I’ve had a busy week – drilling work down along the Coast – and a full schedule, and I’m not sure how much I can add to our understanding of the 1-1 draw between Portland and Gotham FC last weekend, so I think this post is best kept short and simple.
It looked to me like both coaches were more worried about losing to their opponents’ heavy artillery. Juan Carlos Amorós set the Bats up to stop Pietra Tordin and Sophia Wilson. Robert Vilahamn was more worried about Sam Kerr (and Midge Purse, and Jaedyn Shaw) so the Thorns were back in their 4-2-3-1 (which became a 4-5-1 when defending and…well, we’ll get there) plus his usual “defend and defend and defend and then counter”.
The result?
Yeah, like that.
Portland had no more than a handful of legitimate chances:
15′ – Jessie Fleming intercepted a Gotham pass and went long downfield to Carolyn Calzada. Calzada found Wilson, whose good effort forced Ann-Katrin Bergen to block wide for a corner kick.
28′ – Deyna Castellanos’ corner kick went short to Fleming; her service dimed Sam Hiatt still inside the eighteen. Hiatt’s strong downward header forced Berger into another good save.
70′ – We’ll discuss in the Tordin comment.
90+2‘ – Tordin nicked a loose ball and took off downfield on a “mazy run” (i.e. did some damn fine footwork) before slotting a great ball up to Morgan Weaver. Weaver and Wilson had a pretty little very-pre-2024esque-exchange-of-passes, but Gotham defended well and eventually took the ball back.
Meanwhile Gotham had all the possession imaginable but could do nothing with it. Here’s Carlisle-sensei’s xG map:
Portland took 17 shots, one of which was Wilson’s PK, an xG of 0.76. Meaning that the remaining 16 efforts divided 0.71xG between them. An average 0.04xG per shot? That’s…not really productive.
Gotham? Without Kerr’s 59th minute header, the Bats’ xG per shot is nearly identical.
So both teams set up to defend, and did.
Meaning neither team was set up to have much going forward, and didn’t.
Portland – then sitting third – needed a road win to crawl closer to the top two. That didn’t happen. The single point coupled with Washington, San Diego, and Utah getting points-dispensers over the past weekend means that the Thorns dropped to fifth.
But.
Grinding out a road point against the league leaders is damn good. Gotham was at home, sitting on a seven-point lead, and had themselves ground out a road point in Portland. If ever there was a moment for the leaders to stomp out a statement win it was last Friday, and, largely because of Portland grinding, they couldn’t.
For now? That’ll have to be enough.
Short Passes
Okay. what was Cushing’s whine? “They don’t really move. They sit, wait for the turnover, and give it to a world class #9.”?
Portland 26% possession and 73% completion of 224 passes to Gotham’s 74% and 88% completion of an insane 640 passes?
Fair enough. Beat your ass then and nicked the point now, so what’s the problem? I sure don’t have a problem with that!
Here’s the passing plots, starting with Portland.
Yep. Gonna agree with that 100%.
Gotham:
Gonna agree here, too. But, as noted above; this was kind of a missed opportunity. Gotham could have stomped on Portland’s neck, instilled some real fear, and not only didn’t but couldn’t. The Shaw goal was an absolute freakish one-off, whether shot, cross, shross, whatever. If Macca Arnold had been in anything more awake than in a light doze it should have been a simple catch, and the rest of what the Bats brought was a whole lot of nothing.
Turnover and over.
Here’s how things are going;
| Opponent – Venue (Result) | Turnovers |
| Washington – Away (W) | 26 |
| Seattle – Home (W) | 11 |
| San Diego – Away (L) | 29 |
| Kansas City – Home (W) | 23 |
| North Carolina – Away (D) | 25 |
| Angel City – Away (W) | 22 |
| San Diego – Home (W) | 17 |
| Chicago – Away (W) | 32 |
| Louisville – Away (L) | 25 |
| Angel City – Home (D) | No data |
| Bay FC – Home (W) | 33 |
| Kansas City – Away (L) | 29 |
| Utah – Home (D) | 23 |
| Louisville – Home (W) | 21 |
| Seattle – Away (L) | 33 |
| Denver – Away (L) | 33 |
| Gotham – Home (D) | 23 |
| Utah – Away (L) | 17 |
| Boston – Away (W) | 17 |
| Orlando – Home (W) | 24 |
| Denver – Home (W) | 19 |
| Gotham – Away (D) | 21 |
Kinda meh. 12 giveaways in the first half, 9 in the second, while Gotham went from 11 before the break to only 4 afterward.
Arnold, continuing her “press me and I’ll cry” issues she showed against Denver was the Biggest Loser with four. Nia Nijstad lost three, and several players gave away two.
The scariest was a short Arnold clearing pass that went right to Jordynn Dudley – who was a huge nuisance all match, BTW – to counterattack directly into, luckily, a Jadyn Perry tackle. The loose ball rolled to Kerr, whose shot was, also luckily, wide right. Saved, but more by fortune than hard work.
Press!
Twenty-first match tracking the 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”.
The numbers are grossly skewed by Portland’s 1) lack of possession, couple with the 2) defense-first game plan, and the 3) weird Wilson-up-everyone-else-back way the Thorns press.
So Gotham didn’t need to press and didn’t. Portland tried, sorta – the line of confrontation was deep and the pressing triggers late and slow – but didn’t get much out of it (and didn’t want to – the idea was to grind out the point).
| Match time | Gotham presses (wins)(%) | Thorns presses (wins)(%) |
| 0-45′ | 26(20) (76.9%) | 56(31) (55.3%) |
| 45-90+8′ | 16(14) (87.5%) | 34(18) (52.9%) |
| Match Total | 42(34) (80.9%) | 90(49) (54.4%) |
My thoughts:
1) Kind of what you’d think.
2) Gotham is an excellent defensive team with a correspondingly effective press..
3) Portland isn’t, or at least isn’t quite as good, but got what they needed out of this game, so…
Here’s the running tally:
| Match (Result) | Opponent Press (Success) | Thorns Press (Success) |
| Washington Away (W) | 40(27) (67.5%) | 69(41) (59.4%) |
| Seattle Home (W) | 61(30) (49.1%) | 35(20) (57.1%) |
| San Diego Away (L) | 33(22) (66.6%) | 88(40) (45.4%) |
| Kansas City Home (W) | 26(15) (57.6%) | 43(23) (53.4%) |
| North Carolina Away (D) | 35(22) (62.8%) | 56(26) (46.4%) |
| Angel City Away (W) | 52(37) (71.1%) | 61(32) (52.4%) |
| San Diego Home (W) | 45(71) (63.3%) | 45(80) (56.2%) |
| Chicago Away (W) | 68(34) (50%) | 97(51) (52.2%) |
| Louisville Away (L) | 101(70) (69.5%) | 62(35) (56.4%) |
| Angel City Home (D) | No data | No data |
| Bay FC Home (W) | 59(34) (57.6%) | 59(37) (62.7%) |
| Kansas City Away (L) | 52(29) (55.7%) | 34(20) (58.8%) |
| Utah Home (D) | 99(55) (55.5%) | 60(31) (51.6%) |
| Louisville Home (W) | 55(31) (56.3%) | 28(13) (46.4%) |
| Seattle Away (L) | 67(46) (68.6%) | 66(35) (53.0%) |
| Denver Away (L) | 46(24) (52.1%) | 53(27) (50.9%) |
| Gotham Home (D) | 60(32) (53.3%) | 58(86) (67.4%) |
| Utah Away (L) | 86(61) (70.9%) | 70(38) (54.2%) |
| Boston Away (W) | 84(55) (65.4%) | 83(44) (53%) |
| Orlando Home (w) | 94(57) (60.6%) | 87(55 (63.2%) |
| Denver Home (W) | 87(55) (63.2%) | 60(32) (53.3%) |
| Gotham Away (D) | 42(34) (80.9%) | 90(49) (54.4%) |
Corner Kicks
Three. Two long, one short, all first half.
| Time | Taker | Short/Long? | Result |
| 16′ | Castellanos | Long | To the far edge of the scrum and cleared away. |
| 20′ | Castellanos | Long | Into the scrum, pinged around a couple of times, then cleared. |
| 28′ | Castellanos | Short | To Fleming at the near outside corner of the 18. Fleming sliced a good service onto Hiatt’s head, and Hiatt headed strongly down towards the far post. Berger dove and parried the ball wide (with Perry lurking..!) |
One excellent chance in three setpieces is good, and the short corner looked like a set play, which is even better.
Player Ratings and Comments
Wilson (+4/-2 : +8/-1 : +12/-3) Sank the gimme putt (and against Berger? That’s not really a “gimme” much of the time) and put in the usual hard work against a club that, as we discussed, was set up specifically to stop her. So not bad, but the caveat is that a team that hopes to nick the Shield, or the Star, needs to have more than one bullet in the gun. We kinda don’t, so when you stop Wilson you usually stop the Thorns, and that’s not a great look.
Mind you, this was one where “game state” was a real problem. We’ll get to that.
Tordin (+8/-0 : +8/-1 : +16/-1) My pick for Woman of the Match. Flat out busted ass on both sides of the ball. Now…this..?
That’s a foul. No question. But, frankly, it shouldn’t have taken the combination of Weaver, Tordin, Howell, and fucking VAR to nick that goal. Nice centering pass from Weaver, good aggressive moves by Tordin, sloppy heel-stop from Howell, and a late-but-good-catch from Promise Adebayo-Ige on VAR, but…when your attacking gun gets this level of gang-tackle bludgeoning all match?
…you gotta take what you can get.
What I see as Portland’s two biggest limitations are the squad’s periodic defensive breakdowns…and the lack of multiple weapons in attack. The latter is particularly frustrating because of all the individual talent this roster has going forward. But talent unused is talent wasted, and so far this season, the talent has either been injured or hasn’t been there, or, when it was, hasn’t worked together well. Or, in this match, was caught out by events (see the Weaver comment).
Castellanos (60′ – +3/-4 : +0/-1 : +3/-5) Again, Castellanos is just not really a good fit for this league. Too soft, too slow, just…not good enough. I don’t think she’s “not good” period – in a more technical, less physical league? Maybe. But here, and especially on this squad, where “possession” is a dirty word, her ball skills are wasted.
Hanks (30′ – +4/-1) Ran fast a bit, but…let’s talk about her in the Weaver comment.
Lyles (60′ – +2/-4 : +0/-1 : +2/-5) I got nothin’, and neither did Lyles last Friday. I’d like to like her more; Lyles seems to hustle, but she just doesn’t have any real understanding with Wilson or Tordin or even Castellanos, gawdhelpus, so the sum of the parts is…not really a sum of anything. Sad, but there it is.
Weaver (30′ – +7/-2) So I think the plan in Vilahamn’s mind was “okay, we grind for an hour, wear Gotham down with Tordin and Wilson hammering on the door, then bring on the aggro fast legs on the wings, and crush them in the last half hour..!”
Which might have, indeed, worked well, had Shaw not potted that ridiculous goal and forced the Thorns to chase just as Hanks and Weaver came on. Goals do, indeed, change games, and the Shaw goal changed this game so as to completely nerf the arrival of the two wingers.
Weaver still put in a damn good half hour. But most of that time Portland was more worried about saving the point that pulling ahead, so both she and Hanks ended up scrapping more to keep Gotham down than put their own side up. Too bad; I’d love to see a match where the Wilson-Tordin-Hanks-Weaver Machine is running at full speed against a good side.
But this was not that match.
Nijstad (+3/-2 : +5/-1 : +8/-3) Against Denver it was Nijstad beasting up the midfield and Fleming playing the support-hero role. This one it was the other way around; Nijstad wasn’t awful, but she was in a minor key to…
Fleming (+10/4 : +3/-1 : +13/-5) who was doing damn hard work in midfield. 10 defensive contributions (to Nijstad’s 5), 7 tackles to 1, won 8 of 13 duels on the ground (Nijstad 3 of 6) and was never rounded (“dribbled past”). Fleming was the engine of the midfield press, such as it was. Good match, and hopefully a bright sign of better to come.
Calzada (+6/-2 : +1/-5 : +7/-7) Tough outing; Calzada held her own until Amoros swapped out McCaskill and Freeman for Denise O’Sullivan and Taryn Torres, at which point the poor rook was repeatedly skinned, megged, and otherwise punked. Hung on to the point, though, so it could have been worse. But…well, see the Vignola comment.
Hiatt (+3/-2 : +7/-2 : +10/-4) Hiatt in fifteen seconds; in the 79′ minute Kerr utterly pantsed her, left her lying on the pitch like a used kleenex as Kerr drove to the byline…where Hiatt caught up with Kerr and laid a perfect slide-tackle on some Aussie ass. Go figure.
Perry (+4/-2 : +4/-4 : +8/-6) Kind of similar; some good work (passing, marking and tackling, great defensive play in the 95th minute) mixed with some real awshits (dangerously stripped by Kerr in the 17th minute, some sketchy marking including completely losing track of Shaw and Kerr several times).
That lack of consistency has been an issue with the backline as a group all season. That a very young player might be troubled by those problems is hardly surprising. So that’s why this…
…might help with those issues.
Here’s the thing, though; I think Sauerbrunn is a smart, articulate student of the game. If anyone should be capable of being an effective defensive coach, you’d think ‘Brunn would be that person.
Right this moment we have no idea whether she can, or will.
If the backline and keepers start going for 90+ without significant breakdown problems?
Then we’ll have a clue. Until then, we can hope.
Vignola (+4/-1 : +4/-1 : +8/-5) When Kerr skinned her like a practice cone in the 91st minute I was ready to scream at Vilahamn that M.A. had been looking gassed for the previous ten minutes or so and needed relief…upon which time I realized that one of the problems with this roster is that there really isn’t any relief.
There’s some defensive talent on the bench, like McKenzie, but no really like-for-like outside back to spell Vignola. The reason the FO traded for Vignola is the need for a defensive specialist fullback, someone with better defensive chops than Reyna Reyes. But that still leaves a pretty big drop from Vignola when she’s toasted and the opponent is pounding on the gate.
Here’s what bugs me about the backline; we make mistakes we shouldn’t, that we don’t have to, and that look like the defenders don’t really understand each other.
Here’s an example, starting in the 58th minute. Dudley is dribbling at Vignola, with two Thorns nearby; Tordin closing from behind and inside, while Perry has the deep stop behind Vignola.
Dudley cuts inside, and Shaw, who’s been running up the touchline, gets past Vignola wide. At this point a well-organized defense either swaps marks – Perry (or Tordin) steps up to Dudley and Vignola drops to cover Shaw – or stays with their assignments, and Perry drops to shadow Shaw.
Instead, both Tordin and Vignola bracket Dudley without closing her down, Perry turns inside (why!?!?) leaving Shaw unmarked for the line-breaking pass from Dudley
I used to give Gale all sorts of shit for this sort of “do you people even train together?” thing. Well?
And let’s not even start on stuff like this “Shaw? Shaw!! Oh, shit! Wait…is someone supposed to mark Shaw?”
C’mon, ‘Brunn. Help these poor people out. Goddamn.
Arnold (+1/-1 : +2/-1 : +3/-2) Arnold is fortunate that you can’t get more than a single minus for any particular goof, because her clumsy flop on the Shaw goal was that fucking ugly. I dunno what she was thinking or doing, first lolling off her line (fretting about Kerr lurking near the penalty spot?) and then misjudging the shross and then failing to recover and drop-step to the goalline to turn the ball over her bar. Fucking ugly? There’s no way to describe how fucking ugly.
Fortunately Gotham didn’t have much else. But…that’s the thing about goalkeeping. When you fuck up, everyone sees it. That’s why it’s a hell of a tough gig.
Coach Vilahamn: Got the point on the road. That’s good. Against the top of the table. That’s even better.
Again, I think there was a plan that was shot completely to hell by the freakish concession. Had his keeper not derped, and the Three Horsewomen of the Thornpocalypse run at Gotham for a full half hour, full gas, no fear?
We might be talking about a whole different tale.
But she did, they didn’t, and here we are.
This coming Sunday our gang and their Swedish chef have a chance to do some cooking. Washington is coming to town only two points clear, so a win jumps Portland over the Spirit.
But…while San Diego has a potentially tough meeting with Seattle at the Clink, Utah – like the Wave sitting one point ahead of Portland – gets the dire Boston Legacy in Salt Lake. The b
The best case is obviously a Portland win and San Diego/Utah losses; that puts the Thorns up to second ahead of Washington-San Diego-Utah in that order. But how realistic is the Swans coming up huge in Utah?
Sometimes all you can do is play hard and hope for a miracle.
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* Loved your “Hiatt in 15 seconds.” Perfect!
* I can’t tell yet about Lyles, who is so so green. She shows flashes of quality, and I don’t know enough about soccer development to divine whether this will turn into a torrent or stay a trickle.
* It looked to me, based on both her positioning and her reaction when the ball floated into the air, that Arnold was preparing herself for a cross from Shaw to Kerr. It’s that “watch Sam Kerr at all times” thing, which is not at all a bad principle. Shaw said later it was a cross , though I have my doubts – the bend on the ball was all wrong for a cross, and I wonder if Shaw was just trolling us all. In any case, Arnold needs to be ready *at all times* for a shot, and wasn’t.
* Why aren’t we seeing Reyna Reyes? Although she’s not speedy, she’s one of the best defensive defenders we have; her side tends to stay pretty locked down, and you rarely see her get beat off the dribble. I thought for sure she’d play in this game. Is Vilahamn punishing her for her comments after the team meeting? If so that’s awfully petty, and pettiness doesn’t strike me as a Vilahamn characteristic. He would just sit down and talk it out with her. So what’s up?
– The complaint in that meeting WAS that our backline was changing formation too much, and since then we’ve seen a lot of the same Calzada-Hiatt-Perry-Vignola backline starting (with Obaze for Hiatt a bit). It’s good that we’re being more consistent, but to me choosing Calzada over Reyes is a real head-scratcher of a choice. Maaaaybe you want Calzada when the opposing winger is really speedy, but then you get the O’Sullivan-and-Torres type of punking you mentioned. Reyes would not have been beaten like that.
– As kielbj noted on STF, after the Spirit game this Sunday we have a relatively easy run-in, featuring bottom-half-of-the-table teams and a bunch of home games. “Easy” never actually applies in the NWSL, excepting maybe one team (Chicago this year), so maybe “easier than earlier in the season” would be a better way to describe it. Here’s hoping we can beat the Spirit and get on a roll.
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P.S. “Jayden” Perry. Purely to make your life hard, this league has Jaelin, Jayden, Jaedyn, Jordyn, Jordynn, Jordan, and Jorelyn. And, not long ago, Jaydn.
Going into this game, I felt that getting 4 points would be important for the Thorns. I have no problem with the team tying the Bats in this game. While it felt like the team was just holding on, the few forays into Gotham’s side of the pitch felt dangerous. There is nothing like a dangerous opponent to bring out the best in a team.
Like many fans, I’m perplexed by the usage of Calzada over Reyes, because I’m just not seeing the performance from Calzada the past few games. If she is supposed to bring better defense to the squad, what I’m seeing is a player too slow to keep up with fast wings (which they all are fast). And it isn’t like she is staying back more, because I see her overlapping with the RW (Mueller and Lyles) all the time. She must be really good in practice, because it just doesn’t make sense to me.
Getting Hanks or Turner back into the starting lineup can’t happen soon enough. Your picture of 4 Gotham players around Wilson exemplifies the offensive problem the team has. You have Wilson and (I assume) Tordin up there, and nobody else is in sight. I know that Wilson has world-class speed, but that just shouldn’t happen.
Lets hope Providence Park provides the spark against the Spirit, because this one is important. The Thorns have to keep up with the other top teams, because its going to be rough to go on the road and win a playoff game.