The Thorns have started on their 2026 campaign for NWSL silverware; the squad reported for training this week.
With one exception; the new permanent head coach.
Presumably Sarah Lowdon will run the practices until the new hire is announced, but RAJ Sports hasn’t made any sort of move to identify her (or anyone else) as interim manager, so I’m also presuming that the plan is to have someone in place prior to either the regular season (when it begins in March), or possibly before the preseason games (in February).
Whether that’s a realistic presumption? I have no idea.
I’m kind of intrigued by the state of the roster, and how, like the tale of the elephant and the blind men, it seems to look very different depending on how you look at it and what you believe when you do.
Stumptown’s Sam Sivlar just posted something about how this is a critical year for both Portland professional soccer clubs, the Thorns because:
1. “This Thorns roster is championship-caliber”, and
2. It’s likely the final year we’ll see Sophia Wilson in Thorns…well, whatever color we’ll see her in (I’m hoping not fucking Doritos orange; 2025 was Year Two for that atrocity, and typically Thorns kits have a two-year lifespan. We’ll see.)
I won’t disagree on Wilson, but as far as his Point #1 goes…wellllll…
Let’s take a look at this “championship-caliber” roster, shall we?
As of tonight the Thorns website lists the following players as signed for 2026. Players with the tag (SEI) were out with injury at the end of 2025, players with (R) are college players signed this offseason:
Forwards: Sophia Wilson. Caiya Hanks (SEI), Deyna Castellanos, Maddie Pedelski (R), Pietra Tordin, Morgan Weaver (SEI), Mimi Alidou, Julie Dufour (SEI), Reilyn Turner, Alexa Spaanstra, Valerie Loboa
Midfielders: Olivia Moultrie, Shae Harvey (R), Jessie Fleming
Defenders: Reyna Reyes, Isabella Obaze, Sam Hiatt, Marie Muller (SEI), Jayden Perry, M.A. Vignola, Daiane (LOAN), Mallie McKenzie
Goalkeepers: Bella Bixby, Makenzie Arnold, Morgan Messner
If that’s championship material if may be the most lopsided goddamn champion thing I’ve ever seen.
The one unit I’m not particularly stressed about is the keepers.
I know, I know. The Arnold Haterz Klub is gonna be all up in my grille about that.
But numbers don’t lie. The Thorns keepers in 2025 conceded 29 goals on an post-shot xG against of 34; both values were fourth-best in the league (behind KC, Gotham, and Orlando, not bad company there).
Bixby was a trifle better in her 7 matches (4GA on a PSxGa of 5.6, so +0.37GA/90) than Arnold was in her 19 (25GA from PSxGa of 25.4, so +0.23GA/90) but compare both of them to the best starting keepers in the league:
Lorena (KC, NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year): 13GA, PSxGa 18.2, +0.26GA/90
Ann-Katrin Berger (Gotham): 21GA, PSxGa 20.6, +0.11GA/90
Anna Moorhouse (Orlando): 26GA, PSxGa 27.1, +0.08GA/90
Jane Campbell (Houston): 22Ga, PSxGa 25.8, +0.22GA/90
and the actual 2025 Keeper of the Year?
Claudia Dickey (Seattle): 29GA, PSxGa 39.9, +0.46GA/90
So the keepers are fine.
But forward of that?
I know we’re worried about centerback, but to me it looks like the starting backline is in pretty decent shape…if Marie Muller is fit and if the current centerbacks step up. If so, the Thorns have three solid starting fullbacks (Reyes, Vignola, Muller) and three starting-ish centerbacks (Perry, Obaze, Hiatt).
Would I like a better centerback? Yes. I’m not at all convinced by Hiatt, and Perry and Obaze are pretty much replacement-level or a bit better. Daiane and McKenzie are pure depth.
Moving up the pitch, though, the two other units couldn’t be more different.
In midfield we’ve got two excellent – if not “championship-caliber” at least very good starting midfielders, a #10 (Moultrie) and a #8 (or 6/8, Fleming). Harvey is a pure rookie, so who knows?
But only two. That’s it. So call it two starters and a reserve.
Forwards? Christ, they’re all over the place…if a bunch of knees are rehabilitating and if a bunch of people have a better 2026 than they had in 2925.
Wilson, obviously. Turner and Tordin, solid starters. Castellanos was a repeated Gale starter who didn’t really perform well as such, but might be a decent reserve. Alidou and Spaanstra are very much the same; not really starters but not awful as depth. Loboa? Who knows, and Pedelski , no idea.
But if Hanks and Weaver and Dufour are healthy and in form? Who needs midfielders? Fuck it, play a 4-2-4!
Kidding aside, though, the weird distribution of resources; decent keeping and fullbacks and Wilson, but no midfield (and, in particular, no real #6), forwards all over hell but with injury/rehab questions all over the best forwards (and a bunch of somewhere-between-question-marks-and-dead-weight), three not-particularly-dominant centerbacks?
I’m not saying you can’t…but I have no idea how the hell you forge a “championship team” out of that mess.
Fortunately, it’s not my job.
- Notes on the Silly Season: Not So Silly Anymore - January 19, 2026
- Notes on the Silly Season, Part WTF!? - January 8, 2026
- Notes on the Silly Season, Part 2.5 - December 29, 2025
