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2026 and we're kicking off x o g on the road. We're going to be traveling guys traveling. And to do it up on opening weekend, I have decided to do a dumb thing. I will be in Washington on the 13th at Rowdy Audi Boston on the 14th for the Boston Legacy debut against Gotham and at BMO for Angel City's game against the Chicago stars on Sunday. Yikes. If you are in any of those markets, be sure to come say hi before the game to Eric. And we plan to try and hit all 16 markets this year. I will be in New Jersey for Gotham FC against the Orlando pride on Sunday March 29th and watch this space for more dates to come. In the meantime, if you are a fan of the show, we are doing a big Patreon sale where you can get an annual membership for a big discount. So be sure to use the code in the show notes for that. And we have launched a store. We have to have an official x o g store where you can get all the best merch for the start of the NWSL season and Patreon members get 20% off with an exclusive discount code for that. So those are all the fun little goodies from us. Stay tuned for the show. Hello and welcome to Expected Own Dolls. Let's call it love edition. I am your host Eric Morgan. And I am Evan Davis. Day 7 of NWSL season preview week. And which artist are you referring to? That would be Slider Kenny. That's off the woods. And it absolutely Eric rules. Yeah, it's, you know, and it's definitely in like Kerry Brownstein's most Portland era of her life. Like that's right around the Portlandia beginning of it all. And like there were many other choices of great artists from the city. But I think it's pretty hard to look past like basically who's become the bar of Portland, Oregon. It just did not quite recognize it in the out of context. But that does mean we are talking about the Portland Thorns with another x o g f o p a new one x o g friend of the pod, Fouque win, hometown, footy, and all for 11. Can we just talk about how Portland does this to us every year? How we record? About to. Literally about to do that. Yeah, we thought Portland was having a pretty quiet off season. And in a way, they still are letting, letting Sam Koffi go and not replacing her. But there was one last minute move that they did make, which ends up being maybe important, maybe not. The hiring of, hiring of Robert Villahamon as their permanent head coach with less than two weeks to go before the start of the season coming over from Tottenham, Hotspur. There was a fair bit of head coach talk because we didn't know what was going to happen. So we, if it sounds weird to your ear, it's simply because Villahamon had not been announced. And that news had not broken yet. And we talk about it on main feed that, yeah, this is probably on its like bare bones merits, not a grave and also not a terrible hire. But the process behind it suggests that things are not exactly steady, Eddie, despite the reporting in the athletic this morning about how Jeff Agoos and Lisa Bafalmaraj went about hiring Villahamon. The way that they put it, this was a very thoughtful and considered process. And they had to pounce to get their man immediately rather than, take a shot on Sarah Loudon until the summertime. Yeah, it's so hard to imagine a coach who was more available than Villahamon who's been unemployed since last June. So yeah, I'm glad they pounced. And just in the nick of time, it shows great process. There's been rumor that maybe they missed out on their actual preferred candidate and they scrambled. But Agoos' quotes make it sound as though Villahamon was somebody that they really wanted and they worked over time to get him. So we'll see if that pays off in the meantime. Just like us, Jeff Agoos knows an own goal when he sees one. Yeah. So here is our conversation with Fouquin. Much like his cousin Dorothy, Rob Gale has been swept up in a tornado never to be seen again. The 2025 Portland Thorns managed to climb all the way to a home playoff spot by the end of the year. But that third place finish was not enough to save overgrown Malfoy's job. And he has been moved on to greener pastures, helping us sort out exactly what the hell is going on with the Portland Thorns in 2026. Is the Thorns Beat Writer for Stumptown Foodie at all for 11.com, the Mr. Fouquin. Welcome, Fouque. Hey, appreciate y'all having me on. You know, obviously you've been a listener of the pod for so long. Love, you know, just appreciate all the work that y'all put in for, you know, just not just the league, but just for women's sports in general. Well, we appreciate you, man, because you actually have your finger on the pulse of what's going on behind the scenes in Portland. But before we get there, what is the story of the 2025 Portland Thorns? Please tell us the story. Well, I mean, if I had to sum it up in one word, it'd probably be chaotic, right? It was the most inconsistent, like even for a third-place team, semi-final place, right? This team was holding on for dear life. That adversity that they went through was pretty insane. Obviously, you know, you're looking at what five six SEIs, including a couple on maternity as well. So they really had almost a full starting 11 out for pretty much the duration of the season. And then you had, you know, obviously some spark plugs, right? Kai Hanks, I think, is going to be one of the best wingers in the next few years. Honestly, you know, she set such a high standard. Even when I talked to self Wilson about it directly, she said, Kai Hanks is exactly the player she wants to play for. But then you look at the coaching, right? The tactically, this team was unprepared for probably half their matches. They came from behind to, you know, for about, I think, 13 points behind during the regular season. And that just not a recipe for success, right? And I think one of the big things you notice is they're also very young, right? This is expected. And now they kind of need to fill in the remaining gaps, right? So a lot of what you're going to see this year's, you know, players from injury maternity leave come back and make a big difference. Yeah, well, let's start right at the absolute tippy top and talk about the Bethal rain over these horns. And what that looks like now, particularly with an off season where they've lost maybe the most visible non-Sofia Wilson number of the franchise and not done a ton to replace. So what is the organization look like under the Bethals? What have they really done, right? Brought Sof Wilson back, which is obviously the jewel. But then you look at what they've been doing the past few years under the Bethals. It's very young players with high upside. And they're trying to bring on gems, right? Like they're trying to find these hidden gems. And that's really not the Portland thorns way, especially when they were under Mark Parsons and before that as well. So this is a big shift. And to sum it up, but the Bethal era has, you know, especially with player acquisitions has been very underwhelming. And they just have not shown the ability to consistently spend money. I will give them the slimest of credit, the slimest of credit to say that it's kind of hard to compare what you're able to do as an NWSL GM now. And it was eight years ago, simply because the structure is so different. You know, you can't hoard US women's national team players and not have to pay their salaries. You have to, you know, deal with guaranteed free agency, you know, discovery rights, you know, mandatory approval of trades, et cetera, et cetera, no draft, no college drafts, no cheap high end rookie talent. But you are right that what is the sum total of this off season? It's three college signings and a very young Norwegian international transfer. And that is it. So coffee is the looming issue here. But what does this tell you about what kind of a team, Lisa Bethal Mirage and R.I.J. sports want on the field? Here's the thing. When I've spoken to front office staff about it, right? They've always talked about how they need to be prepared not just for this season, but five years from now, right? They have their own vision. When I've asked about it, it's very unclear what it is. It's just, you know, like, but here's the thing, we know what the profile they want now, right? They want those young players who are smart, who are fast, who can do it all, right? And will they tap into that potential every single one of those players? We don't know, right? But at the same time, it seems like they're doing a lot of lottery tickets and they're hoping most of them pan out. And that's kind of the model right now, right? Like they have their star players, the retaining big key players, you know, we're talking about Reino Reyes, we're talking about Olivia Multery, those type of players who have gotten those big lucrative extensions. Morgan Weaver, obviously, multiple setbacks are ready from injury, but that's just their, I'm out. They keep, you know, their star players who pan out, but at the same time, they don't do much elsewhere, right? Let's think about from the Mark Parsons era to now, right? Kenosigita was his signing that Karina Blublanca over the line. And then Sam Coffee just left. That's $1.5 million that they have not spent on a direct replacement, either at D mid or at, you know, as the six. So it's a lot of questions right now. I recently wrote a piece about this and, you know, Jeff Aegis versus Lisa Bethel Mirage and Alex Bethel, who's kind of kind of pinpointing, you know, where's that kind of blame? Why? And it comes for ownership, right? Like you look, they haven't spent even before Jeff Aegis got there. They still haven't spent once he got there too. So that's kind of how I look at it as well. Yeah. Last year seemed to be a sort of ridiculous patchwork that just happened to all come together. Jaden Perry turned out to be above average for a rookie, which made her kind of a league average defender. And then you had Kaya Hanks in the time that she was able to play was one of the better wingers in the league. P. H. Rotordan in flashes has shown a tremendous upside as a striker. They kind of didn't miss. And they don't seem to have the process behind the curtain that suggests that's more than fluke. Can you talk us through the Bethel Aegis responsibility for roster and what the process even looks like for player acquisitions? Do you even have a sense? Like that's the correct question. I think the biggest thing is Jeff Aegis. Obviously he has a special advisor next to him, right? Whether that's Aegis McNabb, Lucy Rushden. And then he also has this, you know, he does have a soccer staff behind him in operations, right? And I know when I've spoken to the assistant coaches, they even help with the scouting process as well, right? It's one of those things where everyone, it's all hands on deck type of process, right? But at the same time, they are look, they know what they're looking for, right? Like they have scouts all over the world, obviously, but at the same time, they're looking for these really young players who may not make a big difference until three, five years from now, right? And it's, that's just the ML because you know, we talked about the draft a second ago. There's no more ways for Portland Thorns to get those cheap players, unless they get them really, really young now, right? So that's what they've been doing. Like even last year, you know, it would have made sense for Layla Harbert to come back this year, not last year, right? So the timing for some of these things don't make any sense to me. And then talking at least about all she's spoken about how she wanted to be the top club in the world. But it's just kind of funny when you look at the spending, right? Like they talked about how they're kind of hard press against the cap. Now we know, but the hip rule coming into fruition, I guess. And that's, that opens up more doors, but they have not talked about pushing that either, right? Like Olivia Moultry fits into that bucket. Sof Wilson fits into that bucket. They have many ways to open up another million dollars of spending, right? But the fact that they haven't spent that $1.5 million dollars should raise concern. The fact that they haven't done, you know, use the hip rule, especially with the way Washington spirit have done it. And most other teams will follow suit eventually as well. You would think, but you look at the spending, it just hasn't been there. And then also, I think there's a lot of, I have a lot of concerns with just how the book, I guess the book keeping is, right? Because I think a lot of these salaries are put towards their, their own players, which is fine. Nothing around with that. But you eventually, with so many young players, you have to make the big splash for the veteran star, you know, especially if you want Sof Wilson to stay around past this year. Yeah. And they are, they're built to win now. Like the, they, especially if a bunch of players start coming off of the SDI or the family leave list, like they probably have more players on the active roster at that point, who are between the, the prime years of 22 and 28 than anybody else in the league. And those aren't, you know, bench depth, you know, it's Morgan Weaver, it's Emmy Vignola, it's Jesse Fleming, it's Sophia Wilson on and on and on. And a lot of these players are not booked to long-term deals. Yes, Morgan Weaver, okay? Yes, Randy Rayna-Rais, me, yes, Jaden Perry, but plenty of them are free agents in November or have options potentially that need to get triggered in in the fall. So you would assume that they would want to put their push their chips to the middle of the table this year. And cynically, it sometimes feels like Lisa Befall's definition of best club in the world is the one that has the best training facility in the world, just given how much money and energy they're putting into building that performance center alongside their, their W and A investment that's coming in. So I, I do, I do wonder like what the, the plan is and maybe this is a time where we can talk about the coaching situation. You've already said that they're pretty, they're pretty pessimistic right now about getting someone in before the start of the season. And the timing makes sense. I mean, at this point, who really good or really, you know, who, who is really available right now before the summer. So sure, okay. But then what are the expectations for Sarah Loudon as an interim yet another interim head coaching appointment that she's been, that she's been adding to her CV over the last few years. Like what are they going to want her to accomplish given all the moving pieces behind the scenes? I mean, let's start with, I know we were talking about player acquisitors in a second ago. So the one thing I was told is the fact that they do want to, you know, after the same coffee transfer, right, they said that would open a lot of doors for them. But those doors have not been open yet. Right. So that's something to look out for. Am I guaranteeing anything moving forward? No. But I would suspect, you know, they might wait until the summer to see what shapes up and how their team is looking, especially with so many players coming back, right? But with Sarah Loudon, the one thing I do want to start off with is I've spoken to so many players about Sarah Loudon in the Portland thorns from the, you know, with the Portland thorns players. And the one thing I keep hearing is how brilliant and how smart she is, right? And this is evidence by, I think she's probably the youngest person to ever get the final coaching license, right? And that's not a fluke. Like every time I've, every time I've talked her, she can break down a game for me within 30 seconds. Why they lost, why they won, and then she can, you know, pinpoint exact numbers or analytics, things like that. Right. She's, and I think Morgan Weaver said the best Morgan Weaver said, oh, there was a soccer for Dummies book. Sarah Loudon would probably be the author of that book, right? But the one thing I been hearing around is, you know, everyone keeps calling her a defensive minded coach. I don't disagree with that. But in her time with Portland, she's been working with the attackers quite a bit, right? Like when I talked to Rob Gale about it in previous seasons, he was like, oh, yeah, she's working, you know, Sinclair and the attackers are working with Sarah Loudon. And that's something he really wanted to give her credit for, right? And so with just looking at the Coachella Valley invitation, looking at Houston Dash, her teams are a lot more, I expect her teams to be way more organized under her than Rob Gale, right? Rob Gale, they played a lot of free, flowing football, just look very incoherent in certain matchups. And it just looked, it looked very chaotic most of the time, right? There's no flow to what they were doing. And then even with Sarah Loudon, the Coachella Valley invitation, I guess the Angel City, they look, they look like they just took like a three month layoff exactly what it was, right? But then Houston Dash, they came back, played way more systematic, played it from the back quite a bit, right? And they were playing through their midfield a lot more because Portland's possession numbers were awful last year. It should not be as low as it was. I think it was like third lowest at like 47%. And I, under Sarah Loudon, I expect that to jump significantly higher, even if they don't have same coffee back there, right? She'll find a way to kind of make the patchwork, you know, backline work a little bit better. I expect their backline to play a little further back instead of the high line that Rob Gale really liked at certain times. It didn't make any sense when you have no speed on the backline, right? So I'm looking at a lot of things. I think Sarah Loudon's going to be just so more technically savvy as well. She's been very flexible in her limited time in Portland, where she would change formations depending on who's available, obviously, but also the matchup. Rob Gale was very stuck in his ways, whether that's a 433 or sometimes he would run a double pivot. And Sarah Loudon's very a lot more flexible with her tactics. I've got to say, like, I think one of the things that we talk about a lot on this podcast is like, what exactly value do coaches add here? And what you're describing, and she has the title interim, is all the things that we basically think are useful, tactical flexibility, open-mindedness, having the horses for courses approach to like player deployment. And you don't need to be a big name to do those things well. So I suppose the question is, do managers matter in a conventional sense? And like, if a big name doesn't matter, why is there any real concern with going with Sarah Loudon as a permanent? Well, yeah, like, you've named a bunch of things, but like, you've named a bunch of reasons that I actually think are like, quite in her favor. Can you make the argument against Sarah Loudon? Yeah, it's really tough because here's the thing. Like, if you listen league-wide, she's one of the, she's widely regarded as one of the top assistant coaches available, right? And then you also talk about internally, right? They've kind of set her up to like, kind of be groomed eventually for a head coaching role, whether it's here or elsewhere anyways, right? And the fact that she's kind of finalizing her, her last few courses or whatever, you know, for her license to get the highest license says it all, right? But the issue is here, Portland Thorns have hired back-to-back internal under Carina Leblanc. That has nothing to do with Jeff Agas, but if you talk to the supporters, they don't care. You talk to the fan base, you talk, you read the Reddit groups, whatever, they don't care. Because here's the thing, you can't, it's hard to justify three internal hires in a row, even if it's two different GMs doing it, right? Carina Leblanc had two chances to do global searches, took the shortcut, went Mike Norris, went Rob Gale. And my whole thing was, I didn't understand the Rob Gale hire in 20, you know, after Mike Norris got let go because Sarah Loudon had way more upside anyways as a head coach. It's a whether or not people agree with that. I think most people will, but the thing now is, does she want a role where, you know, she's going to be scrutinized a lot bigger than at a smaller club, right? So Portland Thorns, the expectations are astronomical, right? Every time you've talked to Sarah Loudon, she knows exactly what she's expected to do. Like right now, she knows she's supposed to be like the billets sizing like force for the team. And if you talk to the players, they absolutely love playing for her already. So the case for her is literally one thing is, do you, can you really justify making three internal hires in a row, even if it's a different GM, right? The only reason you're allowed to do that is if she gets until the summer to do it, right? And then they're running off into the summer as one of the top teams, a championship contender. Then Jeff Aegis has his, you know, has his resume where he's like, hey, she knows what she's doing. We don't have to give like, we can peel off the interim tag through the end of the year and see how it goes. But right now, it's just really hard to justify three internal hires in a row. I was going to say, with most teams, we've been going back to front. Maybe this team of all teams, it's appropriate to go front to back a couple of years ago, we had compared the Portland Thorns as like that drawing of the horse that is impeccable at the front and just like a stick-figured tail and legs at the back. I don't think that's changed that much. Let's first off talk about that ridiculous pool of talent that they have to go find goals. What does this attack look like? How do you even figure out starters? Is Sof Wilson a day one starter? Is Morgan Weaver a day one starter? Do you, are you just going with Rayland Turner or pH retorting? The list is very, very long. Talk us through this attack. And also in the context of like timelines for Weaver and Hank's coming back. We've seen footage and social media of them participating in training. But yeah, how does that also factor into decision-making and personnel up there? Yeah, that's a great question. I think the biggest thing is they've had a couple open trainings. I've been looking at kind of hinks in Morgan Weaver training together. When I asked they're allowed in about it, she said they're kind of in the same time frame. She doesn't have exact one, but she said it's going to be a little later on. So she had a couple of peers, right? So Sof Wilson and Marie Mueller, she said that they are the closest to return. And the key date I'm looking at is March 6, when they have their final preseason tune up in front of the fans against the league on the next side, right? So if Sof Wilson is able to play a few minutes there, she'll definitely play the week after as well. Marie Mueller is going to be the same way. They both didn't, they did training, full training at CVI. But they did not see any game action, so that's something I'm looking at March 6. If they get minutes there, they'll definitely be ready for opening day. Sarah Lavin thought they would be ready for opening day when I asked her. So that's looking at that. And then with Kai Hanks, she's from what I've been told, she's slightly ahead of Morgan Weaver. Morgan Weaver obviously still working her way back for multiple setbacks as well. But for me, I think for those two, it's summer, it's realistic for them, both. And then I know you're looking at Julie DeFour eventually as well in the fall. So yeah, so those are the time frames I've kind of been told. I know the summer timeline is obviously Morgan Weaver has said she's only going to play when she feels not 100%, but 110% ready, right? Because she's already gone through, gone through the ringer a few times. So I think I expect Kai Hanks back, back, I would not be shocked if it's a couple months before Morgan Weaver, honestly. I mean, that would be extraordinary because she tore her ACL in June. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you mentioned the front line. Sorry, I really had no question. It's a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. So just to start off, right? Who's available to start off at this point, right? So you look at Rayland Turner, you look at Pietro Tordin, you look at Spanstra, you look at Podelski, the rookie from Alabama, you look at Valorant Leboa, who's going to be part of the she believes Cup, right? So I'm curious if Sarah Lavas is going to roll out the same system. Obviously, they've been kind of rolling out the three front, which is expected, right? But with the limited options, is she could really get rolling? Maybe she goes into a two front with Tordin and Turner. But right now, Tordin, for me, it's a starting nine to start the year. But not that's why they've been kind of saving her minutes in CVI. And I would be shocked if she didn't play too many minutes for the final tune up as well. And then Rayland Turner, they've used her as a Swiss army knife type of player all of last season. And the one thing I really appreciated about her development is she's able to not just to play as a nine now. She can play it out wide. Is she better as a nine? Oh, for sure. But for what this team needs right now, they need her to play out wide, right? And they just don't have many options there. And I would not be shocked at Podelski. Maybe had a few spot starts or played half or her and Spanstra split the shifts until, you know, Hank's weaver. So hopefully back for a few minutes opening day. That's how I expected to roll out. I think Tordin's going to start the nine and then one or two wingers next year. And what's there? A lot of I do think she's going to play two traditional wingers. So Rob Gale really did not like doing that. And he has called out the wingers in the past because he said that they didn't do what he wanted them to do multiple times. So yeah, I expect to be more traditional three front from point and thorns. So now we got to deal with the can midfield. Yeah, does a midfield matter. Does a coach matter? Like I'm going to I'm going to yes, that you're in line with us that Jesse Fleming, Olivia, Maltry are our aiming. And so then it comes down to what you know, again, let's maybe give the best all the, you know, the benefit of the doubt and say they will open up the checkbook to go get a permanent high profile number six in the summer window. But that leaves you three to four months with Jay Harvey. Now Jay Harvey is a very interesting prospect. Yeah. He's young. She played at Stanford last year. She led them to the NCAA championship game. And with the limited college data that we have available to us, she was probably like a top five, top seven central midfielder in the NCAA division one last year. But you're being asked to replace literally Sam coffee on day one. And why do we think that because there is absolutely no depth yet the position behind you? Can she pull off the impossible? Can she be a steady hand at the tiller back there? And if that's too much to ask from a 21-year-old rookie at a position that requires a lot of tactical and technical ability, then what do we exactly expect this midfield to accomplish at least for the first three or four months? Yes, a midfield doesn't matter. But I think the biggest thing I'm looking at, right? Like Olivia Mulchery needs to play as a ten. I understand they might have to play in the winger position because this team has a lot of tens, but they do not have a lot of wingers, right? Actually, they do have a lot of wingers, too. But point is to start the season, they do not. They don't have those like top-end options. And we've seen live mulchery play in inverted winger for clubbing country at this point, right? But let's talk about the midfield. So Olivia Mulchery should start at the 10. Jesse Fleming needs to play as an eight. She should not be playing as a six, right? We've seen this last year, every time Sam coffee was out, they would try to do like a double pivot with her and Hina Sugita. It just didn't make any sense. It looked really awful like every single time out there. So Jesse Fleming, even if it's a double pivot, let her play more of a, you know, like a combination of a six and an eight makes a lot of sense. But I do expect it to look more like the second CVI game against Houston dash, right? So they started with Shay Harvey, then Cassandra Bojare, their new signing as well played as a six, even though from what I've been told from a couple journalists that she prefers to play more of a attacking mid as well. So that's just something I keep keep hearing. I talked about Shay Harvey with the play by play for Stanford Sarah Ash and she's told me that she's more of a box box eight. So it's you're asking a player to play more of a secondary position at this point again, right? They did it with Sam coffee and they're hoping to strike gold again. It's asking too much frankly, right? So I think that's why they're having Jesse Fleming play next to her as much as possible. And I think that works a lot better to kind of alleviate a lot of the pressure behind that. But from what I've seen so far, she is physically very strong. She is ready to play in this league right now. Her and Jesse Fleming had a lot of great moments where they played a bunch of combinations off each other. That's where most important is best attacks came from right through midfield through those two kind of pulling the strings. But she had a lot of moments where she just held the ball too long too, right? So it's going to be really interesting. This learning curve to play the six is so massive. I don't think people talk about that enough. But is it asking too much? Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like for three or four months, I think they're going to probably rotate her Bozier as much as possible just so they can kind of save their legs. Both really young players obviously. But think about other options. Dana probably spell Olivia a little bit off the bench. Mimi Ellie do as well off the bench as well. Those two can kind of play more of in the midfield as well. But from what I've been seeing from Dana Castellanos as well, she's been playing more of a free-flowing midfielder for under Sarah Loudon, which is kind of a nice change of pace for her as well. So those are kind of the midfield options. I would say just to start the season, they're a little limited back there. I know they have a couple young players they're looking at as well. But it's just it's asking a lot from your the big stars, right? So they'll have to carry the load for sure. In the back line, you have Marie Mueller, who is one of the best fullbacks in the NWSL, data wise in 2024, missed the entire season. She's coming back Rainer Ace, splits opinions, Emma Vignola, totally solid, fullback pro. What do you think the starting fullback situation looks like? Yeah, I, you know, Melanie McKenzie has been developing pretty nicely over the past few years, especially because she plays anywhere in the back line at this point, right? If they need a center back, delaying the game, she'll play there, especially in a, you know, if they play a, decide to play a three back, Melanie McKenzie is a way better fit back there. But right now with the two center backs the way they are, it's going to be obviously ESO, Bayes and JP to start the season. But we're talking about fullbacks. Fullbacks, Emma Vignola should be starting on the left. Rainer Ace on the right. And I think that's what's going to look like most of the year, right? Rainer Ace is going to play the left if Marie Mueller is playing, right? So I would assume they're going to be rotating quite often, especially with Emma's injury history a little bit as well. Obviously, Miss Games down the stretch for Portland when, you know, I honestly think, you know, they would have been able to compete a lot more if she was available, right? But yeah, I expect those three to play pretty much all the minutes back there. Melanie McKenzie will get her a fair share of minutes as well, like latent games. But those three, you know, for a fullback group, I think it's one of the best, right? Like you can't ask for more, especially from Marie Mueller, who's been working her tail off to get back. And the metrics, I was looking at her metrics a while back too. I'm glad you guys brought that up. Like, none of that surprised me because her work rate literally reminds you of like a six, right? So that's not a shock. But yeah, I think Marie Mueller went healthy. It's going to be starting every single match. I think she'll play the most fullback minutes when healthy. But Rainer Reyes is kind of the stalwart, right? Like there'll be times where I think you'll look at her and you're just like, huh, that was like a, like an interesting game from Rainer Reyes, right? Because she just kind of quietly goes about her business. I know the analytics aren't always friendly for her. But she, she's a big leader back there too, you know what I mean? And then Emma Vignola completes the speed. Like I would not be shocked if they had Emma and Marie starting a few times as well just to get the speed matchups, right? But yeah, but I like their fullback group. I think that's a question I don't have. The center backs is a completely different story though. Please. Yeah. We said Obey's and Perry are tabbed to start the season together. Where does Sam Hyatt fit into all that? Because Sam Hyatt did soak up a lot of starting minutes last year. Yeah, they were just banged up last year, right? Like whether or not, I think obeys missed a handful of games again, right? That's something that just been an ongoing issue for Esau Bayes. She's steadily gotten better, but she just, there's those lapses in games where you're just like, man, she's like defended perfectly for 99.9% of the game, but that one moment matters, right? And then with Jayton Perry, like she was not playing at all towards the end of the season. And when Rob Gale makes up his mind, he makes up his mind, right? And I think that's another thing that goes for Sarah Loudon, right? Sarah Loudon is willing to, you know, to meet players where they are. She's willing to have those really difficult conversations, but at the same time, be more lenient, right? Be more understanding because she's, she's been there before too, right? But yeah, with Sam Hyatt, I think she's going to be part of the rotation, right? But I think when you look at it, if you needed to win a game tomorrow, who's going to be starting for you in the back line? Sarah Loudon will start Esau Bayes and Jayton Perry, right? Jayton Perry's ascension is the biggest hope reason for optimism for the, for the center back group. If she can take, you know, go from here to here, it changes everything for Portland Thorns, right? And here's the thing. I've said that all offseason that their biggest need was center back because there's so many lapses in, you know, defending last year, whether it was them being set up for failure from Rob Gale is a completely different story. But under Sarah Loudon, it's going to get a little bit better, but does she have the right pieces back there to make her system work? Right now they just don't have any foot speed back there. I think they need a speed complement at center back and they don't have that right now, right? So it's going to be interesting to see if Jayton Perry can kind of clean up some of those, you know, young rookie mistakes a little bit. Esau Bayes can stay healthy. Sam Hyatt's always going to be there. She's a, you know, she's a really good locker in presence. Good leader. She's going to play a lot of, she's still going to get a lot of book of the minutes this year as well. But those, you know, she's really third on the depth chart for me. And then I know they have the rookie as well, Carolyn Kozata. And they're high on her too. But, you know, obviously with the rookie center back, unless you strike gold, it's really hard to find minutes right away, especially ahead of three veterans. And then go keep it. Seems like they had some depth there and then Bella Bixby's out for the whole year. And then you wrote about the fact that Ken Z Arnold's going to be missing probably for the first handful of games at least with Australia and women's agent cup, which starts just in a couple of days from when we're doing this. So what the hell are they going to do for the first couple of weeks? You know, the irony is a loss to me, right? They had, I think, six goalkeepers, like a year and a half ago or two years ago. Yeah. And they're down to one rostered goalkeeper who's available. And then they have, I think, one NRI. And I think they might have picked up another one. But they're down to Morgan Mester at this point, right? I think their game plan was always to have Bella Bixby start off, you know, start the first month just so Mackenzie Arnold can get back. And I've read multiple reports by the way where Mackenzie Arnold might not be available for the Matilda's. So, so that's something I'm looking at as well. But here's the thing. It's going to come down more. Good mess now, right? I was at training, like I said. And she was getting her fair share of reps to alongside Mackenzie Arnold when she was there. And then in the second CBI match, Morgan Mester, I think she got every single rep imaginable. And I expect that to happen throughout the rest of the training through the rest of the scrimmages and the preseason matches. She's, she's their person, right? She's going to have to be their person. And here's the thing. She's played a few matches and then will be a soul, you know, I think for the, for the cup back, you know, a year or two ago, but she's never played a regular season match. And now they're going to be asking her to do all of it. And I think it's a lot to put on, you know, still a young player, a player they really, really like. But at the same time, Portland's, Portland really has no other options right now just to be frank. They have Morgan Mester, they have NRI and they'll probably pick up like a replacement team player, right? To start the season. And if Mackenzie Arnold hopefully, you know, not hurt more than what it seems maybe precautionary. But yeah, Portland's in a world of hurt to start the season, especially for a run, for a really young goalkeeper, you want the stable backline front of you. You know, I mean, Maria Mueller's not going to be probably available for full minutes at all. So it's asking a lot. And I think Sarah Ladin's going to have to tactically probably shift her tactics to be way more defensive and lead on, you know, your star players to make things out of nothing a little bit more often than not. So it speaks to the theme of this episode, the, so we say chaotic sense of long term planning from the Thorns front office that you could have six goalkeepers in one off season and then have one goalkeeper just a couple of seasons later. As a mentor of mine once said, near the gallows clear the truth. And I suppose when you only have one goalkeeper, the truth is pretty clear. Evan, you want to ask our armchair GM? Listen, Fook. BGF acres for a day. You're looking up and down the roster. There's one style of player or one positional role that you can fill. Doesn't have to be a specific player. Just one position role, style of player that you could pick up right now that will help the Thorns in 2026. What position you're going after? Yeah, I think you obviously the six. You look at the six first and foremost. And it's unfortunate because I think he had a Q&A with the supporter group about Claire Hutton saying that they couldn't afford it. And my whole thing with that is you couldn't afford it even with the hip rule or what are we talking about? You know what I mean? Because that doesn't make any sense, right? And I wrote a preseason piece where I put down like 10 options for Sim coffee after you know, her transfer. And I didn't put Hutton on there because I don't, I think a lot of folks didn't think she was ever available, right? That would have solved your issue for five, 10 years there. Now, now they're scrambling again. This has been happening for two straight years. And I don't blame the first year on the front office because it's a lot of injuries that they did not foresee. And that's okay. And they try to, they try to pick up a few pieces along the way. Like even Julie DeFour got hurt after the trade. Like it just was so adversarial for this team, right? Like it just everything that could have happened last year happened. And then now they had, they knew about Sim coffee. By the way, I think Sim coffee, you know, obviously has been thinking about it for a few years now. So they knew it was on the top of her mind. But the fact that they don't have a direct with placement, they're worried about being pressed against the cap really worries me. But the fact that they're not trying to make use of this hip rule now before it's too late says a lot to me too. Like that screams ownership. Not wanting to fully commit all the way. It screams maybe Jeff Aegis doesn't have all the resources that he needs to to build the roster that he wants. Then the fact that the coach still hasn't been hired to gives you another positive concern, right? So there's way too many questions for a team that just finished third somehow and finished, you know, in the semi finals. Why are there so many questions? And I think that's why a lot of folks who are following the team don't understand what's happening right now, right? And the one thing I can provide is also I will be providing more updates from the front office throughout the season. But at this point, there's way too many questions. All right. Well, now I've put you, we've done the roleplay of Jeff Aegis in search of a six. Please put yourself in the shoes of Sarah Loudon. What is keeping you up at night about this team? What is the greatest source of anxiety for you as a coach going into this season? Oh, the back line. It's I think the back line, obviously, you're worried about the injuries too. But you look at the back line, especially central defense. Can they keep up with a lot of these modern attackers nowadays? The answers been no for the most part, right? There's one point I think they gave up goals and like, what is it, toll straight games? And I think half of those games were like double digit goals, right? Oh, sorry, two or more goals. So that's something she has to clean up. And you look at Coachella, they gave up what three goals. And she's, I know she's trying to find answers. Do I have the players on this roster to make it work? Right? She's going to say, yes, if I ask her in person, but internally, is she going to say the same thing? Right? Is it going to keep her up at night? Probably, right? So I'm looking at that. I think that's the biggest thing. And then obviously, you look at the front line. And I do want to give a quick shout out to Maddie Pedalski because I really like she reminds me a lot of a young Morgan Weaver, you know, just the way they play so ferociously in the press and the counter press as well. And her dribbling ability is for 18-year-old is white years ahead of so many established pros as well. But yeah, looking at the back line. And then asking a lot of a lot from young players again, you know, I think she knows it's unfair, but that's what she has to work with, right? So slightly miraculous third place finish last year, a couple more losses. And they would have been out of the playoff. So, you know, let's not gas them up too much for that. Or wait. Yeah. And indeed, maybe overperformed a little bit based on some of the underlying data, the projection model from American soccer analysis, however, pegs them for second place. It was the surprise. It was the surprise of the season when we ran the model for the first time. And I can just tell you because I helped build the model. It's Sophia Wilson and being back and Morgan Weaver being back for a good chunk of the season that's getting over the top there. However, this is also a way that really tests like what a model can value, what a model is able to value, what it maybe should value in dozens because the data isn't available to it. What this comes down to is how much more are you gaining by getting Sophia Wilson back relative to how much you're losing by coffee leaving. And for you, Fook, especially because you're so plugged in and watching them in preseason and know what's up. Yeah. Where do you think the Portland thorns are falling in the table come November? Yeah. I when you, I think when you put this question to me, I was like, man, like who do I definitively have ahead of them? Obviously, Kansas City. I think Washington spirit got them or ahead of them too, right? So I had them at four and four and five with Orlando Pride. And there's a couple teams. By the way, there's a couple teams below them that I'm very high on as well. I was working on this all for 11 power rankings. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I like about eight to 10 teams this year. There's, you know, there's, you know, obviously, six teams. I'm just like, I'm writing you off now just to get to get it done with. I'm okay being wrong. But yeah, no, I have them at four and five. It just makes a lot of sense there. But like, I don't think they've improved the roster enough to, you know, to move up from last year, right? But you're, you're looking at, like you said, both you guys said, like they're looking at Sophos and can you carry the scoring load for us, right? We didn't have a finisher last year. They're asking a lot from Rayland Turner because she underperformed her XG by what, like four goals last year. And if she can start finishing routinely, Portland thorns might have two double digits scores, right? If Pierre at your tort and can say healthy because she was banged up, a lot of folks say no, but she was not healthy really towards the end of the season last year. She's playing, you know, through a bunch of things. Portland, I think Portland potentially, with Kai hangs back to Olivia Mulchery taking another big step forward, especially, you know, as a designated free kicktaker as well. This team definitely has potential for, you know, three, 10 plus goal scoring talents, but who's going to get them the ball? Yeah. So that's why it comes down to. I like fourth or four or five. I know they're going to be listening to this. And because they always mention how, no, we believe them them last year. And I know they're going to listen to this and be like, okay, well, at least he picked us four or five. Everybody should just ignore those comments from players. Once you hear Hailey McCutchen at the end of 2024, say nobody believed in the Orlando pride. Okay, guys, whenever, whenever you got to tell yourselves to get out the door in the morning, but yeah, I was like the mental fortitude it takes to create an environment where they disease us against the world. And you are a member of the 2024 Orlando pride winning 70,000 games in a row or drawing. Yeah. No, I have no doubts about that. For me, by the way, by the way, I want to pin you down. You got to pick a number four or five for me. Yeah, I got, yeah, I think they're slightly ahead of Orlando. I'll take four. Okay, great. We are in agreement, actually. It was, I was dumbstruck when I saw that ASA number at second, but I didn't have them at further down. And I think it really just comes down to what you've said. Like, I would say that the number of potential 10 goal scorers, obviously, you're not going to get that many 10 goal scorers in the season. There's more like five. Like Gage or Jordan has huge upside to live in mulchery. Like can bang them in. Like there are a lot of players on this team that can contribute. And you might be playing and we've said this for preview after preview after preview. It might be a lot of five three, five four games. Like, you know, a lot of high scoring games, you know, in Providence Park and on the road this year. But it's not going to be goal scoring. It's going to be the problem. And so few teams have the the arsenal available to them that Portland has. I'm not even sure another team has maybe Kansas City as a slightly you could you could preference it because 10 was incredible. But I don't know if anybody's like a ton deeper than Portland in that regard. So I have them for and that's because defense be it be damned. The basement on that is is quite low. If things don't fall apart and if they can't move the ball, four could become 11 real quick. But like it's four. Yeah. I think everybody recognized that the thorns were not especially good in 2024. And they still made six plays because you literally have to feel Wilson. This podcast was formed because of how much we love Sam coffee and how underrated we think Sam coffee is. And I would prefer to have Sam coffee and so Wilson together. But if you're going to put back me up against a wall and say you got to pick one or the other. I'm picking so Wilson. And if you've got all of those, but, you know, goal threats playing in and around her and on the bench, I think that is just cause to say that the midfield cracks can be papered over. A lot of things can happen. They're big air bars on these projections anyway. Another raft of injuries could completely change the outlook. But like there are just too many high quality attackers that you can plug in play. And they're being led by the best attacker in the whole league. That's the third place finish for me, especially when I see the parody around them and every other team who are going to be competing for top four spots. I don't know that there's anybody with that kind of depth upfront, except maybe for Washington, Casey's front line. It's probably the best front line in any starting 11. But once you go to the bench, it gets a little dicey. So, yeah. And when you have mulchery, I mean, mulchery is the one that gets them the ball. The question is who gets mulchery the ball. And thankfully, that's a slightly easier thing, easier problem to solve than who gets the forwards, the ball. So it's third place for me. And regardless, they are going to be very entertaining. It's yeah. A fun, a fun site to watch. You know, it's so funny today. We're releasing Kansas City in Portland. And both of these episodes are going to sound like we're doom and gloom on a team. And then we're going to have some very, very high prediction numbers for both. We're going to, we're basically going to the sky is falling the whole way. And instead just be like, and also, it's fine. Yeah. And I wonder, is that your vibe on Portland? Like, this guy is falling and somehow it's also fine. Like, like, where are you with that? Yeah, it's interesting because I'm excited to have you guys back on my, my point later on just to talk about the the ASA model and how it got to second because I want to know everything because I'm generally curious. So the, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, I, I assume, you know, the great, the great magic wand. But yeah, no, it's interesting because I look at this team. There's so much upside. Like, the one thing I didn't mention before is this team could finish fourth. They could finish eighth, but they can also finish number one, right? Yeah, sure. That's the potential. The, you know, the model did, got that right. The potential for this team is so ridiculous. Like, I think about like, we were mentioning there's potentially five potential 10 goal scorers on this team, right? Like, we're talking about live mulch. You're potentially doing a double double season, right? So, um, because last year, she didn't even get the bulk of the ball until towards the end, right? When Sam Coffee realized she was on a hot streak and Sam Coffee as a captain gave her the ball every single chance she got, right? And live mulch, you also hit the post, I think like three times last year or two when I looked at the metrics. But the point is this team fills in their a lot of their deficiencies by with just star, raw star power. And that's okay. With the roster, you need players to win games sometimes, right? And with Sarah Loudon, I think Sarah Loudon is a definitive upgrade over Rob Gail too. Um, and I know folks are going to have to watch and see, but she's just, you look at her Houston dash tape. They were so much more organized than what the Portland Thorns showed last year, right? And she has way more things to work with now with Portland Thorns too. So, I think that's why the doom and gloom portion comes from the lack of movement from ownership and from the front office, somebody from that, right? But you have so many of these pieces where you're like, oh my gosh, like they could, like you said, they could easily win every game six, five, you know, I mean, five, three, you know, but they can also win games, probably two, one and play solid defense because the defenders do have a lot of upside two, but you're betting on so many young players. I think that's the doom and gloom part. But like I said, the upside part, everybody knows what it is. The front line, you know, it's going to lead the way all season long. And then the incoming star star, you know, star power of live mulchery, who is probably going to be a household name starting now, right? In last season, right? So yeah, 2026 Portland Thorns, you're going to be just fine. 2027, 2028, 2029, uh, Jeff A. Agustin, these are the Falmeros have some questions to answer. But Fouquin, you've answered all of our questions. Thank you so much for being on the show. Uh, you can follow Fouquin on social media at Fouquin. You spell it like not the way it's actually supposed to be spelled, right? No, I do. Um, it's, uh, my handles Fouca man. Like, yeah, it's like a, yeah, it's like a superhero. Like, I think my niece wrote it down when she was younger. And I'm like, that sounds kind of cool. You know, also I'm gonna stick with that. So I've just stuck with it for the past decade. And it just, you know, like, I know people can't pronounce it half the time. So I'm like, do you think about me as Superman, but it's Fouca man. You like, you know, I mean, so, uh, but yeah, I don't appreciate y'all having me on. It's been an honor and I love, like I said, love the work that you are doing to promote the game. But just honestly, just the personalities behind it, getting to know you guys have been really, uh, really cool to do, you know? Right back at you, buddy. Go on. Yeah. Be sure to read everything Fouca does at Stumptown Foodie and listen to his podcast as well, Fouca win. You're the tops. Thank you. Yep. I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be sure to do all the things you're supposed to do with podcasts. Rate us five stars. Drop a kind review in your pod catcher of choice. And follow along with the feed if you haven't done so already. Tell all of your friends about us if they don't know about the show up to this point. And if you want to follow us on social media, you can do so at X own goals. That's the letter X own goals on all social platforms. Keep your eyes out on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for a lot of cool exclusive video content there. And if you believe we've made an own goal, please email us at xog at xonegoals.com. That's the letter xog at the letter xonegoals.com looking forward to our next season preview very soon.
