December Knick-Knacks

Lots and a little happening at the same time

It’s not that nothing is happening in ThornsWorld. We’ve got Natalia Kuikka logging major minutes all over Europe for the Finnish national team (now you know: the team is nicknamed The Boreal Owls). Hina Sugita also travelled with the Japanese national team all the way to Brazil for a pair of friendlies. Uh, that doesn’t really sound like much of an offseason.

But: none of the crucial moves that will shape the 2024 season have yet to happen. Free agency news of any type has been a little trickle — not just for the Thorns, but for every team around the league. Everyone around the league is waiting for this week’s double-expansion draft because, crucially: free agents are not eligible to be selected. I’m anticipating a double-whammy of news cycles in the next few days: first the draft itself, and then a league-wide flurry of free agency arrivals and departures.

Expansion draft is upon us

Next Friday, 12/15, will see the Utah Royals and Bay FC get to plunder the rest of the NWSL’s rosters. The whole thing has been laid out perhaps most helpfully by the kind souls who crafted this Wikipedia page. Each established NWSL team will be able to protect nine of their players under contract, a list that will be made public momentarily, on Tuesday 12/12.

I don’t think I realized that list would be made public. Wow is there potential for some awkward conversations all around the league: “So, yeah, we made you available for the expansion draft. And neither team took you. And, uh…welcome back?” Expansion, and with teams led by such solid ownership groups, is such an exciting moment for the sport. But — this week will be an unbelievably stressful one for just about every non-star player around the league.

Portland currently has 16 players under contract, meaning they will have to leave seven players exposed for the expansion draft. That list of nine protected players fills up awful quick. Here’s my prediction for who will be protected, in alphabetical order:

1. Bella Bixby

2. Sam Coffey

3. Kelli Hubly

4. Olivia Moultrie

5. Reyna Reyes

6. Rocky Rodríguez

7. Sophia Smith

8. Hina Sugita

9. Morgan Weaver

Reyes in particular has yet to build the NWSL résumé of some Thorns players I’m predicting will be made available. However, Portland gave Reyes a contract extension (through 2025, with a 2026 team option) less than three months ago. Both sides knew this expansion draft was coming when that deal was agreed to, so I’m going to take it as a sign the Thorns view Reyes as a long-term member of the squad.

If that’s how it goes down, it would leave these seven players open for selection:

1. Janine Beckie

2. Hannah Betfort

3. Izzy D’Aquila

4. Shelby Hogan

5. Lauren Kozal

6. Emily Menges

7. Meaghan Nally

No matter how you slice it, having only nine players protected results in some sad, sad math for the unbelievably deep Thorns. The team is going to take some big hits no matter what — the only comfort here is that every other incredibly deep, contending team in the league is going to take some hits too.

Also, a saving grace: there is no possible way that Portland will lose all seven of these players. Within the expansion draft rules: whenever a player gets selected from your team, you are also able to protect one previously unprotected player. After taking a pause to do some math on my fingers here, I suppose the Thorns could have a maximum of four players selected. Five of the 12 established NWSL teams have already traded for protection in the draft — meaning that Utah and Bay FC will be picking 24 total players across seven NWSL rosters, including Portland’s. So, yes, yikes — expect three or four players to be ripped away from the squad here.

Vasconcelos to Utah

While free agency has been slow, it has not been nonexistent: reserve forward Michele Vasconcelos is now a member of her resurrected hometown team, the Utah Royals. Vasconcelos actually had a mutual option for her contract in 2024, and it being declined feels like it could have been one of those friendly moments that happens in sports transactions. Be free, go join your hometown team!

I remember being shocked when Mike Norris, in his coaching debut, subbed in Vasconcelos during the first game of the season, against Orlando — and then delighted when she quickly came through with a goal. (A goal that also opened up Sophia Smith’s assist tally for the year.) Unfortunately this would end up being the only regular season score of Vasconselos’ season, with her minutes eventually drying up, too — 11 of her 14 appearances came before the World Cup break. Nonetheless, the 2023 saw Vasconcelos solidify her place in the NWSL after playing only 15 total minutes in 2022.

Another roster footnote is that Danish defender Rikke Sevecke is no longer with the team, after two months and zero appearances. I was excited when Sevecke was signed, simply because the Thorns front office showed such mastery of international scouting with the signings of Kuikka and Sugita — players whose skill, creativity, and connectedness goes beyond the top-line statistics. Alas, for whatever reason, we’ll never know what could have been.

Canada says farewell to Sinc

Last week, Christine Sinclair played her last-ever game for the Canadian national team — with Canada taking down Australia 1-0 in a friendly in Sinclair’s hometown of Vancouver. The final numbers are basically too astonishing to take in in full: 330 games played, and 190 goals scored. 190 goals: the most by any person to ever put on the uniform of any country. Goal #1 came all the way back in March 2000. That would be back when: Sinclair was almost two years younger than Olivia Moultrie is today, still only 16 years old.

Sinclair’s historic career — both its peak and its longevity — of course deserve a much longer examination than it’s getting right here. However, while the Canadian national team is saying goodbye to Sinclair, it sounds like she still has some unfinished business south of the border, so fortunately we’re still a ways away from a proper goodbye just yet.

Thorns all over national team experience

Maybe you can blame my non-soccer sports upbringing for this, but: I find it pretty hard to get too juiced up for national team friendlies. (Emphasis on the friendlies. Put anything on the line competitively, and I’m there.) I understand that they have to happen, but, wow, feels like a lot of travel mileage and offseason rest days burned, for games that ultimately have the preseason-esque goal of getting the vibes right. Add on the fact that USWNT management has gone with a long-term-interim coach for the next several months, and…well, USA’s two friendlies against China didn’t exactly feel like it held me over until the regular season.

Okay, now that the grumpiest take from Thorn Town is out of the way, the good news is that Thorns players headlined USA’s two victories (3-0, 2-1), directly contributing to three of the team’s five goals. Olivia Moultrie also earned her first two caps, subbing into both games, which to me earned the response of, “Oh, shoot, I somehow thought that had happened already.”

In the first game, Smith struck almost immediately, sending home a beautiful one-touch finish to cap off a lightning-strike connection between Naomi Girma and Trinity Rodman:

It had been somewhere between frustrating and confusing to see Smith not played centrally during the World Cup. Seeing the speed and creativity with the Rodman-Smith connection here can’t help but get you thinking if this is how the next 10-15 years of the national team experience will go.

In the second game, Coffey broke a surprisingly long personal goal-scoring drought with a rebound clean-up that felt a lot like a pinpoint pass — just a pass to the top corner, and not a teammate:

And, finally, Smith helped secure American victory in the second game with the incredibly rare header-assist to Jaedyn Shaw:

Folks, you love to see it!