Grass Ceiling

There’s no way around it: the Thorns were completely dominated in every aspect of this game, and were mostly lucky that the final score was the kind of tame-looking 2-0. Washington dominated play from the opening minutes, when they were offsides on a potential goal by a few inches, until the very end, when Trinity Rodman fired off a shot in a very brief curtain call.

The 2025 Thorns have an incredible amount to be proud of: it would have been a genuine shock if I was told, back in February or March, that this seemingly rebuilding team full of very young, then-unknown players would reach the semifinals. While that is a very real thrill, this game also showed there is a meaningful level the Thorns must climb in order to become championship contenders. They were very near, and yet still very far away, from the peak.

On Saturday, the Thorns are on the wrong side of every stat you could look possibly look at. I think one that tells the story of the game is Progressive Distance. Tracked by Football-Reference, Progressive Distance is each player’s number of total yards moved towards the opponent goal with the ball. Portland’s starting forward line combined for 44 Progressive Yards: that’s 24 from Alexa Spaanstra, 15 from Deyna Castellanos, and five from Reilyn Turner. The Spirit’s forward line — entirely made up of international players — went like this: 21 for Gift Monday, and then 88 for Sofia Cantore, who exactly doubled the Thorns’ entire forward-forward progress on her own.

But even Cantore’s contributions pale compared to absolutely gigantic 204 yards for Rosemonde Kouassi. For Washington’s first goal, Kouassi covered about 80% of the entire field in one go, recovering a stray deflection from a Thorns corner kick and igniting in a dead sprint to the other end. At the end of her run, Kouassi unselfishly dished the ball at the last second to an open Gift Monday, who was arriving in front of goal at max speed.

Credit does have to be given to Mackenzie Arnold, who was clearly the Thorns’ best player of the day. Washington scored their two goals on screaming, full-field sprints, capped off by open-net tap-ins. That meant Arnold and the Thorns’ defense really did stand strong during Washington’s sustained periods of half-field attack, including a monster 11-3 advantage in corner kicks taken. Arnold ends up saving a big six shots, which combined for a dangerous 1.9 Post-Shot Expected Goals, keeping the scoreboard closer than the rhythm of play.

Despite the one-way domination, the scoreboard still read 1-0 until the closing minutes of this game. And soccer, in its endless gifts and cruelties, can definitely still give an overmatched team like the Thorns the victory, with just the right against-the-grain moments of glory.

That moment nearly came in the 75th minute, when Pietra Tordin fired off the Thorns’ most potent shot attempt of the day. Spirit goalie Audrey Kingsbury was only able to deflect the shot, sending the dangerous rebound back into the penalty area. Turner was diligently following the play, and in-position to score if the ball fell to her. But, alas, the deflection randomly bounces harmlessly away from Turner, and Washington can collect.

Portland’s state of desperation was underscored a few minutes later, though, when Rob Gale brought on Daiane to replace Turner. Even when trailing, 1-0, with the season on the line, the only substitution available to Gale was replacing a forward with a fifth defender. While Daiane did seem to live a bit more in the midfield than her normal place on defense — this is still very, very far from ideal. Valerin Loboa was listed as a potential substitute in this game, but, after she was out due to injury in the quarterfinals, this sub exchange felt like a sign that Loboa wasn’t truly available.

Just seconds after the substitution was made, the Thorns have their difficult-to-watch blunder on the goalie backpass, stolen by the Spirit for a walk-in goal, 2-0. While the substitutes weren’t directly involved in the play, you could say their indirect involvement was meaningful: with so little resources on the forward line, the only reasonable direction to move the ball was backwards.

This game is when the bill came due for Portland’s summer of future-focused moves. While the Thorns front office spent the last several months creating a long-term pipeline of transactions to make the team younger, which could easily pay off in future years — the team also operated with indifference to a push for this year’s playoffs. It was hard not to get jealous of the Spirit, and their June acquisition of the forward Cantore. The proactive addition of a player with Cantore’s strong résumé is exactly what pushing chips in for the championship looks like.

Cantore was 25 years old at the time of the summer signing, and had just completed a championship-winning season for Juventus in the Italian league, with 17 goal contributions in 25 games. With her NWSL contract in her back pocket, Cantore spent the rest of the summer helping push her underdog Italian team into the semifinals of the Euro Championships, with three assists along the way. Cantore only receives the start in this NWSL playoff game because the Spirit are, just like the Thorns, dealing with a red-alert amount of absences to their offense. Ashley Hatch’s season ended halfway as she went on maternity leave; Ouleymata Sarr, with eight goals scored in 2024, never did get healthy in 2025; and Rodman’s availability has come and gone all season.

With four goals scored in her first 12 NWSL games, Cantore is a more-than-capable replacement as a starter in an NWSL playoff game. On the day, Cantore led the Spirit with five Progressive Carries — a move with the ball of at least ten yards towards the goal. The Thorns combined for six Progressive Carries as a team in the whole game.

Saturday had to be an odd day for retired Thorns legend Christine Sinclair. Just minutes after the Thorns were officially eliminated, the championship game of Canada’s Northern Super League kicked off. The championship featured the team Sinclair partly owns, her hometown Vancouver Rise. On an awesomely eerie, foggy field in Toronto, Vancouver overcame an early 1-0 deficit to beat AFC Toronto, 2-1. So, yes: the championships are still rolling in for Sinclair, even after her time in uniform has come to an end.

They’ve done it again. For the second time in three seasons, Gotham FC have followed up a rickety regular season with a stone-cold march through the playoffs, to the NWSL Championship. One week after beating Kansas City with a goal in the stoppage time of overtime, Gotham goes to Orlando, score the only goal in a 1-0 victory in stoppage time of the second half.

The goal comes from midsummer acquisition Jaedyn Shaw, whose long-distance free kick somehow manages to slowly find its way through a crowded box, as if remote-controlled. In the closing moments, Gotham keeper Ann-Katrin Berger heroically punches away a header off of a Marta free kick to preserve the victory.

Thorn Town will return next week to recap the championship game between Gotham and Washington, and also say goodbye to the 2025 season.