Riveting in France: Group Stage is Complete

The group stage is over and we’re on to the knockout rounds. All the Thorns in France are still playing. The second set of group stage games were mostly dull or infuriating, as most teams played their b-teams. This was partly due to the short turnaround, partly so new players can get a few World […]

Thorns FC: Silk Purce

And, since you probably know the aphorism, here then is the sow’s ear, per Chris Henderson: Yet the Thorns got the road point in Cary, something they haven’t done since the then-Western-New-York-Flash relocated there from Rochester. How the hell did they do that? Well, first, Midge Purce latched onto a ridiculous lofted Celeste Boureille lob, […]

Riveting in France – Group stage round one complete

The first matches in the group stage are now complete. The final match in the sequence was Group F, the USA versus Thailand. We have seen four of the matches in person and watched all but two of the others on local television. Nigeria versus Norway was the first match held in Reims. Norway won […]

Riveting in France: Opening match

The opening match of the 2019 Women’s World Cup was tonight in Paris. France faced South Korea in what turned out to be an entirely one-sided affair. For example, France had 10 corners, 16 shots and 3 goals in the first half – Korean got one corner and nothing else. Former Thorn Amandine Henry assisted […]

Home at Last!

The Thorns finally had a home game, and it was quite the day. The 3-0 win kicked off the introduction of the “Nat-free Thorns” to the home faithful in high style. But the fun started before the first whistle. Hammered Rivets The stadium update is pretty impressive. Aside from the obvious new stand, there were […]

Thorns FC: Let’s Score Some Goals!

“Everything is great! Let’s score some goals!” ~ Mark Parsons, about 3:15pm, 6/2/19 Did the Portland Thorns dominate the visiting Chicago Red Stars last Sunday afternoon? Leo Baudhuin of Stumptown Footy certainly saw that; Thorns dominate Red Stars in home opener was the headline of the STF match report. At the NWSL website Jacquiline Purdy […]

Stats break: keep away

or: who you gonna believe? me, or your lyin’ eyes? You all probably know that I’m kind of a stats geek. And, yes, I am; I think that we can learn a lot from breaking down individual and team metrics. I like fooling with numbers. Damn, I really AM a sad sort of stats geek. […]

Thorns FC: Zzzzzzzz

The good thing about playing bad teams is that you beat them. The bad thing about playing bad teams is that it’s often difficult to figure out what to make of that. Sure, if you thrash Sky Blue FC 5-nil you’ve pretty much made the statement “We’re waaaaay better than Sky Blue FC”. Mind you, […]

Thorns FC: Protect the precious

The funnest part of the Thorns’ 3-1 loss to the Washington Spirit came at roughly 56:24 in the Yahoo! Sports stream. It wasn’t actually part of the matchplay, but, rather, during a weather delay when the Yahoo! crew dove for cover but left the microphone open. At that time we learned that we weren’t playing […]

Thorns FC: Winning Ugly

It was one ugly ass road win. It was an ugly opponent; Orlando, this season’s Sky Blue. And boy, howdy, were they ugly. Defensively porous ugly. Offensively impotent ugly. Hacky, cheap-shot-foul-y ugly. It was an ugly game. Sloppy; 63% passing, Thorns? 59% passing, Orlando? Ugly. Dirty; twenty-six fouls and only twenty-seven shots? Yep. That’s ugly. […]