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The elephant in North Carolina

The elephant in North Carolina

When the rumors began that the reigning NWSL champion Western New York Flash would be moved from Rochester and rebranded in a new city, a fair number of us assumed the team would land on the west coast, perhaps in Los Angeles or Vancouver. Nope. North Carolina. It was a bitter pill to swallow for so many reasons. The Western New York club had survived three iterations of women’s professional…

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The elephant in North Carolina

The elephant in North Carolina

When the rumors began that the reigning NWSL champion Western New York Flash would be moved from Rochester and rebranded in a new city, a fair number of us assumed the team would land on the west coast, perhaps in Los Angeles or Vancouver. Nope. North Carolina. It was a bitter pill to swallow for so many reasons. The Western New York club had survived three iterations of women’s professional…

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Thorns FC: Draft

The 2017 draft is now eight days away. What does Thorns FC need, and who should they be targeting? (more…)

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Thorns FC: Into the New Year

Thorns FC: Into the New Year

I hope you come back and visit here in about three weeks, when I’ll be discussing the January 2017 NWSL draft.  Not that Thorns FC looks set to make news there: first pick fourth in the second round and 14th overall.  No first round picks, one more second rounder (19th), one third (27th) and dead last (40th). But. Given the wild dealing last season?  Who knows?  Merritt and Gavin may have devised…

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Thorns FC (and more...): Random Thoughts and the Subsidizening

Thorns FC (and more…): Random Thoughts and the Subsidizening

Now that we’ve booted the roster ball around the Thorns’ pitch there’s not much more to talk about professional women’s soccer this year, but I thought I’d wander about playing a bit of wee heidies with some of the tag-ends of the season as well as possibilities for next year. Of course, the NCAA playoffs are still going on (and down to the Final Eight starting today).  A handful of surprises;…

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Thorns FC: Talking Thorns - the backline and keepers

Thorns FC: Talking Thorns – the backline and keepers

So far we’ve looked at Thorns FC at forward and midfield, and what we’ve seen has looked good.  But while scoring and passing and cute juggling tricks are all fun to watch, and, yes, you often hear it said that “if you don’t score you can’t win”… …but the other side of that aphorism is that if you don’t concede you can’t lose, and many championship teams win championships through tough defending…

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Thorns FC: Talking Thorns - The Midfield

Thorns FC: Talking Thorns – The Midfield

Last week we looked at Thorns FC’s striking corps.  This week we take a look at what we have in the center of the pitch, and speculate on what might happen in the off- and upcoming season. On the morning of November 7 Thorns FC has a total of seven midfielders under contract.  The real question in my mind would be “which of these midfielders do what?”, so let’s look at them grouped into their…

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What's behind the curtain.

What’s behind the curtain.

It’s been a rough year on a lot of fronts. The soccer was sometimes okay, but sometimes not okay, and both the Timbers and the Thorns fell short of the results we wanted from them. For me, it went beyond the on-field stuff. After over a year of writing less and less, and editing more and more, and becoming increasingly disconnected from what made it all fun for me in the first place, I found…

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Thorns FC: Talking Thorns - the forwards

Thorns FC: Talking Thorns – the forwards

This is the first of a series of posts wherein I want to talk, and think, about the 2017 Thorns and, to do that, examine the 2016 Thorns.  And I want to begin by looking at the first line of attack; the forwards. Thorns FC has four forwards rostered as of November 1: Christine Sinclair, Nadia Nadim, Hayley Raso, and Mallory Weber (more…)

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Six Degrees: Not With A Bang, But A Whimper

@cidemann gets ready for next year. Six Degrees: Not With A Bang, But A Whimper

In the course of five days, the Portland Timbers were knocked out of the Champions League, knocked out of the MLS playoffs, and managed to lose a seemingly unloseable Cascadia Cup. In a year full of bad weeks, I think this week probably qualifies as the worst. (more…)

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CCL: Booted Out

I’m stepping on C.I.’s toes a bit here, but before this weekend’s critical match in Our House in the Middle of B.C. I wanted to post a brief note about the Wednesday night 1-1 home draw to Saprissa C.D. that knocked the Timbers out of the CONCACAF Champion’s League. I can’t add much to William Conwell’s report at the Stumptown link above.  Yes, it was a brutal hackfest.  We think we have it bad…

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Six Degrees: Ugly Wins Are Still Worth Three Points

Here's @cidemann's latest. Six Degrees: Ugly Wins Are Still Worth Three Points

It seems silly to talk about a Colorado game as being ugly. I mean, of course it was ugly. It’s Colorado. That’s what they do. (more…)

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Thorns FC: The postseason begins...

Thorns FC: The postseason begins…

…with the retirement of defender Kat Williamson… …and the LCL surgery of Nadia Nadim. The official announcement of Williamson’s retirement doesn’t specify a reason.  My guess is that the past season’s struggle with injury might be a part as well as the usual difficulty we’ve seen in making a living in the NWSL as an unsubsidized player.  Kat’s 27 now.  When you’re 21 or 22 (or even 25) the fun of…

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Thorns FC: Sword

It took the Western New York Flash three tries to figure out how to defeat Thorns FC this season. Unfortunately, the third try was the one that counted the most. (more…)

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Six Degrees: Better, But Still Not Enough

@cidemann slogs through another @timbersfc loss. Six Degrees: Better, But Still Not Enough

When you play a game at 5,280 feet, you better get your goals early, because you’re gonna be too tired to get ’em late. tl;dr, the Timbers didn’t get their goals early. (more…)

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Thorns FC: Shield

Last Sunday afternoon Thorns FC won the NWSL Shield for the first time in their short history.     A convincing 1-3 away win over the Joisey Goils of Sky Blue – combined with a 3-1 Chicago demolition of the Washington Spirit – brought the only piece of NWSL silverware Thorns FC had not yet won home to Portland. But, since this is Portland and, thus, incapable of doing things the easy way, first…

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Six Degrees: Demoralizing

@cidemann wades through the @timbersfc mess. Six Degrees: Demoralizing

The Portland Timbers went to Houston this weekend and stumbled around drunkenly for 90 minutes. Meanwhile, the Portland Thorns went to New Jersey and won the Supporter’s Shield. At least we’ve got one good team to root for, right? (more…)