Thorns defender Emily Sonnett rises above the pack to win the ball. 9-4-16 Photo by Jeff Wong.
by Matt Hoffman (@mhoff)
“What does it look like in a few months? We’re going to be a team that I think you won’t want to play, because of our work ethic and the miles that we cover on the pitch. You won’t want to play us because we don’t want to give them time on the ball and we want to get after it. Also we move the ball.” –Thorns Head Coach Mark Parson
Mark Parsons won his first game as head coach of the Portland Thorn’s on April 17th and immediately laid out his vision for what this team would become. At the time, the Thorns had to find a goal at the death to secure it’s first win. Now, with the starters back from Brazil and fully incorporated back into the lineup, the Thorns have adapted to a 4-3-3, have dispatched two opponents in it’s recent home-stand by a combined 8-1, and have captivated Providence Park with a gorgeous brand of football that would even delight Pele, the originator of “the beautiful game.”
Sunday’s match against Boston was not nearly as close as the 5-1 scoreline would indicate. Parsons was quick to credit Boston’s “horrible schedule” over anything else. Hayley Raso in particular thrived against Boston threading balls through the holes in a Boston defense as if it were Swiss cheese.
The threat was low against Boston, the real question was if Portland would manage to maintain the high pressing, frenetic pace against Houston on Wednesday. Facing a team that came in dominating their last two games the Thorns outshone the Dash 3-0, clinching a playoff berth in the process.
Throughout the night Houston dropped deep with the hopes of catching Portland on the counter. Thorns’ defender Katherine Reynolds took on Kealia Ohai so well that the Golden Boot leader ended the match forced to switch to the less the favorable right side. Outside of the beginning of the second half, when Houston inserted an additional forward, Houston never threatened Portland and were out shot 21-to-10.
Parsons was able to keep the team competitive in the run-up to the Olympics but also showed a deft touch in being able to blend the returning Olympians back into the fold. Along the way, he made the tactical pivot from a single-striker 4-5-1 setup to an attacking use-the-whole-field-as-your-canvas 4-3-3.
It helps immensely that the Thorns players have a massive and cunning shared “soccer brain,” a term coined by midfielder Allie Long who has three goals over the last two matches. According to Parsons, Long’s recent dominance is due to a regression to the mean (i.e. good shots that were misses before are falling) and Amandine Henry’s presence as the other other holding mid.
“Allie’s playing holding mid – she’s often our deepest center mid – but once we get into a certain phase, we release her and we want her to get into the box because she is a great finisher. We’ve asked her to play a role where she has to be a more complete midfielder as compared to previous years, but we can’t take away the ability she has in front of goal. We get to release her in times where it makes sense and also keep good defensive balance.”
With a return to the playoffs guaranteed, the Thorns have plenty to play for. Despite Washington’s lead, the top overall seed is still in play. Moreover, dropping points could prevent the Thorns from hosting their first ever home playoff game, a stated record for the team.
That starts with recovery. Playing three games over a week with minimal squad rotation ( Tobin Heath replaced Raso in the starting line-up on Wednesday), the team’s core players have logged a lot of minutes. Parsons posits the Thorns do tend to recover well noting that the team has a double digit differential between goals scored versus goals allowed in the final 15 minutes. With a break of two weeks from Sunday to the final game of the season, it almost feels like tempting fate to let a team this hot go two weeks between matches.
Thorns’ Hayley Raso attempts to win the ball back from Boston.
It’s easy to appreciate the scoreline, the individual performances (how have I managed to go so many words without even mentioning Nadia Nadim, Lindsay Horan, Kling, or Christine Sinclair?), but when you break it all down,
It begins with the defense…
Michael Jordan honed his stutter step in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Meghan Klingenberg was only carrying on a family tradition when she shaked-and-baked into the Boston box last Sunday. What more can you ask from your full-backs? Both Reynolds and Kling got forward to provide width but never compromised their posts with a fine understanding of each other’s actions. At the moment, Reynolds is the lock-down, defensive specialist while Kling’s overlapping runs saw her pass the left-wing, and even the left mid on occasion.
“Reynolds was absolutely superb in taking care of Ohai, and she’s done that a couple of times this year. She’s done that with Crystal Dunn. She’s done that with a couple of pacey players. While it was a team effort, that individual effort on Ohai, who has been fantastic, was big time. And it’s great to see from Katherine.” –Mark Parsons
Portland kept possession for the majority of the home games and, in those rare times they did lose it, the defense was quick to snuff the attack. Neither Houston nor Boston’s attackers were able to do much with the ball when they past the center-line. If they got past the center line because the Thorns were pressing, quite effectively I might add, all over the field regardless of player or position.
Teams have had to use the wings because Emilys Meges and Sonnett are so effective when paired together center. Sonnett, who played without the mask Wednesday, has proved to keep a cool head and display exceptional ball skills the few times she’s been under pressure. Pressuring them is not a bad approach as Portland has the flexibility to go long-ball on you and both players are capable of serving volleys in dangerous spaces.
Thorns’ midfielders, Henry, Long and Raso working together to regain possession.
…and is controlled by the midfield.
Parsons said post-match Wednesday, “Every time we spend more together – on the pitch or in the meetings, and then out here on the field – we’re getting better.” That should be concerning to other squads because Parsons is right.
Putting three in the midfield is where some teams tend to get in trouble. Teams sometimes opt to take away a defender, or more often a striker, to gain numerical superiority in the center of the field. The Thorns had both the talent and teamwork (the “soccer brain”) in two matches now to make the three person midfield an overwhelming leviathan.
The picture above illustrates this succinctly as the hapless Boston player had no chance collapsed between a dropping Raso, Henry and Long. “Whenever you can kind of keep the other team kind of pinned in their own half, it sucks the life out of them,” Heath said in her remarks following Wednesday’s match. ” I think it was just great that we could continue to create and pressure pretty much the whole game.”
With Long and Henry playing the deeper lying midfield roles, it gave Horan plenty of space to freelance including one sequence Sunday in which only the keeper was behind Horan and just a minute later, Horan was the furthest Thorn player up the pitch. All one of the benefits of a shared soccer mind. With that same understanding, Parsons has given Long additional responsibilities and her ability to thrive with the additional duties is carrying the Thorns into the playoffs on a high note.
“We’ve asked [her] to play a role where she has to be a more complete midfielder as compared to previous years”, Parsons said. “But we can’t take away the ability she has in front of goal. We get to release her in times where it makes sense and also keep good defensive balance.”
The hive mind is such that others know when to be aggressive and when to cover for a teammate. “Lindsey [Horan] can drop in when [Amandine Henry] drops in”, Long explains. “She can fill that space when I rotate up. So just getting that kind of freedom to move around a little bit more has really helped us.”
Boston didn’t stand a chance allowing four open play goals only one of which was unassisted though it seems unfair not to recognize the slick move Allie Long had made against Boston’s Libby Stout which Nadim found the rebound. Houston had hoped that they could remain in the game by denying open play goals. Houston’s Lydia Williams had some remarkable saves (six when all was said and done) but as Long said following the match–and Houston learned during the match– that “every single person is dangerous” on set-pieces.
Thorns’ forward Christine Sinclair making a run at goal.
Looking Forward
As mentioned previously, forward is the only place where a personnel change occurred. On Sunday, Nadim played on the left, Christine Sinclair played in the center and Raso was on the right. On Wednesday, Sinclair stayed in the middle, Nadim switched to the right and Heath played on the left.
Regardless, the trio effectively pressured the ball on both halves, dropping back when necessary but often taking that pressure to the opponents as well. In Heath’s words, it’s “putting us in great opportunities higher up on the field with our whole team attacking together. Not just one or two players.”
Ultimately the role of the striker is to score–or at the very least create opportunities–which is exactly what this crew has done. Nadim had a hat trick on Sunday and is now tied for the second most goals in the league. Sinclair has scored in consecutive matches. Heath had two assists and Raso is due.
With two games left, the top overall seed is not out of the question with the Thorns trailing Washington by four points. “We’re still going for the number one spot,” Long says. “Hopefully the Spirit will drop some points in the next two games and we continue winning.”
With a win or draw against the Western New York Flash on Sunday, Portland will clinch a home playoff game for the first time in it’s short history. In a word, Heath described that as “huge”, adding:
“I’ve wanted this since I think I came to Portland, and to be able to give that to the fans would just be amazing .. I know everybody is going to be doing everything in the most professional way to be at their best for this third game. It’s going to be an interesting match because obviously Western New York has had a great season as well, so I think it’s going to be a fun one. I think we’re going to have a packed house, so I think it’s another one we’re going to be stoked for.”
