Thorns FC: The Wrath of Marta

You know how critical of the inhabitants of the Thorns’ technical box I’ve been since 2024.

“What the fuck do you do in training, Ken?!?” has been the theme around here since halfway through this season…and has been on my mind for much longer.

So I think you can trust me to be unsparing of the gaffer if I thought he was the primary culprit for the dispiriting 1-0 road loss in Orlando last weekend.

And don’t get me wrong; in Rio de Orlando (or do their fans call it “Orlando de Janeiro” now? Whatever, “just like watching Brazil”, okay, got it…) Coach Gale was still part of the problem; he doesn’t have a particularly clever tactical vision, so his squad still suffered from the usual KenBall issues in the dog-mouth heat – slow pace, predictable patterns, lack of coordination and understanding.

In the attacking third the “plan” appeared to be to push Alexa Spaanstra and Reilyn Turner wide and use Pietra Tordin in her more natural role as a holdup center-forward. But beyond that? It was a sort of freelancing chaos.

Again, FBRef records not a single Thorns through-ball, so nobody was trying to run in behind (which matches my notes; no, nobody was running off shoulders, or overlaps, or underlaps). No cross-field passes to switch fields, either (though I had a few of those in my notes).

Lots of dink-dink-boot, lots of run-to-the-corner-and-cross-it-in, sure, but without a target forward? That wasn’t going to produce much. Not much in the way of passing networks, or clever little one-twos in front of goal outside of a decent little buildup in the 14th minute that came to nothing because Jessie Fleming danced over the ball too long…

(That’s where my head always reverberates with my former teammate, dour angry Scot that he was, roaring at one of our forwards “Put a boot thru it, wumman! It’s no yer ba’! Y’did’no pey fer it!”)

…and that the resulting chance was Portland’s best of the evening (xG 0.19, post-shot xG 0.69) says more about the other chances than it does the attempt itself.

No, what looked to me to be the most dangerous Portland opportunities were two individual efforts; a Turner shoss in the 16th minute (which looked like a cross but truly was a shot, Turner trying to chip Anna Moorhouse into the far corner, but which Moorhouse got enough of a hand on to push off the crossbar and back out) and a 51st minute steal-and-run-at-goal by M.A. Vignola that ended in a combination of good Orlando recovery defense and an awful Vignola moonshot.

So…kinda same as the Bay FC match preceding it; a sort of tactical muddle (in this case, almost) redeemed by individual heroics.

And on the other end?

More of the same things we’ve seen. Individual brain-farts and occasional squad-level lapses that allowed Orlando (whose attack hasn’t been the sparkiest of things lately) to pass through the Thorns defense as they did here in the 34th minute.

It begins with a pass to Ally Lemos up the right touchline:

Lemos uses the wide space that KenBall gives you to take the ball deep into the Thorns’ left side defense, then slots a through-ball to Lizbeth Ovalle headed for the near side of the eighteen.

There’s a lot of Doritos orange marking space here, but at least two – Izzy Obaze and Reyna Reyes – are ball-side goal-side of their marks.

Daiane is stranded and Vignola is desperately steaming to get back on her mark, so Ovalle gets nearly to the touchline before…

…threading the cross through the top of the six. You’ll note that while Obaze is still touch-tight on her mark Haley McCutcheon has made a bit of space for herself wide of Reyes. Enough so that when the ball arrives…

…it requires a truly desperate lunge by Reyes to get a toe to the ball before McCutcheon does.

But Reyes does get that touch, Macca Arnold falls on the loose ball, and the Thorns have kept their sheet clean…for the moment.

But the Thorns defense was juggling live grenades all evening.

The linesman’s flag bailed out Portland…
In the 4th minute, when Ovalle put in a dangerous cross; the shot was blocked after the flag had gone up, and
In the 8th minute, when Ally Watt blew through the centerbacks, rounded Arnold and scored, and
In the 45th minute, when Orlando passed through the Portland defense again, but Watt was offside (again) on Carson Pickett’s good cross.

Or the squad was bailed out by last-second defensive heroics like Reyes’ above, and:
In the 83rd minute; Simone Jackson (who was a dangerous pest as a sub – I see why Emma Hayes is looking at her) made a power run; Jayden Perry did well to body her up and rush her shot, and
Four minutes later Marta set up another Orlando substitute, Simone Charley, for a sitter but Perry, again, laid a body on her. Charley’s penalty shout went unheeded.

Plus there were the Orlando misses; the second- and third-best Pride xG chances were Watt’s 4th minute shot (0.11) and a Charley header in the 70th minute ().10) that were both well off target.

The best Orlando chance of the night? Charley from her run in the 87th/88th minute (0.39) we’ve already mentioned.

This match, as much as any I’ve seen this year, pointed out how barren the Portland roster cupboard is. Because late in the game, with the points looking likely to be split, Gale swapped out Vignola for Mallie McKenzie and Tordin for Mimi Alidou while Seb Hines brought on…

…the living face of “Fuck no, you’re not going to win today.”

Hines had power in reserve.

Gale had…Deyna Castellanos.

Was it a “well-managed match” from Gale? No. Not really. All the same “WTF do you do in training” things. All the same issues we’ve seen. No, Turner isn’t a winger. No, the midfield isn’t as good without Sugita. No, the backline still switches off now and then.

But Ken did manage to keep the scoreline close. The xG race…

…is nearly identical.

The match was almost even (which, given Orlando’s recent form, isn’t exactly a compliment, mind you) and it took a freakish accident of miscommunication, poor judgement, and bad luck, to hand Orlando all the points.

So I’m inclined to give Ken…not so much a pass, but a “C” for effort here. He worked with what he had, and what he had…

…didn’t include an angry Marta.

There’s no shame in that. There’s only one of those.

But there weren’t any points, either, and that’s the problem

Short Passes

OPTA pretty neutral on the issue of passing; 78-79% completion between the two. We’ll break that down further, though.

Here’s Sofascore’s “momentum” plot:

Back and forth, as you’d suspect, though the progression – more green, less blue – as the match goes on just reinforces the message “you’ve got impact subs, we don’t” that we discussed above..

Here’s Carlisle-sensei with the passing. Portland:

On the other hand, I “get” the Linnehan deal in the larger sense; when Hanks and Morgan are healthy in 2026, there’s no room for Linnehan.

But this isn’t “the larger sense”; this is 2025, and the Thorns are trying to win now, and Linnehan would help with that, so…goddamnit.

Anyway, here’s Orlando

That’s HinesBall – organized, thought-out – compared to the vibe-laden vibeyness of KenBall.

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
San Diego – Home (D)	28
Gotham – Away (L)	30
Bay FC – Home (W)	34
Orlando – Away (L)	30

Sloppy. Fifteen in each half, while Orlando was half again better; 16 total, 8 in each half

This one was all fullbacks; Reyes with 7 turnovers, Vignola with four. Coffey and Perry had three each, nobody else with more than two.

Several were awful. Reyes passed to Watt in the 4th minute and, as we’ve mentioned, were helped out by the linesman. Vignola was tackled for loss on the doorstep in the 24th minute to begin an Orlando attack that needed a poor off-target shot to deny an early concession. In the 40th minute Arnold passed directly to McCutcheon inside her own 18-yard box, but Vignola crashed the Orlando buildup and nicked the ball back.

Press!

Twentieth 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.

Both sides pressed hard, and both had some success; not much in terms of challenge-winning percentage, but the xG plot gives you an idea how each team’s press helped disrupt the others’ attack.

Match time	Pride presses (wins)(%)	Thorns presses (wins)(%)
0-15′	10(4) (40%)	18(10) (55.5%)
15-30′	31(19) (61.2%)	18(11) (61.1%)
30-45+3′	18(11) (61.1%)	16(8) (50%)
First half	59(34) (57.6%)	52(29) (55.7%)
45-60′	15(13) (86.6%)	14(7) (50%)
60-75′	9(5) (55.5%)	13(6) (46.1%)
75-90+9′	12(11) (91.6%)	6(3) (50%)
Second half	36(29) (80.5%)	33(16) (48.5%)
Match Total	95(63) (66.3%)	85(45) (52.9%)

My thoughts:
1) About the same from both sides. One of the most significant impacts was ball-winning; we’ll see some here and more when we discuss possession.
2) The defensive pressing was pretty distributed, though with the usual suspects in the lead; Moultrie (19 presses, 7 wins, 1 ball-winning gain), Coffey (11 presses, 8 wins, 3 gains), and Fleming (11 presses, 4 wins, 1 gain). Tordin (9 presses, 4 wins) and Turner (7 presses, 3 wins, 1 gain) were forechecking. The backs were busy, too; Vignola (5 presses, 4 wins, 3 gains), tho the biggest press monster was Obaze (8 presses, 7 wins, 6 gains!).
3) On the receiving end? Turner got hammered (12 presses, 8 losses, 7 turnovers!). Moultrie received a lot of attention (14 presses) but succeeded much more often (6 wins, 3 turnovers). Reyes was badly handled (12 presses, 9 losses, 3 turnovers) as was Fleming (10 presses, 8 losses, 2 turnovers). Vignola lost 7 of her 8 presses, but only turned over once.
4) The best of the Thorns at evading the press was Obaze (5 presses, 4 wins, no turnovers).
5) Both teams pressed high and hard, both presses helped derail the opponents’ (admittedly tepid) attacks. Had the result been the scoreless draw it looked like being for 90+ minutes I’d have called it a fair result.
6) But. Alas.

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%)
San Diego Home (D)	27(17) (62.9%)	87(61) (70.1%)
Gotham Away (L)	66(48) (72.7%)	101(43) (42.5%)
Bay FC Home (W)	45(35) (77.7%)	137(84) (61.3%)
Orlando Away (L)	95(63) (66.3%)	85(45) (52.9%)

Nine-tenths of the Law

For the second match in a row I tracked the Thorns possessions; what they did with the ball whilst they had it, and what happened to it at the end. Specifically I tracked passes by type, length, and location (attacking third or otherwise).

Because no one scored (or, really, had a huge match-changing scoring opportunity) during regulation time I simply broke the bookkeeping down into the two halves. So:

First Half

in the first 45-plus-injury-time minutes the Thorns had a total of 43 possessions.
8 (18.6%) ended in some sort of “attack” or entry into Orlando’s final third.
11 (25.6%) were lost to good defending such as tackles for loss or intercepted passes.
24 (55.8%) were ended by Thorns turnovers.
1 (2.3%) was ruled offside, so a combination of defensive discipline and poor attacking timing

During these possessions the Thorns made a total of 259 passes.
103 (39.8%) were “forward” passes (which included diagonal passes, either out wide or inside) of which 52 (20.1%) were in the Orlando defensive third. .
16 (6.2%) were long cross or switching-fields passes, and
17 (6.6%) were long lobs or deep long passes.

2nd Half

42 possessions in 54-odd minutes.
9 (14.3%) attacks or entries into Orlando’s defensive third,
14 (33.3%) lost to tackles, interceptions, or other defensive actions,
19 (45.2%) lost to turnovers, and
2 ended for “other reasons” – one by an injury/drop ball, the other by the final whistles.

A total of 172 passes during this period.
61 (35.5%) were “forward” passes; 15 (8.7%) were in the attacking third.
9 (5.2%) were long cross-/switch-field passes, and
18 (10.5%) were long lobs.

Match Totals:

Total possessions: 85
Attacking possessions: 17 (20%)
Possessions lost to defensive actions: 25 (29.4)
Possessions lost to turnovers: 43 (50.5%)

Total passes: 431
Forward/diagonal passes: 164 (38%)
“Attacking” passes (in the Orlando defensive third): 67 (15.5)
Cross-field passes: 25 (5.8%)
Long passes: 35 (8.1%)

Becoming-irritating-stat: As noted above, FBRef again recorded not a single Thorns “through-ball”. The closest I came to seeing anything like one was a Moultrie effort in the 75th minute that was well defended and went out for a goal kick.

Corner Kicks

Five, all long, but two low “line drive” kicks. Three first half, two second.

Time	Taker	Short/Long?	Result
10′	Moultrie	Long/Line Drive	Cleared directly to Daiane; her shot was blocked but Portland recycled for another corner.
11′	Moultrie	Long	Cleared out to Spaanstra, whose poor shot was blocked, but the clearance went to Moultrie. Her shot was also blocked, and after a long recycle Reyes overcooked a pass that went out for a goal kick
43′	Moultrie	Long/Line Drive	…to Daiane for yet another blocked shot. Recycled but eventually turned over.
56′	Moultrie	Long	Onto Turner’s head. Good effort but right to Moorhouse.
80′	Moultrie	Long	Cleared out to Obaze, who was forced back until an injury stopped play.

Several chances, including a good effort from Turner. Still, I’d love to see a bit more creativity in these beyond “just huck it into the mixer”.

Player Ratings and Comments

Tordin (63′ – +3/-0 : +1/-0 : +4/-0) One of the biggest problems with, and one of the most frustrating aspects of, KenBall is the lack of any sort of visible design to provide service to the forwards.

Tordin is a classic, almost old-school “holdup” forward. She plays with her back to goal as often as not, and can provide drop-balls and knock-backs for a #10 to attack, or for wingers to turn inside to, or for aggressive fullbacks to work with.

But only if the ball can get to her with space to work. And the Thorns’ “system” means that either the ball arrives when the defender does – meaning often a smother, or tackle for loss, or a forced recycle – or it comes in from the wing as a cross, and that’s not something Tordin can really rise to; she’s not a Wambach target sort of player.

So here’s this active, clever forward who could be much more dangerous…but isn’t, because the tactical setup doesn’t really work with her skillset. That’s kind of KenBall all over, and that has cost points, as it did here.

Alidou (27′ – +1/-0) I’m trying to stay positive about her, but this is another in a string of anonymous appearances that are making a case for Alidou’s lack of top-tier skills. I still like her attitude, but that doesn’t matter if she can’t impact games.

Spaanstra (63′ – +3/-2 : +0/-0 : +3/-2) Another hard-working player who simply doesn’t work here, and while I’m not convinced that she has NWSL-quality skills, either, might be a better fit elsewhere. Certainly not a winger, where she’s most often used, but no obvious center-forward chops, either. Another argument for “the problem is as much the roster depth as everything else”.

Castellanos (27′ – +2/-0) As is Castellanos; looking more like a bust every match, and had some genuinely decent moments in this one; her 65th minute header was well-struck, and she provided some good cross-field service. But still doesn’t have a fit in the tactical scheme, such as it is, so those nice little moments don’t add up consistently.

Fleming (+3/-1 : +5/-1 : +8/-2) Another of what I’m starting to think of as “Fleming outings”; hard work, good ideas, lots of pressing and clever play, but overall? Not integrating with her teammates in an attacking flow, so still sort of “on an island”; all that good soccer doesn’t seem to add up to a dangerous squad.

That in turn forces a look at the tactician, and, well…

Moultrie (+7/-1 : +2/-1 : +9/-2) Orlando keyed on her – unsurprising after her last match! – and kept Moultrie largely harnessed until she drifted out of the match, a former Livvy thing I’d hoped we’d seen the last of.

Turner (90+ – +8/-1 : +5/-1 : +13/-2) Came damn close to opening the scoring with that 16th minute shot/shoss, and was a tough problem for Orlando all night despite their good work in back. Which is a pretty big tribute to her, because Turner is no more a winger than Spaanstra or Tordin (or Moultrie, for that matter). Good game on a tough night.

Harbert (? – no rating) Why, even?

Coffey (+8/-1 : +2/-0 : +10/-1) All the usual good work.

One problem with trading away Hina Sugita, other than the whole “Hina-san-is-made-of-awesome” thing, is that it exposes how much hard grinding she did alongside Sam Coffey. Without her? Coffey gets pinned back – seven of her ten pluses are defensive – and that all winds into the “where’s the service” thing we discussed in Tordin’s comment.

Vignola (72′ – +6/-1 : +3/-1 : +9/-2) I miss Hina-san, but I can’t deny I like her trade piece; MA Vignola is a smart, tough defender with a keen eye for opportunities upfield. That doesn’t make me happier about the trade overall, but I’m pretty pleased with Vignola so far.

Mind you, the backline as a whole still has their moments of derpitude, so if Vignola or someone (hey, Ken, how ’bout you?) can keep them on task all match? That’d help a lot.

McKenzie (18′ – +2/-1) I didn’t give her a minus for this:

But it’s already a meme, so you gotta kind of shake your head. Between “pissing Marta TF off” and “scoring a match-losing own goal”, that’s kind of an epic fail, all in under 20 minutes. Daaaamn.

Daiane (45′ – +4/-2) Spent much of her half looking for a hockey game; this woman can hit. Couple of nice defensive plays, couple of sketchy moments, more or less showed why she’s a reserve; not a bad shift overall but…

Perry (45′ – +7/-1) …that’s why Perry is ahead of her on the CB chart. Couple of huge defensive plays we’ve mentioned. Good shift.

Obaze (+6/-1 : +3/-0 : +9/-1) Solid good work.

Reyes (+3/-1 : +2/-0 : +5/-1) Longtime Stumptown commentor kielbj asked last match about the Thorns’ wide players tendency to turn back inside or check back to the ball rather than play forward. I was curious to see who was doing that most often in Orlando, and it was a mixture of everyone up front; Spaanstra the most-often, but Tordin and Turner, too, had to drop to get service.

But coming up from the back? Reyes. Our Number 2 tended to retreat and drop-pass more often than anyone else on the squad, including her opposite numbers Vignola and McKenzie. It’s a Reyes thing, and I’m not sure if it’s truly her or it’s Ken directing her. Either way, it’s part of the whole “slow, predictable” ball movement this squad shows.

Arnold (+0/-1 : +4/-2 : +4/-3) Fatal miscommunication on the own-goal. Either Arnold stays on her line, or she calls her teammates off and claims that ball. I’m not sure she could have saved it had she stayed put; here’s the goal-cam angle:

It would have required a perfect kung-fu kick. But the way she did play the ball left her no chance.

Which is too bad, because Arnold had some huge moments in the match; terrific kick-save in the 61st minute, huge claim in the 78th.

I know I’ve said this a lot, but that’s Arnold all over; generally solid keeper who, when she goofs, makes the “big” visible mistakes that get her haters going. It doesn’t negate her value otherwise, but it does make it difficult to insist on that when her downraters can point to them.

Coach Ken: I almost felt sorry for Gale after this one.

He still can’t figure out a way to score without heroball. But he came damn close to grinding out the road point only…bam. The whole “you got no bench” door slammed him right in the face.

But then…who’s business is that?

If Gale needs someone or something else, isn’t it his job to get GM Agoos and the owners to find that person or those people? When you have to give up a Sugita to get a Vignola that’s not really moving the roster forward; it’s a lateral move if anything.

So while I don’t think this one was on Ken, I think that the overall issues that it is a part of are at least partially on Ken.

And now it’s on Ken – since the roster door is closed – to figure out a way to close out the final two matchdays in ways that keep his club from slipping another two places down the table and out of the postseason picture.

We’ll see in another day or so how well he’s planned for that.