Portland Thorns begin second half of season looking for 9th straight playoff berth

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The saying goes, “A wounded animal is the most dangerous.”

It might also be a good way to describe this Portland Thorns team this season.

“Front-footed, smother the opponent, dynamic, we want to be the protagonist and the aggressor,” said Portland Thorns head coach Rob Gale of his team’s playing style. “That’s what our fans demand, and that’s what we want to be as a team.”

The demands for the Thorns this year have not always been easy to meet.

In the preseason, the team announced that Morgan Weaver, Nicole Payne, and Marie Muller were all out for the season with knee injuries while Sophia Wilson and Olivia Wade-Katoa would be on maternity leave. Then, rookie phenom Caiya Hanks also got bitten by the knee injury bug midseason.

Despite all of this, the team currently sits in sixth in the NWSL standings.

“The expectation is always high at the football club, and I think it has to be. We want to win shields and titles,” said Gale. “Now with that, you have to balance we’re the youngest squad in the league, we’re the most depleted squad in the league, and we have a salary cap and with the big players that we’ve lost, we’re probably the cheapest team in the league right now in terms of actual wages going out.”

It’s been an interesting year of transition for the squad with legends like Christine Sinclair, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Meghan Klingenberg retiring.

That, coupled with injuries, has made their style of play obvious as the Thorns transition into a younger era.

“There’s some legs, there’s some sprinting and high-speed capacity, so there’s things you can use to your advantage tactically to try to affect the game in a different way than previous years,” said Gale.

Another thing is that this team’s relative youth has affected is how they relate to each other.

“The spirit in the dressing room is completely different than it’s been the last couple of years. There’s a togetherness in the group when you haven’t got a team full of big stars, it has to be by committee,” said Gale. “I couldn’t always say that they were all top friends and doing things off the field. There wasn’t that same camaraderie that we see here now, and I think that’s translated to the field.”

In fact, the Thorns currently sit third in the league in expected goals this season, meaning they have a good connection as a team.

However, they sit sixth in goals actually scored.

Needless to say, that’s where Gale’s attention is focused as his team looks to make their ninth straight NWSL playoffs appearance.

“That big phase development for us now is after we’ve moved the ball really well and side to side and front to back, you get paid to put the ball in the back of the net,” said Gale.

The Thorns take on the Seattle Reign on Sunday at 1 p.m. on KOIN 6. The Game On postgame show will air at the end of the match.