It was a weird but beautiful three days of preseason games last week at the University of Portland, as the Thorns came in dead last in their own tournament against Chicago, Houston, and the USA U-23s. The atmosphere at Merlo Field was different, but fun. The soccer itself was predictably sloppy—preseason, in a nutshell. Here are a few takeaways from the week:
A rose to the new Thorns from the Boston dispersal draft.
It’s impossible to write this guilt-free, but the three players Portland picked up in the Boston Breakers dispersal draft—Midge Purce, Angela Salem, and Ifeoma Onumonu—are looking like a huge boon for the Thorns.