All set. The Thorns are ready to debut on Saturday!

It’s been a long pre-season as usual but the wait is almost over. Only a couple of days separate us from the Thorns’ 12th season in the NWSL.

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The roster has gone through a lot of changes, especially in the backline. Nicole Obaze, Nicole Payne and Marie Müller, the three of them playing overseas, have been added to the squad, along with Jessie Fleming in the midfield and some of the rookies harvested in the latest draft.

Knowing this, what is the team’s biggest strength and their biggest weakness?

The midfield, a thing of marvel

It is safe to say that the addition of Sam Coffey to Portland’s midfield in 2022 has helped the team to reach a new level. Since her rookie season, the New York native has shown she is a different kind of player, with a high soccer IQ. No wonder she was named among the finalists for the MVP award last season.

But Coffey is not the only one who excelled in the midfield in 2023. Japanese international Hina Sugita has become instrumental for the Thorns. Her sneaky runs and moves in the midfield have added a new layer to the team that was nonexistent before. Her energy is unmatchable and is hard to imagine a functioning midfield without her presence.

What about Olivia Moultrie? The youngest in the team has grown a lot since her debut with Portland but that growth has been more noticeable in 2023. Out of all the midfielders, only Coffey played more games than the youngster last year (Coffey 23, Moultrie 22) and her performances at a club level helped her to get her first call to the the senior national team in 2024. What is more, she got to score her first international goal last February being only 18 years old. Only time will tell but all indicates that her future is bright.

The qualities of these three midfielders are reflected in their stats. Sam Coffey played the most minutes. What is more, she doubled the time played by the other two (Coffey 2,080; Sugita 1,372; Moultrie 1,205).

In the scoring department, it was Hina the one with the most goals (6) and although Coffey couldn’t put any ball in the back of the net, she made a significant number of assists: 8. Actually, she was the thorn with the most assists in 2023 not only on the team but in the league!

Coffey also excelled in key passes (33) and was the best out of the three in crossing accuracy (43.8) followed by Moultrie (33.3). In terms of distribution, the three show similar results, around 70%. However, Sugita proved to be the most sneaky regarding dribbles with 22 followed by Moultrie with 17.

What about The Canadian?

Following the departure of midfielder Rocky Rodríguez, Portland signed Chelsea midfielder Jessie Fleming. The Canadian played a key role in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics helping Canada to win the historic first gold medal for her country.

Since then many more clubs kept an eye on her and wanted to sign her. Thank goodness, she decided to go to Portland. Sure, the fact that the Thorns are Portlanada surely helps but the midfield already described also had to do with Fleming’s decision.

When we look at her time in Chelsea, we can she was being underutilized when compared to other midfielders, having started only four times. For sure, the London club is stacked which left little to no playing minutes for Fleming. 

Despite this, the Canadian was among the best distributors on Chelsea both on their side of the field and the opponent’s as we can see in the following table.

We also gather from that data that Fleming is not the best dribbler. True, it’s important for a player to beat her opponent in a 1v1 but if she can send a precise pass to the feet of her teammates before she has to engage in a duel, then that will be more than enough. And that’s what the midfielder does.

The defense, our biggest weakness?

If there’s a part of the team that received hit after hit last season and offseason, that was Portland’s Department of Defense.

The middle of June hit with the news about Becky Sauerbrunn missing the World Cup due to injury which of course also meant she wasn’t going to be available for Portland. That left the defense unbalanced, with coach Mike Norris testing and switching between centrebacks to see who could complement Emily Menges the better. Kelli Hubly was the answer most of the time.

Then Portland’s no.1, goalkeeper Bella Bixby announced her pregnancy last January and shook the Thorns’ world. Related to the keeper’s unit, long-time coach Nadine Angerer announced she was leaving the club. 

Not only that, but the biggest shock happened when Emily Menges also announced her departure. One more news bomb was dropped when free agent Finnish international Natalia Kuikka was announced as the new Chicago Red Stars signee. 

All those departures left huge holes in the Thorns’ defense line. However, even during last season, Portland wasn’t the sharpest there. General Manager Karina LeBlanc referred to that this week in the press conference preview to the start of the season.

The Thorns finished second in the table in 2023 with 42 goals scored and a fourth of those goals were tallied by Sophia Smith. Of course, she ended up as the league’s top goalscorer and was chosen as the Golden Boot. The results from last season were indeed a team effort but we cannot help but ask ourselves what would’ve happened if Smith wouldn’t have been on fire last year.

We say that because of the point stated earlier about defense not being on point in 2023. As much as the team scored, they let lots of goals go in. Actually, Portland was the third team with most goals against with 32 right behind KC Current (36) and Chicago (50).

Regarding that, LeBlanc said that is the reason behind why the club signed so many defenders this offseason. That’s how Marie Müller, Isabella Obaze, and Nicole Payne got into the picture. The three have international experience having played in Europe which adds something valuable to the team for sure.

Nonetheless, just signing a bunch of defenders just because the team didn’t do well in that department last year won’t fix things magically. The huge hole Menges’ departure left in the backline will be hard to fill and the most promising out of the Thorns’ three new defenders is Müller and she doesn’t play as a centreback. As a matter of fact, her natural position with SC Freiburg was left back.

In the case of Obaze, she struggled against top teams in the Champions League while in the case of Payne, she barely played for PSG in all the months she spent in France. We don’t say this to discourage fans regarding the signing of these players but as carefully optimistic as everyone is regarding the new owners, it would be smart to adopt the same attitude when it comes to the new players. That’ll help to be patient regarding performances.

We also mentioned Bixby getting pregnant. Who’s gonna be the starter goalkeeper this year? Well, the obvious answer is Shelby Hogan but coach Norris can still surprise us. Nonetheless, Hogan is the only one who has been tested in the NWSL while Lauren Kozal hasn’t debuted professionally yet and Kat Asman will undergo her rookie season this year.

Both defense and midfield have things to be excited about this season. Can Mike Norris take the Thorns to a whole new level this season? And how long will it take him to gel this roster?

We’re about to find out.

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