Is Portland back? A deep dive into the Thorns

The Late Sub with Claire Watkins

Just Women’s Sports

Sports

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's episode, Claire takes a deeper look at the Portland Thorns after their expectation re-setting win over Seattle. She talks through why on their best day the Thorns could be a serious postseason contender, why they still need to raise their floor, and why it matters that one of the founding clubs of the NWSL finds their way.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Portland Thorns walloped the Seattle rain for maybe the surprise result of the last
0:05.1	end of USL weekend, but maybe we should not have been quite so surprised. Should we be talking
0:11.7	about the Portland Thorns more as a title contender? This is this week's episode of the Laysub.
0:16.4	I am your host, Claire Watkins, and we're digging deep into the Portland Thorns because
0:20.7	their results recently warrant it. We're talking highs. We're talkingkins, and we're digging deep into the Portland Thorns because their results
0:21.3	recently warrant it. We're talking highs, we're talking lows, and we're talking big picture about
0:26.2	why it does matter to have one of these founding clubs in the end of USL on the upswing again
0:31.9	as must see TV. Let's dig in.
0:39.0	So going in to last weekend's NWSL rivalry games, you can go last week, watch that episode,
0:46.0	listen to that episode. I did make the declaration that I felt like the Cascadia rivalry
0:50.7	between Portland and Seattle didn't maybe quite have the highest heights of heat that it used to, kind of as an estimation of both Portland and Seattle's current status versus the league's upper echelon and some of those true legendary games in that rivalries past.
1:08.0	I said things like it seems like sometimes, you know, that those teams' best moments
1:12.0	feel like they're behind them rather than in the present. Other teams like Kansas City, Orlando,
1:16.9	Washington, and Gotham have hit this new surge. Those are your like top four for the last
1:21.3	couple of years. Some changes this year, but I think front of mind for fans, making Portland
1:27.3	in particular, again, considering
1:29.0	some of the high heights as both a numerous time shield and NWSL championship winner,
1:34.4	feel a little bit more like a club, a little bit further out to see. And then all of that was
1:39.8	promptly exploded by the game that actually happened between Portland and Seattle. And it gave me reason, I think, to look a little bit deeper specifically about the project that
1:49.2	Portland is cultivating right now after pummeling Seattle four to two with a level of drama,
1:56.4	flash, legacy excitement that maybe I have not given them credit for unfairly so far in 2025. I might be
2:04.4	holding on to the vestiges of 2024 a little bit too long. Now, the thorns are always a
	...

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