Solidly above the red line.

But I think he needs to figure out:
How he wants this team to play, and then
Who he needs to play like that.

And it can’t be “Wilson hero-ball only without Wilson”. He needs to figure out this squad. He needs better wing play and he’s lost Caiya Hanks and Morgan Weaver. He needs another top-flight fullback to pair with Reina Reyes. He needs to figure out his ACM/CF situation.

Does he have the players for a 4-3-3? My guess is yes, but he needs to figure out who his wingers are, and play them, and, no, Olivia Moultrie isn’t one.

So in the end we come back to where we’ve been coming back all season; it’s not the players, it’s the coaching.

Can the club figure out how to deal with that?

We’ll see beginning this coming weekend.