Thorns 2014

The Seattle reign just announced they acquired Dani in a trade for Jessica MacDonald and the rights to Rebecca Moros.

No doubt because the Thorns are in great need of a UNC forward to pair up with Elizabeth Guess.

sigh. I think CPC is up to her old tricks.

Well, best of luck to Dani up North.

And Dougherty, a Thorns defender who never caused me to yell "Oh my WHAT ARE YOU DOING," retired yesterday. So there's that.

SI's Grant Wahl is reporting that Cindy Parlow Cone is leaving the Thorns for personal reasons
http://soccer.si.com/2013/12/05/cone-to-leave-nwsl-champion-thorns-for-personal-reasons/

If they haven't positively decided on Riley, I nominate Frenchy for the job.

Wouldn't that be nice...

"It is with a heavy heart that I have decided to resign my position as head coach of Portland Thorns FC,” Cone said. “Coaching the Thorns has been one of the highlights of my career. However, due to the scheduling conflicts created by the job, I realized that despite being a great move for my career, it was less than ideal for the health of my marriage - which is the most important thing in my life.

“I would like to thank Merritt Paulson, Gavin Wilkinson and the Thorns and Portland Timbers organization for allowing me this amazing opportunity and for showing the rest of the world what is possible in women's professional soccer. I would like to thank the players for playing with passion and giving everything they had to help bring a championship to Portland. Finally, thank you to the fans for your unwavering support. You truly are the best fans in the country. I will forever cherish the memories from this year.” ‪#‎BAON‬
Thorns FC head coach Cindy Parlow Cone resigns
portlandtimbers.com

I thought her husband worked for the Timbers.

A_Fan wrote:I thought her husband worked for the Timbers.

True, Dr. John Cone (PhD) is currently the Director of Sports Science for the Portland Timbers, but I can only imagine how difficult meshing their two schedules must be.

DoubleDipper wrote:

A_Fan wrote:I thought her husband worked for the Timbers.

True, Dr. John Cone (PhD) is currently the Director of Sports Science for the Portland Timbers, but I can only imagine how difficult meshing their two schedules must be.

Not anymore. They have both left their positions with the club per the Oregonian article. According to the interview with CPC, they just weren't seeing enough of each other and they made the decision to leave their previous lifestyle for something more family-friendly.

While I have not always agreed with the style of play that she coached, I must admire Cindy for making a move that puts her marriage ahead of her professional life. If only more folks had the courage, and wisdom, to do the same.... I truly wish them both the best in the future.

I'm a cynic. When ever I hear someone left a job 'to spend more time with their family' or concentrate on their marriage, I assume they were asked to leave.

Not sure why she would be asked to leave. As much as we don't like her style she did coach them to a national championship.

Dan No Yell wrote:I'm a cynic. When ever I hear someone left a job 'to spend more time with their family' or concentrate on their marriage, I assume they were asked to leave.

Not sure why she would be asked to leave. As much as we don't like her style she did coach them to a national championship.

I take CPC's statements at face value. This is especially true since I know that she has post-concussion syndrome. She has talked about this. I don't know the extent of her symptoms, but it's not unusual for them to include difficulty multi-tasking and difficulty handling stress, both of which tend to put pressure on marital relations. I, not to my choosing, know about this through the experience of one of may daughters and two of the athletes I've coached. Once I knew about CPC's PCS, I wondered whether she would be able to coach at this level over the long term. So, as I said, I take her statements at face value.

It appears the hiring of Paul Riley as the next coach is imminent, if this report is to believed.

http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/teams/lifury2.php?article_id=35950

Merritt promises announcements of the new coach and two new Thorns players this week.

And he promises a twitter q/a this afternoon.

Thanks for the update. Too bad it isn't a woman, particularly too bad it is not Frenchy. Any speculation on the new players?

Not a clue, but probably not college players, as there is still the draft to go through. Maybe we will get our Mexican allocations  

Merritt is teasing again: A "big USA player who has been playing abroad."

PurplePrideTrumpet wrote:Merritt is teasing again: A "big USA player who has been playing abroad."

The two players are Lindsay Horan and Sarah Hagen?

Two biggest players playing abroad I can think of... 

It's not like the Thorns are exactly deficient at the forward position.

Here's guessing Amber Brooks is coming back to the US from Bayern Munchen

Aw.. That's too easy.

If so, it's interesting that it is after her college assistant coach is gone.

But the really BIG Thorns news for teenage fans is soccer superstar Alex Morgan announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend Sevando Carrasco, a midfielder for the Houston Dynamo.  

Clearly the expansion club in Houston is going to work out a trade with Portland so she can play there now. The conspiracy theorists around the internet said it, so it must be true.   

Also, water is wet and the sky is blue: http://www.portlandtimbers.com/news/2013/12/thorns-fc-name-paul-riley-head-coach-2014-season

Trades can only be for allocated players of the same nation. Which American allocated player of the same  caliber will this non-existent team offer up in trade?

The thorns have been stupid lately. Not that stupid.

It's official. Riley is the coach.

“It is a fantastic opportunity with a club renowned for its success both on and off the field,” Riley said. “It’s a great challenge and I look forward to integrating a style of play that fans in Portland will embrace. Portland is a special place for soccer and I share their passion, a love and appetite for a creative, attacking style of play.

Gawd I hope so. Large parts of last season were pretty hard to watch.

And if you look back to Cone's announcement, she promised pretty much the same.

Riley did a great job in Philadelphia and based on comments I heard from a couple of his former players, they liked playing for him. Here's hoping his style is more than kick it forward to let Morgan run onto it. There was a lot of talent on the Thorn roster last year that didn't seem to be taken advantage of.

Yeah, some of it just went to Seattle.