Coming into their home tilt with the rival Seattle Reign this weekend, the Portland Thorns had been decimated.
Injuries and national team call-ups robbed first-year head coach Mark Parsons of no fewer than six of his eleven first choice starters – and one of the starters who was still around, captain Christine Sinclair, was slated to play just 25 minutes.
Under the difficult circumstances, the Thorns would have been thrilled with a draw. So defender Emily Menges could be forgiven for referring to her team’s hard-fought 0-0 stalemate against the Reign on Sunday afternoon at Providence Park as a “win.”
A win is what it felt like and how it was celebrated. As his team circled the field thanking the more than 18,000 fans in attendance at full-time, a fist-pumping Parsons was congratulated heartily by team owner Merritt Paulson.
The draw kept the Thorns undefeated on the 2016 season, with three wins and four draws – and it built confidence that, when its ever-growing contingent of national team players are at the Rio Olympics this summer, the team can continue to get results in a way that last year’s team, when missing players for the Women’s World Cup, couldn’t.
Already, this Thorns season feels different than the club’s three previous campaigns.
Portland is the NWSL’s biggest club, and it’s always the league’s most talented roster, but the Thorns have rarely lived up to expectations.
Too often in the last two years under Paul Riley, it felt like things happened to the Thorns. Not so thus far in 2016, and certainly not so against Seattle on Sunday. The vibe around this team is completely different – positive, proactive, and tough.
Much of the credit for that transformation has to go to Parsons, who, in his first season with the Thorns, has impressed in a big way.
Portland has only conceded four goals this year, the lowest number of goals allowed in the league – and when they’ve had their full compliment of players, the results have been impressive. Look no further than last weekend’s home drubbing of Parsons’ old club the Washington Spirit.
This coach is, interestingly enough, reminiscent of Caleb Porter when he first landed with the Timbers. Like Porter was, Parsons is young, confident, and hugely impressive next to his predecessors.
The first big move of the Parsons era was trading Alex Morgan, whose play for the Thorns and locker-room presence was never overly impressive. And while Morgan requested that trade to be closer to her husband in Orlando, it was an important first step in bringing what has often been a fractured team together.
Cohesion was something that Riley often struggled to create in his two disappointing years with the Thorns – and even when the team won the championship in its inaugural season of 2013, there was a feeling that the club never quite hit the heights it was capable of.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then-manager Cindy Parlow Cone departed at the end of that season.
But this feels different. This Thorns team doesn’t just have good players; it’s balanced and durable.
In the last three years, Portland doesn’t grit out a point against Seattle. That’s why Sunday’s result mattered. It’s another sign that this Thorns season could be the club’s best.
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