Roses and Thorns: Two sides, one coin

Marta, Marta, Marta.

Marta has so much on her shoulders these days, friends. The load she carries, an increasingly dire Pride team, has gotten heavy of late, and you can see it. This was her after Kailen Sheridan saved her penalty last week.

This is a team sport, and even the five-time world player of the year cannot do everything. That’s one of the reasons Portland was able to dominate Orlando this weekend; “stop Marta” was a big part of the Thorns’ defensive strategy going into this game, which saw the visitors throw two or three players at her every time she was on the ball.

When we look at Marta’s passes in the fancy new Opta stats widget, almost all the successful ones are sideways or…