Gotham 1-1 Portland. A point on the road at the team top of the table, and Portland had 26% of the ball to get it.

Jaedyn Shaw scored in the 60th. She admitted afterwards it was meant to be a cross. It still chipped Mackenzie Arnold, who was off her line. Sophia Wilson equalized from the spot in the 75th, her eleventh of the season, after Pietra Tordin got her ankle stepped on inside the box and her shoe came off. Play carried on for two minutes before VAR looked at it.

Marissa's argument is that this was the best the defense has looked all season, and that the reason is boring. Same four as the previous match. Vignola, Perry, Hiatt, Calzada, two games running. Familiarity, not signings.

Her quote of the pod follows from it. She is not a sports analyst, she is drinking well vodka in a bucket hat at 2:45 on a Sunday, but it looks to her like Portland are trading some of their scary offense for that defense. The midfield sits instead of pressing. Sophia Wilson ends up alone on an island up top. Marissa will take the trade and points at Gotham grinding out 1-0 wins all year.

Then the weekend happened. Portland went into it third. Utah beat Orlando on Saturday, Washington beat Bay FC on Sunday morning, and by the time we sat down the Thorns were fifth on 38. One point off fourth.

Also in it: Jayden Perry as the best centerback on the team in her second pro season, Nina Nijstad taking people on one-v-one and picking up a booking for it, Tordin still one assist off the league record, and Marissa's Match Day Roundup.

Five of the last eight are at Providence Park. Portland have not lost there all year.

Adults only. Bring a drink.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open: a point at the best team in the league
03:26 The defense, and why the reason is boring
09:10 The two goals
13:02 Vignola and Tordin, Perry, Nijstad
15:56 The table: third to fifth in one weekend
21:41 Marissa's Match Day Roundup
22:40 What are we drinking
25:27 What's next: five of the last eight at home

WHAT WE WERE DRINKING

Marissa: a shot of well vodka and a big cup of water. She was sent a list of suggestions and had the well vodka anyway.
Alan: a Lagunitas IPA. He ordered every drink a listener recommended that the bar actually had, which came to none of them.

THE NUMBERS

Possession: Gotham 74%, Portland 26%. Portland still had the better of the shot count.
Table: Portland fifth on 38, one point off fourth. Gotham top on 45.
Tordin: 9 assists. The NWSL single-season record is 10, set by Tobin Heath for Portland in 2016 and equaled by Croix Bethune at the Washington Spirit in 2024.
Next: Portland v Washington Spirit, Sunday September 6, 1pm, Providence Park.

Portland 1-0 Denver Summit, and Tobin Heath retired as a Thorn in front of 22,017 people. She signed a one-day contract to do it.

Sophia Wilson scored in the 44th, assisted by Jessie Fleming. It was her tenth of the season and the fourth time she has hit double digits in an NWSL season. Mackenzie Arnold got her seventh clean sheet. Marissa was in the building on a media credential and went to the post-match press conference. Alan watched on his phone because his seven-year-old had the TV.

The bit we care about: we have been asking this club to fix the back line since Episode 6, the 5-1 at Utah. Rob Vilahamn's post-match quote describes a "big, honest meeting" the team held after that exact match, where they changed how they press and asked the back line to step. He has never heard of this show. He just started from the same night and got to the same place. Three wins since.

Plus Tobin's whole career, the new Kaiser Permanente Performance Center in Hillsboro, a table check, and Marissa's Match Day Roundup.

Adults only. Bring a drink.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open, one nil on Tobin's night
02:03 The defense finally shows up
08:07 Denver's side of it
09:25 Tobin Heath night
12:30 From the press conference
14:47 What are we drinking
16:04 The Kaiser Permanente Performance Center
22:53 Where we sit in the table
23:53 Marissa's Match Day Roundup
27:12 What's next: Gotham, then the Spirit

WHAT WE WERE DRINKING

Marissa: Rose City well vodka, water back. Cheap, house pour, genuinely not bad.
Alan: a Lagunitas IPA, chosen mainly so he was not drinking a Seattle beer. He concedes it is an Anheuser-Busch beer now anyway.

THE NUMBERS

Portland are third on 37 points, level with Washington and behind on goal difference. Gotham lead on 44.

Tobin Heath's NWSL co-record is 10 single-season assists, set in Portland in 2016. Pietra Tordin went into Saturday on nine, one away, on Tobin Heath's night. She did not get it. The record stayed with Heath.

Ann-Katrin Berger has ten clean sheets and just became the first NWSL keeper with 10+ in back-to-back seasons.

NEXT

Friday August 28 at Gotham. Sunday September 6 against Washington at home, a day game.

Portland 2-1 Orlando. Caiya Hanks came off the season-ending injury list on Friday, came on in the 88th minute, and won it in the 96th — her first match back after fourteen months out with a torn ACL.

We were in the building on media credentials for the first time. We got in late, we missed the ceremony, we sat in the press box, and Alan asked a question at the post-match press conference. Plus the two knees, a table check, Meghan Klingenberg's whole career, and a vote we need from you.

Adults only. Bring a drink.

🌳 VOTE FOR BELLA BIXBY

Bixby is the Thorns' nominee for the 2026 Lauren Holiday Impact Award. The overall winner's charity receives $50,000 from Nationwide. The NWSL Fan Impact Challenge is how fans back her nomination — one vote per device per day, through August 29 — and the fan-vote winner's charity gets an additional $10,000. Winner announced September 2.

Her charity is Friends of Trees, Portland-based urban forestry.

👉 Vote here: https://g1j9uuaobs1.typeform.com/to/SWulrU2a

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open — Hanks wins it in the 96th
02:44 Getting in — credentials, the press box, and the people who fixed it
06:58 The question — our first credentialed press conference
08:15 What are we drinking
09:07 The Two Knees — Moultrie out, Hanks back
15:20 The match — a shaky half, then Providence Park
22:15 Table check — fourth on 34, ten to play
26:05 Bella Bixby — the vote we're asking you for
27:44 Get Klingy With It — Meghan Klingenberg, top to bottom
31:54 Next week — Tobin Heath night

WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT

• Caiya Hanks won it in the 96th minute of her first match back. She tore her ACL at Providence Park on June 15, 2025, was cleared off the season-ending injury list on Friday, came on in the 88th, and hit the winner from outside the box into the bottom corner. Assisted by M.A. Vignola.

• The goals: Deyna Castellanos 58' (assisted by Pietra Tordin), Jacqueline Ovalle 63' for Orlando, Hanks 90+6'. Orlando's equaliser came off Mackenzie Arnold's own punched save and ricocheted in off Ovalle's knees. It is credited to Ovalle, with no own-goal notation.

• Tordin's assist was her ninth of the season — one off the NWSL single-season record of 10, co-held by Tobin Heath (Portland, 2016) and Croix Bethune (Kansas City, 2024). She can tie it next Saturday, on Tobin Heath's night.

• Perry and Obaze kept Barbra Banda quiet, which almost nobody manages. Nina Nijstad continues to impress in midfield.

• Nijstad's substitution was concussion protocol, not a diagnosed concussion, after a collision with Jessie Fleming. Sarah Lowdon called it precautionary and declined a medical answer.

• Olivia Moultrie is out for the season with a torn ACL in her right knee, announced August 11. She's 20, and it costs her the Concacaf W Championship as well as the rest of the year.

• Robert Vilahamn was in the building, near the media room — but not on the touchline, and the club still hasn't said why. Sarah Lowdon was acting head coach.

• Attendance: 19,106.

• The run-in: 10 matches left, six at Providence Park, where Portland are unbeaten in 2026.

• We were outside for the Klingenberg ceremony. Credential pickup ran long and we didn't get in until after kickoff. We're not going to describe something we didn't see — go watch the club's footage. We honoured her our own way in Get Klingy With It.

NEXT WEEK

Tobin Heath is honoured at Providence Park on Saturday, August 22 vs Denver Summit, signing a one-day contract to retire officially as a Portland Thorn. Lindsey Heaps returns as captain of the Summit, and Pietra Tordin can tie Heath's single-season assist record on Heath's own night.

THANK YOU

Alberto and Bryce, who got us in.

LINKS

Club recap: https://www.thorns.com/news
Match highlights: https://www.thorns.com/video/video-u16zoavmfwm
Post-match press conference: https://www.thorns.com/video/video-cw87eybowlu