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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.
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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.,…
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Source : espn
