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. […]

Meets Minimum Standards

(In which the Thorns are held in check, but return the favor. Postseason looms) The Thorns made the long trip to Florida and came home with a point and a record-breaking clean sheet. With the home semi-final locked up, the objectives for this match were different than normal. Primary objectives: get the defense back in […]

Entering the Home Stretch

(in which we have a brief recap of the Thorns’ glorious successes to start September) Since my match report is late, I decided to try a different format this time. Borrowing from others, here are my highlights by the numbers in no particular order. 2 – Crucial wins against the soft part of the remaining […]