First-Goal Flurry
An astonishing four different Thorns score their first-ever goal with the team, and Portland delivers a genuine 4-1 thumping over Gotham
Game #6: Portland Thorns 4 - Gotham FC 1
2 wins - 2 draws - 2 losses
8 points | 5th place
As this preseason ended, and the 2025 Thorns quickly, by necessity, made the transition to a rebuilding team — it seemed unlikely that Portland would have a game as good as this one across all 26 contests. The Thorns bring out one of the league’s youngest, most inexperienced lineups, up against a genuine championship contender in Gotham, and delivers an honest blowout. There have been to pick at about the recent Thorns, but this game showed a rare and explosive amount of potential for a group that is still getting to know each other. While it won’t be three-goal blowouts every week from here on out, this game was a powerful sign that the ownership, the front office, the coaching staff, the players themselves — everyone has been building something powerful, from outside the NWSL limelight.
Goal #1: Teaching tape
The Thorns’ first goal was plucked straight from a coach’s dream: a 20-second, six-pass sequence that gets from Mackenzie Arnold, all the way into the other net, without getting impeded by Gotham much at all. While Caiya Hanks gets the assist, credit must also be given to Reyna Reyes and Jessie Fleming for huge, defense-shifting passes along the way. Mimi Alidou was precise with the finish for her first goal as a Thorn — although you’d also have to say Gotham is helping out here, with a handful of defenders clustering up, and leaving Alidou alone:
The Valley
Literally a minute later, Portland has a bad giveaway on a goal kick — a sticking point for the team earlier in the year as well. Gotham comes crashing in, and the defense loses Esther González in the shuffle, who slams home an uncontested finish.
With the game 1-1, it felt for the most of the first half that Gotham would eventually find a way to pull out the win. The visiting team controlled a monster amount of the possession. At the end of the game, Gotham held 61% of the total possession — but, it had to be even higher than that for the first half. During extended stretches like this, it can feel like nothing is happening. Both teams are picking their way through the mud of the game, if you will. In retrospect, this was a crucial stretch for the Thorns: despite Gotham’s high possession, they only had two shots the rest of the first half, and both were blocked before they got to Arnold. Surviving through the mud allowed the Thorns to win the game in the second half.
Goal #2: The Coffey Connection
Do you see anything happening in this moment? It looks like an absolutely nothing moment on the soccer field. But, already, you can see that exactly one player, Sam Coffey, somehow, some way, already sees something developing:
Defender Mallie McKenzie drops a phenomenal, line-breaking pass to Coffey, whose sense of the moment carries her from her normal defensive midfielder spot, all the way to the opponent baseline. Coffey passes the ball to Hanks, who has a decisive one-touch shot for her first career goal as a professional.
Goal #3: Perry Penalty
As the game progressed, Hanks took complete control over her left side, charging through the Gotham defense to create an opportunity every few minutes. Although Gotham has branded itself as a tactically deep team, for whatever reason, veteran goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger played the ball to Hanks’ side of the field at nearly every opportunity. This would lead to giveaways by Gotham, and more chances with momentum from the Thorns.
On one of these sequences, in the 72nd minute, Alidou was cut down for a no-doubt penalty kick. For several moments, captain Coffey held the ball while standing over the penalty spot, protecting it from Gotham players who might want to sneak in a quick ground-upheaving spike at the turf. Since Olivia Moultrie hadn’t converted the Thorns’ only other penalty on the year, it felt like a massive question whether Coffey would take the shot herself, or pass it off to a teammate. And, I felt like a WWE fan in complete shock at a surprise wrestler running into the Royal Rumble when Coffey handed the ball to rookie defender Jayden Perry.
Perry was thrown into the fire right at the start of the season, getting the start against dominant Kansas City, in Game #1. That was a tough start to the year, and it would be several weeks before Perry resurfaced again, getting the start in the shutout against Utah. Perry started again against Seattle — in a game where the Reign’s only goal came on the other side of the defense — and has quickly established herself as a must-start player. At 5’9”, Perry brings a lot of size and, honestly, a fun-to-watch mean streak to her play — features that are a big shift from the previous generation of Thorns defenders. The top priority right now for the Thorns’ front office is to get a comprehensive evaluation of Perry: so far, she is just under contract for the 2025 season, scheduled to leave at the end of the year. If the next handful of games go as well as the last few have gone, expect the team and player to agree to a contract extension somewhere around the mid-summer break.
Oh, and Perry clearly must have distinguished herself in practice with penalty kicks. She got Berger to dive the wrong way before releasing the shot, and suddenly the blowout was on.
Goal #4: Cherry on top
It felt like the third goal flipped a collective mentally switch for the Thorns: instead of sitting back and letting the clock trickle out, suddenly Portland was zipping around the field with more aggression, precision, and creativity than ever. The Thorns lived in the offensive half of the field, and scored their fourth goal on a team onslaught: while shots by Hanks, Hina Sugita, and Coffey were all blocked away, the ball was still pinging around the penalty box. Deyna Castellanos put herself in great position to collect a loose rebound, and the blowout was complete.
Not to be too greedy, but it did feel like there were chances for the Thorns to add even more goals — albeit in an unconventional way. As the blowout intensified, Berger left her box more and more often. On a handful of Hanks’ several dribbles down the left-hand side, there were openings for a chipping, looping attempt into an uncovered goal, when Hanks was near the half-way line. Those opportunities disappeared, though, as Hanks continued to dribble to a more proper spot on the field, which gave time for Berger to recover into goal. I’m not sure how a soccer coach would teach these moments, since shooting from about half the field away is not, normally, ideal. But, it does show how discombobulated things got for Gotham.
Up next: Monster Matinee
Game #7: Racing Louisville at Portland Thorns
Sunday, April 27 | 1:00 PM
Broadcast: Paramount+, NWSL+
On-Demand Replay: NWSL+
If Thorn Town was running the NWSL, there would be matinees galore. And, finally, Portland gets a chance to host one of those glorious matinee days. Only a handful of Thorns home games all year will be a matinee, so, let’s soak it in.
The Thorns will go into this game as a big favorite: Racing Louisville is 12th place in the league, and always seems to be on the brink of getting completely passed by the NWSL’s new generation of more-ambitious teams. Louisville has one victory in five games, and that was a 1-0 effort over the 13th-place Chicago Stars. On the season, Racing is down big in the cumulative scoreline, 9-3, and so are still searching for their strengths and identity.
On the flip side, Louisville does come into town with 6’1” midfielder and longtime Thorns nemesis Taylor Flint — who, across all competitions, has scored six of her 16 career goals against Portland. Louisville also comes into town with a significant rest advantage: the Thorns are finishing out a three-games-in-ten-days sequence, while Racing is making their first trip out of Kentucky since March. Getting a full three points in matchups like this, though, is a must for the Thorns to stay in the playoff picture.
Also, I might be the very last person on earth to figure this out (although maybe not), but, I did just connect how Racing Louisville got its name. I formerly just thought it was a reference to longtime Spanish team Racing Santander. That would be random, but also fair enough, since American soccer teams love to copy-paste European traditions — throwing around “FC” everywhere and all that. But, hullo: Churchill Downs, the racetrack for the annual Kentucky Derby horse race, is a quick 15-minute drive across town to Louisville’s home field.