Tank on Empty

The long road journey visibly catches up to the Thorns, falling 1-0 with barely any second half shots

Game #11: Bay FC 1 - Portland Thorns 0

4 wins - 4 draws - 3 losses

16 points | 7th place

Last time out, I mentioned here on Thorn Town that, going into this game, Portland was at a major rest disadvantage. The team’s last home game was all the way back on May 3rd. Many of the Thorns with international duty had played seven consecutive road games in a row, potentially in three different countries. That massive long haul overshadowed the fact that even the players without international duty were still going on a string of five straight road games — a scheduling quirk many veterans may never encounter once in their careers.

For most of the game, it looked like the Thorns would find a way to overcome the fatigue and get a positive result. But, here’s the stat that tells the whole story on its own:

Thorns first-half shots: 12

Thorns second-half shots: 4

After Bay FC’s first-half goal, you would expect that the Thorns would conclude the game with a rush of frantic shots as Bay FC sat back in a defensive block to protect their lead. Instead, the opposite happened, and Portland looked less and less dangerous as the clock rolled on.

I’m actually taking away a pretty positive feeling out of this game, despite the loss. After an international window when Bay FC only had three players out on international duty — compared to Portland’s ten — this game was only decided by a narrow 1-0 margin. And, it took an absolutely scintillating shot from Bay FC defender Alyssa Malonson to get the job done. I felt that Sam Hiatt and Bella Bixby each cut off Malonson’s angles very well, giving the Bay FC player a maybe one-yard-by-one-yard target in the upper corner of the goal to fit the ball into. That’s exactly where Malonson put it, an absolutely monster shot for her first career goal in 37 career NWSL appearances.

There were some not-quite-on-the-same-page frustrations that came up in the Thorns’ own offensive attack. While it wouldn’t be surprising to see those issues resurface very soon — this just didn’t feel like the contest to feel super-concerned about it.

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Giveth and taketh

Despite a lack of strong second-half chances from Portland, there were still two very bizarre refereeing moments in the final act of this game.

First, around the 80th minute, substitute Bay FC midfielder Kiki Pickett got beat in the open field, then dragged Caiya Hanks to the ground (on purpose), and then stepped on Hanks’ hand (on accident) as everybody tumbled around. A visibly hurt Hanks had to get pulled out of the game immediately and, although there have frustratingly been no updates about this, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Hanks has a broken bone in her hand, and will miss some time. Of course, here’s hoping for the best, and there’s no time missed. But: surely the yellow card that Pickett received is too light of a toll for a foul to immediately knock a player out of a game? There’s definitely not a great feeling around PayPal Park now, considering the Thorns’ only previous visit resulted in Morgan Weaver’s long-term knee injury.

The second odd moment was less consequential, but went in the Thorns’ favor. In second half stoppage time, a disastrous short goal kick from Portland (please just boot it long every time!) was picked off by Bay FC’s Rachel Hill, who quickly put it in the back of the net. The goal was then called back by the VAR referee for a handball on Hill. Despite replays on the broadcast, though, I couldn’t personally see the handball ever be committed. Which made me wonder what the VAR referee was finding, since they were presumably looking at the exact same footage. While Hill was no doubt frustrated to have the goal wiped off of her stat sheet, it also didn’t have an impact on the final of the game. It made me remember how, during the mid-summer exhibition games last year, the Utah Royals got a goal unfairly (in my estimation) wiped out on an offsides call when playing Portland. Surely the day will come when the Thorns get a goal-sized refereeing gift in a moment with high stakes — and, personally, I hate it when something like that happens. But, for the moment, these slip-ups have not been game-altering.

Li’l Notes

• Most of the Thorns’ nine corner kicks in this game came during the first half, when the offense was on the front foot. I wondered, though, if that subtly worked to the Thorns’ disadvantage. And that’s because the literal corners on that side of the field were absolutely in shambles:

  

  PayPal Park has been a soccer-specific stadium since 2015, first hosting the San Jose Earthquakes of the MLS, before adding Bay FC last year. What’s going on here?

• Neither Emily Menges nor Kelli Hubly were in the starting lineup for Bay FC. However, an injury to defender Jordan Brewster about 25 minutes into the game meant that Hubly got the call to enter in as a sub, playing the majority of the game. It felt extremely weird to see Hubly out there in anything but a Thorns uniform — never mind going against the exact team she played for from 2017-2024. It had to feel odd for Hubly, too — and additionally odd because, for most of the game, she had never been teammates with about half of the ultra-young Thorns’ players.

• There hasn’t been a ton of reporting to follow about this, but: Mackenzie Arnold has been out for the last handful of games (including for Australia, during the international break) with a leg injury. I had kind of lost track of this, but Arnold’s last appearance in goal was all the way back on May 3rd. That’s very nearly 45 days ago. Which is a significant number, because the NWSL has a 45-Day Injury List where you can place a player, and sign an injury replacement player with no effect on your total roster number. Now, Spotrac.com lists Arnold as never being put on that 45-day list. But, the Thorns’ own report about training camp invitee Hailey Craig being signed to a contract a few weeks ago does refer to Craig as a “roster relief” player. I wish the NWSL made these kinds of things a lot easier to track from the outside. In the meantime: Bixby has been absolutely holding things down in goal, with Morgan Messner as her backup, which takes away any sort of anxious urgency waiting for Arnold to come back.

• This game was initially broadcasted on ION, and the on-demand replay is now available on NWSL+. I think that is the case for all games broadcasted on ION? But: I’m far from 100% sure. I’ve written this darn thing for a while now, and week-to-week, the live broadcast and especially the replay feel shrouded in uncertainty. The NWSL remains the only major American sports league without the full season library of replays readily available on its own (paid) app.

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Up next: Spirit Streak

Game #12: Washington Spirit at Portland Thorns

Sunday, June 15th | 1:00 PM

Broadcast: CBS

The Washington Spirit were an inaugural member of the NWSL in 2013. They have had a league-leading goal-scorer, an MVP, and two NWSL Finals appearances, including one championship victory. And they have done all of that before ever winning a game in Portland. In 12 previous contests in Oregon, it’s been five draws and seven Thorns wins.

It’s amazing that the streak has kept intact during the Spirit’s rise to the top of every type of league hierarchy under Michele Kang. Washington was my preseason pick to win the 2025 NWSL Championship. My reasoning was that the Spirit were the most-injured team in the league in 2024, and would rise to the top with some better luck. But, next to the Utah Royals, the Spirit are once again the team with the most talent in street clothes here in 2025. Ouleymata Sarr (eight goals in 2024) still has not appeared this season; Hal Hershfelt has only appeared in four games. Last year’s Rookie of the Year, Croix Bethune, has just recently gotten healthy, and has only started three games. Trinity Rodman has also only appeared in four games, plus Rodman has had the ominous trip-to-visit-an-overseas-doctor, which unfortunately tends to be a sign of a very long-term issue (see: Christian McCaffrey in the NFL, Joel Embiid in the NBA).

Given all that, it really is incredible that the Spirit still sit in third place in the league standings, and also have the league’s third-best offense, with 21 goals. Still, maybe they aren’t as far ahead of the seventh-place Thorns as it seems. Both teams have a cumulative +4 goal differential on the season. And, Portland has a big lead when it comes to the cumulative difference in Expected Goals this year, +6.1 to +1.9. The Thorns have an urgent need to get points in the standings this week, but it will be an uphill battle to keep that decade-plus unbeaten streak intact.