Portland Thorns forward Sophia Smith‘s casual shrug of celebration said it all: “What, you expected anything else?” Four minutes into Saturday’s National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Championship, the 2022 league MVP scored to make sure there would not be any question about the result — or why she was recently awarded the league’s top individual honor.
“I kind of just did it,” Smith said. “There’s been a lot of people who don’t think that I deserve to win MVP, so that was a little bit of, that’s that.”
The Thorns were expected to defeat the Kansas City Current on Saturday, which they did, 2-0 after an own goal from Addisyn Merrick in the second half, to claim a third league title. Portland are perennial contenders and narrowly missed out on winning the Shield and claiming the No. 1 seed in this postseason. The Current finished in last place in 2021 and widely exceeded expectations. Just making it to the final was remarkable.
Still, this Thorns season was hardly straightforward, and there were no guarantees that Saturday’s final would be, either. Rhian Wilkinson took the helm a year ago for her first job as a head coach. She stepped into a team that was carefully constructed by another coach but one that was also missing key personnel, with Lindsey Horan on loan to Lyon and Crystal Dunn missing most of the season to give birth. The team required tactical changes, but nothing so drastic that it would disrupt an identity that was built over several years.
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.)
Amid all this the organization was embroiled in turmoil over leadership’s handling of the 2015 firing of Paul Riley, an undercurrent to this year’s playoffs as well.
Following the release of former U.S. attorney general Sally Yates’ report into systemic abuse earlier this month, Portland owner/operator Merritt Paulson stepped down as CEO of the club. Paulson, who has for so long been front-and-center for the public eye, did not travel to Washington, D.C., for Saturday’s game. Fans have called for him to sell the team. Thorns defender Becky Sauerbrunn called for the removal from the league of anyone who enabled abusers, including anyone in Portland.
“It’s been a long year,” Thorns goalkeeper Bella Bixby said on Saturday, a few moments after placing the championship trophy on the table in front of her.
“We’ve gone through a lot of stuff that isn’t in the job description,” Smith said. “It just felt really rewarding. I just felt so proud of our team. We’ve just gone through so much and to be able to bring this back to our fans who have stuck with us through everything this year, it means so much to us.”
Bixby echoed her Thorns teammate, noting that Wilkinson got player buy-in from the start. Wilkinson said she can’t speak to what the team was in the past. She was not around when Mark Parsons was the coach, at least not beyond those final weeks of 2021, when Wilkinson was about to be announced as the new coach and Parsons was splitting time with his next job as coach of the Netherlands women’s national team (a role he has since departed.)
Undeniably, the foundation was there in Portland, from Smith and Morgan Weaver (the No. 2 pick in that 2020 NWSL Draft) to Sinclair and veteran defender Sauerbrunn, who did not put a foot wrong on Saturday in limiting Kansas City to zero shots on target.
The 2022 Thorns, however, were unique. They were the right blend of old and new, from players and coaches to tactics and ideas. They were adaptable in a competitive league that requires such a trait to the utmost degree.
“What I think I was able to do, because I had a team that was willing to do it, was try things,” Wilkinson said. “That was really special with this group. I tried a 3-5-2, I tried different formations; I had a different formation tonight than I did for the semifinals. A team that doesn’t believe in you won’t do that; they won’t follow you on that journey.”
On Saturday, it culminated with exactly the performance the Thorns needed.
