Stumptown Footy - Coverage Hub: Portland Thorns vs Seattle ReignYou are my sunshine, my only sunshine.https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/31537/stumptown-fave.jpg2018-05-08T12:00:02-07:00http://www.stumptownfooty.com/rss/stream/170868472018-05-08T12:00:02-07:002018-05-08T12:00:02-07:00Thorns FC: Just Like Watching Brazil
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<figcaption>Kris Lattimore</figcaption>
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<p id="iZ5e3O">Perhaps because Thorns FC now has a Brazilian player, last Saturday the club played like Brazil is supposed to play; “We conceded five? <em>Não faz mal!</em> We’ll score six!”</p>
<p id="s6HYpB">So you <a href="https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/5/17323068/recap-thorns-fall-to-reign-2-3-at-home">come to our house and score three</a>, Seattle? </p>
<p id="fJMqjw">No problem, we’ll score <em>two!</em> </p>
<p id="1hVhAi">Wait. </p>
<p id="VwUmjJ"><em>What?</em></p>
<p id="gwtTMB">Yeah. You see what they did there. If you concede goals like Brazil you have to <em>score</em> them like Brazil, and despite a ridiculous number of attempts and a ton of great opportunities, Portland just couldn’t score enough to overcome another full match worth of backline oopsies.</p>
<p id="3Bw5jt">Opportunities? Y<em>es!</em> </p>
<p id="sRHUWQ">That was the “good news” from the Seattle match; the Thorns created chances by the bagful.</p>
<p id="F9MKSz">Here’s the InStat plot of the dangerous attacks just from open play; keep in mind that set-piece attempts are not included.</p>
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<cite>Image by InStat. Used by permission.</cite>
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<p id="8SdYeD">The thing to note here is the distance from goal most of these chances came from. Many from inside 18 yards, five from less than the distance to the penalty spot. Those are <em>good</em> chances. The expected goals (xG) calculation from the best of the attacks shown above looks like this;</p>
<p id="Prncqf">0.583 (Mallory Weber, 18’) + 0.08 (Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic, 29’) + 0.26 (Crnogorcevic, 43’) + 0.81 (<a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293432/tobin-heath">Tobin Heath</a>, 50’) + 0.827 (Crnogorcevic, 55’) + 0.827 (<a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293434/lindsey-horan">Lindsey Horan</a>, 70’) + 0.827 (Heath, 88’) = 4.21xG. </p>
<p id="PDOmj8">That’s not counting Horan’s 89th minute point-blank header or 90th minute near-post blast, both from set-pieces, both saved; both would have put the xG total close to <em>five</em>.</p>
<p id="l2ugxs">Coach Parsons was correct; the Thorns <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/portland-thorns/2018/05/thorns_seattle_reign_recap.html">should have been up by three</a>, if not at the half, at least by the final whistle.</p>
<p id="Xan9Y9">Why weren’t they?<em> </em>First, because all but two of those shots didn’t go in. Some by chance, or just bad luck; off the crossbar (twice), driven over, or wide. Some were saved through the good work of Michelle Betos, who played a blinder.</p>
<p id="WjnMuv">Second, because as in the previous several matches - where, as <a href="https://www.timbers.com/post/2018/05/02/inside-ptfc-how-diagnose-thorns-fc-defense-conceding-random-goals">Richard Farley wrote</a>, “<em>...multiple other things</em> (had) <em>broken down...things which put the team in a bad spot”</em> - once again the Thorns broke down in back and gave up several cheap, easy goals.</p>
<p id="E0t9Nv">The first goal was off a 36th minute corner kick, not terrifically well-defended in general and leading to a concession largely due to Britt Eckerstrom’s inexperience.</p>
<p id="KCIyyk">You can see as the ball comes in from the corner Eckerstrom has edged off her line towards the scrum of bodies in front of her.</p>
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<cite>Image by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use</cite>
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<p id="DAG3iR">That’s a young-keeper mistake. If Eckerstrom comes out late and hard she stands a chance that she might either 1) get up high and catch or box away, or 2) draw a foul, killing off the play. Inching off her line like a kid trying to sneak into the crowd at recess, all she’s going to do is get tangled in the melee.</p>
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<cite>Limage by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use</cite>
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<p id="XISUc4">When Beverly Yanez gets her head to the ball, she doesn’t really do all that well with it. She doesn’t head the service powerfully down. The ball just sort of bounces off her head and flies straight and level at the goalmouth.</p>
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<cite>Image by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use. Inset, Kris Lattimore</cite>
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<p id="DnAXFK">This was actually worse than it looked from the west stands. Eckerstrom wasn’t just out of position, she’d been knocked around by the tussle in front of the goal and had already been taken out of the play.</p>
<p id="E47D40">After fighting back to 1-1 at 61’, the Thorns then gave up a penalty kick goal on a clumsy challenge from Crnogorcevic three minutes later. I have nothing much more to say about that other than Christine Sinclair and I think Karen Abt has a funny sense of what is and isn’t a penalty.</p>
<p id="9NUUB5">Then the Thorns fought back - again - to level at 2-2 in the 70th minute.</p>
<p id="7vguLE">The Thorns’ final concession begins four minutes later, when Kat Reynolds horribly misplays a long <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/255543/meghan-klingenberg">Meghan Klingenberg</a> cross.</p>
<p id="KeZpXg">What you are about to see is violently inept defending. Sensitive adults and impressionable children may wish to skip down to the end of the screenshots.</p>
<p id="AuSXWW">Ready? OK, so cue up the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4NDLJow1ZE">Yakety Sax</a>” score, and let’s take a look</p>
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<cite>Image by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use.</cite>
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<p id="h9AGuf">Not content with booting the pass, Reynolds then gets skinned and beat to the byline by Kawasumi, who puts in the cross to Jessica Fishlock running in unmarked to her right. </p>
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<cite>Image by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use.</cite>
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<p id="a4A24a">Fishlock takes the ball just to the left of the penalty spot and surrounded by three Thorns. These appear to be casual sightseers, so amazed at the sight of a Welshwoman in a Seattle kit <em>with a ball at her feet 12 yards from their own goal</em> that none of the three can be bothered to close her down.</p>
<p id="1mqdpu">Fishlock has a ton of time and space to find Jodie Taylor at the top of the six-yard box.</p>
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<cite>Image by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use.</cite>
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<p id="On8pKQ">Now it’s Klingenberg’s turn to help over-egg this $h!t-souffle. She stabs and misses, toppling on her back like a tipped-over turtle, and Taylor only has Eckerstrom in front of her. </p>
<p id="MkoCan">Eckerstrom makes <em>her</em> contribution to the disaster by going to ground too early.</p>
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<cite>Image by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use.</cite>
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<p id="I03bry">At this point all Taylor has to do is put the biscuit in the basket, and it’s 2-3 Seattle.</p>
<p id="nNsKrS">She takes the shot but Hubly arrives just in time to block the ball away for a corner. </p>
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<cite>Image by Lifetime. Licensed under Fair Use.</cite>
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<p id="wjY8KK">Whew! Danger past, right?</p>
<p id="h1SwUc">Nope.</p>
<p id="BbWp1M">On the ensuing corner the Reign push the ball out to Rumi Utsugi at the top of the penalty area. Utsugi hits a simple skipping ball past Eckerstrom’s late dive for the match-winner.</p>
<p id="SKFkPm">If Portland had converted all those great chances we wouldn’t be talking about these embarrassing concessions. They didn’t convert, though, and if the Thorns aren’t going to score like Brazil, they’re going to have to start defending like Italy.</p>
<p id="jBlpyR">We’re exactly one-quarter of the way through the season and still inside the top four, if barely, level on points with Orlando. </p>
<p id="PkVeWB">It’s well past time to stop derping on defense and conceding comedy goals. </p>
<p id="2P2PyI">Defense wins championships, remember?</p>
<h3 id="NmQidb">Player Ratings and Comments</h3>
<p id="gvQqAL"><strong>Weber</strong> (<em>45’ -</em> +5/-4) For all the useful things Weber did Saturday, it’s very difficult for me to get past her 18<sup>th</sup> minute miss. After a brilliant steal, all alone on Betos with the goal gaping in front of her, deeper than a well and wider than a church door, all Weber could do was clank her shot off the crossbar.</p>
<p id="EpADBI">Given that opportunity, in that game state – with Seattle controlling early possession and threatening to score – Weber <em>had</em> to bury that shot, put her team up a goal, and force the visitors to chase the game.</p>
<p id="JMpCCa">You know I’ve been frustrated with the Thorns forwards’ lack of scoring, but this was perhaps the single most frustrating moment of the season to date. I don’t know whether this is the point where Weber needs to try and play through whatever yips she’s having or whether she needs to sit. If Coach Parsons wants to keep playing two forwards – and I’m not sure he does, given how much better the team looks with Heath on the pitch – he’s got a tough decision to make.</p>
<p id="gZc7Jc"><strong>Crnogorcevic</strong> (+10/-1 : +3/-3 : +13/-4) A difficult outing for Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic; lots of hard work with little to show for it. And she <em>did</em> work hard; making intelligent runs and threading accurate passes, especially in the first half. She looked less incisive in the second half, suggesting that concerns about her fitness may not have been misplaced.</p>
<p id="5TaqDp">The numbers suggest that while both Portland forwards worked hard Saturday they didn’t get much out of that effort; InStat shows both Weber and Crnogorcevic in the low 50% range for successful attacking actions and Crnogorcevic in particular coughed up the ball a lot, more than anyone else on the team. Both were less effective going forward than any of the midfielders.</p>
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<cite>Image by InStat. Used by permission</cite>
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<p id="rkArMD">It’s good that Portland has found ways to score without their strikers. It’s not good that Portland has <em>had</em> to find ways to score without their strikers. I still like what I see in Crnogorcevic, but, like all the other forwards, she needs to contribute more to the scoresheet.</p>
<p id="l9qti5"><strong>Sinclair</strong> (+5/-1 : +9/-2 : +14/-3) The Portland midfielders fought with their Seattle counterparts all match, and in the middle of that war <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293438/christine-sinclair">Christine Sinclair</a> spent a lot of time tussling with <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293436/allie-long">Allie Long</a>. “Sinclair vs Long” was an epic bout, and, unfortunately for Portland, not in Sinc’s favor; Long won 7 of their 12 individual battles. That was just part of Sinclair’s tough day at the office; InStat reports that she lost 13 of her 28 challenges, including a surprising 55% of her duels in the air and almost 60% in attack.</p>
<p id="SMLMxi">Once again, the addition of Heath seemed to help Sinclair lift her game, and Sinc provided much of the quality of the Thorns’ late match push. But Sinclair’s frustration in her battle with Long, and Long’s monster performance, was a good distillation of the Thorns’ unsuccessful day.</p>
<p id="Hfkyua"><strong>Heath</strong> (45’ - +7/-7) I’ve started to get used to the disparity between Heath’s impact on the match and her PMR. That’s because Heath is a fountain of soccer overflowing with plays; clever plays, brilliant plays, over-ambitious plays, and sometimes outright poor plays. “Harry” Heath never seems to stop and worry about “doing the right thing”; she would rather do <em>something</em> and then see if it works out right. The result is that Heath ends up becoming an even mix of pluses and minuses on paper, but on the pitch becomes a source of great energy that lights up her teammates.</p>
<p id="xt02jX">Once again, Heath’s work sparked her team’s attack. Unfortunately, she can’t also play fullback or center back, so she couldn’t prevent her teammates conceding faster than she could help them score.</p>
<p id="C04pfi"><strong>Horan </strong>(+9/-4 : +14/-3 : +25/-7) Woman of the Match. All the usual Horan positives; intelligence, pace, fierce determination. Brilliantly headed effort to chip Betos on Portland’s second goal, and a total of four great chances altogether. She must be kicking herself for shanking her 55<sup>th</sup> minute shot off the crossbar. Terrific work, and not Horan’s fault that her team came up just short.</p>
<p id="WoCFvQ"><strong>Boureille </strong>(<em>45’ -</em> +4/-4) Like Sinclair, struggled with Seattle’s midfield. Unlike Sinclair, didn’t get the benefit of Heath and a furious second half to look better. Boureille struggled with her positioning against Seattle. While she did well when she was able to catch a Seattle player – she won all her duels – she didn’t catch them often enough; 9 overall challenges compared to Sinclair’s 25, Horan’s 35, and Purce’s 13. For a player who’s supposed to be holding down the back of the midfield, that’s not a good number. Successful going forward – 86% of her attacking actions succeeded – but not so much tracking back.</p>
<p id="27irQ8"><strong>Purce</strong> (+11/-5 : +12/-4 : +23/-9) Midge Purce is turning out to be the best thing to come out of Boston since the bean and the cod. She had some trouble connecting her passes Saturday – only 65% went to a teammate – but she made up for that with some terrific attacking runs and incisive crosses, including a 72<sup>nd</sup> minute frozen rope that Heath barely missed poking right in on goal.</p>
<p id="U0OXdK">I really love what Purce is doing. What I’d like to see her doing more of, though, is providing assists to her forwards. This is as much the forwards’ issue as Purce’s, however, so without some changes up front I don’t see how Purce can make it happen herself. </p>
<p id="27qAAv"><strong>Andressinha</strong> (<em>45’ –</em> +7/-2) Great in all aspects of the game; won 70% of her individual duels, completed 81% of her passes, succeeded 78% of the time in attacking actions. Given what she’s shown us in limited minutes, given the way opponents are throwing bodies at Horan to try and pin her back deep, and given the inability of Boureille to break Horan out of that pressure, I think it’s worth trying the Brazilian for a full match. Unless she’s not fit, Andressinha needs to start this Wednesday in Houston.</p>
<p id="k5A9T8"><strong>Klingenberg</strong> (+2/-2 : +5/-2 : +7/-5) Klingenberg didn’t have any truly epic fails – that was Reynolds and Sonnett – but she was almost invisible in the first half. She came to life in the second, having another one of those “Bad Kling/Good Kling” days. </p>
<p id="r5hGkh">Once she woke up, though, she delivered some gorgeous crosses and passes, and made some effective runs, especially in the five minutes before Portland’s second goal. Here’s my notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p id="kGQjVj">65’ – Kling great run, cross blocked away.</p>
<p id="ujNKDd">67’ – Andressinha terrific through ball, Kling’s cross cleared for CK</p>
<p id="0e6N3f">68’ – Kling pretty service but Sinclair offside.</p>
<p id="BY6Tyk">70’ – Purce long switch to Heath, forward to Kling, cross to Crnogorcevic headed wide, recycled out to Sonnett. Sonnett pass up to Kling, drops dime on Horan, header over Betos, 2-2!</p>
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<p id="s4X2K1">That’s good stuff. I just wish we’d get a full 90 minutes of that from you, Kling.</p>
<p id="0MpxG3"><strong>Hubly</strong> (+6/-6 : +4/-3 : +10/-9) Her PMR is deceptive; Kelli Hubly had a decent match. InStat makes it clear that she owned Yanez (winning 4 of their 5 meetings) and Taylor (winning 7 of 9). She even beat Long once, the only Thorn who came out the better for their encounter with<em> La Blanquita</em>. </p>
<p id="ZiKziZ">Throw in Hubly’s goal-line clear on that 74<sup>th</sup> minute mess and that’s a pretty impressive match for someone who wasn’t playing professionally anywhere six months ago. InStat rates her as the second best Thorns defender behind Sonnett, the fourth best Thorn overall, and I’d agree - Hubly had a very good day.</p>
<p id="7UOfPT"><strong>Sonnett</strong> (+5/-2 : +6/-3 : +11/-5) Oh, dear, dear me. Emily Sonnett, what can I say? Remember my description of the Thorns’ defense in Utah; <em>“Eighty-nine minutes of comfort, sixty seconds of terror”</em>? </p>
<p id="lyWIHb">Yeah, that. </p>
<p id="CbPhz8">You play a solid match, you score the first equalizer, by the middle of the second half you’re well on your way to looking like having a cover-of-the-program matchday. </p>
<p id="85Kd9W">And then, in the 73<sup>rd</sup> minute, you do one of those “step on the ball, trip and fall over” things that make you cover your eyes when your kid does it in her U-12 rec-league match at Overlook Park. </p>
<p id="a07HQo">On one of the comment threads discussing the last match I made an offhand remark about how the Thorns’ defense “coughs up at least one disgusting hairball per match”. This was one of several Saturday but <em><strong>the</strong></em> worst single individual one, and the only reason Sonnett didn’t get punished worse is because after Taylor swooped down and hawked that ball, the Englishwoman tamely poked her shot straight at Eckerstrom. </p>
<p id="szU5P8">It’s hard to look past that to put the rest of Sonnett’s good work in perspective. She <em>did</em> do good work for much of the match, but one fail cancels out a whole lot of attagirls and that was an <em>epic</em> fail.</p>
<p id="OPSdJg"><strong>Reynolds</strong> (+5/-2 : +2/-5 : +7/-7) For the second match in a row, Kat Reynolds made an appalling error that led to a goal. Not directly, like her giveaway to Amy Rodriguez in Utah, but here the initial mistake was worse because Reynolds was under absolutely no pressure. There was no reason Reynolds shouldn’t have calmly collected that cross. Yes, she needed a lot of help to turn that into a match-loser, but the initial error that kicked off the train-wreck was eminently preventable.</p>
<p id="Gm6qIG">As you’d expect from that and her PMR, Reynolds didn’t have a great day. Her InStat Index of 148 is only beaten out by <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/277496/megan-oyster">Megan Oyster</a>’s 138 in the race for what Chris Henderson likes to call the <em>“Ballon d’Nope”</em><em>;</em><em> </em>the least effective player on the pitch.</p>
<p id="Zmz4KM"><strong>Eckerstrom</strong> (+3/-3 : +0/-2 : +3/-5) Eckerstrom didn’t do well on the first Seattle goal, as discussed above, and probably should have done better on the Utsugi match-winner. Had some issues controlling her backline, too; in the 30<sup>th</sup> minute Hubly made a dangerous play out of clearing a harmless roller that Eckerstrom could easily have picked up. </p>
<p id="drI72v">Unfortunately for Eckerstrom, her shortcomings, while not in themselves remarkable for a young keeper with limited first team minutes, were highlighted by Betos’ playing out of her mind at the other end of the pitch.</p>
<p id="E1XOwb"><strong>Coach Parsons:</strong> Different match, same problems; the forwards aren’t scoring and the backline is making some awful mistakes. Mind you, Parsons is also dealing with the same issues he’s had to fight all season; critical players are injured, the team has had to pull together a matchday eleven filled out with former reserves and recent returnees. These problems have to be hindering Parsons’ ability to make changes. He’s tried Tyler Lussi and Ifeoma Onumonu and hasn’t had any more success breaking the duck. He doesn’t have any better options in back, and short of going mad and training his backs with a shock-collar I don’t see how he can prevent Sonnett tripping over the ball or Reynolds forgetting how to play a simple cross-field pass.</p>
<p id="eKLbdu">On Wednesday, the Thorns travel to Houston. Outside of Sky Blue, the Dash are the league’s most reliable points-dispenser. Having gone 0-1-2 over the last three matches, Thorns FC needs a thumping road win to get the club back on track, and Houston is the very sort of place to get that.</p>
<p id="vL5dh1">Forwards, score. Defenders, don’t derp. Thorns, let’s get three on the road.</p>
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https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/8/17325216/thorns-fc-just-like-watching-brazil-portland-seattle-reign-analysisJohn Lawes2018-05-07T13:41:44-07:002018-05-07T13:41:44-07:00Roses and Thorns: Mirror, Mirror
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<figcaption>Nikita Taparia</figcaption>
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<p id="7TBJar"><em>“It’s our [</em><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293436/allie-long"><em>Allie Long</em></a><em>]... but it isn’t.”</em></p>
<p id="bbfoHV">-Captain Kirk</p>
<p id="bLdaex">What a weird weekend.<strong> </strong>After the fever dream that was Saturday’s home loss and subsequent <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinmccauley/status/992910088061976576">brutal taco showdown</a>, I woke up Sunday around six in a cold sweat because I couldn’t stop thinking about this bizarre nugget from Allie Long’s post-game interview: </p>
<blockquote><p id="LK6n5c">I mean I think that first of all, it was a great TV game. We knew they were going to be direct, we knew they were just going to pump balls into the box, and I think that that works for them... We just needed to control the game a little more. I thought we did in bits and pieces, and when we have the ball, they don’t touch it, they’re not dangerous. So we just have to build on that and I think it was a good step and a great game, a great TV game. It was exciting.</p></blockquote>
<p id="psksJI">First and foremost, the “great TV game” line excepted, this is a series of brazen lies, almost as complete a misrepresentation of the game as is physically possible in the space given. My angst was deeper than that, though.</p>
<p id="zG4aKl">In the Star Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror,” Kirk is whisked away to a parallel universe, physically similar to our own but populated by evil simulacra of his crew. Mirror Univese Spock, like the one we know, is still governed by logic. His is an especially cold logic, though, deployed not in service of the Federation’s mission of exploration and discovery, but the evil Terran Empire’s mission of galactic domination. Mirror Universe Spock looks like this.</p>
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<cite>Nikita Taparia</cite>
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<p id="4zppA3">Oh, sorry, wrong photo. He looks like this.</p>
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<p id="5ajyZY">Like Evil Spock, the Allie Long who came back to Providence Park on Saturday was the same one who used to play here: often frustrating, occasionally brilliant, never boring. She was also, fundamentally, not the same one. The alternate flashes of greatness facing toward goal and caving under pressure in the midfield, the high passing accuracy buoyed by a tendency to play back to her defenders, the whole perplexing package that constitutes Long: all that was now in service of a new master.</p>
<p id="Jctqtg">That quote, the one that was eating at me Sunday morning, was the bow on that package. Beyond the sheer reality-manipulation giving me an uneasy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory#Commonly_held_false_memories">Mandela Effect</a> feeling, I was having flashbacks to the evening of September 7, 2016, when I had the pleasure of hearing Long’s Arsene Wenger imitation after a game against Houston:</p>
<blockquote><p id="WbDaAl">We kind of just focused on ourselves and if we had the ball. I know Arsene Wenger, they were playing Barcelona in one of their <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/champions-league">Champions League</a> games and somebody asked him about Messi and everyone, and he said, [Wenger voice] “how can they score if they don’t have the ball?” So in my mind, if we keep possession, we’re limiting those dangerous players.</p></blockquote>
<p id="799YDh">In other words, this narrative is the same one one she’s been using since she was a Thorn. Her version of Saturday’s game is the creation of a Bizarro-Long, not a reflection of reality but a simple manifestation of her essence as a player. Good teams, according to this narrative, play a possession game, while inferior teams play direct. Naturally, it follows that the winning team must always out-possess the losing team.</p>
<p id="PzTJot">Except this is neither a general truth nor what happened this weekend.</p>
<p id="WGqlon">Setting aside the philosophical debate about style, over the course of this game the Thorns had possession 53.6% of the time—that’s the average of a slight disadvantage (46.4%) in the first half and a large lead (60.8%) in the second. </p>
<p id="6oAh2B">Not only do the numbers tell a story but to the eye, Seattle’s possession throughout the first half was often toothless. Most of that first half was played in the middle third of the field. When Seattle did get into their attacking third, they were almost always confined to the wings, thanks in part to Celeste Boureille rendering Jess Fishlock an absolute non-factor. Three of their four first-half shots on goal came from set pieces, the remaining one being a shot from distance that Fishlock sent straight to Britt Eckerstrom.</p>
<p id="bSeumo">Then, in the second half, Portland notched a flat-out ridiculous 16 shots from inside the box. We don’t have nice things like heat maps in the NWSL, but if we did, the Thorns’ attacking third would literally be on fire. Other than the long-range screamer Rumi Utsugi scored in the 75th minute, Seattle’s best chance in the run of play was on a transition, when Emily Sonnett stumbled and Jodie Taylor pounced to get one-on-one with Eckerstrom. In short, there may be a universe where Seattle played a careful possession game on Saturday, but it is not this one.</p>
<p id="zrm8ne">Anyway, as the title implies, I’m contractually bound to award roses and thorns in this column, so here they are:</p>
<p id="9Nv1hh"><strong>A rose to Celeste Boureille and Kelli Hubly.</strong></p>
<p id="VMR0n7">Boureille and Hubly are ultimately going to get pushed out of the starting lineup, which is a shame, in a sense. Both have been punching above their weight for the last six weeks. Boureille, as I mentioned above, bossed Fishlock around all game on Saturday and produced a pass-completion rate of 82.6%, trailing only Andressinha. Hubly played savior for the Thorns several times—including a dramatic goal-line clearance in the 74th minute in one iteration of the unending parade of goalmouth scrambles. </p>
<p id="fYUr22">These players both came to the Thorns as walk-ons. Neither is a match for their first-choice counterparts—Emily Menges for Hubly and Andressinha/<a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293434/lindsey-horan">Lindsey Horan</a> for Boureille—but they’ve done an admirable job filling those shoes.</p>
<p id="85Df4E"><strong>A thorn to Michelle Betos.</strong></p>
<p id="slTJEj">Long wasn’t the only former Thorn back in town in a Reign kit. Onetime hero of the legendary Battle of Kansas City, Betos had a ridiculous second half on her homecoming. Right now, Portland’s finishing issues are much the same as the ones they’ve historically had early in the season, and there were definitely moments where Thorns players could have done more to put their chances away. Still, Betos was huge in denying Horan a brace in the second half and, especially teamed up with her good friend the woodwork, she’s a big part of why Portland couldn’t find a third equalizer.</p>
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/7/17327242/roses-and-thorns-mirror-mirrorKatelyn Best2018-05-05T15:47:12-07:002018-05-05T15:47:12-07:00Recap: Thorns fall to Reign 2-3 at home
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<p id="PueB3Z">The Portland Thorns lost to their rivals from the north today in a wild nail-biter of a game that saw the Thorns dominate the run of play, but ultimately fall short thanks to a penalty kick and a first-half set-piece goal. The loss was extra painful, as the game was a homecoming for three former Thorns players: Jodie Taylor, Michelle Betos, and, worst of all, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293436/allie-long">Allie Long</a>.</p>
<p id="coRsvb">The Thorns started the same lineup as last week, with Britt Eckerstrom in goal, Kelli Hubly, Emily Sonnett, and Katherine Reynolds at center back, Midge Purce and <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/255543/meghan-klingenberg">Meghan Klingenberg</a> at wingback, Celeste Boureille, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293434/lindsey-horan">Lindsey Horan</a>, and Christine Sinclair in the central midfield, and Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic and Mallory Weber at forward.</p>
<p id="yn35Yg">Portland got their first chance off a ninth-minute corner kick. The ball bounced around in the 18 before falling to Lindsey Horan, who took a shot from distance, but Michelle Betos easily saved. They had another near-chance not long after, when <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293438/christine-sinclair">Christine Sinclair</a> threaded a pinpoint pass between two Seattle defenders to Weber, but she was called offside.</p>
<p id="ZuAhkU">Weber had a quintessential Weber moment in the 18th minute, when she beat several Reign players to get one-on-one against Betos, but she sent her shot high and could only find the crossbar.</p>
<p id="GEJh9N">Allie Long was awarded a yellow card for a handball outside the box in the 25th minute; Horan stepped up to take the free kick and sent it sailing lazily over the crossbar.</p>
<p id="0a7VR4">Moments later, Portland had another chance when <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/277496/megan-oyster">Megan Oyster</a> made a poor back pass—the kind the Thorns have been able to capitalize on already this season—sending a ball intended for Betos into open space in the penalty area. Crnogorcevic pounced on the loose ball, but her shot went to the right of goal.</p>
<p id="q5rbpS">In the 32nd minute, wayward Thorn Allie Long was issued a yellow card for a studs-up tackle on Boureille that caught all Boureille and no ball. Long nearly made up for the card two minutes later, when she got her head on the end of a high lofted ball<strong> </strong>into the 6-yard box, but Eckerstrom was just able to get a glove on it and tip the shot over the bar.</p>
<p id="vz73By">The Reign opened the scoring in the 36th minute. Bev Yanez beat Horan to get her head on the end of a Nahomi Kawasumi corner kick and sent a point-blank shot past Eckerstrom. Long nearly made it two in the 41st minute as she scrambled around Reynolds<strong> </strong>to find a service from Yanez, but her volley went just high.</p>
<p id="lbYQBn">Reynolds popped a ball over the Reign back line to Crnogorcevic in the 44th minute; Crnogorcevic aimed her header well, but Betos was there. The half ended 1-0 in Seattle’s favor. Overall, although the Reign beat the Thorns out in possession, with 53% to Portland’s 46%, the Thorns had the better of the half. They were mostly able to squeeze Seattle out of the central midfield and force them out to the wings, where players like Hubly, Purce, and Kling did well to block any dangerous service, for the most part. Boureille had an excellent half matched up against Jess Fishlock, handily winning most of her duels against the Welshwoman. </p>
<p id="dCLgzh">To start the half, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293432/tobin-heath">Tobin Heath</a> and Andressinha came on for Mallory Weber and Celeste Boureille. Portland had their first chance of the half in the 51st minute, when Heath was open on the left-hand side of the 18 to receive a nice lofted ball that Purce sent across the area, but her left-footed shot went well wide.</p>
<p id="zCU5sA">Portland came painfully close to equalizing in the 55th minute, when Horan collected a cross by Andressinha and fired off a rocket that hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced off. She picked up the loose ball and tapped it past a diving Betos to Crnogorcevic, but the former Thorn blocked her follow-up shot, and Seattle was able to clear the ball.</p>
<p id="jaJ3d0">Crnogorcevic came close again in the 59th minute. Kling sent a pass up the wing for Heath, who sprinted past Yanez and Kawasumi to hit a sideways pass across the penalty area to Crnogorcevic on the right. The Swiss forward took a hair too long in getting a shot off, and Betos was able to block it.</p>
<p id="Ok4VGV">Portland finally broke through and equalized soon after. Heath sent a corner kick to the center of the six-yard box, where a frantic scramble resulted in Sonnett spinning around and somehow finding the side netting.</p>
<p id="ZlMsTd">Seattle went back up minutes later, when Fishlock earned a penalty kick on a supposed foul in the box by Crnogorcevic.<strong> </strong>Jodie Taylor, the least-remembered former Thorn on this Reign team, stepped up to take the spot and sent her kick to the left while Eckerstrom dove the wrong way.</p>
<p id="e7VG3I">Christine Sinclair found the back of the net in the 67th minute with a header off a ball over the top from Kling,<strong> </strong>but it was waved offside.</p>
<p id="tAsSsz">The Thorns finally found a second equalizer in the 70th minute, when <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293435/meghan-klingenberg">Meghan Klingenberg</a><strong> </strong>sent a cross in to Horan, whose angled shot from the right side of the 6-yard box sailed almost lazily inside the far post. </p>
<p id="sY3CVd">As if compensating for Weber’s howler in the first half, Taylor got on the end of a breakaway in the 74th minute to get one-on-one with Eckerstrom, only to send a poor shot straight to the Portland keeper.</p>
<p id="mZu3QT">Seattle found another goal in the 76th minute. Rumi Utsugi took a hard crack from outside the 18 that flew tidily between Eckerstrom and the post to make it 2-3.</p>
<p id="r7j8ro">Seattle made their second substitution in the 77th minute, bringing Fishlock off for Morgan Andrews. Fishlock, embracing her role as Portland’s favorite villain, applauded as Providence Park erupted in boos.</p>
<p id="4f7C2b">Alyssa Kleiner earned a yellow card in the 88th minute for time-wasting on a throw-in. Soon after, the Thorns had two more near misses on weird goal-mouth scrambles, one a close-range attempt by Heath and another a well-struck shot by Horan; Betos saved both.</p>
<p id="BsaSBi">The second half, especially late, was pure insanity. The Thorns spent the majority of the last ten minutes of the game in Seattle’s defensive third, a good chunk of it in their penalty box. Purce and Kling both got past Seattle’s outside defenders repeatedly to send crosses in to Horan and Crnogorcevic, but Betos was playing out of her mind late in the game and denied Portland every time. The Thorns had a ridiculous 21 shots from inside the box over the course of the match, 16 of them in the second half. </p>
<p id="gOuAbh">Overall, it was a frustrating loss for the Thorns, who outplayed Seattle handily for most of the game, only to concede on a few momentary mistakes.</p>
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/5/17323068/recap-thorns-fall-to-reign-2-3-at-homeKatelyn Best2018-05-05T09:30:02-07:002018-05-05T09:30:02-07:00Portland Thorns vs Seattle Reign: Preview, How to Watch, Match Thread [12:30]
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<figcaption>Cindy Lara - RSL Soapbox</figcaption>
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<p id="tL4IC2">The Thorns return home to go up against their Cascadia rivals the Seattle Reign in the Lifetime Game of the Week. Despite a few absences remaining, the Thorns are approaching full health, filling their bench for the first time all season last week. <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293432/tobin-heath">Tobin Heath</a> may make her first start of the season.</p>
<p id="kmcZe6">Portland’s last two games were both pretty narrow draws in which the team felt as though they could have gotten more. Seattle’s best attacking threat in the opening part of the season, Megan Rapinoe, is out but the team is starting to put together some decent offense without her, including through former Thorn Allie Long. It should be a typical Portland-Seattle game: full of energy and hard tackles. </p>
<h2 id="HYVYrr"><a href="https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/4/17315516/storylines-portland-thorns-vs-seattle-reign">Storylines</a></h2>
<p id="YLaVMi">Seattle play in a similar style as the Utah Royals do: Laura Harvey and Vlatko Andonovski both love high-pressing teams that dominate the midfield. Harvey achieved a measure of success with this tactic last weekend; whether the Thorns can meet the challenge again this Saturday will determine an awful lot of the game. Parsons admitted that this is the way he’d expect teams to line up. “The first thing I’d do if I were playing the Thorns,” he said, “would be stop the midfield, stop Lindsey [Horan] from getting on the ball as much as possible. I thought they did a good job on all three midfielders, but the space to break pressure was there [against Utah]. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t. Seattle’s going to be very similar in how they press the midfield.”</p>
<h2 id="ADyJeh">Match Information</h2>
<p id="DQMnC8"><strong>Watch it on:</strong> Lifetime (USA), <a href="http://nwslsoccer.com/"><strong>NWSLSoccer.com</strong></a> (international)</p>
<p id="WpwRo6"><strong>Where:</strong> Providence Park in Portland OR</p>
<p id="USuyzo"><strong>When:</strong> Saturday, May 5th at 12:30 p.m. PT</p>
<p id="GyU4q8"><strong>Portland Thorns:</strong> 2-1-2, 3rd place in the NWSL, drew 1-1 against Utah Royals</p>
<p id="ksWmoc"><strong>Seattle Reign:</strong> 2-1-1, 5th place in the NWSL, drew 1-1 against <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/teams/orlando-pride">Orlando Pride</a></p>
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/5/17320918/portland-thorns-at-utah-royals-preview-how-to-watch-match-thread-12-30Tyler Nguyen2018-05-04T12:00:01-07:002018-05-04T12:00:01-07:00Storylines: Portland Thorns vs Seattle Reign
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<figcaption>Tobin Heath on the field at Rio Tinto against the Royals. | Cindy Lara, RSL Soapbox</figcaption>
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<p id="doGK0M">Portland-Seattle rivalry week kicks off this Saturday, when the Thorns host the Reign at Providence Park. The Thorns have had an all-too familiar start to the season: every season but 2013 and 2016 has begun with two wins, two draws and a loss. Portland goes into the match in third place and Seattle fourth. Both teams are confident of being in the playoff race as the season goes on.</p>
<h3 id="jdBK6z">Projected Starting XI</h3>
<p id="Mhx6Dm">AD Franch and Bella Geist were not in training midweek, meaning Britt Eckerstrom will start and Adelaide Gay will retain her temporary contract at the club as backup for the time being. Emily Menges is in full training but the club is playing her return very cautiously, as this injury is one that she has suffered before; she is not expected to play until the Wednesday game at the earliest. Andressinha made her first appearance off the bench at Utah and could make her first start.</p>
<p id="ysdUXC"> <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/255543/meghan-klingenberg">Meghan Klingenberg</a> will be the big question mark to start after re-injuring her oblique stretching for a challenge against Utah. Mark Parsons said he was hopeful that she could play but wasn’t certain. Mallory Weber played left back well against Washington, but Ellie Carpenter, who got minutes in the position for Australia in the Asian Cup, is also in contention should Klingenberg be unavailable. <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293432/tobin-heath">Tobin Heath</a>, still making her way back to full fitness, is probably only good for 60 minutes maximum.</p>
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<h3 id="nZ5vgu">Scouting the Opposition</h3>
<p id="n48HnG">A full four former Thorns will likely be taking the field in highlighter on Saturday. <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293436/allie-long">Allie Long</a> and Jodie Taylor will be making their first appearances for the Reign against Portland. Michelle Betos will be making her first start against the Thorns since 2013. Steph Catley, on the other hand, is quite familiar with playing against her former club, having scored the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/teams/orlando-pride">Orlando Pride</a>’s first ever goal against the Thorns back in 2016.</p>
<p id="JsAPBK">Seattle will be missing a key offensive spark in Megan Rapinoe, but Jess Fishlock, after having come off early in last week’s game against Orlando, is officially off the injury report.</p>
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<h3 id="QxNMzs">History</h3>
<p id="lqk3VD">The Thorns are 7-6-3 against the Reign all time and 4-2-2 at home. The majority of the all-time wins came in the 2013 season. Last year’s fixture in the early part of the season saw the Thorns draw 2-2 against the Reign in a feisty game in which Jess Fishlock scored for both teams.</p>
<h3 id="VnnhbH">Players to Watch</h3>
<p id="oyVQGM">Andressinha played well when she came on against Utah, but how she will function in the Thorns’ tactical setup has yet to be determined. Will she sit deeper in a double pivot with Horan, taking turns to go forward, will Horan stay deeper while Andressinha plays higher, or will Sonnett step into midfield more often to allow them both to push on? Andressinha’s best actions were in pressing high up the field and in playing balls in behind, so playing her as a pure six seems like a waste.</p>
<p id="jVCpGR">Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic got her first start playing much more like a striker than the other Thorns forwards, who play more like wingers and drop wide more often. Weber looked a bit lost playing as the second striker with freedom to roam around the field; in fairness, it seemed like a tactical role that was more drawn up more for Heath than for Weber. If Heath does start, she will drop either centrally or to the left side of the field in possession, which will leave Midge Purce with the entire right side of the field to herself. Seattle won’t have Megan Rapinoe, but it’s still a lot of responsibility for the young wingback who is still learning her trade. Catley at left back for Seattle is probably among the best in the world, and some of Seattle’s best offense recently has come from deep crosses from her and Theresa Nielsen.</p>
<p id="df6BfV">Seattle will be bringing a lot of pressure on the ball in midfield. Allie Long has had a good start to the season but all of the usual caveats apply: she takes too many touches deep and can be pressured off the ball. If she is allowed to get free and make box-to-box runs she can be dangerous in front of goal, so whoever plays in defensive midfield will have to track her runs well.</p>
<h3 id="ITP5P9">Gameplan</h3>
<p id="8mE9cA">Seattle play in a similar style as the Utah Royals do: Laura Harvey and Vlatko Andonovski both love high-pressing teams that dominate the midfield. Harvey achieved a measure of success with this tactic last weekend; whether the Thorns can meet the challenge again this Saturday will determine an awful lot of the game. Parsons admitted that this is the way he’d expect teams to line up. “The first thing I’d do if I were playing the Thorns,” he said, “would be stop the midfield, stop Lindsey [Horan] from getting on the ball as much as possible. I thought they did a good job on all three midfielders, but the space to break pressure was there [against Utah]. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t. Seattle’s going to be very similar in how they press the midfield.”</p>
<p id="VModDP">Parsons did note that quicker balls to the front line from the midfield might be an option. “I felt that when our center mids had high pressure we could have skipped them and gone to the higher line and got [the Utah defense] underneath the ball a little better. Playing two similar teams in style and tactics gives us a good opportunity to learn from our last game.”</p>
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/4/17315516/storylines-portland-thorns-vs-seattle-reignTyler Nguyen2018-05-03T11:00:02-07:002018-05-03T11:00:02-07:00The Thorns Prediction Game: Reading the PTFC Leaves – Matchday 6
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<p id="ST99ww">Once again, no player predicted a draw with Salt Lake City last weekend. A perfect prediction would have earned 17 points; as it was, everyone’s combined score totaled only thirteen. We had two players tied with four points this week.</p>
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<p id="0ACNtd">New player Melinae called both goals and one of the assists, Timber Dave got a goal and an assist plus the most rec’ed wild prediction of the Riveters trying to eat the Utah mascot. It turned out to be pretty accurate also – the Royals mascot actually resembles a tater tot on a tricycle, although the Riveters exchanged high fives rather than recipes.</p>
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<figcaption>Big tater tot on a trike. Or maybe I was just hungry.</figcaption>
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<p id="mNX38b">This week sees the Thorns hosting the Seattle Reign and <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293436/allie-long">Allie Long</a>’s first time on the Providence Park pitch in black and blue. The Lifetime Game of the Week may feature <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/NWSL/players/293432/tobin-heath">Tobin Heath</a> and Andressinha for 90 minutes, but Megan Rapinoe’s status remains unknown for Seattle.</p>
<p id="Rj8pPe"><strong>How this works:</strong></p>
<p id="xOiuo2">Add a comment to this post. In the comment title put your predicted result, for example <strong>3-1 Thorns.</strong></p>
<p id="79KDbe">In the body of your comment, start with the goals and assists, like so:</p>
<p id="UdwU76"><strong>Weber (Klingenberg)</strong></p>
<p id="LqJte6"><strong>Sinclair (Free kick)</strong></p>
<p id="55lM3B"><strong>Horan (Unassisted)</strong></p>
<p id="SnUQfT"><strong>Long (PK)</strong></p>
<p id="XvihFy">Next, name the first yellow card recipient: <strong>First yellow to Sonnett </strong></p>
<p id="loA81V">Then reds, if any. (NOTE: no points awarded for correctly calling a red-card-free match, so take a guess.) <strong>Oyster gets a red for tripping Sinclair on the edge of the box.</strong></p>
<p id="erDqxo">And lastly, make your fun prediction:</p>
<p id="d0KDaa"><strong>Parsons accidentally refers to Vlatko as “Laura” and the 4</strong><sup><strong>th</strong></sup><strong> official has to intervene.</strong></p>
<p id="NqJvZ7"><strong>Scoring:</strong></p>
<p id="kYcvra">· Correct score: 5 points</p>
<p id="eEPnYD">· Correct result (draw/win/loss): 3 points</p>
<p id="n4scgB">· Each clean sheet: 2 points</p>
<p id="A6wpVn">· Each goal-scorer: 1 point</p>
<p id="YbBa3A">· Each FK/PK/assist/lack of assist: 1 point</p>
<p id="m4qpVl">· Goal/assist bonus: 1 point</p>
<p id="ZvOgmC">· Player with the first yellow card of the match: 1 point</p>
<p id="m6zncc">· Each player with a red card: 1 point (Cannot earn points for predicting 0 red cards)</p>
<p id="d0lzqH">· Most recommended/most outrageously accurate prediction: 2 points</p>
<p id="jYJXZ0"><strong>Some ground rules and explanations/clarifications (the fine print):</strong></p>
<p id="IXHv6q"><em>Comments must be posted before kickoff</em>, but you can edit or amend an earlier prediction right up to the starting whistle.</p>
<p id="6dvfyd"><em>Keep your scoreline predictions realistic.</em> No crazy scores just to pad out your <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/odds">odds</a> of getting goals and assists.</p>
<p id="gvhu25"><em>The goal/assist bonus</em> is an additional point if you predict the correct scorer and assistant on the same goal, for example, you say Onumonu scores from an Horan assist and that is exactly what happens.</p>
<p id="EOBjZw"><em>Be clear whether you think a goal will be unassisted, assisted, or from a PK/FK.</em> Unassisted = no assist, run of play; Assisted = player who got the assist; PK/FK = not in run of play. For the purposes of this thread, Penalty Kick and Free Kick are the same thing. No entry means unassisted.</p>
<p id="SgYiGJ">Have fun, tell your friends, let me know if you have any questions or if I screw up your score.</p>
https://www.stumptownfooty.com/2018/5/3/17309490/the-thorns-prediction-game-reading-the-ptfc-leaves-matchday-6-baonpdxRichard Hamje