July 19, 2026: Mile High Clash of the Captains

Denver 2, Portland 1. Our old MVP came home to Colorado, pulled on the wrong shirt, and assisted the winner, so we gave it a full night before we sat down. That turned out to be the right call for a Lindsey Heaps homecoming. Portland are unbeaten at home and haven't won on the road all year, and this was the away day that dropped them to fourth. We get into the cohesion problem Marissa can't stop diagnosing, the clash of the North American captains at altitude, an air-quality mess at the Queen's Classic, and a transfer window that still hasn't produced a center back. Adults only. Bring a drink.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:14 Cold open: a night to become reasonable
00:50 The game: Denver 2-1, and the cohesion problem
07:29 The homecoming of Lindsey Heaps
12:35 The table and the match week
18:14 Air quality at the Queen's Classic
22:19 What we're drinking
23:59 The transfer window: Fleming, Tordin, still no center back
27:31 Wrap and the tease

What we were drinking:
- Alan: Lagunitas IPA. California, pointedly not a Seattle beer this week. His second.
- Marissa: Rose City well vodka. "Easy peasy."

Takeaways:
- Denver 2, Portland 1, at Denver's home opener. Janine Sonis equalized in the eighth minute of first-half stoppage; Natalie Means won it at 86'. Portland were out-shot, out-cornered and out-possessed by an expansion side.
- Marissa's read: not a defensive failure so much as a cohesion one. Midfield, attack and back line moved as three separate units, and Sophia Wilson spent the game marooned up top against four defenders while the midfield jogged in ten seconds late.
- The road is the season. Unbeaten at Providence Park; every league loss this year has come away from home.
- Wilson's 25' penalty was her 51st career club goal, which by their count ties Megan Rapinoe on the single-club list. Said as "by my count," not as a published milestone.
- Lindsey Heaps gets the respect, not the boos. Captain America started at #10, played all 90, and set up the winner. Clash of the North American captains: Heaps for the USA, Jessie Fleming for Canada.
- Portland sit 4th on 27 points from 16. Gotham 30, San Diego 29, Washington level on 27 from two fewer games.
- Air quality nearly stole the Queen's Classic. AQI up around 170, a heat index near 100F, oxygen on the sideline, and 42,000 in the seats anyway. The point the hosts land on: the gate money kept a match on the field that maybe shouldn't have been, and the league's thresholds should move.
- Transfer window: Jessie Fleming re-signed through 2028, Pietra Tordin through 2029, still no center back. Marissa is claiming credit for the Tordin deal.

Next up: Gotham at Portland, July 24, Pride Night at Providence Park, plus the salary-cap deep dive we keep teasing.

New episodes weekly. Yell back at us: rosecityredcard@gmail.com

Transcript

0:13

Welcome to Rose City Red Card, your Portland Thorns podcast. I've had a full night to become a reasonable person about this. We watched the game yesterday. Our former elite MVP went home to Colorado, made her debut against us, and beat us. I slept on it, and I am not more reasonable. I'm Marissa, Portland Thorns Groupie, keyboard warrior analyst, and the person on the the show who's going to make you care about the six spot, whether you asked for it or not. It's, I wish that we had more to talk about, Alan. It's the same issues. It's the same problem. It's the same things we talked about last week. Not cohesive. But we can't blame me this time. Yeah. We, well, first of all, Alan, we'll be blaming you all year. Okay, fair enough. Love you, buddy. Blaming you all year. Dropping your mind. Mom's maiden name. Shout out Allen's bomb. But we, it's just the same thing. We are not moving as a cohesive unit. It's this week, actually, it looked more like our midfield and off, and our attackers weren't cohesive. We normally don't have a problem with our attackers, but this, it was everybody. We were moving as three separate units, not one movement. We weren't using the field. We weren't using the space. We got, our defense just looked so disorganized. scattered and just didn't know what they were doing. And that's, we're top of the table team. Like, what are we doing? We can't just keep depending on our offense, which is kind of only Sof Smith. You know, at that point, she's pushing, she's at that mountain high nine. I kept commenting during the game. She would end up just kind of dancing around with the ball, waiting for the rest of the team to catch up. She's on an island. She's literally on an island up there. Four defenders against her. And she just needs to kill time waiting for. somebody to back her up and it takes 10 seconds for them to get over there like what were they doing yeah exactly and that's like the the game moves so fast like we they turn the ball like so Denver turns the ball over in our third and then we should be rushing turning because sof is already burning and our midfield i love our girls but they're they're technical and great but they're not the fastest sof's already out there while we got our midfield mulchre flem and tornin kind of still just making our way up. And by that time, Sof is an amazing player, but she's got three, four defenders on her back. She can't just carry the ball forever. And we just lose it. We turn it over. And then by that time, our midfields pushing to the, pushing to our offense, and we turn the ball over, and then they kick the ball. And our midfield is now stuck with our offense. Can't help get to track back to our defense. Can't get back. We're just not moving as a cohesive unit. And it is extremely disheartening and disappointing. Like, we are better than this. We know that we're better than this. God damn, everybody knows we're better than this. Any podcast, anybody talking about it, what's with the thorns? What's wrong with the thorns? Why have we been skidding? Like our last four games, we tied Utah, then we got the break. Then we came back. We beat Louisville. Congratulations, Louisville. I mean, no offense with Louisville, but you guys got seven points at the bottom of the table. We beat them. And then we just lost to our league rivals, Seattle-Rane, 2-0. Didn't just just lose got our asses whooped in Seattle, Lumenfield, fuck the grass, whatever. And then we just got beat by Denver, you know? And there's just a common denominator there. Like, what we were saying, we're a second half team, and that might, we can get away with that for some teams, but it's the second half of the season now. We were going to be punished. One-one. We gave up that goal right at the end of the first half. We had the momentum going. And then we, we, we, we, we, let it get tied up, and then we just couldn't bring it back in that second half. And it was literally the eighth, like, there was eight minutes of stoppage time, and they scored it in the eighth minute of stoppage time. It was right at the end. And it was a nice goal. Like, you can't, it's football. I mean, it's soccer. Like, it was a beautiful goal. Like, McKenzie, she's got, she wasn't going to get a handle on that. McKinsey had some great, uh, saves during this game. But Denver had so many shots on goal that you can't save all of them. You can't, you can't save all of them. You can't be the one player doing all the work. We were saying there's 10 players in front of her. It's got to get through 10 people before it gets to her. So. But yeah, like, yeah. So Becky scored literally at the very last second of last cup, like the last minute of the first half. And then Means scored at the 86th minute, which was, honestly, I wish I could say, I thought I was going to see a better outcome. But they were just kept pressing and pressing. They out cornered us. They outshot us, shots on goal, out possessed us. They were the better team. Like, we can't just keep depending on our four, like, you know, and obviously we're missing Turner. She's going to be out to four to six weeks. She's one of the only people that can keep up with fucking Sof on the front line. Like, okay. So do you think that was part of it? Yeah. Yeah. That's a huge part of it. Absolutely. Because we, what you brought up exactly, Alan, like, Soph is out there alone. And she needs somebody who's fast enough to be. Yeah, exactly. Then you have Turner. that's keeping up with her running after her. Who is offensive minded? Who isn't like mostly midfield, like center? And she's out with a leg injury. Four to six weeks. Which four to six week leg injury, you know, that can go either way. That can be a permanent slowdown to a player. Just that could be really bad. But, you know, we won't know for four to six weeks. And honestly like, and everything changes. Like next week we might get, hey, it's actually going to be pushed. It's going to be a little bit closer to six weeks or, hey, actually, it's looking a little bit more of three to five. We don't know. You know what I mean? We just hope that she's resting and she's taking care of herself. And like, you know, I just, we're all like, I don't know, we just can't afford to be a second half team anymore. And even yesterday, we weren't a second half team. We weren't. Last week we weren't a second half team. We, we've talked to a lot about location and how we just cannot play. when we're not at home. We win so much at home here in Portland at Providence Park. But anytime we're on the road, we just fall apart. What's going on with that? We have, we're halfway through the season. We have not lost at Providence Park. It's been a while since we lost at Providence Park. Last season. The last game we played at Providence Park last year was against San Diego in the quarterfinals. We beat him 1-0. That was the last game. Sannis. Okay. Well, sorry. Let me get back. back though. We just got fact checked. The first goal was actually not by Becky. It was by Janine Sanis. So that was my bad. So, yep. And also, Louisville is at eight points and not seven points. Anything else we want to cover in the game? Honestly, it's, we lost, but it is so fucking great to have Lindsay Heaps back in the USA on our soil. We, that's our Captain America. She is our leader. She's played on, she's played in World Cups. She's played in, like, she won a World Cup. She scored one cup games. Like, um, it's not about the game, I guess, but I'm just, it's, it's, it's really special to have her back on our soil, playing in our league. So just big shout to her. Portland girl. We love you. Fuck off. Do not score against us next time. Even though you didn't score this. I don't score against us. And we need some fucking defenders. Do this again. So before we move on, that does bring us to one positive thing about this game. This was Wilson's 51st career club goal, which by my count ties Rapino's mark on the single club list. So that's a pretty impressive statistic right there and shows, you know, she, she's doing a lot of work. We just need the rest of our team to catch up. She's doing a lot of work for us, Portland Thorns. So that brings us to the homecoming of Lindsay Heath. Heaps. Tell us about this. Like I said earlier, it's exciting. We got Lindsay Heaps coming back. The Champions League winner, like, World Cup winner, gold medalist played in France for like the last four or five years, four, six, four. Sorry. And now she's back in the United States. Mm-hmm. Yes. She's back in the United States. She grew up in Denver. She's a Denver. She's a Denver girl and the Denver Summit. This is their first year. And I think kind of everybody knew, like, she was going to come play for Denver. This is her hometown. She's, I listened to her on some podcast she was talking about. She's like, she's like, yeah, I'm driving on the I, you know, the I-25, and it's the same road that I used to go drive to on my club, like, when I was a kid. And, like, her family gets to go see her. Like, it's just really special. It, you could tell it means a lot for her to be back in Denver. And also, it means a lot for all of us. I'm going to get emotional. It's a big deal. She's back on home soil, and she learned... And she's the U.S. women's national team captain. Yes. She's our captain. And so this was a Battle of the Captains this last game. Yeah. Battle of the captains. Lindsay Heaps versus Jesse Fleming, who's a Canadian captain. And we got the Clash of the Captains Mile high. I mean, they're some of our biggest North American rivals. In the Conca Cafe, there's not a lot of people that are good, and it's hard to find people that are good. But we have always been fighting with and against Canada. And it's actually really, it's good that we have close competition that we can play friendlies with and just have that. And our leagues are close. Our girls are close. It's been really, it's exciting. And you could see that on the field in some of the moments between plays, you know, seeing each other, help each other up off the ground. Checking on you, making sure. And you could tell that, you know, they cared about each other even though they, you know, they were in competition and they wanted to win. They wanted to beat each other. But, you know, they still, you know, you can be friends with somebody and still want to beat them. Yeah. Like at the end of the day, like, I feel like, I know that they're professionals and they take this game goddamn serious, but I think we sometimes take it a little bit more seriously than them. Like win or lose, you had three USA, we had our live mulchery, our soap and Lindsay heaps, all giving each other hugs, chatting it up after the game. Like, nothing happened. Like, because, you know, like, yeah, this is their sport and this is their job, but these are friends, you know, they've traveled together, they've sweated, they've bled, they've bled, they just, they, it's, it's been really, but, um, yeah, it's just, it's exciting to have Lindsay back here. She also offers, like, a, I don't know, like, we always talk about how different leagues or, there's different playing styles, and the French, they play kind of a different game, and she's got, I feel like she's going to bring that back. And people were kind of worried to see how she would play in the NWSL, but she looks fucking great. She looks fucking fine. She had a few shots on goal. She looks great. And we're just happy to have her back. She's adapting well, coming back, coming to play here in the States again. That's, you know, it's good to see it. Yeah, welcome homelins. Like, we're so happy for you. When you come play at Providence Park, that place is going to be fucking electric because that's her home. Like, that was, we all concerned. that homegirl still got PDX in her bio. So don't forget that. Don't forget that. But that's her home. And we, like, there's a, once a thorn, always a thorn. You know, like, we, us thorns fans, we run deep, care a little bit too much, have a little bit too much time on our hands, but we care a lot. So welcome back, Lindsay Heaps. It's really special your home. We really appreciate it. So that brings us to the table. Portland was in third, uh, going in. We were really, really hoping for those extra three points to bring us up to 30 and a chance to get into first there. But that's not what happened. We're still at 27 points. We're now in fourth. Gotham won and got up to 30. San Diego's at 29 and Washington is at 27. tied with us, but they've played less games. Two fewer games. Should I do a quick wrap-up of this week's match week? Please do. All right. So Wednesday, the 15th, we had two games. We had Orlando Pride and Orlando Pride versus Boston Legacy. Boston Legacy is pushing. They beat Orlando Pride 1-0. It was a good match. It was a really, really good match. Really fun colors, too. I know nobody cares, but it was like a purple versus almost like a violet type, like a neon green, but people keep talking about the kits and like the matching, but so. It's fun. Boston pulled off the win against Orlando. Boston is also a new team this year, and they are kind of catching their stride. Like they're not doing as well as Denver, but they're pushing and they have the means to play. Because also, Legacy's team, they got a bunch of players that never really played in the NWS. They're from. other places. So everyone's experiencing new things. And then the second game of the night was the Queens Classic. Huge, huge game. This was over 42,000 people in New York at City Field at the baseball field. The biggest women's sports game to ever happen in New York ever. Golfam ended up beating. And what a game it was. It was insane. It was insane. Queens Classic, you have a redo of last year's NWSL Final and it ended up like last year's last year's NWSF final, 1-0 to Gotham. It was a great game, but Gotham looks like they have their foot on the pedal all the way down, pushing a hole through the car. They're looking fucking unstoppable. It's kind of worrisome, but great game. Gotham pulled it out, beat Spirit 1-0. Then Friday the 17th, we had Casey Currant in San Diego Wave. That was the most fun game I've had watched in a really long time. That was good. football through and through. It was so exciting to see. Temwa Shawinga is, she reminds me a Bunny Shaw. She's just inevitable. She's big. She's going to score. She's fast. If she was sprinting at me full pace, I would lay down on my back and submit. She is so fast. It was awesome, but they, so they tied, but they brought home one point each. That was the only game on Friday. Then yesterday, Gotham played again Seattle. that's what you're, yeah. So this was, they had back to back. This was a twist of a game. Seattle is going in two nothing right to the end of the game. Then how does Gotham pull, how does Gotham turn this around? Well, Gotham turns it around. They're losing two zero. At the 81st minute, Esther Gonzalez, our place for Spain, fucking fantastic player. She ends up scoring at the 80 first minute. Now Gotham is, it's two to one. And Gotham's, Gotham, so they're going to push. And then we got another Estera goal at the, so they were stoppage time at the 90 plus four minutes. And then to, of course, in beautiful Gotham style, we have a Rose Lavelle goal with a Sam Kerr assist to win the fucking game at the ninth, at the eighth minute of stoppage time. It was. That is incredible. Two goals in four minutes of stoppage time right at the end of the game. Pulling that back around. That is incredible. I mean, I know like that. I give it up for Gotham. They did amazing, but like Seattle, like the lack of discipline there, you know, like it's, but also, Gotham is looking inevitable. Like they just, they look like a fucking super team. You know what I mean? And that's great for them. That's awesome. But it was, that was a fucking, that was a fucking exciting ass game to watch. So that is something that I think we'll talk about another week is Gotham and the salary cap. and what loopholes they are using to pull in all these incredible players. Turns out that's quite an interesting story, but we'll save that for next week. Yeah, like player allocation, like cap space, the hip rule. We do, we should actually have a specific episode to that because nobody understands it. As much as we try to look into it, everybody is like, oh, what, what? Or this, wait, no, no, no, no, this. So we should really. And we've done a little research and we think we figured it out a little bit. I mean, we'll see. We'll save ahead. No, you're okay, but there's literally so many more games to go through. Are there any that are key? Bay FC, who was looking really terrible. They beat North Carolina cards, 3-0. Angel City beat Chicago. Angel City is actually looking really good. We were really worried. They fired their coach. They traded one of their best players. But they've been on fire since after the break. They won two zero. Utah Royals beat Orlando Pride 1-0. And the last game of yesterday was racing Louisville versus the Houston Dash, and they tied one one. So let's talk, yeah, bring up, let's talk about the air, Queens Classic. Clear the air, Alan, clear the air. Let's clear the air. The air was a big story this week at the Queens Classic. The air quality index was up to 170 with a heat index of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Trinity Broadman reportedly used an oxygen mask during a break. Wow, that, what, you said it was a good game, but it sounds like those players must have been miserable on that field. Oh, yeah. I mean, she even said, she said, as she's puffing from her air tank, if we need to take two hydration breaks per half, we're not playing football. We're playing 15, like 17, 20, stopping, 20. It's a different game. It's a different game. And also, if you are, if you have to take two hydration breaks per half, you should not be playing that fucking game. Sorry, like. Yeah, the environment is too extreme. Yeah, I mean, think about us up here. We're in the PNW. Like, like, the East Coast, I know you guys have been dealing with this, but like, you guys are new to this inside the last decade. We've been dealing with this for forever. Like, at over 80 or 90AQI, you can feel it in your throat, in your eyes and everything. And they're huffing and puffing and puffing. Their pores are open. They're sweating. This is. No, Bueno. No, no, but no, no, boido. Well, and it was at levels that can potentially cause health issues. Serious harm. So, especially when you're, you're exerting yourself that much, it can really take a toll on your body. So I, so let's, okay, so there's been a lot of speculation. Okay, so when, like, what it is, like, what the threshold is. And basically the consensus is we need to change the threshold. We cannot have it be that high and it be questionable. So right now, these are the rules. So between 100. and 150 aQI, that mandates one hydration break per half. Between 150 and 180AQI mandates two hydration breaks per half. Between 180 and 200 triggers or match delay. Above 200 results in a cancellation of the match. I don't know if you guys have been, if you guys out there, hopefully, I mean, you guys are hopefully mostly thorny's, you know, out in here in Portland. It's fucking terrible. Smoke season is fucking terrible. And you can see if it's a little bit smoky, that's, at like 80 or 90, you can feel in your throat, your eyes, people are wearing masks. And so only over 180 will that even trigger them to think about delaying it. 180. That is so high. And we were so close to that. And not quite high enough. No. And, you know, like, I know money is money, but they sold 42,000 tickets. They weren't going to fucking delay the game. They weren't going to cancel the game. And that's why I think that has a lot to do with it. So it's a bummer, but... Money talks and that many fans in a place, they, you know, they want to see something. But this, it's not, what do they say? It's not the system that's broken. It's, or it's, no, the system is broken. The system is working how it's supposed to work. We need to move these numbers down. Between 100 and 150 mandates one hydration break, between, I feel like 60 to 100 should be one, like one. Like, one. Like, should be their, their first level. Move those, those batches down. Because with smoke becomes the heat, becomes everything else. And it's just making it dangerous out there for them. Like, I'm sorry, but a player just should not be hitting oxygen on the side of the fucking field 22 minutes into a 90-minute match. It's not good for us. It's not good for them. It's not good for the league. It's not good for women's sports. Because a lot of, also, like, a lot of people look at us and, like, what's, you know, like, we should set, maybe kind of start setting a standard for what's safe and what's not safe. Or are these ladies and or people, they, them? It's Pride Weekend in Portland, so they thems. So Marissa, where are we today? What are we drinking? And what are we watching as we're recording? Okay, well, we are recording from beautiful Portland, Oregon, USA. Hanging out at an unnamed bar over on 82nd. Unnamed bar, we will name the bar once we get our free drink. You know what I mean? Shout out them, but it's a beautiful day in Portland. It's 74 degrees. It's gorgeous. The sun is out. We're watching, we're here, like we said, recording in our favorite bar. We're watching the Men's World Cup. It's been a lot of fun. I am, sip it on my euse. Roe City well vodka. Easy peasy, peasy. I have learned my lesson. I am not drinking a Seattle beer this week. I'm drinking a California beer instead. So we got the Lagunitas IPA going on. Here we go. My second one. So, cheers to you. Yeah, cheers to you. Also, what do you guys like to drink when you guys are watching the game? Are you guys a well person, a beer person? Shout us out in the comments, reviews. Or hit us up, Rose City Red Card at gmail.com. Or hit us up. I actually have Allen's mom's phone number, so I will be posting that on the show notes. Oh, yeah, she gave us permission for that. So after you threaten to give out her maiden name, she was all into that. So we'll be, we'll be making sure. that lands in the show notes. Shout out to you, Mom. Shout out to Alan's mom. I received and I will be better, Alan's mom. Looking forward to meeting you. So that brings us to something that we've been talking about quite a bit the last few episodes, which is the transfer window. It is now open. We have seen a little bit of activity on our team, nothing really with the window, but we have signed Fleming through 2028. That was great to hear. And then, Tordon, we have signed through 2029. So you were saying last week, let's play Tordon, and in less than 48 hours, they signed her. So I think you can take credit for that one. Yeah, it's crazy that the Portland Thorns Front of House literally listens to this podcast. They must. They're getting ideas from us. You're fucking welcome, Thorns fans. But that does leave us still with one big question. What is going on with? With Wilson, can we keep her? Is she sticking around? What are we going to do? I don't plan on having children, but she can have my firstborn. But, so I'm not worried about self going overseas. She has a family here. I can't see her going overseas, so we can kind of cross that out. I can maybe see her moving somewhere closer to where her husband plays. He plays men's sports in Arizona. So that's an interesting piece of it. They're both professional sports players, professional athletes in different states, is there a reason that one of them would want to get closer to the other? Or, as you and I have talked about in the past, they are, they play different times of the year. Does that give them enough flexibility that they can, you know, spend part of the year in one place, part of the year and the other and have both of them keep playing? Alan with the $3 million questions over here. So yeah. So yeah. So there's a big part of it. Sof grew up in Denver. I went to Stanford. So she has kind of places everywhere. But yes, her man's does, not just a rigosport, he plays for the NFL for Arizona Cardinals. He actually is pretty great. He seems like a great guy. But they do play opposite schedules. He's been at almost every Portland Thorns game, having their little baby in the crowd, so he's been there all summer. They do play opposite schedules. Like when our season ends, their season starts. And so I could see how that could work out. You also see Sof with her family up here. Her parents are up here, you know, like it does seem like she has a system. I think it's not all about money, but we're the thorns. Like this is a very historic place. Like, we pour into our players. I don't know if it's a money thing. I, because she's got plenty of money, you know what I mean? But she's got that. Does she want to win? Like she's with us. We're winning. I don't know what it would take. I don't know what's in her brain. I don't know. I can only just, we can only just kind of tell you what we know, you know. Like, her husband does play a sport. Their general manager has said that the objective is to re-sign her. So they, they're definitely trying to. But it sounds like, you know, there's, there's a lot of factors that are going into this that are beyond just, just, you know, pure sports. There's, there's a lot of huge. human factors that go into these decisions as well. If SOF goes to the summit, I'll burn this place down. So that brings us to the end of our show. Marissa, is there anything you wanted to say before we sign off? Yes. Actually, I have two things. I know we talked about just the one, but it's a huge shout out to Lindsay Heaps. We're so happy to have you back on our home soil girl. Like Captain America, you went over there. You played in the league. You played in Champions League. You won titles. We won so many titles over there. We're just really happy to have you back on home soil. It's going to be great seeing the U.S. team to play later on. It's so good to have you here. And my second shout out is to all my Southern Oregon girls, my friend Sam in New York, all my girls that are listening. I appreciate you guys listening, supporting. It does really mean a lot. Love you guys. It is fantastic. Have everybody listening. So next week, we are going to be talking about two things. First up is Gotham at Portland. Unfortunately, neither of us are going to be able to make it to that game, but it is going to be Pride Celebration Night and it is going to be an incredible game. Gotham are arriving top of the league, 30 points, just coming back from beating Seattle. We are unbeaten at home, but we're winless away. Can we keep that up? Can we defend our title here. And then the other piece is we're going to talk about the salary cap. And what is Gotham doing that they have all these players that are incredible? How are they pulling that off? And what can we do about it? So it'll be great. We will talk to you next week. This is Roe City Red Card signing off. Marissa, Portland Thorns Groupie, Fuck Seattle, No injuries, all smiles. Go thorns. Go thorns.