Well…you could look on the bright side of it as a road point.
Then again…
And again…
Oof.
This was Chicago at Bridgeview, the place where soccer falls in the suburbs but nobody hears or sees it so it never makes a sound. This Formerly-Known-As-The-Red-Stars squad is no longer in a permanent defensive crouch, Lorne Donaldson style, but it’s not particularly good anywhere on the pitch that’s not covered by Ludmila’s shadow.
Chicago – even at home – should be beatable by a well-organized opponent with a solid tactical scheme that can create and finish collective chances and score good team goals.
As the plots above suggest, and the final score emphasizes, Portland was…not that opponent at Bridgeview last weekend.
Olivia Moultrie created something out of nothing in the 11th minute, stonking home a beauty of a free kick to put the Thorns up 0-1.
The Thorns then put together a handful of other decent first-half efforts;
22′ – Reilyn Turner crossed in to Pietra Tordin but Tordin’s blast went waaayyyy over.
28′ – Turner’s nice pass found Coffey, whose weak shot still resulted in a corner, which…
29′ – Turner headed off the crossbar.
33′ – Turner made a strong run at goal but was well defended and tackled for loss.
42′ – Mallie McKenzie’s run found Moultrie open for a shot (tho Alyssa Naeher had no difficulty with it, and McKenzie was wide open for a better angle had Moultrie seen her…).
But Chicago wasn’t done, either.
Ludmila and particularly Jameese Joseph were trouble; Joseph pantsed Jadyn Perry in the 9th minute but shot right at Arnold.
Ludmila skinned Sam Hiatt in the 31st minute but Hiatt made a lung-busting recovery run.
Six minutes later, this:
It starts with Ally Schlegel seeing Joseph and Ludmila running at Portland’s backline. Schlegel doesn’t have the angles, but she’s got Julia Grosso, who’s torched Fleming, and so she hits her. Then Grosso…
…can hit a running Ludmila, who’d smoked McKenzie. Note Hiatt, stranded marking space as Ludmila gets to the ball behind her.
But, again, the Thorns defenders caught up, Arnold came out big, and Hiatt did a fine job of tackling the Brazilian down before she could shoot.
Scary!
Worse, unable to find a second goal, Portland then fell victim to the usual moment of defensive chaos, this time on a Sam Staab throw-in. The ball was played back to Staab; her looping cross found the head of Ally Schlegel as Schlegel out-jumped Perry (who was being tangled up, undercut by her own teammate..).
Schlegel’s header went to Bea Franklin’s feet on Arnold’s doorstep; as you can see, her marker Hiatt was on the wrong side of Franklin, who simply turned and poked the equalizer past Arnold, and it was all square again at 1-1 at the break.
And then the match just sort of came undone after the half.
I honestly have no idea what happened. Neither team looked convincing despite putting up 14 shots (8 from Portland, 6 from Chicago) and six – three each – on frame. The efforts weren’t worse than the first half (Portland’s xG went up – 0.42 to 0.57 even as the quality dropped, post-shot xG going from 0.53 to 0.33) but the overall effect was kind of a mess. Look back up at the momentum plot. Back and forth, neither team sustaining much pressure, neither looking convincing.
Sloppy giveaways, poor communication, choppy, foul-ridden…it was just random and sort of ugly both teams looked clueless and out of ideas and were, ending with a point each and surely feeling dissatisfied with that.
It’s just this sort of thing that kind of drives me nuts about KenBall.
The squad plays a tough, tight, disciplined match against this season’s runaway Shield winners.
It dismantles Seattle like a surgeon.
Then it goes to Chicago and just sort of bumbles about for three quarters of an hour, looking like a bunch of people who had just met in the parking lot half an hour before the second half kickoff.
Aaaarrgh! WTF, Ken? What the fuck do you do in training??!!??
Short Passes
We’ve seen Sofascore’s “momentum” plot. My favorite bit is the complete flatline between the kickoff and Minute 11.
Matches my notes; neither side did a damn thing for the first ten minutes.
It’s already Thursday morning and I got nothing, so we’re going to have to do without Carlisle-sensei’s fine passing charts this week. I’ll throw them on when they go up.
Turnover and over.
Here’s how things are going;
| Opponent – Venue (Result) | Turnovers |
| Kansas City – Away (L) | 38 |
| Angel City – Home (D) | 38 |
| North Carolina – Home (D) | 32 |
| Utah – Away (W) | 25 |
| Seattle – Away (L) | 34 |
| Gotham – Home (W) | 26 |
| Louisville – Home (D) | 16 |
| Orlando – Home (W) | 18 |
| San Diego – Away (D) | 32 |
| Houston – Away (W) | 21 |
| Bay FC – Away (L) | No data |
| Washington – Home (W) | 16 |
| Chicago – Home (W) | 22 |
| Washington – Away (L) | 27 |
| Seattle – Home (W) | 20 |
| Carolina – Away (D) | 26 |
| Kansas City – Home (L) | 35 |
| Utah – Home (L) | 26 |
| Louisville – Away (W) | 28 |
| Chicago – Away (D) | 27 |
From not-great (10 in the first half to Chicago’s 7) to appalling (17 to 13) after the break.
McKenzie turned over a shocking seven-and-a-half times. Nobody else was even close; Arnold with three poor goal kicks or punts, Reyes and Perry three losses each.
The most questionable turnover was an Arnold 71st minute goal kick that went directly into touch, but Chicago did nothing with it. Other than that, just contributed to the mess that was this match.
Press!
Sixteenth match tracking the effect of each side’s press. I counted either a 1) turnover (either from a tackle-for-loss or a mishit forced pass), or a 2) forced retreat or drop-pass that killed off a progressive action, as a pressing “win”. If two players were involved in a press each received a half mark (for attempts) and a half credit for successes.
Portland pressed like a (#$%#$!@! through the first half, and with some success. Chicago, less frequently but a bit more successfully when they did.
Then, like the rest of the match, pressing fell off the table after the break.
| Match time | Stars presses (wins)(%) | Thorns presses (wins)(%) |
| 0-15′ | 6(5) (80%) | 14(8) (57.2%) |
| 15-30′ | 7(3) (42.8%) | 13(9) (69.2%) |
| 30-45+3′ | 9(5) (59%) | 22(11) (50%) |
| First half | 22(13) (77.7%) | 49(28) (57.1%) |
| 45-60′ | 2(2) (100%) | 8(6) (75%) |
| 60-75′ | 8(3) (37.5%) | 2(2) (100%) |
| 75-90+6′ | 0 | 8(3) (37.5%) |
| Second half | 10(5) (50%) | 18(11) (61.1%) |
| Match Total | 32(18) (56.2%) | 67(39) (58.2%) |
My thoughts:
1) The Thorns first half press was led by Jessie Fleming (11 of the total of 49, 8 wins) but was followed up by the whole squad; Moultrie (10 presses, 5 wins), Coffey (won all 6), Tordin (won 4 of 5), Dufour (won 3 of 6). Only Reyna Reyes came up short (4 presses, only 1 win)
2) After the break it was Fleming, usually alone, trying to press and usually failing because there were just too many open passes around her. That was part of the whole weird “Fleming goes alone” thing we’ll discuss in the comments.
3) On the other end Reyes lost half of her take-ons (3 of 6) but no one else was really hammered hard. Chicago, what can you say..?
4) Effective pressing seems to have helped Portland put a boot on Chicago’s neck early. Then the concession and the bizarre loss of focus in the second half and…well, what?
Here’s the running tally:
| Match (Result) | Opponent Press (Success) | Thorns Press (Success) |
| Utah Away (W) | 28/12 (42.8%) | 27/15 (55.5%) |
| Seattle Away (L) | 32/23 (71.8%) | 21/15 (71.4%) |
| Gotham Home (W) | 28/20 (71.4%) | 19(15) (78.9%) |
| Louisville Home (D) | 34/25 (73.5%) | 14/8 (57.1%) |
| Orlando Home (W) | 28/17 (60.7%) | 43/24 (55.8%) |
| San Diego Away (D) | 18/18 (100%) | 100/36 (36%) |
| Houston Away (W) | 27/17 (62.9%) | 42/23 (54.7%) |
| Bay FC Away (L) | No data | No data |
| Washington Home (W) | 31(15) (48.3%) | 61(48) (78.6%) |
| Chicago Home (W) | 31(21) (67.7%) | 51(39) (76.4%) |
| Washington Away (L) | 18(17) (94.4%) | 25(12) (48%) |
| Seattle Home (W) | 51(27) (52.8%) | 42(33) (78.5%) |
| Carolina Away (D) | 47(26) (55.3%) | 59(39) (66.1%) |
| Kansas City Home (L) | 43(23) (53.4%) | 50(32) (64%) |
| Utah Home (L) | 44(28) (63.6%) | 64(29) (45.3%) |
| Louisville Away (W) | 54(40) (74%) | 46(30) (62.5%) |
| Chicago Away (D) | 32(18) (56.2%) | 67(39) (58.2%) |
Corner Kicks
Seven, all long. Two before the break, then all the rest.
| Time | Taker | Short/Long? | Result |
| 8′ | Moultrie | Long | Way over the scrum and lost. |
| 29′ | Moultrie | Long (sorta) | Turner got the head to it, but missed, and we’ll talk about that. |
| 49′ | Moultrie | Long (sorta) | Short of goal, cleared. |
| 55′ | Moultrie | Long (sorta) | Same again, cleared over the byline. |
| 55′ | Moultrie | Long | Cleared, recycled, cleared and lost. |
| 63′ | Moultrie | Long (sorta) | Well short of goal, Tordin good attack but headed wide. |
| 77′ | Moultrie | Long (sorta) | Tordin got a head to it again, but cleared and lost. |
Moultrie’s deliveries in this match were consistently so short of the near post that even Lianne Sanderson couldn’t fail to notice. Both Turner and Tordin (on one corner or another) hustled their butts off to get to the ball, and Turner’s 29th minute header was nasty; had the ball been a bit further that might have been the matchwinner. A bit more power on the delivery and something might have come of it.
But as it was, no joy, and that was a problem, along with the usual “Do you even train on these corner-kick things?” questions.
Player Ratings and Comments
Dufour (59′ – +5/-0 : +0/-0 : +5/-0) Well, now we know that Mlle. Dufour doesn’t score every match.
Indeed; with only ten touches, no shots, Dufour was barely involved in this fracas. One of the most irritating aspects of KenBall is how seldom the forwards and attacking midfielders seem to build on each other. There seems like lots of individual runs, lots of freelancing and trying to make something happen by themselves. It’s “Smith Hero-ball” without Smith/Wilson. When it works, it can score goals.
When it doesn’t, it leaves forwards like Dufour wandering about for damn near an hour doing fuck all.
Sugita (31′ – +8/-0) Put in a nice little shift doing all the good Hina-san things, but at the time she came on her club really needed a goal, and Sugita hasn’t been scoring, so I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a good use of the sub if Ken was after the win. Which makes me think he’d already settled for the draw, which is kind of irking.
Tordin (86′ – +2/-2 : +6/-0 : +8/-2) Damn close with the 63rd minute header, and had an earlier header (in the 41st minute) that was the second-best chance of Portland’s evening after Moultrie’s golazo.
While I don’t completely agree (she does too do other good stuff!) Carlisle-sensei did a funny about Tordin that I got too much of a kick out of not to include here:
“I kind of love Pietra Tordin. She’s a throwback to an era when players basically were assigned a position by birthright, and are the spiritual enemies of Total Football. She’s a striker, who only scores goals, holds up play, and creates space for teammates to run under. She’s harkens back to a simpler time of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Abby Wambach. She’s doing it at 5’6 and 21 years old though.”
Spaanstra (4′ – no rating) Unless Tordin was limping, why? I mean…Spaanstra seems like a good person, but she’s not a very effective forward, or a very fierce defender. If you’re trying to nick a late goal she isn’t helping you, and if you’re trying to lock in a road point why not put on Daiane instead? It’s stuff like this that has me scratching my head, Ken.
Turner (+12/-1 : +2/-2 : +14/-3) Terrific effort in the 96th minute came close as dammit to nicking the late winner, plus the most dangerous Thorn through the first half when the team looked more likely to actually take all three. Same issues with KenBall, though; if this club could build team goals Turner (or maybe Tordin, or Dufour, FFS…) could be challenging Esther for the Golden Boot. As it is…
Moultrie (+8/-2 : +5/-2 : +13/-4) Rose for the goal (and, curiously, FBRef hands Livvy another for a 68th minute free kick that I thought was tame and Naeher fielded easily…). Something of a thorn for the corner kicks…wassup with those? I’m firmly in the “Coffey-corner-kick” corner, but Liv is usually at least better than she was at Bridgeview, dropping everything short of the goalmouth. Deadleg? What?
Coffey (+6/-2 : +4/-1 : +10/-3) Chicago did a surprisingly good job of finding holes in Portland’s midfield to exploit. That’s not the usual Sam Coffey sort of match, but, again, this was so scattered and disjointed it’s hard to figure out what Coffey could have done better to have stopped it.
Fleming (86′ – +5/-4 : +2/-0 : +7/-4) I think one of the biggest factors in the second half deconstruction was Jessie Fleming sort of drifting out of the squad. Still working her tail off – she never quits – but instead of working with her teammates Fleming seemed to be off by herself doing whatever she was doing. Without her gluing the midfield together the rest of the Thorns sort of randomly ran around, too.
This, frankly, is when the gaffer calls the player over to the touchline and gets her (or his) head back in the match. That’s the manager’s job.
Alidou (4′ – +4/-0) I really like Mimi Alidou. She’s not a huge, gifted soccer talent. But she’s got a ton of energy, and some good little skills, and never quits, so she makes the most of the talent she has, and that’s pretty terrific.
Reyes (+2/-4 : +3/-2 : +5/-6) Chicago got way more joy out of the Thorns backline than they should have, and Reyes, who’s the “attacking” fullback, was largely pinned in her own half so was unable to contribute going forward. Joseph was a big part of that; she was a real nuisance all game, and mostly to the fullbacks. Reyes and McKenzie largely handled her, but they had their hands full with her to the elimination of anything else.
Perry (+6/-6 : +0/-0 : +6/-6) Caught and skinned several times in the first half, while also making some outstanding defensive stops and covers. The life of a rookie, eh? Settled down after the break.
Obaze (23′ – +0/-0) Had to come off with injury early, and given the Thorns’ defender injury woes, hopefully not serious.
Hiatt (67′ – +3/-3 : +0/-3 : +3/-6) Perhaps the clearest distillation of Sam Hiatt’s issues at Bridgetown came in the 66th minute. Under no pressure Hiatt shanked a “clearance” over the byline to concede an unnecessary corner kick; on that corner she was caught flatfooted as Joseph turned on her and rang a shot off the crossbar that was half a foot high of being the go-ahead goal.
It still worries me that Hiatt seems to have games like that…
McKenzie (+7/-2 : +7/-3 : +14/-5) Huge – as in “match-saving” huge – solo tackle to strip Ludmila in the 56th minute. Wrestled Joseph to a draw, too, not a simple task. Big game from the rook.
Arnold (+1/-0 : +3/-0 : +4/-0) Big saves in the 65th and 91st minutes, and completely unable to do anything on the concession. Still top of the league in goals-prevented.
Coach Ken: I know I keep saying this, but…what the fuck do you do in training?
For a squad with some terrific (and a lot of solid squad) players, this club just seems to lack…somethings. An edge. Ruthlessness. Interplay, understanding, a cohesive sense of identity.
For the “vibey” coach guy, could you, if forced to do it without pictures or video, describe how a Gale Thorns team plays? What’s its style? How does it attack? Defend?
I don’t know, either.
Here’s the thing, though. The club is solidly in playoff position, nestled in the four-way, 30-point, third-through-sixth cluster with Gotham, San Diego, and Seattle. This is not a bad team.
(It’s not Kansas City, but nobody else is, either…)
So the oddball thing about Ken and this club is that it’s hard to justify giving him the boot purely on the merits. It’s ironic, but the “problem” with Gale isn’t by the numbers, it’s the vibes; this team “feels” like it should be…better. More cohesive, more disciplined, more connected, like it should have more of an identity than it has under Ken.
But…does it? Can it?
There’s only one way to find out.
- Thorns FC: Up on blocks - October 1, 2025
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- Thorns FC: Droopy drawers - September 18, 2025
If I had to put Ken Ball into one word, it would be “inconsistency”. Intentional or not, it is the only constant to the Ken style. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a whole new lineup on Saturday. As much as I hated Moultrie on the wing; moving her, sitting Hina and adding Dufur has changed the team dynamic and players need time and coaching to gel. Instead, we will see a whole new lineup and a whole new set of “tactics.” Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but that is Ken Ball for you.
My one word description would be “improvisation”. Or maybe “laxity”. Or, if I could get away with it, “What-the-fuck-do-you-do-in-training-anyway”.
As you said, the team has some excellent players and a bunch of solid players, and I think they have kept the Thorns in the playoff race without much help from the sideline.
I can’t help but suspect that part of Gale’s popularity with the players may be based on not making them do boring drills. IMO it’s after a drill is mastered that further repetition starts to be boring, but also to make it second nature. I just wonder how much he insists on that. It shows in the just-met-in-the-parking lot feeling, which could also be expressed as, “I wonder if someone will be there if I [cross into the middle] [hit it over the top] [slip a through ball] [backheel it], etc.” It may also show in the frustratingly high number of passes behind the receiver or on the defender side. Those passes are often completed, but without the advantage that better placement would have afforded.
Supposedly the reason that Nahas got canned in Cary was just that; too strict, no fun, kind of a jerk about it. I won’t pretend it’s an easy gig; it takes a real mix of intelligence, tact, empathy, sternness…you’ve got to be a good soccer person AND a good people person.
I kinda wonder about the passing, too. One thing that I was curious about is how often KenBall uses the sort of through-ball we see in the screenshots above. The club has, or had, some pretty pacey forwards; Hanks and Weaver before the injuries, Turner, Linnehan. How often did Ken hoick them forward to latch onto that Hina-san or Coffey or Moultrie pass through the backline?
Not super often; this season the Thorns are almost dead average; about 0.65 through-balls per 90 (top numbers are who’d you expect; The Damned and KCC, 1.05/90, bottom are the possession clubs, Orlando 0.5 and Gotham 0.4)
Hmmm.
Well, like I said; we won’t know how much of this is Ken until…we don’t have Ken. And I don’t know when that will be. Maybe if we crash hard out of the playoffs this season..?
There is good news from the past week, Moultre set the record for teens scoring the NWSL! Congrats to her, and its too bad it didn’t hold up against Chicago. Also, Valerin Loboa got her visa and is in Portland, though I wouldn’t expect her to play this weekend. From my perspective I would expect this to finalize the forwards for next year. If the team is able to bring back Wilson we have an abundance of talent up front. If they can’t, it remains a solid group even with Hanks and Weaver coming back from knee injuries.
The big question is the defense, and how Agoos will strengthen that group. I think most of us are of the opinion that another CB will be needed, It would be nice if it was a starting caliber CB, but I guess we will see. The FBs might be in good shape with who we have and who is coming back from injury. And if Mackenzie continues to improve (one of the few young players who has shown marked improvement) it would allow for Mueller to be eased back in after her knee injury.
The wildcard of the team is the midfield. What will the team do there? Better balance is needed, but how will they achieve it?
The team needs to be focused over the last six games. Dropping points is only going to hurt their playoff position (and chances). Lets hope they simply play better, because we know they can.
I frankly thought the Moultrie thing was hilarious. The vibe was all “Oh, yay, you precocious little thing!” and all I could think was “Moultrie’s a five-year veteran! She’s got whiskers longer than McKenzie and half the rest of the squad!!”
It was a very pretty goal, though.
I’m sure your right on Loboa and the CB and all. I’ve always had a difficult time focusing on individual player signings since…I think maybe it was Henry the last time I was wired up over a signing.
And I think it’s because I think of soccer clubs as more how they work as a team. There are definitely huge stars whose gravity warps the pitch around them; people like Marta or Esther or Chawinga or Wilson. And others, less individually impactful whose skills nonetheless have an oversized impact, players like Fleming and Coffey and Sugita and Moultrie do here.
Yet the most critical element seems to be how those players work together, work as a team. We’ve had Wilson & Co. here and won a star…and we’ve had them and won nothing,
That’s why I see the effect of coaching as so critical. It’s the gaffer who pulls all those talents together. She figures out how best they work, how they defend and attack best, then trains them to do those things. Which is why the unpredictability and seeming lack of understanding on the pitch make me question what they do in training, and how much better – or worse, we don’t know! – this group of players, Loboa and all, could be under a different coach and trainer…
Its been a tough season, and I’ve been pretty negative about the coaching for most of it. So I’m trying to focus on some positive information going on. The whole teenage scoring record is nice and all, but it really doesn’t mean very much. Its like the scoring record for players over the age of 35, nice but irrelevant.
I’m hopeful that Loboa provides some sort of spark, because the team needs it. At this point the team isn’t going to start playing more cohesive soccer, so getting some sort of spark would be helpful. Hard to believe that the vibes coach can’t get the team to play with vibes when the playoffs are looking them in the eye.