BEAVERTON, Ore. – Most Week Ones are different. The stress is higher. The number of tasks staffs and rosters have to accomplish can feel enormous. For a head coach preparing his soccer team for the first game of a regular season, there’s a sense of urgency, trying to ready a group while sand grains fall.
According to Portland Thorns FC head coach Mark Parsons, though, this week – the final one before the opening of the 2019 National Women’s Soccer League season – has not been like most.
“I feel calm in the fact that we’ve got some very good, very deliberate work in, so far,” Parsons said Tuesday, reiterating the response’s key word, calm, multiple times while describing the days before kickoff.