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Ask anybody on the Portland Thorns and they’ll tell you: Bowing out in the NWSL semifinal Nov. 15 was a tough pill to swallow. That’s because the squad was a mere 184 minutes away (give or take stoppage time) from proving a year’s worth of skepticism wrong.
“I have so much pride in our team and in our group for doing what we did this year against all of the odds,” Thorns co-captain Sam Coffey said after Portland’s 2–0 defeat in Washington, D.C. “The only people that believed in us were us.”
She sums it up well: The Thorns have had something of a breakout season, especially for a team in a rebuilding year and one not used to being underdogs.
But after falling so tantalizingly short of the NWSL championship match, where does that leave the club now?
The short answer is: in a very good place.
Remember, this was a team that started the year defined by the big names erased from the lineup. The end of 2024 saw the retirement of a handful of Portland legends: the all-time international leading goalscorer Christine Sinclair (now the first inductee into the Thorns’ ring of honor) and defenders Becky Sauerbrunn and Meghan Klingenberg. Then star striker Sophia Wilson and midfielder Olivia Wade-Katoa sat out the year on maternity leave. And then forward Morgan Weaver and defenders Marie Müller and Nicole Payne picked up season-ending knee injuries before the season kicked off. And then rookie Caiya Hanks and midseason acquisition Julie Dufour joined that list as the season progressed; and then the Thorns lost players like Payton Linnehan and fan-favorite Hina Sugita to trades throughout the year.
Notice a pattern? That’s a formidable list of absences for any team. But, buoyed by their talent, belief in one another, and Coffey’s “why the fuck not us?” mentality, the youthful Thorns made it work. More than that, they began to build the identity of this next generation of Portland soccer: a club whose teammates fight for each other and tune out any other noise. That mentality took them all the way to a third-place finish in the NWSL and a run to the semifinals in playoffs.
But players can only do so much in rebuilding a squad. The other half of the equation is investing in those players—and in the staff to support them.
Given the circumstances, general manager Jeff Agoos and the Thorns front office have done a stellar job.
“We went into the first game of the season, didn’t have me goalkeeping coach, didn’t have me assistant coach,” Portland head coach Rob Gale said in a recent press conference. (The use of “me” isn’t a typo; he’s British, as well as Canadian.) “We were so behind in so many areas.”
But Agoos filled in those gaps in Portland’s coaching staff, bringing in Adam Day as a first assistant coach and Jordan Felgate as a goalkeeper coach early in the season. When Portland had one available outside back (to defend two sides of the pitch) and very little attacking depth, he signed young attacking players like Pietra Tordin and Caiya Hanks, brought in Australian international Kaitlyn Torpey to fill the void at right fullback. The multitude of question marks surrounding the team dwindled as the season wore on—and as Agoos showed a committed investment in his young squad in the form of contract extensions.
The upshot: Despite the injuries and turnover, the Thorns aren’t where they were this time last year, needing an offseason overhaul. Instead, this year’s more about filling in the gaps.
The elephant in the room here is obviously the gap at striker; despite 12 different players finding their way onto the scoreboard, Portland didn’t really have a target forward to lead the way in scoring. (Reilyn Turner, who seemed the likely candidate for that role at the beginning of the season, ended up bouncing around different parts of the pitch, dropping back to help defend rather than serving as a target up top for the squad.) And the Thorns have a player who could do just that in Wilson.
Wilson, who sat out 2025 pregnant with her daughter, has proven to be a prolific goalscorer (and a true nightmare for defenders at all levels of soccer). If she returns to the Thorns—along with Weaver and Hanks working their way back from injury—Portland’s set. But Wilson’s current contract with the Thorns runs through 2025, with an option for 2026, and there’s no update yet as to whether she’s accepting that offer.
Beyond Wilson’s star status—which makes her a likely target for other teams as she enters free agency this offseason—there’s the factor of geography, especially with the Denver Summit joining the NWSL in 2026. It wouldn’t be surprising that Wilson, a Colorado native, might choose to return home to have family around her as she raises a newborn. Wilson’s husband is also a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals (making Denver closer to him than Portland), and that, coupled with Wilson’s family in Colorado, could very well prove a deciding factor in competing offers between the Thorns and the Summit.
It’s not an exact parallel to the annual drama over whether Damian Lillard would leave the Trail Blazers, but there are some echoes.
If Portland can’t make an offer to keep Wilson in the Rose City, they’ll likely need to find another world-class striker to fill the void she’ll leave behind. As hard a blow as it would be, Wilson’s departure would also open up a significant chunk of Portland’s salary cap to be used in drawing in other stars; there’s no reason for the Thorns not to have a player who can fill that role next year.
Beyond Wilson, the Thorns’ offseason moves will focus more on bringing players back from injury and building squad depth. If both Müller and M.A. Vignola are healthy come March of 2026, the Thorns will be set at defense; regardless, Agoos will have to decide if he’s extending offers to Payne and Torpey, both of whom are out of contract as of the end of 2025, or rely on a player like Mallie McKenzie for defensive depth.
There’s also midfield: Portland is relatively stacked in the center of the park, with Coffey, Olivia Moultrie and Jessie Fleming, but they don’t have a lot of depth behind that trio—especially if the Thorns don’t extend free agent Wade-Katoa or the loan on Arsenal’s Laila Harbert. Bringing in depth there should be another focus for Portland in coming months, especially since young players will have time to develop—and star talent to study under.
Regardless of who Agoos and his crew bring in, they’ll join an exciting young squad of players who have something to prove after an inconsistent 2025 that nonetheless exceeded all expectations.
We’ll just have to knock on wood that the team carries the same attitude into next season without the string of injuries.
