Perry Precision
Jayden Perry cements her status as a legendary penalty-taker -- at the very end of an otherwise disjointed game
Game #9: Portland Thorns 1 - San Diego Wave 1
3 wins - 4 draws - 2 losses
13 points | 6th place
At this time last year, during Rob Gale’s first games as an interim coach, the Thorns ripped off a franchise-record six-game winning streak. Portland scored at least two goals in each of those six games, and tended to get on the scoreboard early — in the first 15 minutes of the match. A year later, and the 2025 Thorns have the opposite problem: the team is conceding goals in the opening chapter of the game.
Portland’s defense goes into lockdown mode after those early wobbles. But, the team definitely warms up into the game, instead of playing their best from the start. In just the sixth minute of this contest, 17-year-old (!) Wave forward Kimmi Ascanio executes a very clever duck-in just behind defender Jayden Perry — a move that felt offside, despite being completely, totally onside. San Diego teammate Perle Morroni delivers a sterling assist to Ascanio, who creatively puts in the very rare pointing-upwards header.
The Thorns have given up 10 goals so far this season, and here’s how it breaks down when these goals came in the game:
Goals Allowed
Minutes 1-15: 6
Minutes 16-45: 4
Second Half: 0
Whatever the pre-game routine is for everyone, I don’t think it would hurt to go ahead and shake that up.
It’s also astonishing — this time in the positive way — that Portland hasn’t allowed a goal after halftime over the entire season. I’m not sure how much longer that incredible streak can last, but it’s totally worth following.
Off-target practice
For most of the first half, San Diego rarely created new threatening chances at goal, while Portland constantly created forward offensive momentum. The catch: all that positive momentum would be capped off by an off-target shot. The Thorns put up an admirable 22 shots on goal across the entire game, but only three of them were actually on-target. (And: one of those three shots was the game-ending penalty kick.)
As was the case several weeks ago, the Thorns still remain strongly in the league lead for total shots on goal. Their lead is actually pretty huge: 130 total shots for the Thorns, compared to 111 for the second-place Kansas City Current. And, you can combine that with: Portland is league-worst with 27.7% of shots actually being on-target. That’s also pretty far from other teams: the league average is at about 35%.
Getting deeper into the game, you could feel (or maybe: you could project) a sense of annoyance coming out of the Thorns, as more and more creative possessions ended with a ball fired into the stands. When the subject of off-target shots came up in April, it felt easy to point out that almost all of Portland’s offensive passing combinations were brand-new to each other. Now that we’re nine games into the season — well, that’s still not a ton of time, either. But, this game was a step backwards, at a time in the calendar when you could reasonably hope for some forward progress.
11 vs. 10
This game was defined by the red card given to San Diego defender Kennedy Wesley in the 41st minute. Wesley clearly brought down Olivia Moultrie on a wide-open fast break and, while it was not a malicious or out-of-control foul, the play earned the red card because Moultrie was a step ahead with a vast pasture of grass in front of her.
San Diego coach Jonas Eidevall quickly announced that he was turtling up into a defensive formation for the entire rest of the game. Even in the short minutes before halftime, Eidevall quickly subbed out forward María Sánchez, to put on another defender in Kristen McNabb. And, just like that, the clock-killing was on: viewers were treated to many, many cumulative minutes of San Diego goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan draining clock with some I’d say pretty nuanced face-acting about which direction to send a goal kick. (Going left, going left, clearly. Now, wait a minute. Hmm, I’m seeing something, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll send this one right. Gotta get over to the other side of the ball, now.)
Gale responded with a creative substitution of his own. Right out of halftime, he pulled off defender Isabella Obaze in exchange for forward Caiya Hanks. With this move, Gale also moved Reyna Reyes from the left to the right side of the formation, and Portland played the second half with a three-defender line of Perry - Sam Hiatt - Reyes. The Thorns’ full-game experiments with three defenders late last summer went very poorly. But, this was a completely different situation, and felt like a really positive, creative solution for the team.
While Sheridan did have to make two high-difficulty saves in the second half, San Diego still played nearly an hour in turtle-up mode as expertly as could be expected. When you thought about the game at halftime, it felt inevitable that Portland would stomp through a 10-player side to victory. And, suddenly, the game was nearly over, and San Diego’s 1-0 advantage felt iron-clad.
On the ION broadcast, analyst Saskia Webber pointed out very early in the second half that Sam Coffey was playing in perhaps an overly defensive spot in the Portland formation. Sure enough, the Thorns got a positive advantage once that finally changed, and Coffey pushed forward. It was in the final, desperate minutes of the game when Coffey made a run into the penalty box, and was tripped up by the San Diego substitute, McNabb.
Perry Penalty
That brought about a moment that felt shocking when it happened for the first time, in the mid-April game against Gotham, but now feels completely routine: rookie Jayden Perry coming up to the penalty spot. And then confidently nailing the kick.
It’s true that Perry doesn’t tuck these kicks just inside the goalposts, where they would be completely, statistically untouchable. However, Perry has established a skill with these kicks that is potentially even more valuable: getting the goalie to commit to a direction early. That gives Perry an entire side of the net to work with, giving a bit more margin for error with the ball placement.
Research by the stats company Opta shows that Perry is only the third player in NWSL history to change the results of multiple games with second-half stoppage-time penalties. That’s this game against San Diego, and a few weeks ago against Louisville. Both were should-be losses, converted into valuable, points-earning ties, thanks to Perry’s poise at the spot. And: this is only her seventh career game.
Part of the reason this is happening is the Thorns' constant offensive activity. While there are a lot of off-target shots, the team is also earning incredible amount of penalty kicks. This was Portland’s fifth penalty kick given in just nine games played in 2025. Across the 48 total games of the combined 2023 and 2024 regular seasons, the Thorns also received five penalty kicks.
Up next: Houston Heat
Game #10: Portland Thorns at Houston Dash
Friday, May 16 | 7:00 PM
Broadcast: Fox 12 Plus | ION Network | NWSL+
Replay: NWSL+
The Dash became a bit of a trendy offseason pick for the playoffs this winter, thanks to finally adding some significant talent, a group headlined by former Thorn Yazmeen Ryan. However, in a lot of ways, it still looks like a very similar Dash team: they are struggling to score goals (just seven total on the season) and sit on the outside looking in at the playoffs, in 10th place. Despite being one of the longest-lasting NWSL teams, in operation since 2014, Houston has only made the playoffs one time (2022), and is still looking for its first franchise playoff win.
One of the Dash’s biggest advantages in this game might be the weather at their home field. As we’re entering the heading-into-summer phase of the calendar, I feel like the Thorns tend to drop a shocking game on the road in late spring — and, usually, when they travel from temperate Portland to one of America’s oven-like climates. It’s in the nineties all week in Houston, and this game will be kicking off at 5:00 PM, Texas time. While this looks like a very attainable win on paper, this game won’t be played on paper, but on an absolutely roasting field. Even for professionals like the Thorns, that can be a difficult adjustment.