Thorns FC: The Midfield (now with 100% more Dagny!)

Per the Thorns Richard Farley it’s now official; Thorns FC has resigned Dagny Brynjarsdottir. While this in itself is good news, given how gutted the Thorns midfield is likely to be at midsummer, with three (and, possibly, four) midfielders – including 2018’s top three scorers – gone for the World Cup, what’s really interesting to […]

THORNS FC: THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

The Defense So far, we’ve looked at Thorns FC at forward and midfield. In both cases the prospects for 2019 are like that old story about the Chinese symbol for “future” being made from two characters, one meaning “danger” and the other “opportunity”. The opportunity is always there. The danger? The loss of so many […]

Thorns FC: The Midfield

Last week we looked at Thorns FC’s striking corps. This week we look at who we have in the center of the pitch. Thorns FC has a total of six midfielders under contract this January; Tobin Heath, Andressinha, Lindsey Horan, Midge Purce, Celeste Boureille, and Angela Salem. Although still rostered as a forward, Christine Sinclair […]

Thorns FC: what the heck is a pmr?

Although I didn’t get any feedback in the comments section from the last post, I did get some questions about this “PMR” system thing over at the Riveting! Facebook page. Since you’ll be seeing this stuff again when the season starts, I thought I’d take a moment to explain it. The whole magilla was invented […]

Thorns FC: Lets talk about Forwards

This is the first of a series of posts discussing the 2019 Thorns by examining the 2018 Thorns. I did this over at my old joint at Stumptown Footy after last season, too, as part of assessing the 2017 squad. Thorns FC has six forwards rostered as of January 17, 2018: Caitlin Foord, Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic, […]

Thorns FC: Draft Day

A Brief Introduction This is the first piece of what I hope will be a regular column here at Riveting!; “Thorns FC”, my personal take on the Portland club that I have followed, supported, thought, and written about since Opening Day in 2013. I started working with Kevin Alexander over at the Slide Rule Pass […]

Fairytale Come True

(in which the Thorns win the NWSL Championship and Portland pees itself a little) The NWSL Final was played in the land of sanitized fairytales. The original stories included dark themes of villainy, maimings, and worse. But then a hero emerged and everything wrapped up with a happy ending. How appropriate for this match. The […]

Thoughts on the Season

By Janet Potter Wow, there have been so many moments -from the CAPO’s stand to the players – how could one moment be more important than another? I am proud to be a Riveter, proud to be the Mom/Gram/Auntie/or whatever title – proud to be allowed to have my freedom to do whatever I want […]

Bye Orlando! Oh, Hi Orlando!

(in which the Thorns dispatch the Pride at home and now are going to the Final in Orlando) The Thorns beat the Orlando Pride 4-1 at Providence Park to earn a berth in the NWSL Final. One more win, this time versus the North Carolina Courage, and the Thorns will be the league’s second team […]

Nothing to Get Too Excited About

(in which the Thorns handily win a friendly and get an unlikely next opponent) The Thorns hosted the Chicago Red Stars on Saturday for the season finale. The game was decidedly tilted in Portland’s favor even more than the 3-1 score indicated. But since Chicago wasn’t really trying, the win has a somewhat hollow feel. […]